Knightdale:
The boxes piled high all around Don Kreamer's house helped explain the mixture of cynicism and weariness with which he settled in to watch President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech on Wednesday night.
After a long battle, Kreamer, 59, and his wife, Sheyenne, 48, learned several weeks ago that their house of nine years in this suburb of Raleigh had been sold at a foreclosure auction. They were told they needed to vacate by this weekend.
But the couple took a break from packing to tune in to the speech.
"I'm like everybody else, hoping for hope, hoping for something positive," he said. "I'm tired of the negative."
And to a certain extent, he and his wife got it. Both nodded and murmured their agreement, for instance, with the president's remarks encouraging small businesses and continuing to fight for health care reform. But questions remained.
"I believe he's got a sincere desire to make the right changes, but I don't know if he's in touch enough to understand how deep the changes need to go," Sheyenne Kreamer said. "And I don't believe he's got the support of the Congress to get things done."
The Kreamers' struggles began in December 2007, when health issues forced Don Kreamer to sell the office equipment business he had run for 14 years. Both he and his wife, who had a small business of her own that she tried unsuccessfully to get off the ground, have struggled since then to find work and pay their bills, as the economy spiraled downward.
Both Don and Sheyenne Kreamer are in many ways examples of the independent voters who are being courted so heavily by both parties. A Marine veteran, Don Kreamer voted for John McCain in 2008, but he said it was a close call. And while he faults some of Obama's policies, he does not blame the president for all of the country's woes.
"I'm fed up with both parties," he said. "They don't want to work together. They don't want to help the average person out there."
Health insurance has long been an issue for them, because they could not afford it with Don Kreamer's small business. So they were heartened to hear Obama reaffirm his commitment to the issue.
But Kreamer said he still believed Obama's to-do list was too long, after hearing him tick off plans for everything from immigration reform to an energy bill, as well as the economy. "I think he's got too many things on his agenda, on his plate," he said. "Narrow it down to jobs, helping small businesses, health care."