Tuesday, July 29, 2008

More name trouble

We were in "small town" Mississippi this past weekend and had breakfast at a local Waffle House equivalent. Our waitress was very nice, but probably very uneducated. As we were eating, we heard her ask the woman next to us, who was reading the paper, where "that Bahama guy is today." The woman reading the paper looked up at her and our waitress clarified. "You know. That Bahama guy. He's been travelin' everywhere lately it seems like. The one tryin' to be president." The woman reading the paper realized who she was talking about, corrected her, and then said she didn't know where he was that day. "He'll probably never come here to Mississippi anyway," our waitress said. "Actually," we chimed in, "he'll be here in September." We had seen signs all over saying that the first presidential debate would be in that very city. She had no idea.
So who is she going to vote for? Does she vote for the guy whose name she can't pronounce? Does she vote for the guy whose been criticized for talking over the heads of people like her? On the other hand, that guy's the only one she reads about in the papers. On the other hand, she assumes he would never care about a state like Mississippi because he goes so many important places, even overseas. I'm not really politically inclined. I just thought this was an interesting slice of America and it brought up some interesting questions in my mind.
I must admit, it gave me a good chuckle too. Bahama, hehehe.

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