Just so’s ya know, there is an ‘Obama for President’ headquarters in Providence, but it’s not one of those places where you can drop in and get cool merch like buttons, lanyards, and bumper stickers. Obviously the campaign shouldn’t be wasting money in Rhode Island when we all know that the president is now elected by a couple of hundred people in Ohio.* But there is an earnest crew of interns and volunteers over there at 151 Broadway (third floor rear, above the beauty school) working their laptops and phones. And apparently they sometimes head up to New Hampshire, canvassing and helping to get out the vote. Nobody in the organization solicited this publicity, nor did they seem all that wild about getting it. I think I startled them. They did suggest however that the best way for people to help can be found at the Dashboard Obama site.)
*And by the way, I want commentators to stop saying that no Republican president has ever won the election without carrying the state of Ohio — remember 2004?
Voting irregularities in Ohio in 2004 are the subject of the book “Fooled Again” by Mark Crispin Miller. Here’s the Democracy Now interview with Miller.
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/11/4/mark_crispin_miller_kerry_told_me
And in 2008 Ohio Secretary of State jennifer Brunner stated that the 2004 election may well have been stolen. Unfortunately Kerry did not pursue an immediate investigation or recount.
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002227
The House Judiciary Committee had to divide “Republican chicanery” into three categories in its report “Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio”
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/08/0080696
Yes, I remember 2004. And I remember that George W. Bush carried Ohio. And won the Presidency. And was a Republican. So I don’t understand that last remark.