Winchester Still Waiting and Wondering

"Yeah, if you look at his head, you can tell where he wraps the towel around his head," Dooley cracked.

"You got issues, man," said cafe owner Gary Leon, shaking his head and setting them straight on Obama's Christian faith, Kenyan father and Hawaiian upbringing.

They talk about immigration; they all know Hispanics who sleep in their vans to make it to work on time everyday. And in their unease about the economy, they don't talk about 401(k)s or stock prices. "I'd like it so my kids won't have to drive out of state to work," Dooley said. They talk about the Waffle House on Pleasant Valley Road closing and how the Dollar Store is about the only place making money. Bryan said he has never had a credit card -- "if I can't pay for it, I don't need it."

Bageant asked how they will vote Tuesday.

Leon, a black Republican who twice voted for President Bush, said he was so fed up that he plans to vote Democratic.

And Bryan, 53, an independent who loved Ronald Reagan, adjusted his baseball cap and almost imperceptibly pointed at the TV, showing Obama.

Kimberly Thurber, 32, the unemployed Republican, elbowed him.

"Did you just quietly point so I wouldn't hear?" she demanded.

"He's got his head more on his shoulders," Bryan said. "All McCain does is whine."

"But Sarah Palin is great, even though she's not so keen on foreign policy," Thurber said.

"She's not keen on anything," he retorted. "John McCain could keel over and have a heart attack, and we'd be left with a dingbat."

Finally, Thurber admitted that she was on the fence. A friend of hers has Parkinson's disease and is leaving the country for treatment because of the Bush administration's ban on federally funding human stem cell research. "I'm gonna flip a coin when the time comes," Thurber said.