Q&A - Roland Martin Election Countdown Special

Roland Martin begins to count down the final weeks until election day with a new CNN special that premiered over the weekend.

The talk WASN'T about Lipstick-on-a-Piggygate or Bristol Palin's teen pregnancy drama. Martin's new show brings checkbook issues, discrimination and the middle class to the forefront of discussion and leaves behind the tired political talking points that don't matter to voters.

Black Voices caught up with the syndicated columnist and CNN political analyst on the phone a few hours before taping '7 Weeks to Go,' which premierd on CNN Saturday. The three-part series runs the rest of the month on Saturday nights.

Roland Martin Q&A

The major networks cover the election 24-7 it seems like. Is that enough?
There's nothing that's enough. We want to know more, more, more. I mean, that's our job. I believe we should be making informed decisions and challenging people. Too often, we don't do that. Challenge the voter on some of these issues, to get them involved.

Tell us about your election countdown special
We don't want to have conversations all day and all night. We're going to call people on the air. We hit the streets. We want to really go after some stuff. We're gonna dedicate a whole hour to it. I want someone to answer for me 'What is the middle class?' What are the candidates not saying when it comes to the middle class? (In "6 Weeks to Go," set to air on Saturday, Sept. 20, Martin and others will examine the American middle class.)

What about the lower class--which we never hear about--and the rich?
The middle class is a large block of voters. Rich people don't want to hear about poor people. Poor people don't want to hear about rich people. All of a sudden, if you talk about the rich, you are going to give our money away. You talk about the poor, you are going to give our money away. You can't get in trouble talking about the middle class. No body wants to rip the middle class.

They were talking about 'Hurricane Fatigue' with Ike bearing down on Texas. Do you feel election fatigue?
You have 38 million people watching Obama. 40 million watching John McCain. I'm waiting to see what the ratings for the service thing last night are, which was absolutely boring! I don't believe for a second in this whole thing of election fatigue. Look, this is the most exciting election ever. You can't even compare it to Clinton, Perot and Bush in 1992. This is exciting.

How would you sum up Gov. Sarah Palin and how she has changed the election?
People are comparing Gov. Palin to the hot new guy or girl on campus. 'Oh my god they are so smart and gorgeous.' We always see this. We react to the new person on the scene the same way every time.

The third and final special will air after the first presidential debate. Are you ready for the debates?
Definitely. I appreciate the fact that the debates are broken down by topic. I believe that having topic specific debates is far more important. So we won't be bringing up war, war, war, in every debate. Obama's not going to be able to talk about change and McCain's not going to be able to bring up being a POW. We've already heard those stories.