I Spy Campaign Signs

We're not totally opposed to TV as parents, but we do limit it a lot. We don't have cable. And when our TV (the first TV I ever own, purchased in 1990) finally died a few weeks ago, we borrowed our elderly neighbor's spare, which has a nice, chunky turn-dial. And we certainly would never permit a DVD player in the car, even for a long drive. As a result, we get some interesting original songs, lots of I Spy, books on tape, and too much Wayne From Maine.

We've made three trips in the past 8 days, to various sites in northern NH. We've been so far north in fact, that I actually tried homemade lip balm made from bear fat & beeswax. With a dash of cinnamon. I kid you not: The North County. So, then, what do we do when we drive all over NH for various holiday gatherings & parties?

While my son listened to The Lorax (my budding environmentalist!) over and over and over, my daughter wanted to write with her new pens. "Let's count campaign signs!"

She giggled when I spelled Obama while her brother made rhymes with it. Kucinich became Kuchinchi. Her tally (left) was not the offical one, but it was way cuter than mine.

Rules: I decided not to count the signs outside campaign offices here in Dover on our way out of town. We did count our own 2 Edwards signs. As I was debating whether or not to count the Hillary signs outside of Shaheen & Gordon, we noticed they were gone. We tried not to count the same signs coming & going, but we did notice that on Saturday, a whole bunch of new McCain signs appeared in Dover that we know weren't there on our way out of town Friday.

Here are our unscientific results of our travels up & down Rt 93 and Rt 89, and in & out of small towns along the way (small standard signs + XL signs=total):

Ron Paul 15 + 7 = 22

John McCain 15 + 0 = 15

John Edwards 9 + 4= 13

Mike Gravel 5 + 3 = 8

Mark Klein 6 + 0 = 6

Hillary Clinton 2 + 3 = 5

Barack Obama 0 + 4 = 4

Rudy Giuliani 4 + 0 = 4

Dennis Kucinich 1 + 2 = 3

Mike Huckabee 3 + 0 = 3

Bill Richardson 2 + 0 = 2

Mitt Romney 0 + 2 = 2

Tancredo 0 + 2 = 2

Fred Thompson 0 + 1 = 1

Chris Dodd 0 + 1 = 1

John Sununu (US Senate) 4 large billboards

Interestingly, no Shaheen for Senate signs. I also kept track of bumper stickers: My 2 Edwards (one that is homemade that just says OMG JRE) and one car with 2 Romney stickers, and a whole bunch of PrioritiesNH pie chart magnets.

Favorites: Mine is the North Country For Edwards sign, green & gold with a moose on it. The kids prefer the light-up Ron Paul for President on Silver Street in Dover. And someone, please tell us who Mark Klein (R) is!!