Today on All Things Considered National Public Radio continued their series of interviews with likely voters after each debate. These features show the value of paying attention to focus groups instead of becoming totally enamored with polling data. Today’s report was on a group of Republican voters in Bedford New Hampshire and their reactions to last night’s debate. This group of what NPR termed as mostly “business people and fiscal conservative” was fairly undecided in who they would be voting for in little more than an month. They liked the way Huckabee and McCain performed. Some were critical of Romney and of Giuliani’s need to always have the last word, seeing it as “not presidential.”
After some complaints about their candidates one of the members stressed the need for change in the way government works. He went on to say things are, “not going to get fixed by a senator who is a good old boy.” He asked his fellow Republicans, “If this vote becomes [one] for change, who is going to be the best man?” There was a moment of silence when another member of the group said, “I agree with my wife on this one. The guy who comes the closet to that is probably Obama. He probably has that charisma that is going to pull people forward.”
This is certainly something for the Democrats to pay attention in a state that could put us over the top next year.
Link to Report: http://www.npr.org/...