View From the Ground -- West Akron

First off, coming home from class and not finding a half dozen mailers in the box and four robocalls on the message machine was a pleasant change of pace.

I voted around 8:30 this morning in a school gym hosting three precincts. The lines were only a person or so deep for each. We've been using optical scan machines for three cycles now, so it's old hat for us. It worked fine.

I ran into a friend in line who said she was still making up her mind.

A friend of a friend reported yesterday that the Summit Co BoE was packed with early voters -- an hour wait or more.

I pass Hillary HQ on the way to and from school. They've been doing honk-and-wave visibility there. I got an email from Obama state HQ calling for all hands on deck for last minute GOTV canvassing. If you have an interest, click here. As I'm writing this, I get a robocall from Barack himself urging me to vote. Got it covered, big guy.

The whether positively blows. Not only is it cold and rainy the rain is freezing the roads already and will no doubt render everything a sheet of black ice when the sun goes down. It reminds me of the general in 2004. I was working election protection and things were humming along through the day. As the sun went down and the rain came, the voters disappeared. By 6:30 the radio stations in Akron were echoing the Cleveland reports of long lines but in Akron the polling places were essentially empty. (Bob Fitrakis is still investigating how Bush ordered that freezing drizzle.) Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that voting is pretty much done by 6:00 or so.
I'm frustrated with how this is playing out. I was hoping for resolution today, even more than hoping for my guy winning. I suspect a split in the states -- Hillary wins Ohio by a couple points and RI big. Obama wins Texas by a couple of points and Vermont big. Nothing resolved and the shit sling continues. Most frustrating of all -- Hillary is starting to see some advantage in going negative, so she will continue to do so. To me she feels more and more like the high school mean girl -- she's nice enough to Barack when he's in the room but trashes him as soon as he leaves earshot. I also wonder in the final analysis whether the NAFTA strategy was the right play in Ohio. In any event, I'm sufficiently weary of NAFTA posturing after enduring the Ohio 13th primary. I'm heading out soon for the usual kid schlepping and errands. I'll try to get something up tonight.