Hunting Opinions on the Road to the General Election

The general election campaign is under way. If we think of this as the NASCAR election, as the president's campaign crew hopes it will be, we'll be going around that track about a million times between now and November. Like a race around and around a big oval, it will be long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of excitement as someone shoots into the lead or even greater excitement if the wheels come completely off one or both campaigns. I'll be sitting in the grandstands, because my job will be talking to voters.

This little analogy breaks down right here -- because I generally don't look for voters at real sporting events. It's been my experience that sports are too serious to be interrupted by anything more taxing than a hot dog.

I like to find voters in places where people feel a little bit leisurely, because that often means they'll stay a little bit longer to talk. Markets are good for talking to people -- producer Julia Mitric and I have already been to the West Side Market in Cleveland, Ohio. We found people so cheered by the sight of sausages, they were happy to offer their opinions about politics. Julia was also able to pronounce the names of many of the foods on offer, thanks to her Balkan heritage.

On the other hand, shopping centers are not good places to talk. There, things conspire to make people miserable -- clothing is too expensive or too small; if you find something to buy you then have to find a clerk and wrestle them to the ground in order to pay for it. The only people who are happy in shopping centers are teenagers, who don't vote, and people who are on an acquisition mission and definitely don't have time to talk.

I once found a place that was worse -- I stopped people on the town square in a medium-sized city one morning and got such hostile responses I began to think there must be something in the water. But then I walked a little closer to the Town Hall and realized I was getting a steady stream of people coming out of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

I am actually looking forward to a long general election campaign -- and at eight months, this will be the longest ever -- because it will give me time to get around to a lot of places where politics will be especially interesting this year. I'll be looking for places and people where switches might occur, starting with the states where the results were close in 2000. President Bush barely carried Florida and New Hampshire; both states are interesting because the political makeup of both places has been changing. The president also carried Ohio, which will probably be the most important swing state this time.

Vice President Gore carried my home state of New Mexico by a tiny margin, after a number of years of Republican wins there. That's surely worth a visit. Gore also won several states in the heartland in close votes, including Iowa. I hardly ever get to Iowa in warm weather.

If I play my cards right, this tour could go coast to coast. I could travel from Maine all the way out to Oregon, checking with swing voters along the way in swing states like Ohio, Missouri, Michigan and Minnesota. I don't want to leave out Nevada, another potential swinger, but there again, trying to talk politics with somebody who's betting the farm may not be a good idea.

I'm taking suggestions about places across this broad land of ours where we might strike up conversations. I'd especially like to hear about groups of people who are sitting on some fence or other. The other day a listener wrote in recommending a politically divisive steam bath. Fortunately, it was not in a swing state.

Just one other thing. Please, if you see me coming, talk to me. Don't tell me you have "no comment." I hate that.