Middle America getting impatient

CHICAGO - A week after an election that was supposed to hand the United States its next President, Americans are spinning in uncertainty, somewhat impatient and a bit embarrassed.

Even the lulling routine of daytime television soap operas is being interrupted by news bulletins and shots from the rival camps of Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Governor George Bush.

"It's very unfortunate for the country that they can't straighten this mess out," said 73-year-old Romine Smith, a Cincinnati homemaker.

The "politicised media feast" was wearing thin on the general public, she said.

"It's utterly ridiculous," said Frances Gomes, 29, of Wareham, Massachusetts, an executive assistant and Gore backer.

"They're taking too long and making too many mistakes."

While she did not see the matter as approaching a crisis, Gomes said she was worried about how the situation looked to the rest of the world.

"It shows we're lacking; we're not on top of things like we're supposed to be."

Griselda Marquez, 49, of Atlanta, said: "I have relatives in France who ask me, 'What's going on? Why can't you solve this problem?' There's nothing I can say."

Kevin Rose, 34, of Sarasota County, Florida, said it was embarrassing that the dispute had wound up in the courts, adding, "I'm sick of the whole business."

Jeanie Johnson, an Ohio grandmother, said: "It's just ridiculous how long it has dragged out, especially after everyone was getting awfully tired of the campaign itself.

"I don't understand why the overseas ballots would take so long to be collected and tabulated."

But others, such as Gloria George of Massachusetts, called for patience.

"It will be resolved. It's expected that Gore would be the way he is. I would want a recount, too.

"I would expect Bush to do this. It's in his interest to do what he is doing.

"The courts are one of our checks and balances," she said. "We should use the whole system."

David Kozinski, of Wilmington, Delaware, said: "As we have seen during the past week, neither our country nor the world will be destabilised if the election outcome is not immediately known ... It is worth taking the time to get it right."

James Olsen, a 20-year-old student at Emory University in Atlanta, said he did not believe the impasse warranted changing the way Presidents were elected.

- REUTERS

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