I'm surprised and pleased with the number of long term Republicans I have encountered these past few months in my small Maine town who agree that Bush does not deserve another four years and plan to vote for Kerry. Our town has about 2500 registered voters, about evenly divided between Democrats, Republicans, and undisignated independents. There are also a few dozen Green Party and Libertarian registered voters.

The concerns the Republicans generally mention is the War on Iraq and how it has made the world and our country more vulnerable to terrorism; their other concern is the huge deficits the Bush Administration has run up in the last 4 years.

I am more concerned with talking with moderate Republicans at this point than trying to bring over the remaining Nader supporters. Our polling in Maine indicates that Nader's support has dropped from 6% in 2000 to about 2%. Officially the National Green Party has also encouraged its members to vote for Kerry in the battleground states instead of their national candidates; however, we'll still have people voting for Green Party legislative candidates in Maine, and one is actually running for re-election.

If the Bush Administration hadn't so grossly mismanaged the Iraq War and its occupation, I doubt that Kerry would have much likelihood of winning, even with his strength on the economic and social issues he's been concerned with.

One more week and then we'll probably have a month or two of end game to contend with. What joy!

Charley Noble

P.S.

Doug R- you've still got time to come over from the dark side, unless you've already voted absentee...