In our age of anxiety, fear has dominated this election season.(The Dallas Morning News)

Byline: Wayne Slater

AUSTIN, Texas _ Americans are picking a president in a nation nervous about war, concerned over health care and worried about jobs.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attack and subsequent events _ from body counts to beheadings to Osama bin Laden back on TV _ have produced a 2004 campaign in which the central theme is less about bold new ideas than simply keeping us safe.

If past elections promised Morning in America and a place called Hope, the current contest has a darker hue. As the lights dim on the final campaign rallies Monday night, the ads finally quiet and the choice falls to the voters Tuesday, aspirations have given way to politics in the age of anxiety.

"The American people don't seem in the mood for dreaming something big and new for the future," said Betty Sue Flowers, director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library.

"Fear is the strongest motivation we have as human beings," she said. "And in this atmosphere, fear is the name of the game."

This year, voters are more ...