The Young Turks

It caught me off guard to get the call, but I decided to take advantage of it.  The caller, a youthful 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 concluded that he had to be 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 how Gov. Palin's political views were unknown.  He responded with the typical talking points that we have all been hearing about her extensive 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 to 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.

One other very funny part of the conversation was where the caller asked me about my views on abortion.  I told him that I didn't think it was such an important issue that should decide my vote.  He responded with "Well, let me ask you this... What if Ronald Reagan had been aborted?  Where would this country be now???".   I didn't think of the right remark at the time, but I wish I would have responded with, "Well, what if Hitler had been aborted?".

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 I will never get back, but neither will McCain...!  I can't wait for my follow up calls so that I can waste more of their time...!