National Issues Convention

NPR's Kathy Lohr reports that an experiment this past week in trying to raise the level of political debate among citizens met with limited success. Sponsors and many of the 459 participants in the National Issues Convention in Austin, Texas, said their deliberations on issues such as the economy and family showed that people with widely different views could reach some agreement. But critics noted that only a few of the main presidential candidates participated in what had been billed as a major meeting between politicians and citizens.