institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> this week, our guest is robert samson who writes columns about the economy. >> one of the things about your habits as a reporter is that you never vote. >> years ago, i decided not to vote because i thought that when you vote, you make a psychological commitment to one side and against the other side and i thought it better not to do that. it was a private matter and i discovered other journalists have the same practice and i assumed for roughly the same reason. my wife describes it as one of the dumber things that i do. she has a long list of dumb things i do. >> why does she think that? >> she thinks that you want to exercise your right as a citizen. she probably thinks that you have a bias for and against certain people and certain positions anyway. you write a column that is an opinion column, so what is the big deal? i am comfortable with it, and since i am writing the column, that is what i do. >> we need to start the column? >> the column started in 1966 when i went to work for the "national journal"." it is a maga