Primary Malaise…

This past Friday, I appeared briefly on CNN to discuss being a disaffected voter in the New Hampshire Primary.

Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien was broadcasting live from the Airport Diner in Manchester, NH. They had asked three of us to come down to be interviewed and it turned into a very quick and very staged “let’s talk to these random people in the diner” segment.

I had talked about how difficult a time I had reaching a decision on which candidate to support and I explained that I thought a lot of it was based on the uncertainty all Americans have regarding the economy.

Over the weekend, I talked to many people in the course of covering the ABC/Yahoo/WMUR and NBC/Facebook/Union Leader debates…and many of them seemed to echo the same feelings I had.  One person summed it up as a lack of electricity and I believe they were right.

I’ve even noticed that same lack of electricity surrounding the debates.  The candidates all seem to lack some kind of passion on some level.  A good number of people covering them in the media, seem to suffer from the same lack of energy that the candidates possess themselves. This was most noticeable in the Spin Room at both debates.

While the Spin Rooms were loud, they were were totally flat.  Four years ago, they were filled with media, candidates and celebrities.  This time, Rick Santorum was the only candidate to venture in to one of the Spin Rooms after the ABC debate.  That was it.

Even the surrogates who were there to support their candidates weren’t all that excited.  They hit all their talking points, of course, but there was no urgency and no passion.  Perhaps it’s because it seemed like the 57th Republican Debate?  It’s definitely true that there have been far too many of these contests, to the point where it seems to have nationalized the Granite State’s lead-off contest.

However, I think that it’s more illustrative of a malaise surrounding the entire process this time around.  There may be small, incremental gains in the economy, but it’s like we take two steps forward and one steps back. Things are still really bad out there for a lot of people and they just want to know that there’s really an answer and a way out of this mess.  Many are hopeful that answer can come from the GOP and they’re waiting for a message–and a candidate–that resonates with them.

Tomorrow, New Hampshire will go the polls to vote in the Republican Primary.  Voter turnout is expected to be high, but I’m not so sure that’s going to be the case.  It’s entirely possible that some undecided voters here could just stay home and, given the high number of people who feel as disaffected as I was just a few weeks ago.