The Election Hits Home

George, 27 sits on the stoop of the Porcellian Club in Harvard Square with a hand-lettered cardboard sign. "Out of work," it says.

George, who didn't want his last name to be used, says he has worked as an upholsterer, meatpacker and, most recently, a construction laborer. He hasn't worked since 1988, and he says he'll probably vote for Clinton in November.

He isn't particularly enthusiastic about it, however.

"I wish Perot stayed in the race, but we're stuck with that other character," George says.

The barrage of media coverage of this year's presidential campaign has been unrelenting. Pages upon pages of newspaper articles and hours and hours of television and radio deliver sound-bites galore.

Each evening television focuses on the candidate as they go jogging, bristle at reporters, make speeches, visit factories and get on and off airplanes and helicopters. And newspapers write and photograph the same events the next morning.

It is all part of the American people's obsession with the candidates--an obsession the media appears happy to indulge. The candidates--President Bush, Vice President Dan Quayle, Gov. Bill Clinton, Sen. Albert A. Gore Jr., '69 (D-Tenn.), even undeclared-candidate-no-more Ross Perot--are dissected and Psychoanalyzed. But in the barrage of coverage and dinner table conversations, the voters are often forgotten.

It's easier for the American people to stare at television and newspaper images than it is for them to notice the real people around them. And it takes less effort for reporters to ride along on the press bus quote from advance copies of speeches than it does for them to his the streets and talk to strangers.

"That other character," as George calls him, is Bill Clinton. The Democratic nominee is not without his flaws, says George, who lives in a room he rents in Quincy, Mass. With money from a government disability check.

"Clinton admitted that in college he tried pot. I mean, what kind of president is that," he says.

Still, George he's tired of Republicans and thinks it's time for a change. He likes Clinton's plan for universal health care. And he says that for him, this year's most important issue is jobs.

Ed Bertrand '92-94' sits in the Wash and Dry laundromat on Mt. Auburn Street near Harvard Square. He's waiting for his clothes to dry.

Bertrand is 22 years old and says he's paying more attention to this presidential campaign than he did to the last one, mainly because he's older this time around.

He didn't vote in 1988, but he plans to cast his ballot for Clinton in November.

"His economic plan seems to make sense.," Bertrand says. He says free trade and job training are the most important issues in the upcoming election.

So far, though, people aren't that excited about the campaign, as far as Bertrand can tell.

"It's not close enough to the election yet," said the Dudley House affiliate, who is working this summer as a social worker for a Central Square agency.

Gerg P. Long, 22, lives in Dorchester but is working part time as a parking attendant at a lot between Harvard and Central Squares. From his post inside the booth at the lot's entrance, Long says he plans to vote for Bush.

A strong antiabortion stance is one reason Long supports the incumbent president. Long also cites Bush's foreign policy experience.

Still, Long is less than enthusiastic about the choices this election year, calling Bush "the lesser of two evils."

Long, who recently graduated from Westfield State College and will be attending Suffolk Law School in September, says his peers have a new interest in politics, perhaps sparked by the unorthodox campaign of Texas billionaire Perot.

"We're all talking about it," says Long, who voted for Bush in 1988.

Long like several other voters, has some harsh words for the press.

"I really think they've crossed the boundaries," he says. "Reporters are just out to publicize themselves."

Cynicism, anger and disgust are the buzzwords of this political season and Robbie--who doesn't want to give her last name--is no exception.

"A politician is liar...what can you say?" the woman in her thirties asks over lunch at Popeye's in Central Square. She describes herself as "fed up."

Still, Robbie, who lives in Roxbury and works in Cambridge for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, says she is willing to give Clinton a try.

A Democrat who voted for then-Gov. Michael S. Dukakis in 1988, Robbie says she is "tired of Bush" and is "looking for a change."

She also supports Clinton because of his pro-choice position on abortion.

Robbie's frustration is shared by Joseph V. O'Neill, 70, who stands outside an apartment building near Inman Square.

"What are we going to do with the goddamned country?" O'Neill asks. "There's no future for the young people."

The retiree, visiting relatives in Cambridge, makes his home in Florida. He voted for Bush in 1988 and predicts that the president will be reelected. But O'Neill is not happy with the president's performance, particularly when it comes to the economy and the recent North American free trade agreement.

"No businesses are going to stay here," he says, gesturing up and down Cambridge Street. "They're going to go down to Mexico and pay workers four dollars a week."

"Bush is a habitual liar," O'Neill continues. O'Neill doesn't see the Democratic alternative to Bush as much of an alternative. "What Clinton did to Arkansas is a disgrace," says O'Neill, complaining about taxes and bureaucracy.

Both major party candidates are not to be trusted, according to the World War II veteran.

"I can't believe a world either one of them says anymore, none of us can," O'Neill says. he says politics is the most common topic of discussion for him and his friends.

Back in Harvard Square, the liberal idealism runs wild. Jennifer Parker, 26, a student at the Graduate School of Design, says the main reason she'll vote for Clinton in November is that he's prochoice.

"There's hardly anything I like about Bush," Parker says, calling Clinton "more in tune with average Americans."

Parker has to catch a bush, but before she leaves she says she gets most of her information about the campaigns from listening to National Public Radio.

Lucinda Leveille, 36, teaches Russian at Cambriadge Rindge and Latin High School and voted for Dukakis in 1988. She says Gore's record on the environment attracted her to the Democratic ticket.

Politics matters, says Leveille, watching her niece play on a swing set in the Cambridge Commons. But she says she is not sure if a Republican or Democratic president makes that much difference.

"It's sort of out there, and it's hard to make it relate directly to what your life it," Leveille says. "I think people give up."

It's hard to get an accurate measure of public opinion by talking to a few random strangers. But there ways to get more scientific samplings. Meet Steve, a public opinion expert and barber at the Custom Barber Shop on Brattle Street.

The 44-year-old barber says at first he measured strong support for Perot, but "now everybody's getting behind Clinton."

Steve says customers tend to base their voting decisions on superficial factors like Clinton's looks and Quayle's gaffes.

"It's all bullshit, no issues," Steve says.

The barber says he plans to write in former California Gov. and Democratic primary contender Jerry Brown on his ballot in November, "because they disrespected him so much at the Democratic Convention."