by Jason George
HERNANDO, Miss. – One learns a few things standing in front of a Mississippi polling location on election day. First off, today’s good weather beats loitering in the cold – after a weekend of rare Southern snow, Mississippi is seeing blue skies and spring-like temperatures across the state this afternoon.
One also learns some other things in conversations with those voters leaving this polling location – a fire station, flanked by a trailer park and fallow fields. In a completely, unscientific sample of voters, these are a few themes that came through:
1) Mississippi Republicans aren’t thrilled about John McCain as their nominee.
In fact, every Republican I spoke with expressed some concern about the Arizona senator, either with his maverick, non-GOP stances or his not wearing his faith on his sleeve.
“I did vote for him; I’m not staying home like some people I know,” said Deborah Kellogg, 43, a teacher with a “Bush is Best” bumper sticker on the back of her SUV.
“I would’ve preferred Huckabee,” she added, speaking of the former Arkansas governor who dropped out last week (but still appears on Mississippi’s ballot today).
Dennis Morlok, 62, another GOP voter favored former Gov. Mitt Romney. “I personally don’t like John McCain,” he said. “I don’t like that he was opposed to some of the issues George Bush was behind.”
Still, Morlok voted McCain. 2) Sen. Barack Obama has been dominating Sen. Hillary Clinton with Southern black voters more than any other group, and the trend seems to be continuing today – every African American I spoke with here said they had just cast their ballot for Obama.
In the four states that border Mississippi – Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee – Obama horded support from more than 80 percent of black Democratic voters in two states (Alabama and Louisiana) and more than 70 percent in the other two (Arkansas and Tennessee.) If that trend plays out today, victory is almost certain, as 37 percent of Mississippians are African American – the highest such percentage in the nation.
For some local African Americans, race was an issue:
“I hope we’re ready for a black president,” said Evielean Bell, 71. “It’s always a struggle here in Mississippi.”
For others race wasn’t an issue:
“I didn’t vote for Obama because he was black,” said Kennith Newson, 51. “I voted for him because I like him. I’ve heard some of his speeches about getting out of Iraq, and my thing is if we can leave we should.”
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3) Speaking of Iraq, the Democratic issues of importance heard here in Mississippi are the same as those voiced elsewhere across America: the war, gas prices, education and healthcare.
As Vicky Mann, a Clinton supporter from Nettleton, told me over the weekend: “Everybody thinks we’re all different but we’re not,” she said. “We just talk funny.”