Some of us just aren't sure whether to vote for McKinney or a write-in.

here in Massachusetts I had no problem voting for Ed Brooke thirty-five years ago, a LIBERAL Republican, and two years ago for Deval Patrick, so why am I having trouble coming around to Barack Regan, oh, I mean Obama?

to reassure them?

i don't see it.

and simply repeating their attacks on Obama reminds voters of them--why isn't the main focus on issues instead of race, and the GOP's attacks? (stupid question, i know)

should stay outta San Francisco.

They have some real problems with what comes out of their mouths when in the city by the bay.

this comment from Joe, or when he said the reason Obama isn't rocking the polls because he's smart, and most people (not supporting him) aren't used to smart people. Way to go, Joe.

Today someone I know told us he and probably his wife are not voting at all for the top of the ticket. He said Obama's policies didn't make any sense to him and he didn't feel as if he really knew Obama. He is the kind of person that questions everything and everyone knows this, but he said how bad it was because everyone was accusing him of being racist when he wanted to question Obama's policies.
So we leave. One of the people I respect most in the world, someone who's an experienced and fair political junkie, turns to me and goes, "That's a tell."
I'm like, "About what?"
"If they say they are worried about being called a racist, I say to myself, They Are A Racist."
I was like, "Huh...Why?"
"Because they are worried about it."
"What?"
"Anyway, they're just making that up, no one would ever accuse them of being a racist, who would--their friend, their neighbors, their family?"
I was like, "Well I don't know about that with them but I've seen a lot of that on the internet."
"He doesn't go on the internet that much. Anyway, that doesn't even matter. It's a little bit of a racism issue. He's a racist."

I know this may surprise the hell out of you, Joe, but the racists (both the brash and subtle) made up their minds a long time ago concerning who they weren't going to vote for. lol

BTW, this narrative Joe keeps peddling is offensive to me for the sole fact that he's shown himself on quite a few occasions to be rather out of touch and crass when it comes to ethnic sensitivities. If I were Joe, I'd have never started with the racial narrative he so condescendingly delivers time and time again.

elderly women. When the conversation turned to the election one of them stated how difficult it has been for her to reconcile the image of a woman with a small child holding high office. Heads generally nodded. This confirmed my personal experience that ideology aside, undecideds are still having more trouble with the idea of a woman than with the idea of an African American.

...mind you, a 50-something, liberal-minded African American women told me on many ocassions, this year, that if Hillary won the primaries she'd never vote for her because she was a woman (and a women she didn't like for whatever reason), and women shouldn't be, our wouldn't make, good presidents. The first time she told me this, and with not even with a hint of embarrassment or irony, I visibly did a cartoon-like double-take. I asked her about the utter irony in someone like her saying that, and asked her how she felt that there are people making the same argument about Obama because he's black, and she'd connect the two, but just doesn't care. She wasn't the only one I heard say that this year, and it was often said in the company of other people who either agreed or simply didn't say anything, at all.

I mean, I'd heard older folks make this racial, gender, and age arguments against Obama, Hillary, and McCain, but I didn't expect to hear this from boomers and younger generations.