The Maddening Middle

Any pundit will tell you that these days America splits into two neat primary color boxes: Red America with its Chevy trucks, personal savior, NASCAR; Blue with its lattes, urban gardening, weakness for Charlie Rose (Yeah, Charlie). All manner of hand-wringing follows from there -- we are a nation painfully divided, hardening in our zealotry. We eat with and talk to and live near people just like ourselves. This is the death of robust political dialogue, etc.

At least, though, most of us know who we are. Compare that to the tiny sliver in the middle, the 1 percent of Americans who can't make up their minds. Before the focus group, the men fill out forms about their preferences. One says he listens to NPR and regularly reads the Drudge Report. Another sings in a church choir and loves Howard Stern. One listed his favorite TV show as "Seinfeld" and his favorite news source as Rush Limbaugh.

He hasn't had a raise in three years, he says. All the jobs go to "China," or get "taken by the Mexicans," and his is probably next. He feels "sold out" by Bush, he says. An observer can almost imagine John Kerry nodding gravely, cameras recording the moment for a future commercial.

Then CUT! CUT! Suddenly Orlando Man is veering wildly off script. Bush "is a strong leader," he says. Yeah, the war's going badly but "nobody could have predicted that." Kerry is "a waffler. Says one thing one day and then flips it two months later."

Huh?

"They never found those weapons," says one, in what any observer would swear was mock-irony. Then not five minutes later he adds gently: "I'm sure it's not [Bush's] fault. I'm sure they're out there somewhere, buried in the friggin' desert."

The female of the species won't get you clarity, either. In a focus group of women run by Democracy Corps, one woman with ex-husbands and stepchildren worries that in the movies, "every other word is the F word," and school kids don't learn how to read anymore. Another home-schools her children and complains that every other word out of Bush's mouth is "God."

"Five million people, with no fixed loyalties, all up for grabs," says Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.). "Depending on what they care about at the moment they can move either way."

As with a Rorschach test, everyone sees what they want to. Graham sees veterans attracted to Kerry, mothers who care about schools and the environment, seniors furious about Bush's Medicare reform.

Ralph Reed, Bush's Southeast strategist, sees veterans pleased with the war, seniors happy with their new prescription drug benefits, people used to no state income tax happy with lower federal taxes, Jews happy with Bush's position on Israel.