Significance to surfeit of Romney signs and stickers?
On Friday, in my neighborhood I saw a car sporting this bumper sticker:
The car had Massachusetts plates. I might call this guy courageous, but wonder how many Hollywood types would understand his message.
It sometimes seems we are seeing more conservative messaging on cars in LA than liberal slogans. Last week, when I asked a (gay Republican) friend if he had seen many Obama bumper stickers here in LA, he replied, “Only the old ones.” Most that I see are those from the ’08 campaign, but there are a few newer ones.
Today the only Obama stickers I saw were in the parking lot at Trader Joe’s.
I saw more Romney bumper stickers on one freeway when I drove to the Glenn Reynold’s shindig in Santa Monica on Thursday than Obama stickers on four freeways when I drove to a Hallowe’en party in Monrovia last night. Now the paucity of Obama stickers is unlikely to make this “blue” state turn “red” this fall, but I did read a report of ”Romney signage in Pinellas County [Florida] far outpac[ing] Obama’s.”
FROM THE COMMENTS: A lot of you have been sharing stuff and TGC offers some anecdotal evidence to back up Mitt Romney’s surge in Florida polling:
Here in Polk County Florida, more Romney signs and bumper stickers and yard signs are turning up. For some reason, they just started popping up the past two weeks or so. Don’t know if it was because of the debate performance or what. Very few Obama signs and stickers.
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I live in Pinellas County and have observed a significant increase in Romney yard signs and bumperstickers in the past 2 weeks. And some of the yard signs are the huge ones…but no huge Obama signs. And few Obama bumperstickers. This is a county trending blue in the past several years, but I’m seeing and hearing a lot of red lately. When I went to the Romney Victory office for my yard sign, I noticed a steady stream of people coming in the office for yard signs and we all had smiles on our faces!
Comment by Mary — October 21, 2012 @ 8:05 am - October 21, 2012
In the Lakes Region of NH there is a real dearth of Obama signs. Even in yards where down ticket democrats have signs, there often are no accompanying Obama ones.
I mostly see Romney signs in my area.
Comment by Just Me — October 21, 2012 @ 9:42 am - October 21, 2012
I live in Pasco County, which is adjacent to Pinellas. The Romney signs near me outnumber the Obama signs by about a two-to-one margin.
Comment by Chris — October 21, 2012 @ 10:08 am - October 21, 2012
Meanwhile Sandra Fluke draws a crowd of 8 people to an Obama rally in Reno, NV That ‘free birth control’ thing might not be the game-changer the Demonrats thought it was.
Comment by V the K — October 21, 2012 @ 10:58 am - October 21, 2012
V the K, I saw that story on Drudge – you gotta love it when a plan starts to falls apart!!
Comment by mixitup — October 21, 2012 @ 11:53 am - October 21, 2012
Meanwhile, Obama the supposed Great Uniter Who Unites Us Because It’s In His Very DNA, runs ads which are explicitly tribalist and divisive: http://reason.com/blog/2012/10/19/barack-obama-approves-message-that-mitt
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — October 21, 2012 @ 12:01 pm - October 21, 2012
Swing state PA: North of Allentown, dozens of Romney/ Ryan signs 2 Obama/Biden
4 Romney/Ryan stickers 2 Obama/ Biden. If nothing else, this state is definitely in play.
Comment by Lisa — October 21, 2012 @ 12:25 pm - October 21, 2012
Lisa even if Romney doesn’t win the state, the fact that he is sending campaign people back into the state means Obama will have to allocate more resources to a state he thought he wouldn’t have to spend money in.
Romney putting people on the ground means they have some pretty good internal polling in PA. I still have a hard time believing Romney will win the state, but considering 2008 PA was a cakewalk to victory for Obama it is a good sign that Obama may have to spend time and money there to keep it.
I think Obama made a huge error spending the whole summer painting a caricature or Romney that is starting to prove untrue. Voters not only realize Romney isn’t this caricature but they have caught onto the fact that Obama lied to them about Romney and has no record to run on.
Pointing your finger at the other guy and screaming “Liar and evil” only gets you so far if you don’t have anything to offer yourself.
Comment by Just Me — October 21, 2012 @ 12:49 pm - October 21, 2012
I just made about a 700 mile roundtrip down to Gainesville, FL. It was amazing. There was a good deal of Romney support to be seen: stickers on cars, billboards, homemade yard signs. The best was a plane pulling a banner over Gameday being held at UF. Many Romney stckers in the college town…..on bikes even! Good to see young college students realizing the abomination that is Obama. A lot of the signage was criticism of Obama and his policies. And what about Obama support? I saw three cars with Obama stickers on the interstate…..if you guessed ‘Prius,’ you win!
