The Pink Flamingo :: Winning Votes and Influencing People

Today I won my 3rd vote for John McCain. I may have won more for him, but I can only account for those three, four if you count my mother. All three votes were hard fought and won, not through blogging, in fact none of the voters has even read The Pink Flamingo. Maybe I don’t count the third one, it was the son of a friend I converted. Maybe that his my friend’s vote. I’m not sure, but I can account for three votes for John McCain.

I won those votes by talking, visiting. The first vote was almost like shooting sharks in a barrel. My friend is a western historian. I mentioned the October 26 connection. That’s basically all it took. Anyone who is into the Wild West, knows that the Gunfight at the OK Corral occurred on October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona. John McCain, Senator from Arizona, was shot down on another October 26. It’s a Wyatt Earp thing.

No, wait, I’ve won 4 votes. I have a friend in SC who also voted for John McCain. There it took the OK Corral connection and one other little fact. I reminded my friend that his cousin, Lindsey, was one of McCain’s most loyal supporters and friends. My friend had to admit he’d better show a little family loyalty and vote for McCain. Maybe that vote goes to Lindsey. I’m claiming, it though. I think I also mentioned how honorable Lindsey is and how my friend appreciates that honor. Sharks in a barrel!

Getting back to vote #1. That specific friend is also into honor. I mentioned what an honorable man Lindsey is, and how Lindsey would not support anyone who did not share his sense of honor. I went back to the Wyatt Earp connection and mentioned how much John McCain was like Wyatt.

It was the night before the Texas primary. My friend called his son and told him about the Wyatt Earp connection and the honor thing. His son voted for McCain. I think the daughter in law did, but I’m not sure about that one.

My friend then went to his usual café coffee stop before going to vote. Shooting the bull as he calls it, he mentioned the October 26 thing and the Wyatt Earp connection. He also told them about Lindsey and his honor. Evidently a bunch of his buddies who weren’t planning to vote for John McCain went out and voted for him.

My latest ‘conversion’ came today. I was having lunch with a conservative friend who recently lost her husband, who was a retired career Air Force noncom. (It was his memorial service I attended at Holloman AFB last summer). I told her what a good Christian McCain and his wife are. I also mentioned McCain is what we call a Cradle Episcopalian. I told her the story of the adopted baby and all of Cindy McCain’s animals.

My next line of attack was through Lindsey. Years ago something Lindsey did something that I still consider the most honorable thing I’ve ever known anyone to do. Once I completed the story she was hooked. I told her that Lindsey is one of John McCain’s friends and top supporters, and that Lindsey would never support anyone (the way he is supporting McCain) who did not share his sense of honor.

It isn’t about policy or position, it is about personal connection. Most good people I know who are fence sitting about John McCain simply need to be reassured about his faith, his decency, his family, and his honor.

I am learning that this long lost principle of “Honor” is important to decent people. I have never met John McCain. I am impressed by his humility, but the way I know about his honor is not through McCain, but through my friend Lindsey Graham.

Lindsey Graham is one of the most honorable man who has ever served in Washington. I know his history and I know the things he has accomplished in his life on a personal level. If John McCain is good enough for Lindsey, he is good enough for me. I think it is that touch of the “personal” that works when I talk to people.

Blogging is fun, but we are preaching to the choir. It is a wonderful exchange of information. BUT, it will never take the place of one on one conversation and the exchange of ideas.

When you talk to someone about a candidate like John McCain, don’t worry about policy. Don’t concentrate on the big picture. Find a “hook” where you make the person you are talking to identify with McCain on a personal basis. My friend today is an animal lover. I told her about Cindy McCain and her strays. She is a cradle Episcopalian. For Episcopalians, this is important.

Make it personal. Create a positive personal connection between the voter you are trying to connect and with John McCain. If you do this, they will become “friends”. The newly converted voter will then go out and introduce others to their new “friend”, John McCain.

It is important to know who you are visiting with. By knowing them you know just what “hook” to use.