One of the funniest bits of reportage in this campaign came from the NYT's Julie Bosman whose article about the sad plight of college students supporting McCain included this gem:
The University of Florida in Gainesville is home to one of the country’s largest McCain student groups, with more than 1,000 members. Some of its volunteers stand for nine hours a day in a central campus plaza, pitching to students and selling T-shirts, their only source of campaign money.
The Obama group on campus, though, has hired a shuttle bus to drive Obama-supporting students to an early voting site 20 minutes away.
“Obviously, we don’t have the resources for that kind of thing,” said Joshua Simmons, 20, the chairman of Gators for McCain. “Right now, we’re just making sure that students know that this organization does exist, and that there are students out there who support McCain.”
As if to punctuate his point, Mr. Simmons was stopped midsentence while walking through campus recently and talking on his cellphone.
“What is that, a robot?” he said, exhaling noisily. “The Obama campaign has a robot set up in the plaza. It’s holding a sign that says ‘Powered by hope.’ Which I don’t think is entirely accurate.”
Now, via the Obama campaign, I see that UF's student newspaper is reporting that Simmons has caved:
Simmons said he voted for Obama about two weeks ago.
“I’ve seen a different John McCain than the one I signed up to work for,” he said.
Simmons said he submitted his resignation Sunday night and will no longer be chairman for the group, which has more than 1,000 members.
“I expect them to be incredibly pissed off,” he said.
The robot, however, will be crying windex tears of joy.
--Jason Zengerle