Stuck in the middle with you
I wish I could live in the moment. Just once. One of the problems of being a Type A person -- or didn't you notice -- is you can't turn your brain off. Just now, for example, I was cleaning the stovetop from the burned-on egg from this morning's scrambled eggs. If I were a more laid-back person, perhaps I'd spend that time thinking about ways to improve non-burner surfaces, or the chemical composition of that goop that supposedly cleans your cooking surface to a mirror-like finish... but doesn't.
But no... two things have been in my brain all weekend and nothing has worked to make it stop. One, Ray Charles' version of America, which was played on the Current Thursday. It's undoubtedly the finest version ever recorded. But still, you can only take so much of...
...and crown thy good.
...yes he did, he said he would..
...with brotherhood....
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But it's still better than ABBA's SOS which for some godforsaken reason was stuck in that noggin' last week.
The other is a profile of a middle-of-the-road voter. You know, the kind that wins or loses elections?
I've been thinking about all the various combinations that are out there. Here's a couple:
Doesn't like the war in Iraq but doesn't want to pull out and retreat, doesn't like the idea of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, but doesn't like the idea of same-sex marriage either, is pretty well dry when it comes to paying more taxes, but can't stand large deficits.
You can play with that combination in a number of ways -- favors war in Iraq, is in favor of same-sex marriage by consenting adults, wants restrictions on abortion, for example -- and you can probably come to the same conclusion.
This ain't the political season for them.
This is what I like to call "red meat" season. It's when the candidates feed the base, which is usually not in the middle, only to have to run to the center in search of November votes. That is, if they don't think their base alone is enough to put them over the top.
We spend a lot of time in the news business chasing the candidates. But I think we should spend as much time chasing the voters because -- and I acknowledge I have absolutely no scientific proof of this -- I'm pretty sure the two are not the same at this point.
Here at MPR, I've argued for years for a budget item that provides for an extensive poll after Election Day to figure out exactly what voters were saying. The winner will always say they've got a mandate from the people to execute items 1-10 on their campaign issue list. But I don't think they do. I think there's a fair bet they have a mandate on item #1... and maybe 4 or 5 others. The problem is nobody can say for sure what 4 or 5 items those are.
When I first moved here in 1992, I remember sitting in the hotel before my interview listening to Morning Edition, and I heard a Chris Roberts piece profiling a family that MPR had identified as one of several undecided voters they'd follow during the campaign. It was brilliant! They were from all walks of life and they had one thing in common: they didn't know who they would vote for. And they were conflicted -- man, were they ever conflicted -- because how they felt wasn't at all with the certainty that candidates -- and their red-meat base -- displayed on every issue.
We haven't done it since. This year -- although I think it's getting late -- we're in the process of resurrecting the idea to see if we can pull it off.
I think it'll be fascinating. The only question is: if the candidates don't come back to the middle...where do these people who win and lose elections go?