Gray Vote No Longer Reliably Red

The Deckers are better positioned than most. Eighteen months ago, when Jerry noticed the country's debt shooting up and the glut of overpriced houses, he pulled their money from the stock market and invested in certificates of deposit and long-term annuities, a move that preserved their retirement savings.

Their glass of wine finished, they watch "NASCAR Now" as they do every weekday at 5 and then "Pardon the Interruption." Jeannie makes a shrimp salad for dinner while the Florida sky turns pink.

By 6:30 the next morning they are headed out for their three-mile walk. The moon bounces off campaign signs in the cool grass. Back home they eat breakfast and Jerry becomes engrossed in an article in the morning paper about Hobson's choice and the 2008 presidential election. "It means you have a choice between two undesirable options," Jerry tells Jeannie. "That defines our dilemma perfectly."

It's 'Scary What's Going On'

As the Deckers clear away their breakfast dishes, Dee Williams is in another part of Sun City Center preparing to canvass for McCain. Armed with printouts of addresses of registered Republicans, the president of the local Republican Club hops in her golf cart and hits the gas.

"If Obama becomes president, I'm scared of the march down the road to socialism," Williams says. Not that she has been that thrilled with Bush. "He didn't know what a veto pen was. He didn't have the guts to stop the spending habits."

McCain is the only hope. She parks the golf cart in front of a peach-colored house with flamingos carved into the burglar bars. "I just love cul-de-sacs," Williams says. A woman tentatively opens the door.

"I'm Dee Williams, your precinct chairman," she says, handing the woman a McCain-Palin packet.

"It's kinda scary what's going on," the woman says.

Williams offers encouragement. "Yes, we have to get out the vote," she says.

Back in the golf cart, she recounts McCain's appearance the night before at a campaign stop in Minnesota where he reassured a voter that Obama is not an Arab and that there is no reason to fear him.

"Why didn't he say, 'There's no reason to be scared of him, but be scared of his policies'? " Williams says. "My daughter Kim called and said, 'I think this man is going into dementia.' "

Williams is disappointed that Palin bypassed Sun City Center on a recent swing through the Tampa Bay area for a rally at a public park in a neighboring county.