"What are we going to do with the goddamned country?" O'Neill asks. "There's no future for the young people."
The retiree, visiting relatives in Cambridge, makes his home in Florida. He voted for Bush in 1988 and predicts that the president will be reelected. But O'Neill is not happy with the president's performance, particularly when it comes to the economy and the recent North American free trade agreement.
"No businesses are going to stay here," he says, gesturing up and down Cambridge Street. "They're going to go down to Mexico and pay workers four dollars a week."
"Bush is a habitual liar," O'Neill continues. O'Neill doesn't see the Democratic alternative to Bush as much of an alternative. "What Clinton did to Arkansas is a disgrace," says O'Neill, complaining about taxes and bureaucracy.
Both major party candidates are not to be trusted, according to the World War II veteran.
"I can't believe a world either one of them says anymore, none of us can," O'Neill says. he says politics is the most common topic of discussion for him and his friends.
Back in Harvard Square, the liberal idealism runs wild. Jennifer Parker, 26, a student at the Graduate School of Design, says the main reason she'll vote for Clinton in November is that he's prochoice.
"There's hardly anything I like about Bush," Parker says, calling Clinton "more in tune with average Americans."
Parker has to catch a bush, but before she leaves she says she gets most of her information about the campaigns from listening to National Public Radio.
Lucinda Leveille, 36, teaches Russian at Cambriadge Rindge and Latin High School and voted for Dukakis in 1988. She says Gore's record on the environment attracted her to the Democratic ticket.
Politics matters, says Leveille, watching her niece play on a swing set in the Cambridge Commons. But she says she is not sure if a Republican or Democratic president makes that much difference.
"It's sort of out there, and it's hard to make it relate directly to what your life it," Leveille says. "I think people give up."
It's hard to get an accurate measure of public opinion by talking to a few random strangers. But there ways to get more scientific samplings. Meet Steve, a public opinion expert and barber at the Custom Barber Shop on Brattle Street.
The 44-year-old barber says at first he measured strong support for Perot, but "now everybody's getting behind Clinton."
Steve says customers tend to base their voting decisions on superficial factors like Clinton's looks and Quayle's gaffes.
"It's all bullshit, no issues," Steve says.
The barber says he plans to write in former California Gov. and Democratic primary contender Jerry Brown on his ballot in November, "because they disrespected him so much at the Democratic Convention."