The Republicans in the Crowd

[ariesgem]

WATERLOO, Iowa _ Senator Barack Obama often says that Republicans crop up in his audiences and when he meets them, they whisper to him that they’re Republicans. Well, here at this speech, the Caucus ran into a couple who described themselves as some of those “whispering Republicans.”

Dee Vandeventer, 54, who owns an advertising firm (it does not accept political advertising) and lives in nearby Cedar Falls, was standing on a chair in the auditorium trying to take a picture of Mr. Obama after his speech. She was perched a little precariously up there, but she talked with us for a couple of minutes.

“We’re tired of being Republicans,” she said.

She said she and her husband, Dave, were keeping completely open minds this year and had no idea at this point how they’d vote in the caucuses on Jan. 3. Of the Republicans, they said they were most interested in Rudolph W. Giuliani, mainly because he is “moderate” and “was responsive” on 9/11. They definitely do not like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. But they were curious about Mr. Obama, and, living in Iowa, they have the chance to go see candidates as they come through town. They plan to check out John Edwards, too.

“Obama seems like someone who would say, ‘Let’s sit down and reach a solution,’” Mrs. Vandeventer said approvingly. “He’s not one of those people who says, ‘I’m right and you’re wrong.’”

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But it took her 23-year-old daughter to get her to consider Mr. Obama in the first place. “I had said, ‘Obama doesn’t have any experience,’ and she said, ‘I have three words for you: John Fitzgerald Kennedy.’” That made Mrs. Vandeventer consider the possibility, she said, even though she voted for Richard Nixon (she was too young to vote in 1960, when Nixon ran against Kennedy, but she voted for him in 1968, when he won).

While Mrs. Vandeventer is a registered Republican, this will be the first time she votes in a caucus. Why start now? “Because if you don’t participate, you can’t criticize,” she said. “I want to be part of the change.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/the-republicans-in-the-crowd/

[msongs]

1. vote obama in the primary and the repub in the general. its an old strategy nt

[riqster]

2. He's no John Kennedy nt