My Repub friend, and why I'm feeling good about 2008

[Nailzberg]

Drove down to the beach with my good friend "S" this Fourth and met up with more of our group. We grilled out, played volleyball, and watched the fireworks.

Sometime during the evening, I was discussing the "Mitt Romney dog on the roof of his car" story with a few others. We were keeping it quiet, cause frankly, S is pretty republican. She was raised that way - From a rural area, has many cousins in the military, and frankly, she got her dream job straight out of college and has never really had to struggle and doesn't understand how some others have to. But I've always felt she's a good kid, believes in equality, gay rights, women's health, etc. She just doesn't like Democrats. And she hates Clinton. (Both of them).
She may actually be more closely aligned with Libertarians than the GOPers in her belief structure, but she her voting record is straight GOP. So we've gotten into a few lively discussions on politics, and so on the Fourth we all decided to try to keep her out of our Romney bashing.

So now you know a little about my friend. Fast forward to the trip home. She asks me what we were talking about Romney. I guess she overheard a little more than we thought. I filed her in on the rest of the story.
She tells me she doesn't like Romney, his beliefs during his Massachusetts campaign vs. his Presidential campaign shows he'll say anything to get elected. She echoes that thought about McCain. So I ask her who she is supporting, and of course she asks me to guess. Rudy I ask? Nope. Brownback? "Who's that."

Okay, I give up, who do you like, I ask her.

EDWARDS.

Huh? Did you really say Edwards?

"Yeah. I like him. He's genuine. Seems like an honest guy, a guy with integrity."

Now, I'm an Obama fan myself, but that little S jumped the aisle to Edwards tells me the Right is in serious trouble if this girl can't find a candidate over there she likes. Feels great. And it's a good lesson that we shouldn't ignore any voter.

So, let's keep it up, lefties. We're making headway.

[rurallib]

1. Interesting story. Many Repubs like Obama

My LOOOng time repub friend asked me about a month ago - "Which one of your guys has the best healthcare plans? That's who I am voting for."

[Nailzberg]

2. That's great, cause our message is getting through.

The bulk of voters are in the middle, or only slightly leaning to one side. But ever since Goldwater, the national GOP movement has gone further and further right. Middle ground Repubs have just gone along with Repubs cause that's what they've always done. But now they're seeing the GOP pols are selling the same policies that haven't done anything for them in the last twenty years. And they're also seeing a new crop of Dems that want to get some work done for the common man. We just need to keep reaching out and spreading our message. I think we're in great shape, so long as we don't get overconfident and rest on it.