Issues, Indecision And Strategic Voting

-- Krissah Williams

Crossing Party Lines

GRANGER, Ind.

A t the Harris Township Fire Department here, Barack Obama picked up votes from some Republicans who may support him in November -- and at least one vote from one who almost certainly will not.

That would be Mark Maglioa, 48, whose vote for the senator from Illinois was purely strategic.

Maglioa said Obama has been "speaking with a "forked tongue" about his history with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the longtime leader of the candidate's church, Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

"For 20 years, he was an inspired member of that church, and then the dirty laundry got pulled out on the clothesline, " said Maglioa, who was unimpressed when Obama broke with Wright last week, after denouncing as "rants" a series of Wright statements about the AIDS virus, U.S. foreign policy and the wisdom of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

So, why did Maglioa voted for Obama?

As a supporter of Republican John McCain, Maglioa aimed to help the senator from Arizona by boosting the Democrat he considers the weakest potential November opponent.

"Barack Hussein Obama," Maglioa said, using the middle name that Obama does not use professionally. Of Hillary Clinton, he said with grudging admiration, "I just feel like she won't fold under pressure."