Electionitis versus Obama Mania

Published 9:12 pm Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I watch the ABC talk show “The View” religiously at 11 a.m. weekdays. Last Thursday, co-star Elisabeth Hasselbeck, an admitted Republican and a supporter of Sen. John McCain, stated that “electionitis” is going around, and people are beginning to suffer political fatigue over this campaign.

Co-star Whoopi Goldberg added that this situation could be the reason that people can barely tell anybody apart and that politicians are beginning to look alike. She asked for a tape to be shown to explain her statement.

The tape showed a man standing on a platform in Florida in front of a crowd of people. He announced, “Please help me in welcoming the next vice-president of the United States, Sen. John McCain.” At that moment out walked Sen. Joe Biden.

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I immediately thought about a large predominantly white church in Virginia Beach that I attended on Oct. 5. That day one of my best friends, Gail Hinton-Copeland, was invited to sing for that church’s homecoming service.

Copeland’s daughter, Marshe’ Dunnaway, her three children, my sister Shirley Lee, and I went with her to give our support. After her solo she received a standing ovation.

Following the service a dinner was served. At the dinner a couple of women told me how much they enjoyed my solo. Dunnaway stated that a few people said the same thing to her. Could those people have also been suffering from electionitis?

Some of us are experiencing from Obama Mania. I am one of those people. I attended the Shrimp Feast last week wearing an Obama shirt, cap and watch. After being stopped by many people who said they liked what I was wearing, I had the privilege of talking to a very friendly middle-aged Caucasian gentleman who said he was a Republican. He stared at my shirt and said, “If I gave you 15 seconds to convince me why I should vote for Obama, what would you tell me?”

I spurted out every fact that I knew about Obama, every issue I could think of that he stood for, stated that he would change and how he said he would change them, going over that 15 seconds.

The man suddenly held one of his hands out towards me to stop me from talking and said, “Why not just say that the Republicans have had eight years to get things right and look where we are today? So maybe it’s time for a change.”

He answered his question, further proved my point, and did it in less than 15 seconds. Which means that some of them do get it.

Evelyn wall is a regular contributor to the Opinion page.