Volunteer, Advocate, Trekker.

I've been in a political mood lately, and with that, comes predictions for the 2012 Presidential election. First of all, I am hopeful and supportive of President Obama being reelected. Romney has no foreign policy stances, his understanding of the plight of the common man is abysmal, and overall has done nothing to identify with any issues important to voters. He's not "going to beat Obama on the economy" or on "healthcare" or by riling people up over this or that, he wants to beat Obama because he's "the Republican challenger." I am hopeful and optimistic, that Ohio will go for President Obama. (As they say in politics, "So goes Ohio, so goes the Nation.") I have also, after playing with CNN's election map app - given Nevada, the Carolinas and Florida to Romney (and his homestate of New Hampshire, which I think I was being generous about.) But rather than the "sideburn" states that Kerry won , I think there are ...

As my one friend put it, poli sci nerds look forward to election day more than Christmas! Only it's like a Christmas where, between you and another person, only one of you gets gifts (and the other gets nothing.) Well this Christmas -- I got most of my gifts: the candidate my internship has been with WON the Mayoral election!!! :D Let me tell you a little about how election day went down in my life. Woke up bright and early, like 6:15am (on a day I had class at 3.) Went to the polls looking dapper as I often do (you don't want to look like a crazy person at the polls, subconsciously I don't associate crazy people with supporting not-crazy candidates.) And just wished people entering the polling location "Good morning!" from more than 100 feet away, often accompanied by Council candidate Annie. We had a blast talking about all kinds of things, mainly local-politics related. While she went to other polling locations, I stuck at this one: an elementary school, w...

So interesting weekend. Saturday night, Patsy, Kat, Brit, Sarah and I went and saw The Social Network . Hm. That was an interesting movie. It was a good drama, the plot was definitely interesting... but it's been advertised a bit more as a comedy than I would say. Having seen it, I hereby pronounce it "okay." If I could go back, I'd be okay renting it rather than seeing it in theaters. Having read the movie's Wikipedia article on the other hand, the reviewers apparently love it -- but what do they know. They're all giving it full scores (five out of five stars, 4 out of 4 thumb-ups, etc.) and calling it "the movie of the year." Um, I certainly hope not. It had its good parts, but it was pretty boring. (Movie-actors on the left, Real folk on the right! Cite: This Blog .) Reminds me of "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" -- which was promoted as a horror/scary movie about an exorcism, but actually more closely resembled an episode of Law & O...

Phew, BUSY week! Starting Sunday, did a lot of Volunteer hours for College Democrats as Vice President Joe Biden came to campus on Monday! That was all kinds of a hoot. Dr. Cohen, my politics (and the teacher of all my Monday classes) let me skip out for this historic opportunity. Got dressed up and volunteered to make signs, coordinate overall, and eventually I ended up helping people find where they should be in line. Once again, I was the "College student's perspective" person in a group of mainly public volunteers. There were White House people, people from the Summit County Democratic party, and random fringe Democratic groups I guess would be the impolite way of saying it (someone I believe identified themselves as a communist O.o;;) anyway. Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic speaks. Well I was the one telling them what "Computer Solutions" was, and helping understand the student orgs who had things to do on the 3rd floor of the Union -- like the Muslim Stud...

Alright, it's not Halloween yet - nor is it Thanksgiving yet. But it's time to start my Christmas shopping list! I suck at figuring out what to buy people :( and people back-and-forth argue I'm easy to shop for or impossible to shop for. But for my own reference, here is first thing that has made it's way onto my Christmas list... 10. "The Battle for America 2008" - a Book about the 2008 election. I saw this in the store and thought, Darn! I wanted to write a book like that! Oh well. My new favorite part about this is the cover has all the important figures in this elections: Hillary, McCain, Obama, Biden, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Sarah Palin, Tina Fey, Jon Stewart... 29.99 at Barnes and Noble, 19.77 on Amazon . Still looking for my Borders coupons though, may buy it for myself. Quote of the Weekend: (At Make a Difference Day) Guy in Charge: "[radio static] Bus 11, don't forget the gascan, rake and lawnmower before you leave your site." (lon...

As I'm sure we all remember from elementary school social studies, each state has two Senators. Currently, Ohio is represented by Senators George Voinovich (R) and Sherrod Brown (D). Well, Sen. Voinovich has announced he will not be running for reelection in 2010 - so you can imagine the Democrats are eager to win the seat! The race is basically down to two Democrats for the primary, of who will face the Republican in the final race. The Republican, by the way, is Rob Portman - President Bush's former budget director ( [cite] .) The two Dem's are: current Ohio Secretary of State (of the State) Jennifer Brunner ( Brew-ner ) and current Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher (ie: Vice Governor). Fisher is receiving alot of important endorsements, such as from Governor Strickland and Mayor of Akron Don Plusquellic (along with plenty others) but Brunner is definitely showing more momentum among the volunteer base. If she won, Brunner would be the first woman Senator from Ohio - but obv...