Late Undecideds broke for Ford, because he was a proven quantity in a bad world. He barely lost Ohio and the election to Carter and had over 240 electoral votes including Illinois. Unlike Obama, Carter won Southern States.
McCain is in a much better position than Ford was, and if the late decider's break for proven McCain, he Wins.
I read something a week or so ago (don't remember where) to the effect that most of the remaining undecided voters and swing voters are in voter demographics who otherwise favor McCain.
I would tend to agree. Usually at this point in time the Democratic candidate is up by double digits. Mc Cain is keeping it at even. I would opine that the meltdown of the credit market came at a very opportune time for Mc Cain. The economy has always been his biggest weakness and I think his decision to suspend his campaign was brilliant. If he handles this well I think he has pretty much marginalized that issue with a good 4+ weeks left before the election. He can then pound away on Obama about his lack of foreign policy experience. It’s still a dangerous world out there and things can happen that would quickly cause the American public to realize that. Also, there’s a huge amount of campaign ad material out there for Mc Cain to use in the next 4 weeks and my bet is that there will be some real zingers (plus we have Smokin’ Joe). Lastly, my bet is that when the curtain closes on the voting both those undecideds will pull the lever (push the button?!) for Mc Cain. At the end of the day I think they will decide there’s simply too much risk in an Obama presidency. Does that make for a landslide. Maybe, maybe not but I beginning to feel much better about who will win this election.
Ford lost in 1976 because of his gaffe in the debate, had he not made that gaffe Carter would have lost.