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Palin selection not swaying area voters
Obama supporters say they don’t know much about the Alaska governor; Republican National Convention and growing exposure could change that.
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Article RatingLike much of America, Larry Bitner never heard of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin before Friday.
The self-employed contractor, who was already leaning toward Sen. Barack Obama, said the Republican choice for vice-president did little to change that.
“I don’t really know her,” Bitner said.
The Carlisle resident is willing to keep an open mind and see what comes out between the Republican National Convention, which gets underway Monday in St. Paul, Minn., and November’s election, he explained. Right now he is about “95 percent” sure he will vote Obama on the ballot, he said.
Albert Thomas, a resident of the 100 block of North Pitt Street, isn’t willing to leave the five percent for Sen. John McCain.
The World War II veteran said his mind was made up when Obama beat Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.
“It’s time for a change and the people got to make the change,” Thomas said. “Obama is my man.”
With a sign supporting the Illinois senator on his front door, the Carlisle native said he is convinced Obama will make good on his promises of creating more jobs and eliminating our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
In the last year alone, Thomas, who is living on a fixed income, said his home heating oil bill has doubled.
He knows it’s going to take a couple of years to turn things around, he added, but said he is optimistic it can happen if the country votes for Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden.
Palin impact
Because she is relatively unknown and inexperienced, Bitner isn’t sure Palin’s selection will bring many Clinton supporters, especially the female voters, over to the Republicans.
Some might, but again, it depends on what the country learns about her during the course of the RNC this week and through the fall election season, he said.
Jamaal Benjamin, a senior at Dickinson College, said the McCain selection hasn’t swayed him. He still thinks Obama is the better fit in Washington, D.C.
“The way the country is right now, we need a little change,” Benjamin said, noting that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq.
If McCain wins, he said he believes things won’t be much different than they are now. “It would be like what we’ve been experiencing. Hope would be lost,” he said.
Still, the Dickinson student said the fact that the United States will elect either its first African-American president or female vice-president “shows the country is moving in the right direction.”
McCain and Palin were in battleground Pennsylvania on Saturday as they wound their way to St. Paul.
They made a morning stop at Tom’s Diner in Pittsburgh’s trendy Southside neighborhood. The running mates, with spouses in tow, greeted patrons and posed for pictures. Palin’s daughters Willow and Piper were also on hand, with Willow carrying Palin’s 4-month old son, Trig.
The first-term Alaska governor told reporters she was having fun in her new role. “It’s great to see another part of the country,” she said. She also said she’d managed to get a little sleep during the night.
“We’re used to not getting too much sleep,” she said, nodding her head toward the sleeping infant.
The Democratic team of Obama and Biden also began their day with a diner stop — in the Youngstown, Ohio, suburb of Boardman — as they pressed on with their post-Democratic convention bus tour of Rust Belt battleground states.
‘No change’
As Republicans began to gather in St. Paul, a new Obama ad that began airing nationally on cable television on Saturday acknowledged McCain’s selection of Palin — but in images and words that left no doubt that Obama still wants the public to judge McCain by the policies of Bush.
“Well, he’s made his choice,” the ad states, “But for the rest of us, there’s still no change.”
During their diner stop, Obama and Biden and their wives chatted with patrons and told reporters they hoped the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina would help the Gulf Coast this time as Hurricane Gustav approaches.
“Hopefully we’ve learned from that tragedy,” Obama said. Biden said the region was much better prepared than before Katrina.
“Just pray to God that those levees hold,” he said.
Forecasters on Saturday said Gustav had strengthened to a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds near 145 mph. The National Hurricane Center called it an “extremely dangerous” storm.
But the convention was still on schedule.
“There are no plans for any postponement,” said Mike Miller, director of operations. “We plan to start when we’re going to start and end when we’re going to end.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
