In Democratic stronghold, a reluctant tilt to Obama - St. Petersburg Times

With us all pulling together, we can get it done.

John, and others pulling together, is the theme of Obama, but for some reason, some people just do not get the message, maybe because it is so simple and folks are not accustomed to that word. KEEP THE FAITH AND KEEP ON PULLING.

I am from the town in PA that for many drivers serves as the crossroads of Pennsylvania: Carlisle.

It's where the PA turnpike meets up with central east coast Route 81, a small yet ever-growing community of folks who hunt, fish, lose a day at a rope swing on the Susquehanna river; people who work in local factories or at a few intelligently relocated corporate headquarters or at any one of the hundred or so truck stops or at all manner of irreplaceable little places that give my hometown a proud "beat up" America kind of vibe.

My mom raised myself, three other boys and one girl to adulthood by herself in this town--three out of five of us made it to college; the other two are salt-of-the-earth workers and citizens anyone'd be proud to live next to. It was a struggle, sure--but circumstances have a way of shaping a person's character. It was tough for a lot of people in my quiet little housing development in North Middleton Township...but we had each other and had our families.

Tough as my single parent upbringing was, (plenty of times a slip of cardboard went into my sneakers to spare mom from buying new tennis shoes...lots of kids made fun of me for wearing the same exact dress shirt for three years worth of school pictures...and there were months where the food ran out before the next paycheck)....my mom worked hard to show me the opportunity we all could have through hard work and dedication to something...in my case, that was writing (and education in general), football and basketball.

I earned charitable scholarships that paid for part of my tuition to the University of Pittsburgh, and though I had to give up football and basketball to work while in college, I managed to take the circumstances of my youth and make something of myself...growing beyond my small town to land in one of America's most blue-collar cities (with a white-collar footprint that would surprise you).

My point in writing all of this is to let you know that my experience is far closer to Barack Obama's than John McCain's...Obama's a man reared by a single parent, a young boy who traveled the world as a kid...from Kansas to Indonesia to Hawaii....having to struggle not only with not having a dad, but with his own identity. His mom worked hard, and with the help of loving grandparents and charitable scholarship, Barack found a way to elevate his opportunity beyond the borders of a single parent home or strange upbringing.

I wish the people who come from where I come from would simply take a moment to sit up and REALIZE that Barack Obama IS the American Dream we all learned about in Carlisle High Shool... rather than believe what they see in a thirty-second sound bite from folks simply looking to earn a vote. Folks looking to scare them. Folks looking to play on fear rather than hope.

I'm 41 years old now, happily married with one child (and another on the way). I live in a small community in Pittsburgh's South Hills, one a little more guarded and jaded than the one I grew up in, but a good place, a decent place to raise a family. I have a small business that I started 8 years ago...though by God's grace and a truckload of hard work, I've had the great fortune of being able to pay the bills as a professional writer for over 15 years now.

I support Barack Obama because he represents what each of us CAN be in this country, no matter what our circumstances. Because of what he inspires in young men and young women who maybe haven't grown up with the prejudices and stereotypes that I did.

I couldn't be more white, or more small town, (or more Joe Six Pack)...and I support Barack Obama because he represents me (and all of us) best. It's a small truth, and just one little story out of millions in a country TIRED of living year after year in an ever-spiraling status quo.

If you still believe in the American Dream, then there's hope for you too...it just doesn't look like the hope you learned about as a kid, is all I'm saying.

Barack Obama for President.

Well, neither McCain or Palin has ventured to far from the Conservative camp.  They are not reaching out to the fair weather voters, the people who only pay attention when the country is in despair, instead, they are staying behind the conservative bulwark trying to rally their base.  That is way the campaign keeps bringing up issues like terrorism and abortion.   The McCain camp is trying to get there own base to vote for them at the very least. 

The fact of the matter is, fair weather voters don’t really care about either issue, much less pay attention to them, they are only concerned about themselves and what they are doing.  Heck, if the country was doing peachy right now, they would not even bother with the election. 

These people are otherwise not political.  They do not care about yard signs and bumper stickers, they just want to vote and get it over with. 

Unfortunately for McCain, the subtext coming out of the Republican base has all been bigotry and race and to McCain’s credit, he has been trying to do everything he can to change that or at the very least keep a lid on it.  He knows the party base will vote for him but to win this election, he needs to fair weather voters to side with them which is hard to do when all the they are hearing is “wink-wink, nod-nod, Obama is a black separatist Muslim terrorist.”    All that does is push more fair weather voters towards Obama because they really don’t believe that nor do they care.  They just want someone to fix the country or at the very least, the country to change its current direction and McCain has come up short on explain how he intends to do that.  Instead McCain has to run around slapping people like Rep. Senator Mel Martinez who goes on Nation TV saying things like “Obama’s affiliations are an issue.”  Not to fair weather voters you dumb ass.  What is an issue is how people are going to keep their house or pay their bills or even keep their jobs.  They do not want to talk about Obama’s race, or his pastor, or even his middle name. 

What is abundantly clear is the republicans in general still appear to be out of touch with the severity of the economic down turn and are acting in a less than sincere manner about how bad it really is.  That will pretty much assure Obama’s election in my opinion.

I see the Miami Herald’s front Page today is that Obama is pretty much a shoe in if things stay as they are for the next 3 weeks.  More so, if the stock market continues to melt down, Obama will be a landslide winner. 

I think the only thing that could help McCain at this point is if the Republicans convince all the banks and creditors to put a moratorium on debt collection and foreclosures for the next 3 weeks.  Nothing like getting an automated collections call and a automated McCain/Palin campaign call on your answering machine on the same day.  It really does send a message of how out of touch McCain really is.