I have a really hippy friend (lives in SF, drives a VW microbus, along with a few much nicer rides) but he's more realistic than most.
I was talking to him about the election, assuming he was in Obama's camp, but he wasn't.
He told me that he thought if Obama was the real deal and believed and could pull off all he spouts off about, it would make the world so much better. But if he's a fraud or a boob, it could be a gigantic disaster that we might never recover from.
He's not afraid of McCain and thinks McCain will just keep the ship straight and in good shape for his term. He won't fulfill his liberal dreams, but he won't burn the ship down to the waterline through incompetence.
He's leaning towards McCain, and the more shit that gets dumped on Obama will push him more firmly to McCain. He's a pretty wealthy and happy hippy and has no desire to watch the country blow up.
My brother really shocked me when he said he'd changed his mind about gun control. He said he still found gun control appealing, but that in practice it didn't work and didn't reduce violent crime. As an honest man, he couldn't continue to back something that had been proven wrong. I wish all lefties were willing to examine their beliefs.