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As election nears, many voters still not sure who's best for jobhttp://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=79202483-F58D-44A6-9C2A-A50973AC3F14Polls this week showed the race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry growing tighter. A University of Connecticut poll, while showing Kerry well ahead in this state, also found that 16 percent of registered voters are undecided, a bloc nationally that could determine our next president.
In anticipation of tonight's second presidential debate, The Day checked in with three voters who are still trying to figure out how to cast their votes.
Leaning toward Bush
Darcy L. Forman concedes that in many ways she is still her father's daughter. She grew up in a “Christian and conservative” family in the suburbs of Minneapolis, where her father ran a tool and die business, often railing against high taxes and government regulation.
Today Forman is “socially liberal ... and not terribly religious,” yet there are things about conservatism that still attract her, including a steadfastness of purpose and a philosophy that people should keep what they earn and not be taxed to death.
It is those qualities that have her leaning toward voting for President Bush. Yet Forman is not ready to commit entirely to the president's re-election. She remains conflicted and said it is possible that she could be persuaded to vote for the Democrat, John Kerry.<SNIP> Looking for an alternative
Liz Viering of Stonington takes voting in the upcoming presidential election seriously — she reads newspapers, watches the debates on TV and scours the Internet for foreign news reports that she says are generally not available from the mainstream U.S. media.
“I feel like I have to do something to get the best possible people in government,” she said. “I feel like my generation has made a mess of things for our children and we need to straighten it out, make sure they can live without fear.”
But with four weeks left to go until the election, the 52-year-old owner of a real estate firm has not decided how she will vote.
“I don't like the choices,” she said. “We don't have any real choices between the two major party candidates.”
So Viering is not only considering President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, but also independent candidate Ralph Nader and Libertarian Michael Badnarik.
Viering voted for Bush in 2000 but said she expected much more from him when he promised to work with U.S allies and “change the tenor of discourse in the world.”
“I was sadly disappointed with what he's done, but unfortunately I don't think Kerry is any different,” she said.<SNIP> Kerry is looking better
Kim Maxson's business is an economic barometer: When the market stalls, no one needs Two Sisters Shipping to arrange freight transport for that new Tempurpedic mattress, because nobody's buying one.
Consumers hunker down and conserve, the flow of freight slows, and Maxson and her sister Lynne can only wait for a rebound.
“Domestic issues are very important, because my sister and I have a small business, and we're directly affected by the economy,” she said last week, after the first presidential debate. “If people aren't making money they aren't going out and buying these expensive mattresses.”
A week later, Kim Maxson is still undecided, she says, but a combination of factors — her dislike of Vice President Dick Cheney and the political advocacy of radio host Howard Stern included — have given John Kerry the edge.
Maxson was impressed by Kerry's performance in the first debate, and sympathizes with Stern, who has urged his listeners to unseat Bush since the Federal Communications Commission fined him for using colorful language on-air.<SNIP>
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