I have family members who voted for Hillary "because of Iraq." Not because they supported Iraq, but because they had no idea that Hillary voted for it. (This was after attending a Hillary stump speech. I'm not kidding. They managed to watch an entire stump speech without learning that she had voted for the war.)
When I informed them that she had in fact done voted for the war they so detested, and showed them Barack's vehement opposition to it, they didn't change their minds. They argued a while: but, well, so did everyone else. I said "no, in fact, half the democratic senators didn't," They looked embarrassed; but save for my dad, who doesn't care much, they didn't change their minds.
I had known full well that Hillary voted for the war, and I honestly laughed the first time I heard "35 years of experience," yet initially supported her anyway because I had fond memories of Bill and I didn't know two things about Obama, and bought into the claim that he was an inexperienced newbie with rockstar status thanks solely to Oprah. I believed he had gotten lucky opposing the war. Quite frankly, I thought Hillary was inevitable.
I switched to Obama somewhere between South Carolina and Super Tuesday. It was a slow process. He finally impressed me at the Las Vegas debates, for one. I saw his speech opposing the 2002 war and was honestly shocked at the detail and wisdom displayed: it hadn't been a lucky guess. I learned about Obama's 8 years in the Illinois senate and his longer legislative record. And I didn't like the distortions that were being made about him in a straight-faced way by the Clintons, from Reagan to his post-invasion voting record.
Yet although my family watched all this along with me, watched debates with me, learned of Barack's Illionois experience with me, watched Russert play side by side what Barack had said about Reagan and how the Clintons had distorted it... all but one refused to change their minds and bellowed "well, what about Farrakhan?"
I won't even argue with them, there not being much of a point now. But it just leads me to wonder: do people change their minds? Is it a pride thing? Or is it that the mind makes itself up and just finds any reason to support their claim, even though the reasons end up being debunked? Why is it so hard for people to change their minds? It was pretty easy for me, but I was shocked how angry some family members became when faced with something that debunked their initial beliefs.
Is it really that my mom just wants a woman, and doesn't care if her original reason -- iraq -- ended up being totally wrong? When I innocently told my mother that Hillary voted for the war while Obama opposed it, she actually got so heated that she stormed off.
My father , who is a laid-back person, admitted after he voted for Hillary that he might have made a mistake and didn't know "this Obama" very well. He loves Obama now and chuckles when he sees him on TV. But I think it's only because he's so laid back and uninvested that he can so easily admit this.
So here's a little survey -- have your minds changed at all over the course of these elections? Truthfully? Also, feel free to describe your switching experiences, or those of friends and family, if they are interesting.