Voters' feelings in focus
By Tami Littleton, in Nashua
I was in a good-sized focus group last week -- reacting to Romney ads happened to be the subject that particular night. It was a very well mixed group and they all had interesting contributions. Among the things I heard from the group were:
#1 – and the most important -- the group HATED the negative ads. Reaction was: the candidate doing the attacking mustn't have much to say/offer if all he has to talk about is "the other guy". Most just changed he channel when they came on.
#2 - the group agreed that we are looking for a statesman, someone from either party who can inspire us, who can rise above the sniping and bickering like Giuliani and Romney did in the last Rep. debate.
#3 - Don't trust Romney. He flipflops. (although no one cared for the attacks on Romney’s religion either)
#4 – Disappointment with the field of candidates. Republican favorites were Huckabee, McCain, although there were people who were leaning towards almost every single candidate in the field (both Dem and Rep.) They said McCain and Huckabee were the only ones who were actually answering all questions without resorting to the “canned campaign messages” at every single opportunity.
#5 – Much as everyone likes Obama, most were disappointed that he chose to run this time around as they feel that “he’s not ready for prime time just yet”; it’s too soon, not enough experience yet, not his time yet, but were going to be watching him in the Senate and look for a chance to support him next time around.
