It's O-H-I-O, Mr. President

I know cuz I done been there once.  Okay, twice, but this last trip was for political reasons.  Dare I say, 'work'.  Greetings, all of you out there in cyber world.  It's me, the Political Chicken, back to share more from, well, from Ohio.  I know that's not what you were expecting me to say, but what the heck.  Roll with it.

Yes, just back from the Buckeye state of Ohio.  The Rust Belt even.  Why would a Texan travel to Ohio for a day and a half?  Well, I'll tell you.  Freedomworks Freepac Ohio and Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate.  I don't normally document trips on my blog or post pictures, but this trip warrants both of those things.  I really had a great trip and feel that it would be cool to share it with all of you.

First, I arrived on Saturday afternoon in order to attend Freepac Ohio.  It was an effort by Freedomworks along with other local tea party groups to inform other activists on, well, how to be better activists!  That was the first part of the program.  The second half was dedicated to speakers and then it was rounded out by none other than Glenn Beck.  I am such a big fan of Freedomworks and Glenn Beck, so the two of them working together was awesome.  They had lots of great speakers, and I unfortunately can't remember all of their names, but a few of them stuck with me.  One of those in particular was Dana Loesch.  She was fabulous.  Dana is a conservative (obviously) and the other part that really rocks about her is that she is a home school mom just like me!  How cool is that?  She is cool, edgy and doesn't mince her words.  Once a liberal, she changed to a conservative after the 9/11 attacks.  I'm glad she's on our side now.

Another contributor to the program was Reverend CL Bryant.  He too was once a Democrat, but saw what the Democratic party stood for and became a Republican.  Reverend Bryant was phenomenal.  One thing he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, was that the United States of America needs a new leader in order to restore America's swagger.  BOOM.  Don't you just love that word, 'swagger'?  He also just finished making the film titled, "Runaway Slave".   It's out in theaters now, so please go and support this man's movie.  He is wonderful.

Next on my list of things to do was to go door to door for Josh Mandel.  Who is Josh Mandel, you say?  Well, he is going to be the next U.S. Senator for the state of Ohio.  The state which is a union state, situated in the middle of the rust belt has been represented for the past six years by Democrat Sherrod Brown.  Ahem, cue Josh Mandel, stage right.  Josh is a young guy but he has been busy.  He's a veteran who has served two tours of duty as a marine in Anbar Province, Iraq.  Not only that, but he's served in their state legislature and he is currently the state treasurer.  Whew, I'm tired just typing all he's done and he's not through yet.  Texas is a 'safe' as it goes for being a red state, but Ohio, not so much.  Check out his website linked above in his name and donate some money to this guy.  Who says you have to stick within your own state?  If there was ever a time to cross state lines, it's now!

Speaking of door to door, here is a picture of me and my new buddy Lauren who heads up the Romney/Mandel campaign headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.  She was super sweet and I really enjoyed the time we had together going door to door.  She's doing a great job.  While out walking and talking to folks, it was hard to miss the difference in the economy of Ohio versus Texas.  It's easy to see how being a hard and fast union state can really suppress the economy.  I'm glad that Texas is a right to work state and I pray it stays that way always.  The good news is that there are efforts being made through petitions to make Ohio right to work.  Keep up the good work, Ohio!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed our little trip to Ohio and back again.  Please, don't be a stranger to Ohio or to the Political Chicken blog.  We can do this!  Romney/Ryan 2012!