"Nucular" Meltdown Loses McCain One Voter (w/poll)

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Thursday October 02, 2008 · 8:31 PM PDT

2008/10/02 · 20:31

John McCain lost one solid Republican voter tonight, my friend Jason from Michigan, all because of Palin's "nucular" pronunciation.

My phone rang well before the debate was over. If it were one of my other Republican friends, I would not have answered it. In fact, another has been trying to call me all night but I will not answer because I know he is going to say that he thought Palin did a good job.

Before I could say anything, I heard on the other line, "I can't vote."

Now that I have you, a little background is necessary. My friend is one of my favorite people in the world regardless of party and I have long ago given up the hard sell with him. When I still lived in Detroit, we used to watch the Sunday news shows and argue over them. Over the last few weeks, I have tried every talking point and some of my own to at least convince him to stay home on election day.

In one recent memorable conversation, he referred to Palin's executive experience. He's from a Detroit suburb, so I reminded him that Kwame Kilpatrick also has executive experience as the mayor of a city with a population larger than the whole state of Alaska. I also told him that she has surrounded herself with a posse of childhood friends like he has, but her posse looks more like one you would send after cattle rustlers.

In the end, Jason has been so sick of hearing a President that he voted for twice misunderpronouce the word nuclear, that he could not stand to hear it for at least another four years. So he told me "I can't vote. I thought she was doing OK right up until I heard 'nucular'. The first time I heard it I thought maybe I misheard, but then she said it like seven times in one sentence. I can't vote for anyone who can't pronounce an English word." We also talked about a running joke on the Simpsons which has Homer, who works in a nuclear plant, still pronouncing it nucular.

Now, maybe this is not the best reason for changing one's vote, and he will not vote for Obama, but I am happy that he, a typical averagely-informed voter, has recognized the disastrous mistake that McCain has made with his pick of Sarah Palin. He still wants to vote and I think he is really a Libertarian at heart, so I am trying to convince him to vote for Bob Barr.

Poll
175 votes Show Results
Would the mispronunciation of nuclear change your vote?

Yes

No

D'oh!

175 votes Vote Now!
Would the mispronunciation of nuclear change your vote?

Yes

51 votes

No

29 votes

D'oh!

95 votes

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