I had to call my sister Gen, who lives in Las Vegas, tonight. The call wasn't to talk politics but some other things. As we were ending our conversation I knew I had to ask her if she watched the debate last night. You see, Gen was an ardent Hillary supporter, had field staff staying at her house during the primaries and couldn't believe that I would support Obama instead of Hillary. I don't know why but I just felt more comfortable and liked Obama more than Hillary. Don't get me wrong, had she gotten the nomination I would have been completely on board and volunteered for her, I just couldn't vote for her in our Primary and proudly wore my Obama button.
Gen was disappointed when Hillary lost the Primary to Obama and said "yea, I'll vote for him but that's all I'm going to do." Then McCain selected Sarah Palin for the V.P. slot and she went ballistic. "How dare he pander to women this way." After that she went down to Obama's Vegas Headquarters, got the biggest lawn sign they had plus a couple for her front windows and one for her car and she even volunteered for him!
Election night 2008 we kept calling each other and when Obama hit the magic 270 we both cried with happiness but there was more to her crying "I want Nevada so badly to go blue" she lamented to me. Not wanting to make her more upset I told her that even if they didn't we still won and that's all that matters. Two minutes later I called her back to tell her that Nevada did turn blue and we both happily cried.
This year was different, she had become upset with Obama and felt he didn't do enough. In fact, she didn't even want to talk politics at all and said she was probably not going to vote for either Obama or Romney (who she can't stand), but would leave that blank or vote "none of the above" which is a line on the Nevada ballot.
Tonight was different. At the end of our conversation I asked her if she watched the Debate and she said she had. She had a few words for Romney and his firing of Big Bird and Jim Lehrer and how he struck her during the Debate "just like a Bain CEO, firing Big Bird and Jim Lehrer who was standing right in front of him and laughing as he said it." She then spoke about the other workers at the Casino where she works and how they're all voting for Obama. I made a comment that at least they were voting for him and that's good because you're not voting that line at all.
She then said that she decided to vote for Obama and I asked her why and she said that not only could she not stomach the idea of Romney in the White House but she totally can't stand Ryan either and didn't want to have him a hair away from the Presidency.
I'm glad she came to this decision and I'm sure what also helped was in July, the last time we talked politics, I told her you can't blame Obama for not getting done what he wanted to because in 2010 the Republicons took over the House and they wouldn't work with him on anything he wanted for the Country and for people, and only wanted to defeat him.
By the way, she said that the Senate race is really tight out there and she's also hoping Shelly Berkeley wins.