OK, so the last few days I have had a few random exchanges with people that give me great hope for an Obama win in November. However, you will have to take most of these exchanges with the proverbial grain of salt because I live in Seattle (the bluest of blue cities in one of the bluest states in the nation).
Below the flip for the good news.
1. The Furnace Guy
Ok, so I am in the process of getting my furnace replaced. We bought our home two years ago (when the housing prices were at their peak--shrewd move on our part). Our new home, built in 1928, had a furnace from the 1940s. So, we are finally getting around to replacing it and the past few days we have had a few workers coming in and out of the house.
The day after the debate the lead worker asked me what I thought of the debate. It's clear I am a strong Obama supporter as we have Obama yard signs on our lawn. I am always a little leary of such exchanges. I had a carpenter doing some work on the home when we first moved in and he was to the right of Hannity and loved to talk politics. Anyway, I responded by saying something generic about the need to take the country in a new direction and he totally agreed. He seemed eager to talk about the what's going on in the country and then he went pretty quickly through a raft of Obama talking points: McCain is just like Bush, We need a big change, we can't afford a repeat of the last eight years, etc. He also really disliked the Sarah Palin pick as VP...totally turned him off of McCain. And it turns out that he is a hunter and fisherman with a summer cabin in Alaska!!
Naturally many of his friends are in the construction trades and he said that Obama has a lot of support there. His mom, though, is still a die-hard Republican and not likely to change her mind, he said.
2. The Murtaugh-Ayers story
I don't know if you saw it the other day, but the McCain campaign released a press statement about the Ayers escapades by a guy named John Murtagh - Here is the story from Talking Points Memo:
Yet this morning, only 12 hours later, the McCain campaign blasted out a statement from one John Murtagh, who says he was nine years old when the Weathermen firebombed his house. In other words, half a day after saying Ayers himself isn't the issue, the McCain team directly attacked Ayers, with a detailed recital of his crimes -- an obvious effort to insinuate that Obama is in league with terrorists.
As it turns out I happen to know someone close to John in the Murtagh family. And while they love the guy, they all think he is nuts. Apparently the larger Murtagh clan is full of good old lefties and Obama supporters. I'm not certain but I don't think any of the other Murtagh's think that Ayers was trying to kill them and nor do they think that "Obama is in league with terrorists."
~ btw, I also have a crazy-ass, die-hard, right-wing Republican uncle who is totally insufferable on politics but is a warm and loving husband, father, uncle. Go figure.
3. The Guy in the car on the way home
So on my way home from work the other day a guy pulled up next to me in my car at a stop light. I have 2 Obama bumper stickers and an "Equal Marriage NOW" sticker on the back of the car. Anyway, I was deep in thought and this guys honked at me. I was startled out of my stupor and wondered if I had done something wrong. I rolled down my window and the guy said with a big smile: "I love your bumper stickers." It took me a few seconds to even realize what he was talking about. But when I did we both got big smiles. I gave a "thumbs-up" (kind of cheesy, I know) and then shouted something like "I am really excited about November."
There really is a sense of community that is coming through from participating in the Obama campaign. I am a 40-something white guy and the guy in the car next to me was an elderly black guy. But he wanted to reach out to me - and it's a great feeling to be connected to this larger endeavor that is bringing all these different types of people together. It's such a far cry from the ugliness now coming out the McCain-Palin campaign with people bound togehter apparently by a sense of fear and perhaps even hate.
4. The occasional spine in the MSM
It seems that there is some encouraging news about the media not simply regurgitating McCain talking points about a non-existent Obama-Ayers friendship.
I thought that last night when I started to write this though this morning I am not as sure anymore. Apparently Chris Matthews on Morning Joe described McCain's new Ayers ad as "brilliant." Instead he should have described it as pathetic and desperate, which it clearly is. And I just watched an Andrea Mitchell interview with Tucker Bounds and she was pretty pathetic in questioning him on the Obama-Ayers connection.
The MSM seem incapable of really being able to push the McCain camp on why they think it's important or necessary for serious people to talk about Ayers at all. The McCain camp says that Obama is not being truthful...how the hell do they know that? Where are there any examples of Obama not being truthful about Ayers? HELLO, EVIDENCE PLEASE? Then camp McCain also says that it shows poor judgment. No one asks WHY or HOW Obama's relationship shows poor judgment. Yes they served on a charity board together. Should everyone on the board resigned when they learned Ayers was on it? Should the Annenburgs really have put all those other leading Chicago philanthrapists in danger by even asking Ayers to serve in the first place? Should a lynch mob have formed in Chicago circles to expunge Ayers from the community? IN fact, why wasn't Obama at the head of such a mob?
We all know the honest answers to any of these questions (snark or otherwise) are not the point. The McCain camp just wants to say "Terrorist" and "Obama" as many times together in the same sentence. Nothing else matters. We have a history of guilt-by-association in this country (McCarthyism, HUAC v. Hollywood???) and it's generally not considered a good, honest or decent thing.
I would at least expect Matthews at some point to go after some McCain shill if he gets the chance. And I would hope that what's-her-name on CNN (Campbell Brown?) might lay into the McCain campaign for playing the whole guilt-by-association charge.
But then, of course, there is this (as diared by JohnAdams999)
And the threat? If the Obama campaign doesn't start sucking up to CBS news correspondent Dean Reynolds:
But in politics, everything that goes around comes around.
Of course, when CBS reporters are threatening Obama with tantrums for not pampering their sweet little bottoms then I guess I don't have really high expectations that the media will get any better.
5. On a more bitter note: My Dad's losing his retirement $$
Well, this last one is not really a good news anecdote but it's important nevertheless. We are a family of modest means. My dad, born at the depth of the Great Depression in 1932, is retired and living in Arizona. He lives on a fixed income and has a small amount of money in the stock market. It's evaporating before his eyes and he's worried terribly about it. So am I because one solution looming on the horizon is to have him move up here and live with us. Buffer zone obliterated!!
He says he was born in a great depression and now may die in one. He has been a staunch Obama supporter from day one so it's not like the economic crisis changed his opinion. But I bet that there are really really a lot of oldies living in Florida who are having similar experiences as my pa and many of them are probably changing their votes to Obama.
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Anyway, this did not end up being up-beat of a diary as I had initially intended. In any event, there is some good news tucked away above here and there and I remain very hopeful.
Let's do this thing!!
UPDATE: I am getting robo calls from the McCain campaign. This is really great because 1) I live in WA state and there is no chance for McCain to win here 2) I have never ever voted Republican in my whole life. So camp McCain is totally wasting their time and money on me. ANd this makes me happy!!