Nash McCabe will go to vote today in Pennsylvania; yet another American voting based on misinformation

Nash McCabe from the first time we heard of her, The New York Times.

_{photo -- Jason Cohn for The New York Times}

Nash McCabe is going to the polls today in Pennsylvania, and she probably won't vote for Barack Obama. In itself, this isn't a big deal: one vote against a candidate running for president is not shocking or even unusual. What is also not unusual about McCabe's vote today in Pennsylvania: it will be an uninformed one.

If you don't recognize the name Nash McCabe, she was the video questioner in the ABC debacle debate in Philadelphia. McCabe was also the focus of a previous story in The New York Times from April 4. Gee, I wonder where ABC got the idea to interview her?

In The New York Times story, McCabe is quoted as saying "How can I vote for a president who won't wear a flag pin?"

So who is McCabe going to vote for on Tuesday in Pennsylvania? Well, George W. Bush isn't on the ballot and he wears a flag pin. Who else? Ronald Reagan is dead. Bill Clinton is ineligible. There is always George H.W. Bush: he's still eligible, though I don't know if he wears a flag pin.

McCabe can't vote for Obama because he doesn't wear a flag pin. And she can't vote for Hillary Clinton because she doesn't wear a flag pin. And assuming she's a registered Democrat, she can't cross over in Pennsylvania to vote for John McCain. And oh, McCabe can't vote for McCain because he doesn't wear a flag pin either.

Ah, I know who she could vote for: Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani probably wears a flag pin in his sleep. He would be perfect, the kind of president McCabe wants in the White House. The only problem is that Giuliani is a Republican, and he likely won't win Pennsylvania.

But McCabe will likely vote against Barack Obama because he is the only candidate that she is aware of that doesn't wear a flag pin. So unless McCabe doesn't vote at all today, ironically she will vote for a candidate who doesn't wear a flag pin.

"How can I vote for a president who won't wear a flag pin?" Well, you probably will today.

We all have our reasons for voting for a candidate and quite frankly, against a candidate. Some vote for someone on health care, jobs, education, and energy. Some vote against a candidate because they ski on vacation or they can't bowl well or having a beer with them sounds like a horrible idea.

So if Nash McCabe wants to vote for someone or against someone because they won't wear a flag pin, that is her right as an American. But I wonder: Would Nash McCabe really have focused on flag pins if the MSM hadn't focused on the fact that Obama doesn't wear a flag pin and ignoring that Clinton and McCain also don't wear flag pins?

Unfortunately for her, none of the three major candidates agrees with her. If Bob Barr wins the Libertarian nomination, she might have a champion in November. Though I can't imagine that wearing a flag pin jibes with the Libertarian philosophy.

Now you might think that McCabe's life is in pretty good shape if her major issue is who wears a flag pin. But The New York Times reported that McCabe is a recently unemployed clerk typist. This report notes that McCabe's "husband was injured in a coal mining accident 25 years ago and can't work. Nash has been the breadwinner all these years."

Wow! That has to be a bad situation. She's unemployed and her husband can't work. I'm sure the health care bills are rising, there's pressure on the mortgage, the rising costs of food and fuel can't help either. And her prospects of getting a well paying job in that part of Pennsylvania aren't that high. It's almost as if she is bitter or something.

Voters make decisions to vote on a number of reasons, some extremely superficial or some not. And that's fine. But their reasons should be based on the truth. Even if the MSM showed responsibility to be consistent and fair to all the candidates, there will always be misinformation spread in diners, beauty salons, and even the Internet. Some voters voted for George W. Bush in 2004 because they thought Bush was retaliating for 9/11 in Iraq. Some voters are thinking of voting for John McCain because they think he's pro-choice.

Voters need to have the truth from a reliable, credible source to make as thorough a decision as they can. The MSM could do a lot more to make that a reality. A lot more.

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