Ohioblog: A Swing State Journal

What we need is our old political system 

Akron/Canton has been Focus Group Central for The Boston Globe as it has sought to understand Ohio and its voters. Yvonne Abraham writes about a final pre-election dinner with six voters, who were part of The Globe's larger focus group, recruited with help from the Center for Policy Studies at the University of Akron. Of the six voters, two had chosen President Bush during the summer and of the four undecideds two have have opted for Sen. John Kerry, one for Bush and the other remains uncertain. More important, though, is this from Abraham: ``The relentlessness of the 2004 presidential campaign has most of the group longing for big changes: a general election process that begins a few months before Election Day, for starters. And maybe a return to the old closed-door system where parties elevated their best and brightest to the top of the heap, so that smarts and wisdom might have an opportunity to trump posturing and glitz.'' Throw Ohioblog's log on that fire. And if all Akron/Canton voters are as smart as these, we'll be OK.


posted by Ohioblog: A Swing State Journal at 10:08 AM