LAWRENCE — It’s been a busy couple of weeks as the Democrats and Republicans held their conventions.

In Kansas, some were disappointed that our governor, Kathleen Sebelius, was passed up as Barack Obama’s vice presidential candidate. After all, as they’re finding out in Alaska, it would have been pretty cool for our state.

As I’ve followed the conventions and the bob-and-weave of polls – Obama’s on top! No, it’s McCain! – I’ve been able to hear what young people in Kansas are talking about, now that the tickets are solidified.

Surprisingly, not everyone has found a perfect match.

I watched Obama’s DNC speech at the historic Liberty Hall, which is more inclined to host indie bands than a packed house of enthusiastic Democrats. Given the atmosphere inside, where PBRs went down like water and chants of “O-bam-a, O-bam-a” careened off the walls, I was surprised to find people who weren’t sold on the Democratic candidate.

Who’s your candidate? Neither? Wha?
Jamaal Washington, 18, of Lawrence, said he vote for Obama, but only because he didn’t like McCain.

Obama, Washington said, is “my lesser oppressor.”

Whoa.

“He promised me hope and change,” he said, of Obama’s speech, which had some in the audience in tears. “But what separates him from any other president…that’s come in and promised these things?”

Hope > Anger
That’s not what Jared J. Kennedy, 19, thought. Obama’s message of unity and change spoke directly to Kennedy, of Bonner Springs, a Kansas City suburb.

“I really just don’t see any type of America that can go forward with any other candidate other than Barack Obama,” Kennedy said.

He told me how frustrated he has been during the last few years. He has friends in Iraq, dodging IEDs; his insurance is “a joke;” America during the last eight years has been a “façade.” Succinctly, he’s angry.

But he said hope goes a long way to tempering his anger.

“I believe hope tides away a lot of things, including anger. I’ve been trying to invest my ideas and love and understanding and a lot of tolerance, and I think that’s what will really get America through the next four years,” he said.

Kennedy’s optimism was countered by the sarcasm of one young Kansan, who says he can recite Obama’s stump speech word for word.

“I think he’s a cool dude,” said Mundia Chinonge, 18, of Lawrence. “If I could pick a really cool friend to hang out with, or a husband for my sister, or a dad…if I wanted a dad, it would be Barack Obama, because he’s so cool.

“He listens to Ludacris, he uses the Internet, and he gives speeches at stadiums. He’s a cool guy. He’s awesome. I mean, O-bama.”

It’s hard to write the cynicism and sarcasm dripping from Chinonge’s exclamation of the Democrat’s last name. Suffice it to say, he’s not wild about either candidates.

“He and McCain are the same kind of candidates. They agree on so many things,” he said.

He knocked Obama’s proposal to give tax cuts to companies that bring jobs outsourced abroad back to America, saying it would worsen the economy because workers would demand higher wages. It was an insightful bit of dissent, the most thoughtful I encountered in the last few weeks.

Republicans drawn to McCain’s story
In a town like Lawrence, the blue dot in Kansas, it was surprising to find so many people at a Democratic event knocking Obama. But the University of Kansas College Republicans backed their candidate without a second thought.

I met up with the modest group of about 30 Republicans, some who have been rooting for McCain since he started campaigning almost two years ago, at the Kansas Union on campus. Compared to the rowdy Dems, this was as quiet as a funeral. But the Republicans listened to their candidate closely, cheering him on education, drilling and his fiery conclusion.

Felix Zacharias, 25, is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. Naturally, McCain’s recollection of his time in Vietnam struck a chord with Zacharias, of Wichita.

“The only thing in the world he had to keep him going was someone in a cell next to him tapping on the wall,” he said. “When I was in Iraq, there were some really bad days when you lost friends…We were able to sit down and talk to each other face to face. He didn’t have the luxury. He was alone.
 
“It’s hard to find that in America today, to keep going. Why? Because you’re American, you keep going. That’s what Americans do.”

For all the time McCain spent recalling his days as a POW and how he came to really love America, it was striking that he didn’t mention a word about veteran care. But that didn’t bother Zacharias.

“He had a lot of ground to cover,” he said. “Do I feel like, now that I think about it, that John McCain could have taken 10 seconds to bring up veteran health care, certainly he could have, but I think his speech was pretty good on the whole. But I have no problem with him omitting that portion of the speech.”

Zacharias doesn’t think McCain will forget vets.

For Allison Koehn, 21, of Little River, Kan., the fact that veterans weren’t mentioned didn’t seem that significant, as she said the speech was McCain’s introduction to the country.

“It’s hard to go into in this kind of speech,” she said. “It’s kind of an introduction too, so you can’t go deep into policy. I definitely haven’t seen as much speeches about policy from Sen. Obama, so I’m really glad he went in depth into some issues.”

Education system ‘broken’
While KU’s College Republicans’ president Jesse Vaughn said he appreciated McCain’s words on the military, he said the candidate’s points on education resonated with the group.

“I think the education system is basically broken,” the Mound City, Kan., native said. Teachers who are not accountable “can ruin the rest of your life and your education career.”

Zacharias agreed: “It’s a great amount of responsibility to take in your hands when you teach someone,” he said. “And when people fail, it is (the teacher’s) fault. You are failing your student, you are failing their parents and you are failing your future because they will take that future from you, and it’s how you teach them to take it that will define the way this country works.”

‘Change is coming’
McCain’s big line of the night was “change in coming.” Koehn believes it.

"I thought it was very clever,” she said. “The thing that I like about McCain is Obama talks about change a lot in his speeches. But I don’t think we necessarily need change: We need the right change and I think McCain gives us that.”

So maybe Kansas really is a purple state. My observations from convention coverage indicate that young Republicans are standing firm behind their candidate. While Obama’s core supporters are with him, there are people who wonder if a promise of change in superficial, a question many in the country are wondering, too.

The only thing I know for sure is that this area – Lawrence and Douglas County – will almost certainly turn out for Obama. But McCain’s supporters won’t go quietly into the night.