Late AND EPU’d again. Earlier today we had several errands in public places (gasp!), so I thot this bright sunny fall day would be a perfect time to inaugurate my birthday present from one of our sons – a nice dignified but totally unambiguous “Obama for President” t-shirt.

In the doc’s office, a black lady busily updating records, glanced up as I passed her desk; eyes lingered; we shared wide smiles as we knocked fists and I assured her, “I think he’s got it.” On my way back out, a grinning, “Don’t forget to vote”/”Don’t you worry!!!”

On to the grocery store. A tired and worried looking older gentleman was bagging groceries, spotted the Obama logo and started a quiet rant to me, “They shouldn’t DO that. It’s WRONG!” Before I could stammer anything out, much less guess which side he was on, he said, “That McCain’s gonna RUIN this country! He has to STOP. I would NEVER vote for that man.”

In a waiting room later, responding to comments from some elderly ladies sitting nearby, I shared some beautiful pictures of nesting and wintering Bald Eagles in a copy of “Nature Conservancy” that I happened to be reading. As the ladies and their daughters “ooh”ed and “ahhh”ed over the birds, we talked about where the eagles live and how they travel widely as young adults, what they like to eat, how you can tell the young ones by their color. Some of the pictures were from Ketchikan R. in AK, prompting further questions and exclamations at the wonder of it all. No mention of my shirt, but all present clearly noticed its logo. We didn’t talk politics per se. We didn’t have to. Its implications permeated the space we shared.

Easiest fly-by compaigning I’ve ever done.

Even moments like these, folks. Powerful stuff. Just down the pike a short hop from Strongsville OH.

Yes, THAT Strongsville. The place where the odd, 2+1, McSames plus Palin threesome sank their own campaign earlier this week. That wasn’t a campaign rally; it was closer to a Jerry Springer-ish trash-talk event. Its impression blew away in the wind, after solidifying a whole lot of opinions in and beyond Strongsville.

Not-so-Wild predictions:

People WILL turn out in droves in OH this year.
Obama in a walk.

“My barber tells me — and this is a guy who can … legally put a razor to your throat and ask you a question, so that’s a good focus group that he’s getting all day long — he says we’re going to see a reverse Bradley effect. There’s a lot of people that have been saying all along they’d never vote for Barack Obama, but they’re going to go in the voting booth and they’re going to do it because it’s in their economic interest.”

My bad.

there just isn’t enough money in the world to settle them all.

the magnitude of this has only these last few weeks even begun to sink in for me.