Obama favored by group of Ohio women

By DARREL ROWLAND

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Fifty women gathered in a Columbus hotel's conference room and got to do what millions of Americans probably wanted to do tonight: Tell the presidential candidates exactly what they thought of them.

But thanks to a high-tech device called the Perception Analyzer, this just wasn't a fruitless exercise by a bunch of political couch potatoes. This group of undecided voters' opinions was recorded literally every second of the 90-minute debate.

The result?

A major win for Democrat Barack Obama. Seventy-one percent of these undecided voters thought Obama did better in addressing the issues important to them, while only 9 percent felt that way about Republican John McCain.

The group slightly favored Obama coming in to the debate, but afterward he won support by about a 2-1 margin.

"I think he talked about what they cared about more, especially the economy and health care," said Republican pollster Brenda Wigger, vice president of Voter/Consumer Research.

She and another national pollster, Democrat Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners, watched the results in a room across the hall. Constantly moving horizontal lines showing the live "ratings" were superimposed on top of the TV debate broadcast in the other room.

Each voter was given a wireless dial dubbed a "feeling thermometer" to continuously evaluate the candidates, ranging from 0 (not convincing at all) to 50 (neutral) to 100 (very convincing). The devices are the same ones used in market research and to test TV pilots.

One of the most striking findings of the evening: The undecided voters displayed an open distaste whenever the candidates' rhetoric turned negative.

The dials turned to virtually their lowest point of the evening when McCain criticized Obama for not condemning U.S. Rep. John Lewis' comparison of McCain and running mate Sarah Palin's campaign rallies to the era of segregationist George Wallace, longtime Alabama governor.

And when McCain challenged Obama on the Illinois senator's connections with former Weather Underground leader William Ayers and the group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the voters' ratings barely budged above 50.

When Obama tried to explain himself on both matters, the dial hardly hit 60.

"This is all inside baseball to people," Lake said as she watched the ratings roll across the screen. "They want to see what are you going to do about my life, not William Ayers."

On the other hand, when Obama talked about his desire to find common ground on the issue of abortion, the dials shot up to more than 80.
Sometimes viewers changed their opinions while one of the candidates was talking.

For instance, McCain was viewed as more convincing near the beginning of the debate when he condemned greed on Wall Street and in Washington D.C., but less so moments later when he outlined his plan to tackle the country's financial crisis.

When the Arizona senator outlined his health care plan he got some of his highest ratings of the evening, but when he began talking about the negative impact of Obama's proposal on an Ohio plumber named Joe, the dials plunged 30 points. In fact, nearly all of McCain's message on Joe the plumber were viewed negatively.

Obama's remarks to rein in CEO pay was viewed favorably, and the meter skied to around 80 when he began talking about the need to focus on jobs and enact a middle class tax cut.

McCain's ratings peaked when he talked about health care and stressed the need for energy independence and offshore drilling.

Initially, only women were chosen for the dial group because they were perceived to be more interested in health care issues, Wigger said. But the selection of an all-female audience wound up providing an inside look at a key group of swing voters.

"Women are the ones moving the polls," Wigger said. "Women just tend to vote their heart rather than on a party."

The debate-watching event was organized by the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, which describes itself as a national coalition of more than 110 patient, provider and community organizations, business and labor groups, and health policy experts committed to raising awareness of rising rates of preventable and treatable chronic diseases.