Over the course of three debates incumbent president George Bush and
presidential challenger Senator John Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) took advantage
of an important opportunity to sway undecided American voters, clarify their
own positions on important election-year issues and point out their opponent's
weaknesses. But with all four debates behind us and just weeks before the
presidential election itself, it's clear a substantial number of potential
voters are still painfully undecided. In fact, the debates have done more to
solidify the opinions of already-decided voters than sway that silent majority
that still vacillates between both candidates. Why weren't the debates more
persuasive? Blame the numbers.


In November 2004, my piece "the Numbers Game," a political analysis of the
American presidential election in November 2004, was published in Il Talento,
an Italian academic journal focusing on matters of international relations,
politics, and economics.  Read it on line and download a PDF copy of the
article from that site.