SWING, VOTERS, SWING

POLL RESULTS ARE THE SHEET MUSIC of politics; to hear the melody you have to listen to voters talking. The poll numbers have shown Bill Clinton far ahead of Bob Dole, with Ross Perot picking up some votes from both when he’s included. The polls tend to suggest the election is over.

Last week I went to swing suburbs in Michigan, the nation’s bellwether state in the last three presidential elections, and listened to what voters were saying. My conclusion is that voters are still tentative in their preferences, more tentative than voters I listened to a few months ago.