An e-mail:

Quitting McCain over vouchers? How ironic.

Just this morning I addressed a group of elementary school kids at an independent (i.e., private) school in Montpelier, VT about the McCain campaign. The school is holding a mock election and wanted to have a Republican and a Democrat as guest speakers to talk about the Presidential and Gubernatorial races prior to their vote. I was summoned as a last-minute replacement for the scheduled Republican speaker. I could tell as soon as I walked in to the classroom that this was hostile territory. Of the 20 kids present for my talk, I would not be surprised if ALL of their parents are voting for Obama, and all of the questions I got, though polite, supported that premise (e.g., “Does McCain think that someone with brown skin shouldn’t be President?” “Does McCain hate nature?”). Of course, this is not surprising given that Montpelier is one of the bluest towns in one of the bluest states.
I had very little time to prepare, only having found out about the event a half-hour before it began, but on the drive over I thought, “what issue will resonate with these kids?” Then I hit on it. Vouchers. The kids were so excited about it took up about half the time (I was scheduled for 15 minutes, but ended up being there for 50). The teachers even seemed excited about it and paid a lot more attention to me once I hit on that topic (one teacher even said “this is something a lot of your parents might be very interested in” near the end). One girl said that this voucher thing was such a great sounding idea, she was sure Obama probably like it too. I told her to ask the Democrat who was coming later in the day, but said that I did not think Obama would support this idea at all (that was, of course, the perfect segue for a little info about special interest influence and campaign finance).
So, here I was thinking this voucher issue is the perfect one to make inroads with some non-traditional Republican voters. What a downer to hear that it drove away a Republican delegate in NH. It seems like this campaign season, any time there is a glimmer of hope it is stomped on by the Obama machine.