Friday evening I came home from a short trip to find that my house had to have an emergency AC repair. I've chatted with one of the several brothers who own the HVAC company before. The first brother I met a few years ago was a typical southwestern Virginia good old boy with a big NASCAR sticker collection on his metal clipboard and a side business/hobby of restoring classic VW Bugs and other cars. A family owned and well-established business, they are probably the largest in our rural region at the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, AKA Appalachia.
Last night I met another one of the brothers. I've been here for quite a while, visit daily, and comment occasionally but this is my first diary - I just have to share this experience with everyone.
As he drew up the invoice on my front porch, he apologized for the new $5 fuel surcharge on top of the escalated cost of an after-hours trip. I said I understood and knew of other businesses forced to do the same thing. Then I remembered a graph from the front page USA Today article on Obama's speech in Bristol VA yesterday that I had read leaving my hotel that morning and thought I had a chance to put in a little plug for the Democrats, even though I was pretty sure this family would be made up of die-hard Republicans. I followed with, "Obama said in a speech in Bristol today that he would launch an 'Apollo-style program' to find alternative energy sources." I then had to elaborate on what "Apollo-style" meant because he didn't recognize it.
That was all it took. The next ten minutes were the best of my month.
First he said Obama's plan needed to happen, "we really need it." Then he went on: "The last eight years have accomplished nothing." "I have to admit, I voted for that idiot twice." He thought Bush would have been the one to deal with energy, but he didn't even try. Instead, everything from energy to Iraq is a mess and the Bush administration has wasted every opportunity to do something for the American people. The business has 20 trucks between their employees and owners; it now costs $100 to fill up each truck, and that just lasts about one day of work. He said they are now spending $1500-$2000 per day on fuel and it's killing them. Then he surprisingly said, "Imagine what it will be like when gas is $8 per gallon...maybe it's better if it does get to $8" because then the country will be forced to make changes. He never thought he would vote for a Democrat, but he wants those "in Washington" out and replaced. "McCain isn't going to do anything different."
He went on, now Obama makes him "a little nervous." (Obama campaign alert - here are two things you need to make a case about to the skeptical but fed-up and persuadable white, Appalachian, Republican voter.) (Me: what about him makes you nervous?) 1) Inexperienced - "hasn't he only been in the Senate one year?" 2) "That church he's involved in. If you were in a church for 20 years and kept hearing your preacher talk about hating whites and hating America," how could you not feel the same thing? "If it was me, I would have left that church a long time ago."
Despite this, he continued, he can't vote for McCain. He even thinks "Obama's inexperience" might be OK because he won't be tied to everything that's been going wrong for the past eight years and will be better equipped to make changes. He repeated that he knows McCain won't do anything different, it will be a third term for Bush. (Whoever came up with that talking point - give them a raise, it's really sticking.)
He said he talks to customers all day long who feel the same way. He said he had to have "talked to 25 people today;" it's a topic of conversation with EVERYONE - they will not vote for McCain. "Obama will be our next president."
So there you have it, from the mouth of a NASCAR-loving, small business-owning, pick-up truck-driving, 30-something white male in Appalachia. "Obama will be our next president." And he's happy about it.