"Don't boo, vote"

Being a voter in Ohio has it's ups and downs.

The downside is that

• there are a million political advertisements inundating Youtube and television- SO ANNOYING! You can't watch any video/ show without watching the same obnoxious political ad at least 3 times. 
• my email is flooded with pleas to donate, donate, donate. "Be automatically entered to win a chance to eat a meal with Romney if you donate $3 today." "One lucky donor will meet Obama if you donate $5."

I can't wait for the election to be over just so that I can start watching "normal" ads again ;)

On the other hand, Romney and Obama  are campaigning hard in Ohio, and it's great to be "courted."
Remember this post when I first mentioned the politics in Ohio? Well, it gets better.

About 2 weeks after I arrived in Columbus, I attended a Romney rally at Powell, Ohio, and snapped this:

Yup, both Romney and Ryan were there. It was a treat, especially if you know how much I like Paul Ryan. In fact, I managed to take a picture with him as well! But that's another story... I circled both R & R (heh heh...) in yellow, but notice the purplish-pink circle- that's one of the snipers providing security for the duo. Thought it was cool to point that out. I know, I'm weird like that. 

Then yesterday (Oct 9), guess who came to campus?!

The President of the United States, Barack Obama.

Oh yeah! POTUS at The Ohio State University. No matter how awful you think he is, he is still the President of the United States who campaigned on my campus! How cool is that?! This is probably the closest I'll ever get to him physically. Obama is usually a pretty good speaker and he did not disappoint. Other than his dig against Romney for trying to "kill" Big Bird (oh Romney, why why why...*), his other memorable line was, "Don't boo, vote" and there were buses lined up to take unregistered voters to register and vote early. 

Seriously, it is great to be a voter in O-H-I-O! 

*FYI, Romney isn't planning to ax Sesame Street, only deregulate federal funding for the Sesame Street's channel, PBS, meaning that PBS can still survive through private investors and advertisers. I, however, am against this move. Federal funding for some programs needs to be cut down, but PBS is an excellent public good and should be supported. Besides,  cutting down funding for PBS is only cutting down less than 1% of the federal deficit. Don't attack the itty-bitty minion when the real mafia bosses of the deficit are Health Care and Defense Spending.