Courtesy of Associated Press
From TPM:
“Vice President Joe Biden touched down in Cleveland, Ohio at 11:37 a.m. ET Tuesday on an unannounced visit to the key battleground state on the way to Chicago, according to a White House pool report. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will also be visiting Cleveland Tuesday.”
Air Force Two has touched down in Cleveland, an unannounced but long-scheduled stop en route to Chicago in the state where VPOTUS has campaigned the most this cycle.
The first comment from the article, a winner:
Joe just wanted to pick up some White Castle.
This brings to mind an Onion article called “Biden Says Life Better Than 4 Years Ago but Nothing Can Touch of the Summer of ’87″. His style has something of an old-school C-town feel. Back when the Flats was in action. From the Onion piece:
Dressed in a slightly ripped Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt, Biden tapped the top of an Icehouse tallboy, cracked it open, and then informed the 20,000 people in attendance that while the economy is no longer hemorrhaging jobs as it was in 2008, nothing, “not even that little trip I took to Thailand in ’92,” could ever live up to the unforgettable months of June through August 1987, when “the skirts were short, the brews were cold…”
“Things are definitely better today than back in ’08, but is this the summer of ’87? Not a fucking chance,”
Courtesy of AP
Over at the New Republic, ex-Akronite and novelist Walter Kirn gives Clevelanders and the rest of Ohio backhanded compliments, but he is not happy that all eyes our on Ohio. His whole piece entitled “Buckeye Hate” is decidedly anti-Rust Belt Chic (Or is it Rust Belt Chic? Kind of, I guess). Give it a read. An excerpt:
One aspect of the Ohio character that ought to prove comforting to the rest of us as we await their decision about our lives is that they usually try to do their best, at least under the circumstances. By this I mean if they’ve managed to rake their leaves that week, their aunt doesn’t need a ride to bingo night, their dog isn’t coughing up wormer on the front porch, and they have correct change for a pack of Camel Lights. Short of these distractions, Ohioans make an effort. They show up. They apply themselves. Unless they’re drunk. And even then, unless they’re very, very drunk, they give things an honest shot. So here’s to them. They didn’t ask for this awesome challenge, remember, and though they might have whined about it, they haven’t. So whatever they choose, I plan to be content with it. Or, if that should prove impossible, numbly, quietly resigned.
Which is how they will be. That’s just who they are.
–rp