Undecided Voters

One week before Baltimore's Democratic primary, the race for City Council president remains extremely tight, with Michael Sarbanes, a longtime activist, and incumbent Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake attracting nearly equal support, according to a new poll conducted for The Sun. With a sizable number of undecided voters -- 28 percent -- the candidates are battling for every vote in the final stretch of the campaign in what will likely be the closest election...

Megan Hardy, an education major at Towson University, has taken her time to figure out who should get her very first vote for governor this fall. She has thought about the issues and talked to her friends, but one thing she hasn't done to make up her mind is pay the slightest bit of attention to the millions of dollars' worth of TV ads that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley are using to pump up their accomplishments and...

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Sen. John Kerry slammed President Bush again yesterday for his handling of the Iraq war, saying he "failed in his fundamental obligation as commander in chief" and endangered Americans by neglecting to plan adequately for the mission. Kerry sharpened his attacks, using a new report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency about the disappearance of powerful explosives from an Iraqi site that U.S. troops were supposed to secure. "Despite devastating evidence that his administration's failure here has put our troops and our citizens in greater danger, George Bush has not offered a single word of explanation," Kerry said in a speech here.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Sen. John Kerry worked to give undecided voters a more personal look at him while stoking his base supporters here yesterday, attending church services with a black congregation before delivering a speech on his faith and values. With the list of competitive states in the presidential race down to about a dozen and national polls showing President Bush and Kerry tied, both candidates prepared for a whirlwind last week of campaigning, complete with eye-popping rallies in battleground states and media blitzes aimed at reaching millions of voters just before they go to the polls.

11 days until Election Day, Tuesday Nov. 2 MILWAUKEE, Wis. - John Kerry rose before dawn yesterday, donned camouflage clothing, grabbed a shotgun and trudged through a damp cornfield to hunt geese. By midday, he was back in his typical uniform - blue suit, silk tie - to talk about science and his plan to provide federal funding for stem cell research. The two stops on the rapidly shortening campaign trail could not have looked more different. But in fact, they point to the same goal: wooing undecided voters.

WAKEFIELD, Ohio -- John Kerry, locked in a dead heat with President Bush just over two weeks before Election Day, is finally getting to ask voters the question he has been wanting to pose all along. Are you better off than you were four years ago? Kerry, his candidacy bolstered by strong performances in three closely watched presidential debates, is in the throes of an intensive push to turn voters against Bush as he reminds them of the mistakes he says the president has made. Kerry plans in the coming days to paint the president as a hopelessly out-of-touch leader who has cruelly turned his back on middle-class families in favor of rich and powerful interests, while presenting himself to voters as a strong alternative who cares about ordinary people.

What: Debate watching party. Where: Cockeysville Info: We don't have a big-screen TV but we do have TiVo so guests can scream and swear without the worry of missing anything. In case there's a defining moment (such as "and you're no John Kennedy") we can watch it over and over again. - From a recent online posting for a debate-watch party Imagine the possibilities: A crisp fall evening, a bottle of Yuengling, a spirited conversation about deficits and health care - all served with a large televised helping of John Kerry and George Bush.

Sharp questions of ideological bias in the media have been raised for more than three decades, but news organizations appear to be more vulnerable -- and sensitive -- than ever to the charges. In separate incidents over the past week, three major news organizations -- Fox News Channel, MSNBC and The Wall Street Journal -- have come under public fire for the perceived slant of reporters or contributors. The details provoking the three cases are starkly different. On the merits, readers and viewers may look askance at the behavior of any of the three media figures involved in the episodes.

NOW THAT THE first presidential debate between George Bush and John Kerry is here, I'd like to discuss this mysterious segment of the voting bloc we keep hearing so much about. Yes, I'd like to address you, the undecided voter. First of all, we keep hearing different numbers about how many of you are out there. Some surveys say you're 10 percent of the electorate. Others say you're more like 20 percent. The fact is, no one seems to know for sure - not the Zogby Poll, not the Gallup Poll, no one. To the pollsters, you people are like, I don't know, Mormon polygamists or something.

THE BROOKS and Dunn tune "Only in America" was released shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but uncannily foreshadowed the powerful sense of national unity that arose in their aftermath; a perfect campaign anthem for a president trying to rekindle that sentiment. It begins with: "Sun comin' up over New York City," describes the aspirations and potential futures of kids on a school bus, and breaks into a refrain about "dreaming in red, white and blue ... where we can dream as big as we want to ... everybody gets to dance.