As election crunch time hits us here in Indiana it’s clear we Hoosiers have caught election fever. Having multiple opportunities to see and even meet the candidates for president is a first for us here. Conversations in schools, in bars, at family dinner tables are dominated by politics. I’m amazed at the widespread interest in Senator Barack Obama. Obama made his second visit to Bloomington this week.
To get a true understanding of the Hoosier voter and what makes us tick, it might be helpful to read Mike Bonifer’s latest blog on the HuffingtonPost.com.
Four Reasons Why Hoosiers Should Pass the Ball to Obama
Bonifer's spot-on interpretation of the down home Indiana voter is heavily spiced with Hoosier basketball folklore.
Reason One: Caginess. As any Hoosier can tell you, a cager is a basketball player. What they do not tell you, or let on very often, is that Hoosiers are cagey folks. They may come off like rubes to you and smell faintly of something that was not bought in a store, but they cannot be outfoxed. When the NCAA appropriated “March Madness” Sweet Sixteen and “Final Four” from Indiana’s high school basketball tournament for its own use, the city of Indianapolis ended up as the location of the NCAA’s new national headquarters, and all the revenue and jobs it generated for the state. Obama’s a cager and he is cagey, too. He has not been thrown off his game by Hillary’s Kitchen Sink offense, or by a hot-dogging teammate like Jeremiah Wright who’s taking ridiculous shots from behind the arc when he should be running the offense and playing his role. And he certainly has the game to stuff a two-hand set-shooter like “Branch” McCain, good as the Ol’ Branchster might have been in his day.
Mike has been living in California for over 25 years but as this article proves: “You can take the boy out of Indiana but you can’t take the Hoosier out of the Boy.” Here’s two more reasons Bonifer gives for why the common sense of Indiana voters should put an exclamation point on the Obama campaign.
Reason Two: Growth Determines Harvest. As any Hoosier can tell you, if you are going to be productive in the fall, you’ve got to work hard and have some luck with the weather in the spring and early summer. Hillary was busy counting her chickens before they hatched on Super Tuesday while Obama was busy lining up caucuses and building his organization. Because he has been so productive early in the growing season, Obama not only has the lead right now, he is the candidate best prepared to reap a bumper crop of votes come November. All he needs is nice steady shower of Hoosier support on May 6.
Reason Three: Patience. As any Hoosier can tell you, things can take awhile. A quilt gets made one stitch at a time. If you get in a hurry about getting the cow back into the barn, the cow will not go back into the barn. Somewhere on his journey, Obama learned a similar kind of patience. He knows that lasting solutions do not have quick fixes, that they can take awhile. Hoosiers laugh at the idea that a single sandbag like the Clinton-McCain gas relief plan can stop the flood of money going to Arab Emirates and the oil companies. A vote for Obama is a vote acknowledging that Hooser-style patience and hard work are what it’s going to take to get the economy back on track.
In Bloomington, home of Indiana University, early voting has been extremely heavy, especially the student vote. I voted on Thursday and had to wait in line for over 45 minutes. At the university on two occasions the county clerk set up a satellite voting site for the convenience of students before they left for the end of the semester (commencement was today).
Bloomington unfortunately is not indicative of how Indiana as a whole votes. In Bloomington we’ve not elected a Republican mayor since 1967 and Democrats have also controlled the city council since the 1971 election. Statewide it's a different story. In the presidential election the Democratic candidate has not carried Indiana since Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 election landslide.
I'm getting the feeling it will be different this year thanks in large part to the prolonged primary that's allowed us Hoosiers to become an important part of the process. I'm even hopeful the turnout generated by the massive increase in voter registration and the excitement for the Obama candidacy will help us beat Mitch Daniels, our bait and switch Republican governor, who's running for reelection.