GLENDALE, Missouri (CNN) -- Susan McGraw found George W. Bush more trustworthy in Campaign 2000 and supported his re-election in 2004 because, as she puts it, "Osama bin Laden scared me to death, and I believed he was the best prepared to deal with that."
But in this campaign's battle for the suburbs, McGraw is leaning in favor of Democrat Barack Obama even though she gives Republican John McCain higher marks on the issues of national security, experience and leadership.
"I feel like the state we are in right now, we need something different," McGraw said at her home in suburban Glendale, on the outskirts of St. Louis, Missouri. "And to get different, you have to do different, and so that is what I am leaning towards."
American presidential elections increasingly are settled in the suburbs, and with three weeks until Election Day, it is clear McCain has a problem in Missouri and in other key battleground states. At stake: 11 Electoral College votes in Missouri.
It is not that Republicans expect to win among suburban women, but the margins matter, and voters like McGraw are crucial to helping the GOP.
Four years ago, for example, Democrat John Kerry won among suburban women but by the narrow margin of 51 percent to 48 percent, according to network exit polls.
Now, Obama enjoys a much bigger margin: 56 percent to 44 percent, according to the latest CNN-Opinion Research Corp. polling.
Unlike four years ago, when security was McGraw's paramount concern, pocketbook issues carry sway this time. She is a divorced mother of two teenage girls who says higher energy and health care costs are putting a major squeeze on her budget.
"And I keep getting these bills saying, 'Hmm, sorry, you are 53, and you are single, and we are gong to raise your premium again' and my deductible -- I might as well not even have insurance," McGraw said.
Another significant reason in her drift toward Obama is McCain's choice to share the Republican ticket: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
"It's not that I am so 'rah-rah Obama.' It is just Sarah Palin. ... I hate to say it, but Sarah Palin -- she scares me."
McGraw says her biggest concern is that Palin isn't up to the national security challenge of the presidency, should anything happen to McCain.
Stacey Newman lives a few miles away and says she shares similar concerns about Palin.
McCain never had much of a chance for Newman's vote; she is a longtime Democratic activist and was a prominent Sen. Hillary Clinton supporter here.
Asked whether she still believes Clinton's primary message that Obama is not ready to be president, Newman pauses only for a moment before answering, "Yes."
And she is still disappointed in an Obama campaign that she says has done little or nothing to reach out to prominent Clinton supporters.
"I don't know if it is the arrogance that we are going to vote Democratic anyway, so 'Why do we need to spend any more time' on us. But there is a disappointment.
But Newman says she does know "a moderate number" of Democrats and moderate Republicans who were backing Clinton and were initially open to supporting McCain. But she says the Palin choice ended that possibility, because of the governor's inexperience and her opposition to abortion rights.
"It has been more the Palin pick in terms of inciting us to say, 'Wait a minute, we have to support the Democrat even though we are not as emotionally tied.' "
Not that there aren't McCain boosters; McGraw's neighborhood is a mix of McCain and Obama signs, and she says her Republican friends pressure her constantly to once again vote Republican.
She hasn't ruled that out but at the moment, after backing the GOP the last two elections, says her vote will probably go for Obama.
"I want to vote McCain in my heart, but you know what? Sorry, he should have picked somebody else. ... Now, a McCain-Biden ticket? That would do it for me!"
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