ABSTRACT
Leah is undecided about whether to vote for Romney or Obama in the 2008 presidential elections. She has been impressed by Romney’s performance in a TV debate and is leaning in his favor, although both candidates’ arguments have left her confused on substance. She evaluates the candidates on various criteria, using a simple pro-con tallying approach. She marks a perceived advantage to Obama as one or more pluses and an advantage to Romney as one or more minuses. Although she expected Romney would make a somewhat greater contribution to the economy, it was also more uncertain than Obama’s, which canceled Romney’s perceived advantage in that respect. Leah’s criterion evaluations combine both factual and value judgments. A high evaluation could be because either she judges the difference between candidates to be great or the criterion is very important. Leah acknowledges that her judgment could be ill-informed.