Comment by Scott Lassiter — October 21, 2012 @ 2:32 pm - October 21, 2012
##4-5: V the K & mixitup, the best thing about that article linked on Drudge is the headline: “Fluke Takes Center Stage In Reno.” Either the parking lot of a SakNSave with an audience of 10 is considered “Center Stage” in Reno, or the reporter/editor who wrote that headline might just have a tiny smidgen of left-wing bias.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20121020/NEWS19/310200053/Fluke-takes-center-stage-Reno
Comment by Sean A — October 21, 2012 @ 2:37 pm - October 21, 2012
[...] may reasonably wonder about the value of signage in a technological age of air warfare in politics. But this was not about signage, it was about [...]
Pingback by As Ohio Goes So Goes The Nation... And Israel — Hillary Is 44 — October 21, 2012 @ 3:13 pm - October 21, 2012
Why would anyone find that bumper sticker offensive? After all, isn’t it true in the abstract? One would think those employed by or supporters of the War on Poverty would be proud of their having harnessed the American milch cow into docility. By the way, O’Reilly Auto Parts has touch-up paint on special this week.
Comment by Ignatius — October 21, 2012 @ 3:37 pm - October 21, 2012
Here in Arizona, I see a lot of campaign signs for Democrats, but almost always these candidates are running for local or state level offices.
I myself am voting for the Democrat running for Sheriff of Maricopa County, Paul Penzone, because I know his brother, know the Penzones to be good people, and — as a libertarian — do not want the circus of Sheriff Joe to go on any longer. But local politics are very different, much more personal and intimate, than national politics.
I have seen virtually no “Obama-Biden” signs anywhere. I doubt, in my neighborhood, that they would be torn down or stolen. They would probably only be laughed at.
Comment by Lori Heine — October 21, 2012 @ 3:55 pm - October 21, 2012
Not many Obama signs or stickers in Bangor. The local paper even seriously speculated that one of the electoral votes will go to Romney this year (Maine and Nebraska being the only two states that can split electoral votes).
Comment by jaliranchr — October 21, 2012 @ 4:24 pm - October 21, 2012
And has anyone notice how quiet the trolls have been lately?
Comment by V the K — October 21, 2012 @ 5:15 pm - October 21, 2012
#15: “And has anyone notice how quiet the trolls have been lately?”
Yes, and it’s been like three blissful weeks in the country. I picture Levi in a fetal position under a computer desk, hugging his knees, rocking back and forth, and uncontrollably sobbing.
another_jeremy…hmmmmm…him I can only see frantically driving around, snatching Romney/Ryan signs from lawns and throwing them in his trunk, and cruising parking lots for cars with R/R bumper stickers he can key.
The others…I dunno…probably sticking around the Daily Kos or the HuffPuff because the reality outside that bubble is harsh: Obama’s DONE.
Comment by Sean A — October 21, 2012 @ 5:36 pm - October 21, 2012
#4, V the K, Just saw the picture of Sandra Fluke and her “crowd.” I wonder if while she had the folks there, she hit them up for donations to pay for her monthly birth control.
Comment by NOT a liberal Mom — October 21, 2012 @ 7:59 pm - October 21, 2012
Here in suburban San Francisco, the epidemic of Obama stickers and lawn signs in 2008 has disappeared. Only Obama stickers to be seen are left over from 2008 and so far my count of Romney stickers is 3 to 1 in Romney’s favor. Maybe that explains why cable TV in the Bay Area has been inundated with Obama ads since September.
Comment by John in Dublin — October 21, 2012 @ 8:10 pm - October 21, 2012
Here in Polk County Florida, more Romney signs and bumper stickers and yard signs are turning up. For some reason, they just started popping up the past two weeks or so. Don’t know if it was because of the debate performance or what. Very few Obama signs and stickers.
Not sure, but I get the sense that Sen. Nelson will beat Connie Mack. That said, I’ve seen more than a few Mack signs and have no idea what a Nelson sign looks like. Haven’t even seen signs by his campaign anywhere. But then I’ve not seen squat from him or his campaign as to why anybody should vote for him. Apparently he’s talked to the newspaper editorial boards, but not the Florida voters.
Comment by TGC — October 21, 2012 @ 8:11 pm - October 21, 2012
I viewed one Romney sticker for the first time here in Santa Fe, but the person was from a neighboring congressional district that was likely less Democrat. I am about the only person with a Romney bumper sticker on my vehicle, and it is small and discreet. I fear a keying of my car if I am more ostentatious, although Santa Feans seem very laid back and not in your face. I have not encountered nasty Dems here at all, which is wonderful, but there is always the possibility of one deranged one that can cause problems.
Comment by davinci — October 21, 2012 @ 8:15 pm - October 21, 2012
The lack of signage in Cali might just be because the campaigns are ignoring Mexifornia on account of it being a blue hellhole.
Comment by V the K — October 21, 2012 @ 9:10 pm - October 21, 2012
I hate to predict 100,000,000 people’s choices, so I’m not sure of Obama being done. But I am sure that even the ‘average’ American is starting to see what I knew all along, namely that He is nothing to be proud of.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — October 22, 2012 @ 10:16 am - October 22, 2012