I was ridiculously proud of myself last night. So much so that I literally did a little dance all evening. I was helping a fellow student out and offered to give her a ride from the building on campus where we were to her dorm (it was pouring outside) She's 22 and voted for Bush when she was 18 because her parents are ultra-conservative Catholic and they told her he was the best candidate.

Anyhow, she saw the Obama sticker on the back of my truck and after a minute asked me if she could ask me something completely off topic (I'd been helping her with a Forensic Photography class we're both taking.) She started telling me that she didn't understand the difference between the candidates and wanted to know why I supported Obama. (My heart immediately did a little a snazzy little Fred Astaire number.)

I explain the difference between "Old" (Goldwater) Republican perspectives and how they aren't exactly what the "New" Neo-Con Republican party stands for and where the Democratic party fits into all of it just to give her a basic idea of what the primary partisan issues and beliefs are. Then I end up going into the most fundamental differences between the Economic & International policies and perspectives of McCain and Obama.

She then starts talking about the pro-life v. pro-choice differences between the candidates. She's pro-life because of her religious beliefs, but "sort of" believes that no one really has the right to tell someone else what to do with their bodies. She mentioned being really against those "partial birth abortions" though. Oh I did another little dance right then. (I never thought all my work with Planned Parenthood would ever pay off in little ways like that.) My medical experience gave me even more credibility with her so I explained that medically speaking, the term doesn't exist and it was created by pro-life supporters to make a huge issue out of a procedure that rarely ever happens. It's not just something doctors or patients decide to go through with on a whim just because someone no longer wants to be pregnant when they're 6 or or 7 months along. I told her if I have two kids at home that I need to care for and support and if I were pregnant and found out that there was something seriously wrong with my pregnancy that would very likely risk my own life, I would have to think long and hard about the two children I have at home to care for and raise before I made a decision to continue the pregnancy. It was awesome. I could almost see the light click with her. She said something to the effect that she hadn't thought about that~ Which led me into why isn't not a good idea to leave those decisions and that discretion up to political parties when those decisions are best left to patients and doctors.

So my short drive from the new student center (or whatever the heck it's called) at IUPUI to her dorm ended up lasting over an hour. By the time she got out of my truck she was solidly in the Obama camp and couldn't thank me enough for being willing to talk to her about it. I felt like those crazy preachers that save the damned. (Minus the whole smacking the person on the head and yelling, "BE HEALED" although the mental image of doing that to McCain supporters amuses me to no end.)

If there is a god he sure as hell is an Obama supporter because he couldn't have picked a better place for me to be last night.

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