REPORT FROM OHIO: Reader Jim Coutinho writes:
It’s anecdotal, I know, but I wanted to report to you what I saw driving around this past weekend. I live in Hilliard, Ohio, which is a suburb on the western side of the Columbus Ohio outerbelt. My wife and I drove around for about three hours on Saturday doing some garage sale shopping and saw more Mitt Romney signs than I ever expected to see. Romney signs were present over Obama signs by a factor of 10 to 1.
I have lived in this area and around Ohio State Campus for twelve years. Hilliard is more conservative than central Columbus, but I have NEVER seen this many pro-republican signs. In fact, I think I saw more Romney signs on Saturday than I ever saw of McCain/Palin signs in all of 2008.
I was incredibly encouraged. I don’t think they are lying about the GOP ground game.
Keep up the good fight. I am glad for all that you do (and will be shopping for Christmas gifts through your Amazon link).
Thanks for that! And I hope you’re right.
UPDATE: A reader emails: “I live in Venice, California, and I havent seen an obama yard sign yet.”
And reader Gary Herring emails from Gloucester County, Virginia:
The local Republican Committee had a booth at a local fair last Friday and Saturday. We were directly across a pathway from the Democrat booth. I manned the Republican booth for most of Saturday and heard from someone she was there Friday. In terms of numbers of visitors, bumper stickers and lawn signs given away (we ran out of Romney-Ryan signs), and just thumbs-up from passersby, the GOP blew the Dems’ doors off. Their VA-01 congressional candidate supposedly put in an appearance but I’m not sure I saw him – he certainly didn’t draw a crowd near the booths.
Meanwhile, reader R.J. Thomas writes: “I just saw the ‘Report from Ohio’ and it reminded me that just a few days ago my wife and I both noted, independent of each other, that there are a heck of a lot more Romney bumper stickers out here (we live in Los Angeles County) than we ever saw McCain stickers. And not just on fancy cars. We both noticed a lot on pick-up trucks, especially those driven by tradesmen. Again, not a scientific survey, but it was certainly enough to grab our attention.”
Well, we’ll know soon enough.