Thursday and Friday's one-two punch just delivered another voter for Obama. Now, I'm not exactly a boxing expert, but isn't the one-two punch supposed to be delivered by one pugilist to his opponent? Fade out from the ring....
....to a school ground. Most teachers, being educated and mind-expanding people, are liberal, however, there are always a few on the other side. This year I have a coworker whom I admire greatly. He is smart, dedicated, funny, cool, etc...so naturally I assumed he was a Dem.
Much to my suprise, I found he was a supporter of McCain. In real life, unlike on the pundit shows, people have to get along and usually find common ground, so that we did. He lived in Arizona for a very long time and, in fact, went to school with McCain's son, met McCain a few times, and considered him a decent guy. He's just out of college and I don't think he has spent a huge amount of time attending to politics so I figured there was always hope.
I tried to keep my Obama-lust in check during our common meeting times so that politics didn't become an issue though I did, on occasion, mention a platform detail or two that I thought important. On Thursday I left school at 4p.m. so I could catch the big speech and sure enough, by the time spouse and spawn came home, I was sitting on the floor in the living room leaking tears while watching the Obama intro film. The flags made me cry. The possibility of a president who has actually read the Constitution made me cry. The energy and the hope and the pure pleasure of listening to an wonderful orator speak made me cry. I cried watching all of those fine people crying. The fact that my mom and Obama's mama aren't here to see this day made me cry. I cried because MLK and Coretta couldn't be there and I cried because Ali was.
Come Friday morning, still high on the DNC, I was greeted with the puzzling announcement of McCain's choice of Palin. WTF? At school I ran into another teacher--a huge supporter of Hillary. "So?" I said. He replied "Awesome speech, but OMG, what about McCain?" "Well," I responded, "I suppose they thought that anyone with breasts would make ya'll happy." His look was priceless, "Oh, they have severely misunderstood our reasons for supporting Clinton. Big mistake. And Obama rocked it!" Bring it on Republicans, I think PUMAs are an endangered species, or perhaps they're more like the mythical Saskwatch.
But the best was yet to come. Over lunch with my McCain-supporting team mate, as I clipped freaking majestic pictures of our smart, photogenic future Prez and Veep out of the local paper, I stuck a toe in to test the waters.
"So, did you watch the speech?" I queried.
"Yeah, I caught part of it. I think he made some good points. I like what he has to say."
Um, that noise you heard echoing out of Colorado was the sound of a right hook landing.
Then, I couldn't help myself and I asked his opinion on the Palin announcement. Oh, the wince, the drop of the shoulders, and the shake of the head.
"I don't know what to say about that. Isn't she under indictment?" he asked.
And that right there folks, that was what it sounds like when you have landed a solid right and your opponent clobbers himself with his own left. It's a knockout either way.
I responded, "Well, I think there is an investigation but honestly, I don't think he picked her. He doesn't look at all comfortable standing next to her."
Then he continued, "Actually, I've been thinking and uh, I kinda tasted the Kool-aid and I guess I like it."
Huh? Dare I hope?
"Yeah," he continued, "I think I'm getting on the Obama train."
Whoo--hooo! All aboard!
He further explained that after looking into some specific McCain policies and listening to Obama (Bam!), he realized he couldn't support McCain--especially after the Palin pick (Pow!)--and would be voting for Obama.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The winner by knockout is the skinny senator from Illinois!
Whew! In the movies the cornermen gotta have the boxer's back and can't get cocky or their guy loses, so please keep up all the good work for Barack. People are listening, minds are changing,we can win this match one person at a time.