Ozarks Values '08: Ernie O'Gaffney

Residence: Clever
Occupation: Retired
Politics: Independent

Ernie O'Gaffney is angry. But there are lots of disgruntled citizens out there. O'Gaffney's gripes probably wouldn't matter so much if he wasn't so politically active. He's been a thorn in the side of Christian County Presiding Commissioner John Grubaugh over the way he's made decisions. He helped jump-start The Christian County Coalition, a group organized to mobilize voters to support county building codes. He's a frequent writer of letters to the editor. And he clearly has the ear of other disaffected citizens.

"We are in the 21st Century, but in actuality the county is in the 19th Century," O'Gaffney said to his supporters in early August before voters passed a new building codes law in Christian County. "Without regular people willing to stand up to power, this would've never happened," he told me later.

O'Gaffney's politics are anything but cut and dry. A regular voter for decades, he sat out last year's U.S. Senate because he was so unimpressed by both Jim Talent and Claire McCaskill. Looking ahead to 2008, O'Gaffney is even less inspired.

"The major issue in my mind is that we elect a politician who does what he says," O'Gaffney says. "For example, Hillary Clinton is like a light switch. On again, off again, depending on how many votes she can get. Obama, he's almost the same way," O'Gaffney adds dismissively.

"The one guy I do like is Joe Lieberman. He speaks his mind, and is willing to go either way," he says.

Unfortunately for O'Gaffney, Lieberman isn't running this time. It's notable that he chooses to take apart the Democratic candidates first. Maybe that means they are just more visible to voters. Or maybe it means he's less inclined to vote for one. He doesn't mention any of the current Republican candidates, but does say his vote for President in Bush in 2004 was a mistake. "I was one of the millions who made a mistake," he says. "You can't trust Republicans anymore. They outporked and outspent the Democrats."

So where if anywhere will O'Gaffney end up in 2008? Of course he wouldn't say. Maybe he just couldn't. Or maybe he was just being ornery Ernie. After much prodding, he did give me a profile of a man he could vote for: "Someone with the charisma of JFK, the foreign policy of Richard Nixon, the action of Ronald Reagan and the cohesiveness of Roosevelt. Give me that man, I'll proudly vote for him."