I am a registered Republican here in Indiana, but I can proudly say that I no longer consider myself a member of that party. There are several reasons why this is so, but the biggest ones being my disdain for the Bush administration, the inspiration of Sen. Obama that hit me late last year, and lastly the most intelligent site I have found on the net -- The Daily Kos...!
So because I am on the GOP's calling list, I may get a call or two just before each election cycle from the party. Now I have never donated any money to the GOP, nor have I ever been active with any Republican campaign; however the same can not be said for my efforts to get Sen. Obama elected for president...!
Well surprisingly, I got a call today from the McCain campaign. Rather than tell the caller immediately that I was supporting Sen. Obama, I had a different plan.
It caught me off guard to get the call, but I decided to take advantage of it. The caller, a young sounding southerner who was very polite, initially asked me if I had been following the presidential election. Now, at first he didn't identify himself as being with the McCain campaign, but I had immediately thought that it had to be the case because he didn't come off like the confident and energetic supporters that have called me from the Obama campaign.
Being a little surprised to get a canvasing call so early from the McCain campaign, I decided that the callers time was better spent talking to me rather than making calls to other people on the GOP's call list.
I told the caller that I was undecided, but I wanted to vote for McCain, but that I had too many reservations about him and Sarah Palin. He asked me what they were, so I threw out the no-brainers about Gov. Palin and her views were unknown. He responded with the typical talking points that we have all been hearing about her executive experience. After some back and forth letting him make his silly and convoluted case, I moved on to other topics such as McCain's record... and then the contradicitons between his views and Palin's... and then onto social issues... and the environment... and then the economy... the war... blah blah blah blah blah... After a while, it was clear that this guy was part of the extreme Christian Right, who was very energized about her stand on abortion and creationism in schools.
But then came the funniest part of the whole conversation. When I voiced my concern over Russia threatening Georgia, the caller, a bit confused about current events, thought that I was referring to the state of Georgia, which led him to saying that Sarah was the Governor of Alaska, which he reminded me actually borders Russia, unlike the state of Georgia. Sadly, I am not making any of this up.
So after leading the caller around and around to hear his answers to quell my "indicision" with McCain, I told him that he was making some very good points, and that I would like to receive more calls from others in the campaign as soon as possible to help me to decide.
So 59 minutes later, I hung up my phone, able to get back to my now cold dinner. Those are 59 minutes that the McCain campaign will never get back...! I can't wait for my follow up calls so that I can waste more of their time...!
Let the State of Georgia no longer be threatened by Russia if McCain / Palin win the white house....!