I'm only going to comment on how Georgia is handling the '08 election when something out of the ordinary catches my eye - in other words, when there seems to be some break in the hegemony. Only problem is, I'm not seeing a hegemony here. The lack of a decent Republican candidate is felt especially down here, where it doesn't take much more than the image of an elephant in an Uncle Sam hat and a passing reference to "The Silent Scream" to ignite voters. I was expecting my reliable bumper sticker polls to have established a couple of favorites down here by now, but I actually cannot think of a single Republican bumper sticker I have seen thus far. People here seem more excited about W than any of the candidates. Yeah, it's THAT conservative here. Poeple take very seriously the idea of supporting your leader - if he's in charge, he MUST be good. They are also quite possibly the only people on earth still very excited at the prospect of having a beer with the Pres, I guarantee it. Loyalty to Bush (aka "patriotism") seems to be trumping any commitment to a specific candidate.
With one notable exception: Ron Paul. Ron is known for his small but vocal (and growing) cheering section, which seems to be out in full force in Atlanta. It's bizarre. I have seen probably ten bumper stickers, roughly ten people canvasing cars, and a poster for a benefit show at a rock club. This isn't much, but it's huge compared to the apparent apathy towards the rest of the republican candidates.
As far as Democrats go, again, it's mostly anti-Bush stickers or message-specific stickers as opposed to actual candidate support stickers. I guess I have seen the most stickers and t-shirts for Obama, but it's not overwhelming. The Ron Paul thing is really the only interesting thing I have noticed thus far. Do with this information what you will. I personally am hoping that Ron's growing popularity will mean I can stop explaining who he is to Bunches. For some reason he seems incapable of retaining this information. Perhaps he is onto something. Most of will probably have forgotten by December 2008 anyway.
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Ron Paul? I keep half forgetting who he is too. For some reason whenever I hear his name I think they're talking about a porn star (Ron Jeremy confusion?). How hilarious would it be to have a ex-porn star GOP candidate? Like if the movie Idiocracy was set in Italy!
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