In downtown Port Townsend, at Ryk’s Custom Jewelry, the talk of the shop Wednesday was politics.
Ryk Reaser, owner of the Water Street jewelry shop, isn’t exactly thrilled with the outcome of the presidential election. He’s a Republican who voted for Sen. John McCain and still isn’t sold on Barack Obama as president.
But as he talked with Lisabeth Bellet, an independent from Gardiner who is wearing an Obama T-shirt, he started to give an inch.
“I hope he gets the right advisers to help him run things,” Reaser said on Wednesday, the day after Jefferson County overwhelmingly supported Obama, with 10,656 votes, or 67.55 percent, to McCain’s 4,844 votes, or 30.71 percent.
Washington state went blue, with 1,048,082 votes, or 57.29 percent, for Obama to 740,850 votes, or 40.71 percent, for McCain.
All votes have not been counted. The Jefferson County Auditor’s Office will count more on Friday.
“I hope [Obama] surrounds himself with advisers who lead him, instead of the other way around,” Reaser said.
Reaser doesn’t think Obama has enough experience and he’s worried that the Obama tax plan will harm the business he has owned and operated for 21 years.
“He was only a community organizer, and he didn’t do very well at that,” Reaser said. “It worries me.”
Bellet isn’t worried. She volunteered her time this year to the Obama campaign — a task she said she likely won’t undertake again.
“I’m sick of that part, but I am so happy he won,” Bellet said.
“I expect the U.S. will enter a more diplomatic phase, and because of that we will be a lot safer in the world.
“I truly believe he will be a great president.”
Reaser smiled at her and said that he completely disagrees.
Then he returned her ring, which he had cleaned and polished — a free service he offers to everyone who comes into his store — and joked with her, saying she’s not really an independent.
“I’ve known her for years,” Reaser said of Bellet.
“[Politics] don’t bother me.”
Except in business.
Uncertain times
Reaser, a Vietnam veteran who has a tribute to those who died on 9/11 on his wall, is looking at uncertain times as the national economy stutters and a new president’s tax plan is put in place.
“I hope he doesn’t take money away from the people who are here creating jobs,” Reaser said.
“But I do honestly have all the confidence in the world that he will surround himself with the smartest people in America.”
The stock market took a hit Wednesday, with all the major indexes tumbling and the Dow Jones industrials falling more than 5 percent, or 486.01, to 9,139.27.
Rich Gastfield, a Republican and a financial advisor, wasn’t sure if the election had anything to do with what has been described as a case of post-election nerves on Wall Street.
“I don’t know, it might have,” Gastfield said.
“There is a whole lot going on right now.”
Gastfield, who lives in Discovery Bay but watches stocks for a living in Port Townsend, said he isn’t surprised by the outcome of the election nor is he disheartened.
“I hope he’s successful,” Gastfield said.
“We need to come together right now, and [Obama] comes in with a new order.”
Gastfield voted for McCain because of his experience and because he believed McCain could deal with the current economic issues.
“We don’t know what we have here, because he has never been tested,” Gastfield said of Obama.
“I hope he surrounds himself with really good advisors. He’s got a good one in [vice-president-elect Joe] Biden.
“A good leader puts more good leaders under him, and that’s what [Obama] needs to do.”
Gastfield was in good spirits despite his candidate losing.
“Even though I voted for McCain, I want Obama to succeed,” he said.
“We need him to do well right now.”
New hope
Robert Burke thinks Obama will do great.
“It’s kind of like a breath of new hope,” Burke said.
“I really do have faith in this country right now.”
Burke is a line cook at The Public House in downtown Port Townsend. The 26-year-old he voted for the first time in Tuesday’s election.
“It was the very first time I voted, and I voted for Obama,” Burke said.
“I’m absolutely a convert from not caring to believing that voting is my duty as a citizen.”
Burke said his views on voting changed after 2004 when he watched President George Bush defeat Sen. John Kerry in a close election.
He wasn’t happy with Bush, but he realized he hadn’t done anything to change the situation.
“If we don’t vote, we don’t really have the right to voice our opinion about how bad things are,” he said.
“That changed this time. I think it was people like me across the country who decided this election.”
Burke said friends and family phoned him throughout election night.
“My sister actually cried,” he said.
“It was so intense how excited everyone was.”
Kind of a letdown
Sally Smith, a Port Ludlow real estate agent who calls herself “an old Republican,” didn’t say she was excited, but she did say she was hopeful.
“I’ve been watching the news every night for almost a year now, and the aftermath is kind of a letdown,” Smith said of the McCain loss.
“I’m a true conservative, but I haven’t always voted for Republicans.”
Smith said this time around, she voted for McCain for a number of reasons but mostly for the fact that she felt his values closely mirrored her own.
“I’m disappointed that McCain did not succeed,” she said.
“I think the unknown with Barrack Obama is now a wait-and-see situation.
“I don’t know what to expect.”
Smith didn’t discount Obama. She said she wanted him to bring his particular skill set to the table, surround himself with the smartest people available regardless of party lines and to solve the problems the country is currently facing.
“Obama does bring his own experience,” she said, “And there is such a thing as on-the-job training.”
“Unless you are on your second term, what do you really know about that job?
“It’s important who he surrounds himself with and I hope there is some across-the-aisle work that will be done.”
Smith also said she refused to even contemplate which Republican would run for the office in four years.
“I think we need to concentrate on getting the job done in the next four years,” she said.
“Let’s not wait for four years or for another party. I want success now.”
“Nobody would say that my party didn’t win, so I want everything to go to hell.
“When it comes down to it, we all live here in America.”
History made in America
With Obama as the president-elect, history was made in America as citizens elected it’s first African-American commander in chief.
Brent Butler, a Port Townsend City Councilman who is African-American, said he viewed Obama’s election as proof that anyone can succeed in America.
“Obama getting elected shows everyone that they do have the opportunity to do whatever they want in this country,” he said.
“It’s really not a race issue. It’s a message of hope for all people that if you work hard, if you put your nose to the grindstone, you can be elected.
“Obama had the qualities required for the job and nothing held him back — and it shouldn’t — and this election proves that it doesn’t.”
Butler voted for Obama, but said he considers himself an independent. He voted for Democrats and Republicans in this election.
He also said he doesn’t expect any immediate change, and that it will be a process of making good decisions and following through before any substantive differences are noticed.
“This election is a reaction to what many people in America see as us going in the wrong direction,” Butler said.
“But I don’t think that will change right away.”
“I think that now we have a moment to reflect, to find a direction and to hopefully solve some problems we are facing.”
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com
