I consider my next door neighbor to be a "good ole boy" from the South. He doesn’t fit the "redneck" label in my mind because after listening to Jeff Foxworthy on Blue Collar 103 (Sirius) go through his "You might be a redneck if" jokes, none seem to match my neighbor.
Nope, my neighbor was born and raised in the south, spent over 20 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and is now a local police officer.
Great neighbor, right?
Not so. When he’s not at work, he stands at the top of his driveway drinking beer and talking on his cell phone loud enough for the neighborhood to hear. He is constantly revving his Harley Davidson motorcycle (although he never rides the thing) and always shoots off fireworks within city limits - a strict no-no in my city.
You can’t help but overhear his cell phone conversations. I’m sitting here in my house right now and I can hear him talking to one of his many buddies. Most of the time, he’s talking about hunting or fishing. Other times he talks about the criminals he’s arrested, using such wonderful epitaphs such as that "N_____ took off running and I had to chase him down" or "I couldn’t understand what the S_____ was saying as he was rambling on so fast." I’ll let you, the reader, fill in the blanks as I’m sure it won’t be too hard.
We don’t converse much as to be honest, we don’t have much in common other than our choice of streets to reside.
When the elections rolled around, I was not shocked to see a McCain yard sign prominently displayed. When Governor Palin was named for McCain’s VP slot, the McCain sign came down and a McCain/Palin sign immediately took its place. After the first Presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, a new sign was installed on my neighbor’s front yard. This one said "Another Democrat for McCain."
Then came the Vice Presidential debate. The very next day as I was climbing into my Jeep and heading for work, I noticed something was missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time but as I passed my neighbor’s house, I knew what it was. There were no signs in his yard.
Several things rolled through my mind. He may have been planning to mow his yard and took the signs down. He may have found a new sign as he seems to change them pretty frequently. Maybe, just maybe, he came to his senses and realized how dangerous Governor Palin would be if something terrible happened to John McCain.
Its been a few days since the VP debate and I haven’t seen a new sign emerge from my neighbor. To be honest, I haven’t thought much else about it until today.
I was in the backyard filling the bird feeders when I heard my neighbor talking. I could tell he was on his cell phone and went about my business. That is, until I heard him mention Sarah Palin.
I know eavesdropping is impolite but it’s really hard to avoid in this situation. I confess my ears perked up and I thought I might glean an answer as to why the yard signs disappeared. Boy, did I get an answer!
I don’t know who he was talking to but he said bluntly, "I’m not voting for John McCain." The person on the other end of the line had to be caught unaware because he repeated this statement. He then said, "She is the Governor of Alaska. Big deal! She doesn’t have any experience." He went on to say, "Joe Biden has been in the Senate for a long time and has a lot of experience. Hell, even Barack Obama (you should hear how he pronounces this, it’s quite amusing - it's like Bear-ack O-bama [think of the pronounciation of Alabama for the last part]) even has more experience and he’s only been in the Senate for three years." He then started defending his position to whomever he was speaking.
"I’m serious" he says. "The only reason McCain picked Palin is because she was a woman." Holy shit! I was waiting for the earth to quake and for fire to rain down from the heavens! He went on, "John McCain isn’t a young man. He’s getting old and I don’t think he’ll make it four years." Then his prior military service came out. "Can you imagine being a young Marine and seeing her as your Commander in Chief?"
I’ve been sitting here flabergasted. If my neighbor can see through John McCain’s ploy at picking Sarah Palin, who else will? Sure, we spotted it right off the bat but in reality, we’re political junkies.
So what happens now? Now my neighbor will be calling all his buddies and will be telling them the same thing. This I can guarantee just from experience. If nothing else, his buddies will have to take a second look at the Republican ticket. Some may even be swayed.
What this proves to me is that Sarah Palin is doing more for the Obama ticket than McCain’s.
I’ll be very interested to see what happens with the report from Alaska is released on the 10th of October. From what I’ve read of it, it won’t be good for the Governor.
The greatest thing about this is that I live in Southeast Virginia - a battleground state. My neighbor has family here in Virginia, some in North Carolina and a bunch in West Virginia - also battleground states.
Speaking of Virginia, things are ramping up here. There was a GOTV going on at a local Wawa (sort of like a 7-11 only better) and I've received quite a few calls from Obama volunteers. We have received only one mailer from the McCain camp and it was lame, lame, lame. Personally, I've registered over 100 people to vote and since deadlines are approaching, will be doing one last push. So, there are a lot of people working hard here in Virginia.
Update: Thanks for the recs!
My neighbor must be really pissed today. Palin must have said something that got under his skin. The reason I say this is because after I posted my diary, I went to eat and saw him walk across the street to another neighbor with another McCain sign. These two talk frequently (I see them all the time) but my neighbor was gesturing at the McCain sign and was rather animated in whatever he was saying. Oh to be a fly on the wall!
I'm going to leave him be though as I'm starting to feel like one of those creepy people who stand in their window with a pair of binoculars watching the neighborhood. LOL!
Update 2: A couple of readers have posted they feel I am painting Southerners with a wide brush here. Frankly I'm befuddled by this accusation. I was born and raised in West Texas and now live in Virginia. I've never lived in a Northern state so the South is all I know. To those posters who feel this way, I offer sincere apologies as this was not my intent. I wrote the details about my neighbor to show how drastic this change in thinking is and how pleased I was to hear it. Let me repeat (borrowing from Joe Biden's VP debate), I am not saying all Southerners are like my neighbor. His words and actions are unique to him and do not apply to others from the South.
I know you can't please everyone but I really wanted to be clear that I was not inferring that the great folks in the South feel the same as my neighbor.