My youngest grand-nephew is turning one and I’m going to his birthday party this weekend.  One of my sisters is stopping here to get me on her way there and then we’re going to continue driving together for about two hours to get to the party.

We know we’re going to talk politics the whole way up, because when she called me just now to tell me what time she plans to pick me up, we ended up talking politics and determined that we have to continue tonight’s conversation in more depth when we meet up.

I like that.

My sister is a right-leaning Independent, who (like me) grew up a Republican.  I veered off to the left only three years ago, she drifted indie-right several years ago.  So she knows her stuff.  She reads/views news about both sides. 

I like that too.

She admits that there are certain things about Obama that she likes (mainly, his mother), and that some of the things he says make sense.  To me, that’s a start.  To her, it’s a big admission. 

Back in 2000, she and I both voted for McCain in the primary election.  Neither of us regrets it.  We both voted for Bush in the general.   Both of us regret it.  I’ve already written an earlier blog about my switch from Republican to Democrat, so I won’t bore you with the details here.   It’s my sister’s POV I’m sharing tonight, because I find it somewhat fascinating. 

Points she made from her conversation with me tonight on the phone:

- Time magazine leans heavily towards Obama.  As she put it, “There’s all these stories about how great Obama is, in this one issue, and one story about McCain’s cancer.”  And, “That cover with half of Obama’s face and half of Hillary’s is scary.  Really scary.  It reminds me of The Joker.  I have to bury it under all my other magazines because I freak out every time I see it.”  (She hasn’t seen the cover of The New Republic -- yet).

- She doesn’t appreciate being told that we should lose weight and stop buying SUV’s (my sister is slim and drives a small car) and feels that our President should not be telling us how to live our lives.  (I didn’t counterpoint that with a reminder that McCain said that our government should not be bailing people out of their own mistakes when he was against helping people out of the mortgage crisis before he was for it  -- yet).

- She can’t stand Keith Olbermann and still prefers to watch Bill O’Reilly.  She feels that Bill has been pretty fair to Obama, Clinton, and McCain and that the only person Bill seems to hate is Reverend Wright.  She told me that “O’Reilly says that Reverend Wright lives in a very expensive home in an all-white neighborhood.  And that he gets some kind of million-dollar subsidy through his church.  But then again, David Letterman supposedly gets some kind of agricultural subsidy because he lives on what he calls a farm.“  (We both laughed at, and questioned, that, to the point where I don‘t remember if she said that O‘Reilly said that, or she‘d read it somewhere).  She feels that Keith Olbermann is overly-dramatic and somewhat crazy and she can’t watch his show because he drives her nuts.  I admitted that I like Keith but that I haven’t watched Bill’s show in years, except for little snippets on the internet.  (I haven’t introduced her to Rachel Maddow -- yet).

- Conservatives aren’t embracing McCain.  I pointed out that left-leaning indies aren‘t either.  (She doesn’t see this as a concern -- yet).

-  Obama is too far left and too liberal for her liking.  She doesn’t think the government knows what its doing with Social Security and Medicare, so how in the hell can it solve health care.  I pointed out that Obama’s plan is geared more towards lowering the costs of prescription drugs and insurance than it is towards Hillary‘s “universal” health care that comes with mandates.  (She doesn’t have a very good comeback for that one -- yet).

So that’s the inner workings of my sister’s political brain at this moment in time.  She likes Obama more than Hillary, but likes McCain more than Obama.  (I haven’t been able to change her mind -- yet).

What is truly the most fascinating thing about our ongoing political discussion, though, is the fact that it’s happening at all.  Or, as my roommate Billy put it, after I hung up with my sister and huffed to him, “My sister is still leaning too far to the right!” -- as Billy put it, “Yeah but at least she’s talking with you about it.”

Yes.

She and I are talking about it, with knowledge, facts, open minds, candor, respect and -- friendliness.  We’re keeping it friendly. 

I like that.