The Political Whore

While waiting in the (interminable) line to vote today, I heard some interesting and unexpected commentary from my fellow voters. Since my precinct is at the USF Tampa campus, I expected most of the students voting with me to be Obama supporters. On my way into the polling site at the Marshall Center, I saw a crowded Obama booth distributing “I Voted For Change” stickers and volunteers passing out pro-Obama fliers. There was nary a McCain/Palin supporter in sight.

So much to my surprise and annoyance, all of the 18-20-year-old female voters surrounding me in line were staunch McCain supporters. That is, if you can call people who just vote the same ticket as their parents “staunch supporters.”

To save my voting mates the embarrassment that I hope they will someday experience for their insane “Decision ‘08″ I will call them Girl 1 and Girl 2. Girl 1 told us that her roommate tried to convince her to vote Obama, asking why she would vote for a candidate who wouldn’t help her in any way.

“That’s just great,” Girl 1 said. “If we all voted for the candidate who would benefit us personally, we would be screwed. We have to vote for who is best for the country as a whole.”

Oh, really? A McCain supporter is making the argument that he’s the best candidate for the country as a whole, and not just for a small fraction of American citizens? That’s rich. But it got better (and by better I mean much, much worse) when Girl 2 decided to share her political beliefs. Which exactly mirror the beliefs of her parents.

She said that she joked that she would be voting for Obama, to which her loving mother replied that she wouldn’t “if you want a place to come home to.” I had the pleasure of hearing Girl 2’s phone conversation with her mother, whom she called to ask how she voted on the amendments (so that she could be sure to vote the same way.) MOG2 (Mother of Girl 2) had apparently misunderstood the language in several of them and voted incorrectly.

I’ll be the first to admit that the language is confusing, but it’s a frustrating truth that many voters don’t make the time or effort to educate themselves before they enter the polling booth, and instead vote blindly. On a positive note, I’m hoping this means that MOG2 accidentally voted “No” on Amendment 2.

Girl 2 continued to regale us with her political history, saying that when her third grade class held mock elections in 1996, she “already knew she was a republican.” Yes, because 8-year-olds have the cognitive development to make important life decisions.

Girl 2 apparently never progressed from that third grade mental state, as she then proceeded to call her father to ensure that she was voting “correctly” on everything. Because, you know, people shouldn’t inform themselves about the issues and make up their own minds when answers are just a phone call or text away.

(See Franki’s other election report here.)

This week, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas will introduce H.R. 5699, which has been hailed as the “Blogger Protection Act of 2008” (CL blogophiles can breathe a sigh of relief).

Right now, “uncompensated Internet activity” is protected by a Federal Election Commission regulation that allows linking to campaign websites and writing about the views of federal candidates—which, without the regulation, could potentially be considered a campaign contribution or expenditure on the candidate’s behalf. Basically, blogs currently share the same protection from campaign finance restrictions as other media outlets.

The problem is that since this protection is regulatory, it can be changed without congressional action. Rep. Hensarling will introduce legislation that will create statutory blogger protections in the hopes of creating a more permanent solution for our online “pajama journalists.” Forge on, brave bloggers!