good times in Bloomington

I got to do some campaigning in Bloomington this week-- first at IU's "WelcomeFest" on Wednesday and then this evening, to hear "the daily Kos" speak. Along with the debate last week, we've been hitting Bloomington pretty hard!

WelcomeFest was like a county fair with college students-- a great op to meet leaders and activists of all types. It was most striking to meet so many students with relatively exotic majors-- at least relative to what I see at our regional campus of IU in New Albany. I also interviewed with the IDS.

We got there too late to hear Kos speak. (The event was billed as running from 6-8, but the talk was over by 7:00 or so.) Among other things, he was promoting his idea about a category of voters he calls "Libertarian Democrats". I talked with Dr. Wintsch, a professor of geology for a long time. I also briefly met a bunch of people at the bookstore (including Kos) and then a handful of others at Upland (including three other economists [!] and I got to visit with Gretchen Clearwater again). A lot of encouraging words-- and a bunch of people universally saying they don't like either of my two opponents. Aside from all that: it was a fun evening for Tonia and me-- away from the kiddos for a date night. Good stuff! ;-)