Is It Over Yet?

In the central Florida corridor that could determine the next bell captain of the Lincoln Bedroom, Greg and Virginia Harrell feel the same way as a lot of their neighbors. Vice President Al Gore or Texas Governor George Bush? They were more excited about their options at the Bill O' Fare Food Court in the Brandon Town Center Mall on a recent family outing.

"After watching the first two debates, I was just more confused," said Greg, 40, an insurance agent who is a registered Democrat but a fairly conservative guy, especially since daughters Emily, 3, and Leah, seven months, came along. "I was leaning Bush in the beginning, but I've been back and forth ever since."

"He's been back and forth every day," said Virginia, 37, an education consultant and former teacher who grew up in New Jersey and relocated here after college. Not that she knew which campaign poster to plant in the front lawn either. She doesn't trust Bush with the nation's public schools, and she kind of liked Gore at first. But it was a brief affair with a cold fish. "I watched very closely," she said of the final debate. "I wanted either Bush or Gore to give me a reason to like [him]." It didn't happen.

The Harrells' problem is one that was voiced over and over in three days of interviews in a fast-growing, politically moderate area the Bush and Gore camps consider up for grabs and critical to their success. With a handful of exceptions, even voters who have decided on a candidate said they weren't thrilled with their choice. "Bush is the lesser of two evils," said Joe Spencer, 45, an electrical technician. Betty Ford, retired from the construction business at 52, felt the same way about Gore. "I just find him so--What's the word?--unbelievable. But it'll probably be Gore. The economy is good."

"Floridians have candidate fatigue at this point," says Susan MacManus, who teaches political science at the University of South Florida. She's only half right. They have politics fatigue. The campaign seems like an insufferably long extension of the Clinton scandal and the partisan bickering that followed. And now, after a year of campaigning that felt like 10, Floridians are daily subjected to an assault of vapid, 30-second TV spots that seem designed to lower the national IQ.

"I'm not a masochist," said Don Fletcher, 57, a telecommunications consultant who was asked over coffee at the mall if he was tuned in to the campaign. Kind of tough to get caught up in it, others said, when one candidate has the burden of proving he's not a goober in a nice suit and the other is forever trying on personalities the way some people try on shoes.

"The process turns you off, and it's got to where I don't even know who's lying and who's telling the truth anymore," said Ford, who moved to Central Florida 15 years ago from Atlantic City, N.J.

If you believe his mother, Bush is the one you can trust. She said so in a message she left on Ford's answering machine (and on thousands of others in Florida) in which she extolled her son's virtues. It was a smart move, given Barbara Bush's likability, unless you happen to think it underscores George W.'s lack of political maturity. It's like the guy needs a permission slip from Mom saying it's O.K. for Dubya to go on the field trip to the White House.