we ll keep you posted, as i said, we await the 16th rescue. to politics now. 12 states, more than 6,000 miles on the road in just 24 days. a crash course in americana that gets to the heart of what voters want. joe klein took that wild ride pulling in the driveway with the better grasp of what campaign trails are really talking about. you saw the cover of the latest edition and since this article came out i have been dying to talk to you about it because it s remarkable, look, you re one of the people who follows everything. you follow the polls and follow the races and talk to lots of smart people. were you surprised, though, by what you found out when you went into the heart of america? i was surprised by the intensity of it. i had a really good sense or at least a feeling that the kind of fist shaking anger that you see on tv all the time, especially on some other networks, wasn t
frustrated because they hire leaders to make things better and now they don t feel that whoever they hire will get them there. what is the dominant feeling or sentiment you hear expressed out there about the president himself? i didn t go through the deep south, which is very red. i also didn t go into urban neighborhoods, which are very blue. i went down diagonally across we have a map we can show. actually, of your trip. oh, really? yes. i want to remember this. but, anyway, people respect him. you don t see the fist-shaking anger that you often see on cable news. certainly there s some obama haters out there. most people respect him but they don t quite admire him. he s floating over this debate and doesn t seem to be part of the things that people are most concerned about. they don t understand what s in the health reform legislation. they don t understand what s in the financial reform regulation. they re beginning to see the stimulus in a different way. because you
frustrated because they hire leaders to make things better and now they don t feel that whoever they hire will get them there. what is the dominant feeling or sentiment you hear expressed out there about the president himself? i didn t go through the deep south, which is very red. i also didn t go into urban neighborhoods, which are very blue. i went down diagonally across we have a map we can show. actually, of your trip. oh, really? yes. i want to remember this. but, anyway, people respect him. you don t see the fist-shaking anger that you often see on cable news. certainly there s some obama haters out there. most people respect him but they don t quite admire him. he s floating over this debate and doesn t seem to be part of the things that people are most concerned about. they don t understand what s in the health reform legislation. they don t understand what s in the financial reform regulation. they re beginning to see the stimulus in a different way. because you
yes, and i think part of what s coming in just a few weeks in november is probably a rebuke of our current leaders p leadership. and i think that might be fairly severe, but the larger issue is that i don t think the american people look at washington and see people who, a, can know what needs to be done and, b, can actually summon the will and grit to do it. they don t see that leadership as likely and so they are frustrated because they hire leaders to make things better and now they don t feel that whoever they hire will get them there. what is the dominant feeling or sentiment you hear expressed out there about the president himself? i didn t go through the deep south, which is very red. i also didn t go into urban neighborhoods, which are very blue. i went down diagonally across we have a map we can show. actually, of your trip. oh, really? yes. i want to remember this. but, anyway, people respect him. you don t see the fist-shaking anger that you often see on cabl