Dumfries, Virginia (CNN) -- Retiree Robert Stevens says he often turns off the television when the attack ads appear, and he hangs up the phone when it's a presidential campaign calling. "I want to make my own independent decision," Stevens said in a lunchtime conversation this week at Harold and Cathy's Dumfries Cafe. "I don't want anybody shoving stuff down my throat." Four years ago, Stevens recalls being "fed up with Bush" and intrigued by the idea of being part of history. "I voted for Mr. Obama," he said. "It was something different for the country. Something that hadn't happened before -- a black president. I got caught up in that a little bit. But I think he is a disappointment. I don't see jobs coming back. The housing market is coming back a little bit. But unemployment is still way above where it should -- where he predicted it would be."
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Self-described independent disappointed with Obama but not sold on Romney
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Democrat didn't vote for Obama in 2008 because she didn't think he could keep promises
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GOP pollster says transplants have turned traditionally red state into a purple state
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Democratic congressman says Romney image from primaries will come back to haunt him
But there also is evidence of doubts that give @placeholder the opening to at least cut into the president's margins here, something he must do to have any chance of winning statewide.