Undecideds have plenty of options in cyberspace.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

Being perceived as a swing state in the hotly contested presidential election has its benefits. Oregon has had plenty of personal visits from the candidates and their loved ones. Rarely have Oregon's seven electoral votes been so intensely courted.

But all that attention hasn't necessarily made it easier to choose between President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry. The TV advertising blitz, coupled with the debates - where both campaigns played a little fast and loose with the facts - obscured as much as they clarified.

With nine days left before the election, what's an undecided voter to do?

We recommend a little Internet homework. There are thousands of politically oriented Web sites. We selected nine - seven that offer a mix of excellent news and commentary and two that are pure distraction from politics.

For news junkies

Real clear politics (www.realclearpolitics.com/) links to all the major political news stories and commentaries and is must reading if you care about how the Wall Street Journal vs. the Washington Post see the politics of the day.

This week's links also point readers to regional papers such as the Rocky Mountain News, which offered this clever headline on a column about Colorado politics: "This year's election could use a bag over its face."

Links to international newspapers give readers the view from outside.

Just the facts, please

Spinsanity (www.spinsanity.org/) teases out the truth behind the campaign rhetoric.

The Web site writers recently showed how the Bush campaign distorted Kerry's remarks about fighting terrorism and how the Kerry campaign mischaracterized drug company profits as a `$139 billion bailout."

Rational blogs

Daniel Drezner (www.danieldrezner.com/blog/) is a University of Chicago political science professor and economist who served as an unpaid foreign policy adviser for the Bush 2000 campaign. Drezner's blogs include a reasoned explanation for why he's voting for John Kerry this time around.

Gregory Djerejian (www.belgraviadispatch.com) is an American lawyer working for a financial services company based in London.

He posts interesting dialogue with readers about the perils of the Iraq war and a discussion of why he supports George W. Bush as commander in chief.

Brad DeLong (www.j-bradford-delong.net) is a University of California at Berkeley economics professor. His posts do a good job of explaining numbers politicians throw around.

A recent piece described the jobless people left out of government unemployment data - those who have given up looking for work or are waiting to be called back to a job after a layoff.

Ordinary folks spout off

Scott Salyer (www.common-insight.com) is a Washington state resident who muses skillfully on political questions. For example: "In other news, while Sean John warns that you must "Vote or Die," it turns out that in Idaho, you can vote and die. In that state, your vote will still count if you are unfortunate enough to die between the time you send off your absentee ballot and the election. But what happens if you die in the voting booth?"

Two lefties, a rightie and a blog (www.blog.bloody-brilliant.net/) describe three college-age women who chat about politics, and link to other interesting Web sites, including one that shows where candidates are getting their financial support.

Completely frivolous reads

We can only take so much serious political discourse for so long. These two Web sites feature parodies of national news:

Scott Ott (www.scrappleface.com) offers a clever collection of fake headlines based on the real news of the day - "Supreme Court Gives Debate Win to Bush" and "Kerry Says Do-Not-Terrorize List Would End Nuisance."

The Onion (www.onion.com) is a longtime news parody site that skewers both parties. Recent headlines: "Fed-Up Cheney Enters Presidential Race Himself" and "Hundreds Of Republicans Injured In Rush To Discredit Kerry."

Happy Internet surfing, but watch out for the rip tides. You get sucked into this vast electronic realm, and there's no telling when or where you'll emerge.