Nation's size leads to basic goals
By CNN's Richard Quest
PORTLAND, Oregon (CNN) -- It is only when you are on the road in the United States that you truly get an idea of how big this country is.
The statistics really don't tell the whole story. Although it was a five-hour flight from Florida to Washington state, the three hour drive from Seattle to Portland gave me a much better feel.
After having dinner at a roadside steakhouse alongside Interstate 5, I just stood and watched this nation on the move.
Interstate 5 is a major highway that runs 1,400 miles from Canada through Washington, Oregon and California down to Mexico -- the length of the West Coast.
The sheer weight of traffic -- from trucks rumbling along the road, to camper vans with tourists to cars carrying solitary sales staff -- is impressive. It is like a never-ending artery pumping the blood of economic life around the western United States.
And I am in just one small corner of the country, a tiny part of this nation.
The evening lights of the hundreds of thousands of homes, housing developments and apartment blocks just made me realize what a vast undertaking this presidential election is for any man or woman wanting to be in charge of this country.
What also becomes clear is why a presidential election invariably boils down to simple slogans and policies.
The country is so large, with so many disparate concerns, that inevitably finding the glue that will hold an electorate together comes down to a few core goals. In this election they are security, terrorism and the economy -- rather simple ones really, but move too far away from them and the whole policy business starts to become much more difficult.
Which is why asking most Americans what they want from a president pretty much elicits the same formula wherever you are: A strong economy. A strong homeland. And someone who is at the helm. Simple, really.
