"Don't you do Republican!" she exclaimed. "Boy, you better not be voting Republican. Those Republicans have done nothing for us."
But he just might "do" Republican, he allowed. "Kerry has some explaining to do, particularly on what he would do on the economy."
Or he might not vote at all. "Not voting is the last resort. But it's still an option. A real option."
'The Lesser of Two Evils'
The fires that rage in partisan Republicans and Democrats over their respective parties' presidential candidates are conspicuously absent from these swing voters. They see the emotion but do not understand it.
"I wish I could talk to someone that is definitely voting for Bush and get their feeling," Filipowski said. "Or for Kerry. How do you know for certain? I don't see it. This is the hardest vote I will ever have to do."
In more than six hours of discussion over two separate nights, they are hard-pressed to say anything positive about politics, politicians or either candidate.
Bush, more a known quantity to these voters, drew the harsher reviews. "Thumbs down," Dudek said. "He just doesn't impress me."
"I think he is a puppet president," Miraszek said. "He is a front man for the vice president, who really seems to run more things."
David Strawn, a Methodist minister seated immediately to Miraszek's right, tensed up at the harshness of Miraszek's assessment. Bush "is a man of character," Strawn said evenly. "He is a man who believes what he says," even though "when he speaks he is not well spoken."
"I don't hate him," offered Cheryl Beckman, 37, an emergency room nurse. "I don't think he is doing a horrible job."
Even Bush supporters were lukewarm. "I voted for him the last time," said Christine Dimperio, 38, a dietary aide. "I don't know if I'd vote for him again. He did an all-right job."
Kerry drew equally tepid evaluations. Even after hearing him speak, most members of this group said they didn't have a clear idea of who he was or what he would do as president.
"He is kind of aloof and part of the upper crust and out of touch," Strawn said. "He tries really hard, but it's somebody that's acting."
"He just doesn't strike me as authentic," said Michelle Heverly, 26, a restaurant worker.
