BS: Update from Ohio November 2

Subject: RE: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Nov 08 - 11:05 PM

Perry County is the poorest county in the state and oddly enough borders one of the richer ones where, oddly enough again, I live. But then again, Perry is a literal stone's throw from my door and New Straitsville is about 20 miles down the road.

In this very traditionally Republican and conservative part of a state well known to be Republican, Obama has far better support than I would ever have dreamed. From both the better off in Fairfield county to the unemployed poor in Perry, there's been some great activity in the past 2 months. I truly believe (as do the other Move-On members here) that the negative campaign tactics combined with the economy have brought about a change. Its not that so many like Obama especially, but a lot of folks are going to vote Democrat because they are willing to try something different. They believe that there has GOT to be something better than what's going on now so why nopt give it a chance?

Maybe that sounds trite but I think its true. The feelings have changed so radically among these folks about Bush and company that they might just try anything. The local morning coffee drinkers at the Quik-Stop Shop can actually be heard saying nasty things about Bush. They are mainly too old school patriotic not to respect McCain the ex-POW but he's too closely tied to the failure of all things Bush. THAT is the most remarkable change to have taken place in rural Ohio over the past year. They feel a bit betrayed.

Ohio is a strange place politically. We have had extreme conservative Republicans in most offices and quite a few very liberal Democrats as well. This is the home of Taft Republicanism but also the home of Dennis Kucinich and one of the most extreme liberal Senators ever to have graced the Congress, Howard Metzenbaum. What will happen here tomorrow is up in the air but I'm willing to bet the state goes for Obama.

I'm also willing to bet there are election problems even with everything they have tried to do......We'll see. I don't see any way McCain can win without this state.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: Amos
Date: 03 Nov 08 - 10:37 PM

An informal assessment of yard signs in my part of the country shows that our next President will be ReMax.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Nov 08 - 08:42 PM

I'm pleased that folks are actually reading this article (linked in the first post). I thought it was really showing that the Obama Campaign was successful in reaching at least some of voters it needs to win over to change an important state from red to blue. Salon.com has some very capable and brave staff people.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: Barry Finn
Date: 03 Nov 08 - 04:57 PM

"I know a lot of people from all types of backgrounds who are more hopeful about our future than they've ever been."

Yes Alice, I haven't been in such a positive state since the 60's. If this election goes the way I think & hope it will, a democratic administration led by Obama, a Senate & House with an overwhelming democratic majority & an eventually balanced Supreme Court, we'll be able to rid the nation the political powers of religious right, of fundamentalists, of extremists & the power & money hungry greedy bastards that have taken us so far off track.
I hope to see a government that will finally support accessible & affordable education for all, national health care for all, a fair tax system where the poor & middle classes will stop paying the burden for the rich to recieve a free ride, a system that will stop trading our future for the profits of today & will jion the world in turning around an out of control climate change & will do all in it's power to reverse the destructive enviormental impact cause by the last 8 yrs.

If we have a chance at all it will be tomorrow.

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: artbrooks
Date: 03 Nov 08 - 04:41 PM

WYSIWYG, I confess that I initially read that as "Hamsters for Obama", and wondered if that wasn't a bit out of the ordinary, even for Harrisburg. Fortunately, the double-take took.

If my unscientific yard sign and bumper-sticker polls are accurate, New Mexico should come down solidly for Obama. Albuquerque newspaper poll gives him an 8% lead. O-my-gawd...can we handle a President B.O.?

Subject: RE: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: Alice
Date: 03 Nov 08 - 04:31 PM

I like that quote:
Morris confessed, "I pray every night that Barack and his wife will be elected to the White House unanimously."

HERE IS A BIT OF HUMOR

Subject: RE: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: Alice
Date: 03 Nov 08 - 04:27 PM

Thanks for that link, Charley. I know a lot of people from all types of backgrounds who are more hopeful about our future than they've ever been.

Subject: RE: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Nov 08 - 04:22 PM

Here's hoping for a better turnout this time around in Ohio!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Nov 08 - 05:51 PM

In Harrisburg, PA yesterday, a union office plastered with signs:

TEAMSTERS FOR OBAMA

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Nov 08 - 05:36 PM

Charley, thanks for posting that. It is very encouraging!

Subject: BS: Update from Ohio November 2
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Nov 08 - 10:13 AM

I found this article from Salon Magazine of interest with regard to a surge of blue-collar support for the Obama Campaign: Click here for report

Here are the opening paragraphs:

Nov. 2, 2008 | NEW STRAITSVILLE, Ohio -- The Saturday afternoon scene seemed ripped out of a Republican playbook. A campaign canvasser wearing a black cowboy hat stood on the threshold of a mobile home in a hardscrabble, virtually all-white rural county talking about God's will and the White House with a retiree who once was a fundamentalist Baptist preacher.

"I think God had it all planned out for Barack-o to be our man," said Tom Morris, 73, a lifelong Republican whose career was mostly as a self-employed truck driver and electrician. Eighty-two-year-old retired coal miner Rufus Fultz, one of the most active Obama volunteers in Perry County, chimed in, "I believe it too." Morris and his wife, Ernestine, who also crossed party lines to vote early for Obama, live in a trailer in their backyard because they lack the money to repair their ramshackle house. Morris confessed, "I pray every night that Barack and his wife will be elected to the White House unanimously."

Watch them returns in Ohio!

Charley Noble