, Columnist
These Grumpy Voters Prefer None of the Above
A North Carolina focus group accentuates the negative and eliminates the positive.
At least they shook hands.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
One question put to a dozen “persuadable voters” in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday night didn’t elicit a single response: Which presidential candidate do you like? Another, though, produced a unanimous show of hands: Do you dislike both?
The voters had been assembled by Peter Hart, a veteran Democratic pollster who has led focus groups for decades. He termed the session, conducted for the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, “unbelievably negative.”