Everyone, it seems is trying to take the pulse of the electorate—Americans who, as the saying goes, vote with their feet and may well decide the fate of this effort to change the American way of health care. The pollsters, the wordsmiths, the PR firms, and the stealth groups have been way out in full force, trying to influence the hearts and minds of people turning out at town hall meetings. All this leaves reporters in a pickle, though: How do they know what people really think? So we at Campaign Desk decided to use that age-old reporting tool—the man-on-the-street interview—and set out to look at what men and women we met have to say about health reform. The series is archived here.

We have come to believe that the entire debate, its complexity and its nuances, has been taking place 30,000 feet above the heads of people in whose name the reform battle is being waged. Our interviews confirmed that observation. Of course, our results are not scientific, but we think they offer some pretty good clues to the way ordinary Americans are thinking. Too many people we met are not engaged, have heard lots of wrong information, and have no idea what reform means to them.

In his big health reform speech the other night, the president said that small businesses will be required to either offer their workers health insurance or chip in and presumably cover the cost of purchasing policies in the individual market. Sounds like Massachusetts to me, where employers pay a token penalty for not offering health insurance to their workers. But the president said that, under his proposals, 95 percent of small businesses will be off the hook, either because they are too small or have small profit margins. That was it. No details, no definitions of “small business,” or what kind of tax credits they will get, or if they’ll be enough to make shopkeepers buy coverage.

When we chatted with small business owners, employees, and customers in the college town of Columbia, Missouri, most didn’t know much about Obama’s health plan, and they certainly had no clues about where small businesses fit in. Based on Obama’s remarks, they probably still don’t.

The day I met Bizzie Tseggai she was folding T-shirts at ACME Global Industries, one of those college town shops that design T-shirts with funny sayings and logos for fraternities. The walls are decorated with off-the-shelf designs for customers to choose. Tseggai says the shirts can be decorated in thirty minutes. She has been working at ACME for more than a year, but like most workers for small business, she doesn’t get health insurance.

When she turned twenty-four last January and was no longer a full-time student at the university, she was kicked off her parents’ heath policy. She says she doesn’t have the greatest health history, but can’t afford the $300 to $400 a month that insurance would cost, considering that she makes “peanuts”—between $250 and $280 every two weeks. “I am completely debt free right now, and I want to keep it that way,” she said. What could she do? “I could beg my parents to buy the insurance or work at Starbucks (which provides workers with coverage). Those are my only options right now.”

“I know nothing about health care reform,” she admitted. Tseggai had never heard of the individual mandate that Obama finally mentioned Wednesday night—-the clause that would require her to buy insurance, maybe with subsidies if she jumps through the hoops to qualify. “I really don’t know what he’s trying to do,” she said. “I don’t watch much TV.”