My Recent Trip to the Swing State of Ohio: An Obama Voter in a Family of McCain Supporters

I’ve long suspected I live in a political bubble in Northern California. The debates I hear among friends is whether to vote for Obama, Nader, or McKinney. I’ve never even seen a McCain/Palin yard sign or bumper sticker, but I knew that was all going to change when I traveled to Northern Ohio for my grandmother’s funeral.

When my mother picked me up at the Detroit airport, and we drove to Toledo, she warned my cousins were hard core Republicans. I promised not to talk politics, at least at the funeral home, as we drove by the Jeep factory which was temporarily shutdown to trim inventories of slow-selling SUVs. At least, Chrysler plans to make an electric Jeep Wrangler at the Toledo Jeep Assembly Complex to keep the factory alive. I knew Toledo was a blue-collar town with close ties to the auto industry, and I expected the town to be for Obama.

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