Call it crazy. Call it a circus. But Americans are following the Republican presidential primary like a mini series, says John Harris. The veteran Washington D.C. journalist is Politico.com's editor in chief. The five-year-old web site is devoted almost entirely to Washington and state-level politics: a hub for political news junkies.

"The ratings for the debates are significantly higher than last time, and that is true even though we've had an endless succession of debates," Harris said during a telephone interview last week. By the time Florida's primary is over, Republican presidential hopefuls will have had nearly 20 debates. Putting the drama and colorful personalities aside, Harris said he has the sense that something else is happening.

"When interest in politics spikes, it's because there's trouble in the country," he said. "I think there's some of that now. There's a wide sense in the country, not just with Republicans but both parties and a growing number of independents that this is a very fateful moment for the country."

Harris, who is Politico's co-founder and a Pittsford native, has been covering the primary from the Iowa caucuses to the Florida primary. And he will be in Canandaigua at Finger Lakes Community College on Sunday, February 12, to talk about the race.

"I think we're in a radicalized moment in politics," he said. "Almost everyone is not happy with the status quo. The Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movements are expressions of that."

The political upheaval is being played out in the Republican primary as kind of the first act in a show that won't end until November. Despite Newt Gingrich's win in South Carolina, it's extremely unlikely that he will be nominated, Harris said, because too many influential Republicans are against him.

But a striking divide in the party isn't making Romney's second run for the presidency any easier, either.

"There are simply a lot of conservatives who just don't care for him," Harris said. "And it's not so much ideological. It's stylistic. They don't trust that his background, values, and style represent their own values."

Harris sees this as a complete departure from the Republican Party of the 1980's and 1990's.

"Republicans have pretty much been the establishment party," he said. "The nomination has historically gone to whose sort of turn it is, and who has the backing of the big fund raisers and party operatives."

But Democrats have plenty to be worried about, too, with Obama's re-election, Harris said. The president's biggest vulnerability, he said, is also the most obvious.

"He made an implicit bargain with the voters that he was going to fix the economy," Harris said. "He would say ‘We're in the midst of doing that. And if it weren't for the actions that I've taken, the economy would be far worse, and perhaps we would have had a depression.'" But there's simply no getting around the fact that we've got an unemployment rate that's significantly higher than anything that's allowed an incumbent president to be re-elected."

Many of the things the president seemed to believe were important to voters during his campaign, Harris said, turned out not to be.

"He's placed his bets on flawed premises," he said. "He thought if he passed health care [legislation] that would be an enduringly popular achievement."

But it wasn't, Harris said, particularly among independents. And Obama barely mentioned it during his recent State of the Union speech.

Another miscalculation was the president's belief that he could reform Washington and usher in an era of compromise and rational discussion, Harris said.

"There used to be a belief, and Obama played to that belief, they if they cut through the BS and put partisanship aside, enlightened people on both sides could easily get to agreements on the major issues."

Instead, Obama presides over a Washington that's as polarized as it's ever been, Harris said. And after three years, he said, Obama's views may have changed.

"Maybe there's not a deal to cut," Harris said. "One side has got to win. The other side has got to lose. And the side that wins can impose what it wants, pass what it wants, and see if the voters like it. It's not just a matter of top Republicans and top Democrats huddling at Camp David. Sorry, that's just not the country we live in anymore."

Obama does have assets going into this election, Harris said. He remains popular, even though some voters may be disappointed in his performance.

"You know, there's a sense among Republicans that anybody can beat Obama," Harris said. "But the problem is he isn't going to run against anybody. He's going to run against somebody. That somebody will have a name and a record attached."

Covering the 2012 election in the capsule of a dramatically changing political environment is made all the more interesting by the rapid-fire changes in media. Politico, Harris said, is a prime example of how differently the public receives news compared to when Harris started as a Washington Post reporter in the 1980's.

"I grew up in an era when you looked to the New York Times or Walter Cronkite to tell you the way it is, and they almost had this judicial function in democracy," Harris said. "You know, this is the truth as best as we can ascertain it."

That era has been replaced by media in constant transformation. The challenge, Harris said, is providing depth to a story. For instance, he said, the problem with political coverage is relating how globalization has finally permeated our economy and culture. Americans are waking up to the realization that they're living in a whole new world.

"And yet our politics seem caught in a very familiar world," Harris said. "We're arguing about whether to raise taxes, and if so, by how much? Those aren't new arguments. I covered the Clinton White House, and we were having these same very stale arguments. It seems to me that the questions on which the quality of our lives depends are totally different."

Tickets for John Harris's February 12 appearance at Finger Lakes Community College are available by calling 785-1386. Online: gmeforum.org.