On May 1st I decided to start noting every bumper sticker I saw on a car expressing support for either John Kerry or George W. Bush, or at least making perfectly clear which way the owner would vote (e.g. "Support Our Troops" not counted either way; "
Bush is a corporate whore" counted for Kerry). Sightings were gathered from my extensive driving around the rather Republican-leaning Cincinnati area, including a lot of time in the verrry Republican-leaning suburb of West Chester.
I decided to wait until I had counted 100 total stickers, so I wouldn't have to take three seconds to convert it to a percentage. Without further ado, the results to this point are 57 for Bush, 43 for Kerry.
That may not seem encouraging, but for a while there it was running about 2 to 1 for Bush. The free stickers from Kerry helped, but a big jump in the count for Kerry came after the Edwards selection, he seems quite popular around here. The count got as close as 49-42 before Bush gained ground in the last week.
All in all, I would say if the most conservative city in Ohio goes even 43% for Kerry, his big numbers in Cleveland, Toledo, etc. will give him Ohio and the White House. One can only hope!