the accountability election

Joe Klein went to a Frank Luntz-led focus group of independent voters and found out—surprise, surprise!—that they want details and specifics and reliability and trustworthiness:

–”Change” as a theme is over. Too vague. And Obama’s rhetoric has begun to seriously cut against him. “No more oratory,” one woman said. “Give us details.” (There may be a racial component to this, by the way, as some white people associate soaring oratory with African-American leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Jackson.)

–What do they want? Given a list of 31 personal attributes the next President might have and asked to pick the eight most important, “Accountability” finished highest with 13 votes, next was “Someone I can trust” with 12, “honest and ethical” was third with 11. “Agrees with me on the issues” got one vote. They didn’t care if the candidate was a Washington insider or outsider. “A dynamic and charismatic leader” got two votes…(Add: When Luntz asked them which was more important, “accountability” or “change,” the vote was 17 to 4 in favor of accountability.)

–What does “accountability” mean? That, I think, is the key to this election. They know that the country is on the wrong track and big changes are necessary, but they don’t trust politicians, or government, to bring those changes about. (McCain’s government waste message resonates big-time with these people.) I got the feeling that if either candidate said, “I’m going to hire a private accounting firm to keep track of any new initiative I offer and make sure that it’s being done as efficiently as possible,” that would have a big impact on people.

Most interesting: it wasn’t about the issues at all for most undecided voters, or about the image and presentation of the candidates; rather, it seems to be about the candidates’ essence, or character.

accountable

trustworthy

honest and ethical

That’s what we seem to want.

Expect a lot more negative advertising to poke holes in the other guy’s character.

Good luck to Barack Obama. He’s gonna need it! (That’s what my gut tells me, but my gut has been known to lie!)