Election Observations from My Recent Travels

Diana and I in the Midwest this weekend visiting my family (and going to the ND vs. Pitt game). In the process we went through Illinois, Michigan, and the tossup state of Indiana. We heard this ad for Obama on the radio. We knew immediately it had to be someone famous talking, but we couldn’t place it until he said he was John Mellencamp. Wow.



Obama also had one of those big ads being pulled by an airplane flying around South Bend before the game. He’s using that money!

I was also in Tucson a couple weeks ago. I saw more McCain/Palin signs in Michigan (a solid Obama state) then I did in Arizona. In fact, I saw more McCain/Palin signs on my parent’s block than I did in Arizona. I was in Tucson for a week and saw a grand total of 1 McCain sign and 1 McCain bumper sticker. Both of which were canceled out by the 1 Obama sign and 1 Obama bumper sticker I saw there too. No wonder Obama started running TV ads in Arizona.

Now you might say, maybe they’re not bothering to put up signs because they know McCain will win his home state. Except that I saw lots of Obama signs in Illinois and he’s likely to get 60% of the vote there. (By comparison, McCain’s only polling at 53% in AZ.) You might say, maybe they just don’t put up lots of political campaign signs in Arizona. Except that I saw lots of signs for local races. Frankly, I just don’t think they like McCain there very much.

And lest you think it’s unheard of for a Presidential candidate to lose his home state, remember: had Al Gore won his home state of Tennessee, Florida wouldn’t have mattered.