5

5
The election held on yesterday was [illegible] clearly several things to different people, but apparently for a large number of Americans who chose not to choose, it was a ^only choice between "Fritz and [illegible between the unknown and the known, between the "luster" and the "lackx - luster" a choice of which picture would hang on the post office wall.

But for most Americans, the choice became one between the unproved promises, of one fallible man and the poor past performance of another - nothing else, no ^single issue of massive importance, no single concern for ending any particular problem seemed to intrude on the public consciousness.

It was a dramatic election up to election day. The opposing candidates went form [?] ³³ spread ^{in July, to 18 points in August,} to an unpredictable margin too close to call ^{on election eve.}

The entire political year, beginning in New Hampshire's chill in January, has been an unusal one.

1976 was the year in which >[?] American voters in both major parties had more to say about who would win than ever before. Despite the real retreats the Democrat party made from [?] its strong stand in favor of minorities iin 1972, both parties offered a greater chance for the candidates to meet the voters, to be questioned and tested by them, and to submit their platform, promises and past performance to the public jury.

What occurred then, was a record ^high number of primaries in which a large number of candidates offerred themselves to a record small number of voters. Pluralities replace majorities, and candidates won with margins that might have guaranteed oblivion in years before.

The American political process guarantees only a series of declining options - the primary season narrowed them down, as the song goes, to a precious few.

The pre-election surveys showed the electorate in an unusual state of flux. According to the New York Times - CBS poll, Ford passed Carter in America's cuburbs and small towns; Ford passed Carter among voters under 29, and ^{an early} Carter and [illegible] among Black voters had been out with more than over before saying they were undecided.

The reasons why a candidate slides from sure victory on Labor Day to possible defeat the day before the election will be left for others to decide and debate - the lack of issues, or our lack of any perception of them, the candidates' [illegible] character or lack of it - all these ^will become chapters in the civics textbook of tomorrow.

For many Americans, [?] Tuesday's choice was unimportant, and anyo