Just Asking

Chatterbox is scratching his head over some exit poll analysis from ABCNews.com. Here is how voters rank what's of highest concern to them in this election: Education--20%; Ethical standards--19%; Economy--14%; Social Security--12%; Taxes--12%; Health care--7%; Clinton/Lewinsky--5%.

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A few interesting things to note here. HMOs were supposed to be a big bogeyman in this election. So why does health care rank so low among voter concerns? Also, isn't it contradictory for voters to be fretting to an apparently identical degree that their taxes are too high and that Social Security is endangered? Wouldn't shoring up Social Security involve raising taxes? Also, why are voters relatively unconcerned about the president's behavior in Flytrap while simultaneously saying that ethical standards are a more important issue than the economy? And if education ranks highest among voter concerns, why does the federal government continue to play a negligible role in setting standards for primary and secondary schools?

--Timothy Noah

E-mail Timothy Noah at .

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.

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