My mother is 78 years old. She doesn't follow politics - at all. She is very hard of hearing. Usually, she asks my advice on who to vote for. We talk things over, and she pretty much votes the way my wife and I do.
Mom's known for months that I am a big Obama fan. She's seen me and my wife wearing our buttons, and she was in the car when our bumper sitckers came in the mail. Beyond that she has talked about liking Obama. She grow up in a small town in Ohio where the fact that her grandmother was a Cherokee meant that the other girls weren't allowed to play with her. So I think she likes the idea that someone with "mixed blood" can be President.
Today our sample ballots came in the mail. I bring her her mail everyday and today when we sit down at her kitchen table she begin to go through the mail. She stopped suddenly at the sample ballot and looked at me and said: "I don't have anyone I want to vote for this year."
I was stunned. I managed to stammer out "What...why?" (When I'm in shock I'm not very articulate).
"I was going to vote for Obama, but I can't stand that woman he picked."
It took me a couple minutes to explain to her that Sarah Palin was McCain's VP pick. She was almost as relieved as I was. Like I said she is very hard of hearing and pays almost no attention to politics. She had seen pictures of Obama and Palin on the same page of the newspaper and one after the other on the TV and made the assumption that Palin was Obama's running mate. I took some time to assure her that Joe Biden was Obama's man and that Joe was a real stand up guy. Mom went on for another twenty minutes about how much she hates Sarah Palin. Quote: "I saw her on TV the other day and just wanted to go up and slap the screen." Now mind you, she has no idea who Palin is or what rotten things she's done in Alaska, but just seeing her on TV made her strongly dislike her. It reminded me of a diary I read a couple weeks ago after the first debate when a blogger talked about deep red folk in Arkansas who saw Palin and formed a strong dislike for her (I looked for the diary to link to but couldn't locate it).
John McCain did us a great service by picking that woman. Oh yeah the moral of my story. Don't assume someone knows anything about the election or the candidates. If everyone knew what we did about Obama and McCain the polls would be 75 - 25 (25% are idiots) in favor of Obama.