As 15,000 eager ticket holders ready themselves for Air Force One to touch down briefly at 11am on the tarmac of the local Gainesville airport for a brief appearance by Dubya, The Gainesville-Sun came out with an endorsement for John Kerry this morning adding to the sweep of Florida papers that have endorsed the Kerry/Edwards ticket. As I soothingly soaked my achin' feet after a Saturday of heavy precinct canvassing for Kerry/Edwards, I perused the newspaper and was hard pressed to find much mention of "the first sittin' president to grace our fair city" as the news of another loss for the Gators to Georgia, stole the spotlight This visit follows one by Cheney three weeks ago (he only met with 11 Gainesvillians at the local Harley dealership at the time - that was a strange visit) and, of course John Edwards weekend before last at UF and Elizabeth Edwards, this past Friday. My, my, my. All this attention to this bastion of Democrats in North Central Florida hasn't seem to change this city's resolve to "throw the bums out".
But we are, by nature, a polite folk, and so amidst the heavy security that decends upon our fair city as I write, and as the enthusiastic screened ticket holders prepare to line-up holding their breath in anticipation of this unprecedented visit, many volunteers from Alabama join our Kerry/Edwards canvassers as we continue to quietly go about the on-going business of getting out the vote.