Even apart from foreign policy, people have other gripes with Obama. One business owner I spoke to wondered if Obama’s taxes on big business wouldn’t mean more jobs leaving Louisiana and the US to go overseas. In a tough economy, he didn’t think he could put up with higher taxes even if they mean benefits for poor families. And Louisiana wants the money from offshore drilling, he explained. He had voted Democrat twice for Bill Clinton and he would vote for the Clintons again, he said, raising his hands, but he didn’t think he could afford an Obama presidency.

The chef on his cigarette break, leaning on the wall outside his New Orleans restaurant, told me he wasn’t planning to vote. He doesn’t stand by McCain’s pro-war stance, but Obama seems like he’s just telling everyone what they want to hear. “He came around here a few weeks ago,” the chef said, grinning with disbelief, “and he promised he would fix the education system, tackle corruption, and raise the levees. To do all that, he’d have to focus all his time only on Louisiana. And there’s fifty other states he’s been making all kinds of promises to.”

Aashti Bhartia studied anthropology at Columbia University and is a freelance writer