A reader writes:
Yesterday afternoon, a friend called me to catch up. He told me he was planning to vote for Clinton, but didn’t really have a good reason other than the old “experience” excuse. He then told me he was persuadable, so I went into all the reasons why I was voting for Obama, then explained why I would not vote for Clinton. By the time I was done with him, I had him converted. Just an hour later, my dog walker came by and saw me watching MSNBC. He and I had virtually the same talk, except he told me that he was worried that Obama doesn’t offer any specifics. I referred him to Obama’s website. He returned today and told me he had read through much of the information on the site, and was just about ready to switch his vote. By Tuesday, I’ll have him on the right path, too.
I wonder if this is one of the reasons for Obama’s rising poll numbers.
His supporters are passionate and able to make a compelling case for his candidacy. Clinton’s supporters are more resigned, or selecting her as a kind of default/pseudo-incumbent: they say they like her “experience” and then they’re out of arguments. And once you run down all the problems with Hillary, they’re left defenseless, speechless. I have a feeling the two conversations that played out in my living room yesterday are going on all over the country and the Obama people are closing the sale for our candidate.