Americans' One Political Desire: Centrism ; New Polls Show the Public Leans toward a Manager More Than Than a Bigthinker. Series: Presidential Hopeful George W. Bush Has Not Strayed Too Far from the Center. BY LAURA CAMDEN/REUTERS 3) SAFE COUR; Presidential Hopeful Al Gore Has Not Strayed Too Far from the Center. BY JOHN GAPS III/AP

Francine Kiefer, writer of The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor

American presidential politics is awash in centrism, and one explanation is that the public's keeping it there.

Not wanting to upset the nation's prosperity, Americans aren't demanding much. They don't want big change. They don't want big government solutions. In fact, they're not even sure what they do want.

"There's no great desire for government to do much, and there's no demand percolating from the bottom for grand changes," says independent pollster John Zogby.

Unusually, Mr. Zogby says, he hasn't even been able to identify the top campaign 2000 issues, because Americans' priorities - in the absence of overriding concerns - fluctuate according to …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Americans' One Political Desire: Centrism ; New Polls Show the Public Leans toward a Manager More Than Than a Bigthinker. Series: Presidential Hopeful George W. Bush Has Not Strayed Too Far from the Center. BY LAURA CAMDEN/REUTERS 3) SAFE COUR; Presidential Hopeful Al Gore Has Not Strayed Too Far from the Center. BY JOHN GAPS III/AP. Contributors: Francine Kiefer, writer of The Christian Science Monitor - Author. Newspaper title: The Christian Science Monitor. Publication date: November 18, 1999. Page number: 3. © 2009 The Christian Science Publishing Society. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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