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Q. But you're not going to change your temperament. What you're saying is that the country now wants a temperament like yours?
A. What you see is what you get.
Q. Let's come back to a fundamental issue that is central to what you're talking about, which is these electronic town meetings. As you've sketched them out, they're going to involve the Cabinet, members of Congress . . .
A. And the leaders in the industry, like health care, who know most about it.
Q. Given the fact that it's very hard to get people to watch television for five, six hours at a go unless it's the Super Bowl, how are you going to present the issues to the American people in enough complexity so they can make a rational decision?
A. See, your assumption is that the American people like sound bites. I don't buy your assumption. They want the facts, they want details; they realize they've been sound-bitten to death, they realize they've been headlined to death, they realize they've been jerked around by inaccurate stuff that gets fed to them. They would really like to understand because, finally, they pay the bills.
Q. I've talked to a variety of political scientists, polling experts, et cetera, about your --
A. You're on the wrong end. You talked to the Establishment. If I were a pollster, I would say, "What's this? My job is to tell you what people think. I get paid 100,000 bucks every time I tell you."
Now, I love your polling guy. Let's just follow your logic all the way through. I would say that, my God, you'd better cut out general elections too, because they're certainly not scientific either. How do I even know that a cross section of America shows up to vote? My God, we have a flaw in the system. We'd better go to polling to select our candidates, right? Just follow your logic all the way down to the ridiculous end, and you come out there.
This is light-years beyond the pollster calling. We run this country now by what the pollsters say. You know that and I know that, and you know to your toes that both parties don't make a move until they take a poll. If you ever see me doing that, just have me led away, because that is so goofy, you know. It's not what's the right thing to do. Let's take a poll and then follow the wind. O.K.
The logic of all these people that you talk to just flies apart when you look at it. The town hall is 20 times better than polls in terms of knowing what people think. Polls are a reaction. The town-hall reaction is after you're informed.
Q. But the point is, the whole nature of representative democracy is that a conscientious member of Congress -- and there are some -- can say, "Yeah, the people back home, according to the polls, are against me on this issue, but I believe in my gut that it's the right issue, and I'm going to do it anyway."
A. Terrific. Terrific. I'm for that guy. I love that guy.
Q. But in the model you set up, it is basically that these Congressmen would have to be, in essence, robots to that sort of --
A. No, that's your conclusion. Did you ever hear me say that? You said that.