Thread: On the front lines: a dispatch from the swing states

On the front lines: a dispatch from the swing states
By Sarah Collins
The two campaigns visited Florida last weekend. Above, Sen. Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, at the University of Florida; photo from Barack Obama on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons. Below, Gov. Sarah Palin with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in Polk City; photo by lakelandlocal2 on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons.

North by Northwestern photo editor Sarah Collins flew to Gainseville, Fla. for a concert last weekend, with a layover on Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina. In her down-time, she talked to voters in the two swing-states, and then sent her impressions back to us.

The motorcade blares down University Avenue, police flanking buses and vans full of haggard advisers, journalists and Joe Biden. The last stretch runs through Gainesville, Florida. One more push to swing the state blue.

The candidates are everywhere here. Sen. Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin speak at competing events on different sides of party lines but within one state’s borders. T-shirts of Sarah Palin taking aim with a rifle share space with posters of Barack Obama that simply say “hope.â€

[quote]Shavon Indweller, a first-time voter, talked about her fears with the kind of excited hope that’s been seen in Obama supporters across the country. The 20 year-old North Carolinian stood in line for six hours to vote early on Wednesday, all the while worrying that she would be shot by racists attempting to stop African-Americans from voting in the deeply divided state, she said.

[b]I asked Indweller why she would wait in line for almost an entire workday while considering that she might be killed. She paused a second, and then looked me in the eye: “Obama.â€

[quote]Shavon Indweller, a first-time voter, talked about her fears with the kind of excited hope that’s been seen in Obama supporters across the country. The 20 year-old North Carolinian stood in line for six hours to vote early on Wednesday, all the while worrying that she would be shot by racists attempting to stop African-Americans from voting in the deeply divided state, she said.

I asked Indweller why she would wait in line for almost an entire workday while considering that she might be killed. She paused a second, and then looked me in the eye: “Obama.â€