Running into a PUMA

I was leaving the library today and a woman in the lobby thrust a Ted Celeste ad at me that she had just picked up from the table. "Is this the Governor Celeste we used to have?" she asked. I just look like I have all the answers, but I could remember Dagmar, his wife's name, but not Governor Celeste's first name. "Oh, he had a lot more hair than that," I said. "Yeah, but in 20 years?" she said. So together we started running through names. "Go inside and ask a librarian," I said. "They love questions like that, then come back out and let me know." So I waited while she went inside. "Richard," she said when she came out.

We chatted a bit on the way to the parking lot and I flashed my McCain-Palin badge that was under my jacket. "Oh, so you're going to vote for a woman," she said, "So am I." We both agreed that we weren't all that thrilled with either Obama or McCain. "I was a Hillary supporter," she said, "She really had some good ideas. I'm just so mad at those Obama people for how they treated her." "Are you a PUMA?" I asked. But she didn't seem to be familiar with the word, but if ever there was an angry, disenfranchised Democrat, she was it. She just wants a woman in the White House. Then in four years. . . I told her I liked Palin because she was a Conservative and so was I. We chatted a bit and then said good-bye and walked to our cars.