Tim Russert talks to Lindsay about 'Super Tuesday' Voters

(KSL News) Here we are on Super Tuesday, and opinion surveys in Utah and across the country show voters in the past month have been changing their minds and changing them again.

Why? NBC's chief political correspondent, Tim Russert, says it's because of when and how voters really decide.

Russert said, "When I go to Iowa, when I go to New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, wherever, it reminds me of ancient Greece; hundreds, thousands of people turn out in the town square. They want to see this candidate. They want to size him or her up. They want to take their measure.

"The audience for programs like Meet the Press soars, because people are tuning in. And they're not sitting there with a clipboard, checking off every issue. They really are looking at and examining these people, ‘Do I really trust him or her? Can I see them in the Oval Office?' I love it. It is such an instinctive gut feel.

"I have, my dad and my three sisters are the cheapest and most accurate focus group you could ever have, because they just sit and watch people and they talk to their friends and neighbors. And they come back and they say, you know what, ‘I like this guy or I don't like this guy.' Which is a big deal in our country, the election of a president, which is a big deal in our country, thank God."

Russert also weighed in on the process of choosing party nominees.

"Well, you know, when you go to Iowa and you go to new Hampshire, and you go to South Carolina, and you say, ‘Gee, are these states representative of the country?' On the other hand, when you have one out of three Iowans saying they've met one of the candidates, or 8 out of 10 say, ‘I've heard from one of the candidates, directly, on the telephone, or through direct mail,' there's a positive aspect of it.

Now, whether the parties will choose to have regional primaries, or whatever, I do think they have to have small states involved. We still have to have a situation where a candidate has to go to a living room, or American legion hall, and put their wares on display and take questions from citizens. If we simply have a 50 state media campaign, we will have lost a lot. We've got to get candidates out of that bubble. We gotta' see 'em sweatWwe gotta seem 'em listening. We gotta see 'em anticipating questions, sometimes incorrectly.

"I have a simple premise in life, and I guess as moderator of Meet the Press I'm ever more convinced of it, that if you can't answer tough questions, you can't make tough decisions. And God knows the next president of the United States is gonna have to make a lot of tough decisions."

Bruce Lindsay spoke with Russert in Washington this week. To see the interview, click the play button above.

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