I met an undecided voter today.

[fourvahl]

Yep, he described himself as undecided. He's a professional white male earning over 6 figures. Family man. One boy one girl and both children under 8. He is the operations manager for the small business I work for and I have known him for several years though during the last 5 years our company has grown from 10 people to 25 that I don't really socialize with him anymore.


Anyways, I was sitting in the lunch room watching my daily dosage of msnbc and the subject of the election came up and this is what he said about who he was voting for.

I think I decided over a month ago but I didn't want to face it. I have always voted republican for President and I lean toward the democrats locally.

So I said.. well, who you voting for?

He said, I just can't do it this year, I am going democrat. Yay! I didn't push him anymore on the issue.. being in the work place and him being second in command so to speak, I was content with his answer and didn't want to put him in an awkward position with any of the other employees in the area.


I thought this was terrific news because all week I've been hearing on MSNBC.. who are these people who are undecided? How can they be undecided?

Perhaps they are wrong when they say they think the undecided are going to vote McCain. Maybe they are republicans who have been holding onto the bitter end hoping John McCain could give them some hope. I think he might of failed.


Go Ombama!

[ThatsMyBarack]

1. M$M sux.

[habitual]

2. sounds to me like an un-undecided n/t

:)

[zanne]

3. As a phonebanker for three campaigns.....

I can tell you that there are still quite a few people who tell me that they are undecided. Some say they won't decide until they go to the polls to vote. (I have to be nice to them, so I don't tell them how incredibly stupid that is). When I ask these people if there is a certain issue or a moral question that keeps them undecided, they all say "no". I have come to suspect that these people are 1)Being coy 2)Being ultra polite and don't want to offend anyone 3)are attention whores and want to be courted, or 4(Just plain nuts. Take your pick, but they're still out there.

[Aloha Spirit]

7. In NH I think #3 is not out of the question.

[Lisa0825]

4. I know 2 undecided voters.

One is very anti-abortion, but she is undecided because she likes Obama's policies better. She has been a one-issue voter for years, but may finally break that trend because Of Obama.

The other is just really cynical and thinks all politicians are crooked, so she doesn't believe anything Obama says, but doesn't like McCain or Palin. She says she probably won't vote for President at all, just for local races. She voted for Bush twice.

[fourvahl]

5. Promising

Thats pretty promising then. Between both of us thats two undecided's leaning towards Obama and one not voting all. I forgot about my mom who also is leaning towards Obama too. She still has issues with Reverend Wright (though I tried to talk some sense into her about that) Most my family are going with Obama.

I also know two other people going with an independent.

[Sebass1271]

10. Tell her not to vote.. She is a republican and the only reason

she says she is undecided is because she doen't like mcpow, however, as a republican WILL end up votig for him. So, she will do a great favor if she doens't vote.

On the other "abortion issue" undecided. You can try to convince her that Obama is anti-abortion too. He just wants to make abortion "rare" He wants to educate poor women and provide save sex education and birth control accessible so abortions will not be the ultimate decision if those women are poor and can't affor birth control pills- think about it, they are expensive- They cost around $60.00 per month. How can a poor young woman afford this?

Obama wants to help these women, meanwhile Mccain doesn't. He wants to cut funds or not create any funds.

You have a winner with this argument. Pretty much the same argument Bill Clinton used and actually implemented during his presidency. Which in the end helped reduced total of abortions per year.

[jazzjunkysue]

6. Me, too. Teacher. Other teachers told her to vote union. Some just keep quiet.

[Lucky 13]

8. So did I - it was my bus driver.

I was alone on the bus today and the bus driver (late 30's, white, male) whom I've never spoken with before struck up a friendly conversation about the election. I asked him who he thought was going to win. He said he didn't know, but he wished it wasn't either of them. I asked why and he said that he wasn't a "racist or anything" but he heard that excerpts from Obama's book said something about him continuing his father's Muslim ideas. He also indicated he thought Obama was Arab.

I resisted calling him an idiot on the spot.

I calmly explained that Obama was absolutely not a Muslim. He's a born again Christian. I told him he should read Obama's books - particularly Dreams from my Father - the book excerpts he was referencing. I had read it and liked it very much.

He said, "Yeah. That was the book they were talking about."

I explained his father, whom was largely absent from his life, whom he met like once when he was 11, who died when he was 21, was Kenyan. As in Africa. And that his mother is a white woman from Kansas. And he was raised by his white kansas grandparents in Hawaii.

The bus came to my stop but we kept talking.

He seemed surprised. He said, "Really? Huh. Well I'm definitely going to go read his book now. Maybe those things were said... like..."

"Taken out of context?", I said.

"Yeah."

"They're trying to scare you. Make you think he's an Arab terrorist because they have no ideas any different from George W. Bush. They're hoping you won't notice." I said.

Our conversation was interrupted by a passenger boarding the bus. I stepped out and said to him, "I gotta run. Have a good day."

He said, "Yeah, you too. Good talking to you."



It's scary that, even here in Burlington Vermont, people could believe something like this. I tend to take it for granted that America is past this shit, that the public is too smart to fall for something like this. THIS is why I am firmly against celebrating early. THIS is why I'm nervous as hell about Tuesday. These people come out of the woodwork on election day. I think we're going to be able to beat them, but I think it's gonna be a lot closer than people may think.

[stillcool]

9. When I was growing up...

there was a rule "Never discuss politics or religion". I guess it was socially unacceptable, and threatening to maybe ones stature, or ease in navigating your way through the local community. I left before I was old enough to vote, and have no idea if those 'rules' still hold true, but I'm sure for some they do.