Full Text of the Excerpt

KAREN SINDELAR:

Did you have any particular feelings when Roosevelt died?

JOSEPHINE TURNER:

Yes. I cried; I really did. I cried with all the rest of them because he was a good president. Even when Kennedy died.

KAREN SINDELAR:

You remember him as being a good president?

JOSEPHINE TURNER:

Yes, as far as I know.

KAREN SINDELAR:

How about Eisenhower? Do you have any particular…?

JOSEPHINE TURNER:

Well, I'll tell you: I'm a Democrat born, a Democrat bred, and when I die I'll be a Democrat dead. So a Republican, I… The hard thing on me was those Republicans, that bread line, and this present administration with everybody out of jobs. I mean, this is what I look at. Now, like the man may be good; the man is good. I have no qualm about no individual, but I'm looking at the things that are happening while they're in the chair. Every time one gets in the chair, the things that happen, you know. I feel sorry for Nixon: he just got caught. Like I say, all of them are doing something; that's everyday life. Until they get caught nobody never knows it. So I'm not saying Ford's not a good man. But the Republican policy, it seems like every time they get in the chair there's a bread line, I call it: people out of work. I mean, these are the things that I look at. And the Democrats may not be no better. Like one said, the Republican will starve you to death; the Democrat will get in there and start a war and kill you off. But one thing, they will get you jobs, you know. So this is what we're looking at. We're not looking at the man.

KAREN SINDELAR:

Do you have a preference for any of the Democratic candidates this year?

JOSEPHINE TURNER:

Of whose running now? [laughter] Well, to tell you the truth, I haven't even made up my mind as to it. But I'd say I'd vote for Wallace before I'd vote for Regan and Ford, just for the Democratic party, because I know what he is. He lets you know what he is; you know what I'm trying to say? You know what he is.

KAREN SINDELAR:

I know what you're trying to say. I don't agree with you [laughter] .

JOSEPHINE TURNER:

[laughter] Well, what I'm trying to say is, if I voted—now I didn't say I would vote—if I voted I'd vote for him before I would the Republican side of the thing. You see what I'm trying to say?

KAREN SINDELAR:

Right. You're just picking an extreme example [laughter] .

JOSEPHINE TURNER:

Yes.

KAREN SINDELAR:

What do you think of Carter?

JOSEPHINE TURNER:

Well, he's talking; he's talking [laughter] . See, that's it: we've got a lot of talkers and no doers, you know. But I don't feel that Carter's going to win. I mean, I feel like they're going to either draft Kennedy or Humphrey. This is the way I look at it; I feel that way. Now they may be just as bad as anybody else, you know, but that's the way I look at it. But as of now I wouldn't pinpoint any of them.