"They deserve to lose."

So says Thomas Sowell about the unexplained Republican failure (so far) to present the facts.

His piece is titled "Do facts matter?" and he's talking about these facts:

Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years-- including the present year-- denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis.

It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial crisis.

Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago.

Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration "right-wing ideology" of "de-regulation" that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter?

I say "meaningless" because I think readers of this blog already know what they think one way or another, and they are not going to be persuaded in the least by my repeating anything I have said. I suspect that most readers already know who they're voting for. But maybe I shouldn't be making such assumptions.

Hmm....

This is as good a time as any for a reader poll. Not to find out who people are voting for, but simply to determine how many undecideds read this blog.

So, if you could kindly take just a second and let me know how many of you are undecided, I'd appreciate it.

I tried to create as broad a category as possible for the undecideds, so I am including people who might change their mind. I realize that this poll is not scientific, but it might at least give me some idea how many readers here are likely to be moved one way or the other by opinions, arguments, or facts.

Sowell argues that facts only matter if people know about them, and that many people just plain don't.

Facts don't matter much politically if they are not reported.

The media alone are not alone in keeping the facts from the public. Republicans, for reasons unknown, don't seem to know what it is to counter-attack. They deserve to lose.

But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all, who has accomplished absolutely nothing beyond the advancement of his own career with rhetoric, and who has for years allied himself with a succession of people who have openly expressed their hatred of America.

I don't want to bias the above poll, but I don't think it will surprise any readers to hear that I'm not undecided.

What I'm undecided about is whether that matters to anyone.