Hey, it’s 85 days until the election!  Even if you don’t countdown with your homemade Farside calendar like I do you’ve probably noticed it’s coming down to E-Day by the political attack ads that air during your twelfth viewing of that one episode of Friends which you never really liked anyway but nothing else seems to be on but it’s TV time and be damned if you’re not going to watch it!

Also, good news if you’re a swing state (that’s right, Ohhhhhiiiioooo) because it means that the candidates start to haunt the local diners, old factories, and bowling alleys of your state’s suburbs.  A quick glance back at the last election it seemed like Bush made Cleveland a second home while Kerry focused his last hours here, too – even enlisting the help of Bruce Springsteen  and  Adam Brody.

If The Boss and Seth Cohen can’t win over Ohio’s working class then I don’t know what ever will.

While squeezing in some photo-ops and talking points between showing off their knowledge of the local land and their empathy with the families suffering from the economic hurt that inhabits Ohio, both Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain held Presidential Town Halls in this here ol’ Swing State.  Obama visited Youngstown and added in a last minute Berea stop at Baldwin-Wallace College while McCain trekked through Lima and Wilmington.

Obama in Ohio

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Obama’s Town Hall in Berea last week – which, on a personal note, was great because it marked my attendance at a Town Hall for each Presidential candidate.

The capacity crowd waited in a hot rec-center for two hours before the event officially began – which gave me somewhat of a nostalgic feeling sitting on gym bleachers, except I was waiting to see Barack Obama speak instead of waiting to be pelted with rubber balls.  So maybe nostalgia isn’t the right word.  Anyway.

The event started out with a series of unusual events.  After Democrats Governor Ted Strickland and Senator Sherrod Brown introduced Obama, the crowd broke out in singing “Happy Birthday” to the Senator - even though his birthday was the day before.  And then just as the crowd was settling down and Obama was preparing to speak, a heckler started to yell for his attention – from the press riser.

(Here are two different perspectives of said strange and odd incident)

Obama mainly focused on his energy plan in which he suggests that America could move off of foreign dependence if we just set stringent goals.  He also suggested that with the promotion of new and green technologies we could increase American jobs.  By increasing more energy from wind sources Obama proposed that the run down steel mills of Cleveland could be revitalized by converting them to make wind turbines.

McCain in Ohio

Speaking of job loss in Ohio, the Ohio Democratic Party along with Obama has accused McCain of helping to aide in the current economic downturn because of a deal which moved DHL, a Wilmington, Ohio company, into foreign hands in 2003.  The McCain camp calls this criticism a stretch by saying if anything the actions McCain took helped the company stay open longer.  McCain visited the city to hear grievances and discuss resolutions to this unfortunate event.

During his visit in Lima McCain not only accused Obama of acting like a typical politician – that is, doing and saying what needs to be said to get the votes and for all his “eloquence” it doesn’t mean that much – but also all of Congress for doing the same.  He even fingered the Bush administration as being part of the problem.  Here’s the snippet.

This all I suppose ties into the whole infamous Obama-Celebrity advertisement – sure he sounds good but does it really have the substance?

Now I know you might interject and say, “Hey, wait a minute, wasn’t Senator John McCain in Wedding Crashers?  How is that any different?”   

Of course it’s different.  As pointed out by McCain’s “Celebrity” ad Barack Obama is the Paris Hilton of this election:  fame for being rich and popular? That doesn’t take craft!  Now, John McCain on the other hand, is an  artiste , he’s the Brando of this election.  I mean, there’s a difference here.

But as I tried to express in a previous post, it seems to me that when you become a politician you kind of are a celebrity, right?

Obama and McCain in Ohio

Right now, according to the latest Rasmussen poll, McCain leads Obama in Ohio.   Although Ohio is a swing state, it has a couple of factors working against Obama. 

Ohio went to George W. Bush the past two elections.  In the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton beat out Obama by 10% of the vote.  Also, Ohio currently holds a majority of red seats in congress.

But “polls are polls and moles are moles,” as no one I know used to say.  Even though it feels like we’re closing in on the election with less than 100 days till November a lot has yet to happen: the conventions, the naming of the VP’s, and the debates  just to name a few.  But considering the unusual swinginess of Ohio I wouldn’t be surprised if both parties start coming here for sleepovers more often as it comes closer to November.