Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Blog

This is almost precisely the same conversation I had with a Democratic campaign volunteer in my (very Democratic) area of Ohio:

Steve Nicholson barely opens the storm door for the Democratic campaign volunteer trying to talk to him about the Ohio governor’s race. “I don’t care for either one,” he says, “I just want jobs.” The volunteer says that’s exactly why he should vote for the incumbent, Democrat Ted S trickland. “Not voting is a vote for Kasich,” she says, referring to Republican challenger John Kasich. “Strickland will be better for jobs,” agrees Nicholson, 30. So will he vote? No. Does he at least want a little campaign literature to learn about the race? No. The storm door closes.

I didn’t say anything about jobs, I said that I didn’t like Strickland’s opposition to charter schools.  And I didn’t say anything about Kasich, because at the time I didn’t even know the name of the Strickland’s opponent — I think I just called him “the other guy.”  And I think I’m relatively interested in politics!

Seen in Valley View, Ohio: the vanity license plate [STASI HQ].  Is this some band name I don’t know about?  Or did someone really get a East German secret police-themed plate?  If I had known this was a valid genre, I might’ve looked into reserving [NKVD GUY] or [GES TAPO] or perhaps [HI CHEKA].

Or [WE KGB C U] or [AW NSA QQ].

What about [CIA QT PI]?  I can go on.

This news on charter schools makes me happier than I have any right to be.  Obama’s mild attack on the governor of Ohio’s anti-charter school stance also helped.  There certainly isn’t a whole lot of things to like in the daily political discourse for someone like me, but if Obama gets decent headway on school choice, I promise that I will say five or six nice things about him over the next four years.  Which is quite a bit more than I was willing to give the last few idiots.

At the risk of sounding like a hopeless one-issue voter, this is the kind of thing that actually will help the country in the long run.