The tide is turning.

It is very hard for me to stop thinking about the election and the stakes for us all, even as I go about my day with my family, or talk to students and colleagues. I am trying to look in many places for stories, not just headlines and poll numbers, because it is in the stories that we hear that the tide is turning. We don't want to talk to or listen to people who disagree with us on issues that are close to our hearts, but I am hearing many stories about how people have changed their minds because of their principles.

I have spoken to some friends who have been out door-knocking for the Obama campaign. They reported that their companions who knocked on doors in more middle-class neighborhoods were met by many Obama supporters who wanted to talk about their vote and their issues, But one said that she was struck by her experience in a neighborhood where people were very poor, many were new immigrants, and many did not have phones, let alone TVs. Yes, this was in St Paul, MN.

My mother described some very interesting conversations she had with people when she went with some friends to Carson City, Nevada. Most of the people she spoke to were elderly, not wealthy, but not poor. One gentleman informed her he was voting for McCain because he was prejudiced, another said the most important issues to him were gun control and immigration (neither of which were mentioned by Biden or Palin). She also had a long conversation with a man who was leaning toward McCain, but who also said "they're both jackasses." As she left, she said, "Well, vote for my jackass." He cracked up.

This morning I read a story that shows that you don't always hear what you think you might when you knock on that door. I was very struck by a comment I read at this distressing post at Pam's House Blend, about someone who knocked on a door where a Confederate flag was flying (scroll down in the comment section to find it--it's worth it). The person expected a hostile reception, but instead the burly man who answered the door said he was voting for Obama because he was a Viet Nam vet, his son was doing his 3rd tour in Iraq, and he was angrlybecause they wouldn't let his son come home. He was tired of the war, and didn't think McCain got it.

So I googled "Republican why I'm voting Obama" and read some of the stories that came up. Here is a sample:

Larry Hunter, a self-identified supply-side conservative and lifelong conservative says in a New York Times editorial:

"When I first made this decision, many colleagues were shocked. How could I support a candidate with a domestic policy platform that's antithetical to almost everything I believe in?

The answer is simple: Unjustified war and unconstitutional abridgment of individual rights vs. ill-conceived tax and economic policies - this is the difference between venial and mortal sins."

Chuck Olson interviews a woman named Beth in Fort Dodge, Iowa, a small business owner and mother of a child with a disability, and who recognizes how No Child Left Behind does not help her child.

Republican Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, who represents the Eastern Shore of Maryland (Biden's neighbor) has switched from McCain to Obama:

Gilchrest laid out five criteria for his vote: competence, integrity, experience, prudence and knowledge.

"Who fits that criteria? The McCain-Palin team or the Obama Biden team?" he said. "I'm going to vote for the team that fits that criteria."
That means Obama-Biden, he said.

A talk-show host and former Republican campaign activist Michael Smerchonish, who is, admittedly, obsessed with 9/11 and bin Laden, talks in detail about how, for the last seven years, U.S. policy has allowed the Pakistani military to shelter bin Laden and the Taliban, and how there is still no unified anti-terrorist program, in spite of the Patriot Act. Some of the commenters chide him for taking so long, but I want to listen to someone tell us of his road to Damascus moment.

It sounds facile to call these people Obamacans. But if Ronald Reagan won because of Reagan Democrats, Obama may win because of the individual decisions made by many people who genuinely want a change.