From a reader:
Jonah, Just wanted to give you an update from Central/SE Ohio. I just got back from our party’s headquarters in [REDACTED] County… As the party’s volunteer Executive Director (we are all volunteers from our Chairman on down), I sometimes try to spend a couple of hours on Sunday afternoons following up on phone calls and other mundane party business. I picked Sundays because I can bring in my daughter with me and it’s usually quiet. Not today. The voicemail was full with people ready to volunteer and we had numerous people stopping in to see if we had any signs with Palin’s name on them yet. This county has been lukewarm about McCain at best. Romney had an excellent volunteer organization in the county and many evangelicals liked Huckabee. It hasn’t helped that the county (which was a critical exurban ring county for Bush in 04) has been almost completely ignored by the McCain campaign. There has been literally zero grassroots prep by the campaign and they’ve made critical mistakes (like putting in elected officials as county chairmen) that the Bush campaign avoided. This pick, however, has electrified the base. I hope that others are seeing the same thing in their counties. If you choose to share any of this, please omit my name and any reference to my county’s name. Thanks. [Name withheld]