Romney Rally In Lebanon

It was a barn-burner of a Presidential election here in Ohio in 2012, and we saw more of the candidates than maybe any other state.  Usually Republican candidates can be counted on to make a stop in conservative Warren County.  In 2004 George W. Bush spoke in the middle of Broadway, right in front of the Golden Lamb.  Then in 2008 John McCain and Sarah Palin appeared in the same spot and, true to form, the Romney campaign picked this location for an October 13 rally.

It was a huge production, with four semi-trailers pulling in the day before and police cordoning off most of the downtown area.  I registered the day before (as required) and showed up pretty early, which got me a spot about 50 yards from the stage with a view only slightly occluded by a light post.  It was a huge production with a sound system and big outdoor screens playing inspirational tributes to the candidate.  Then a number of Republican warmup speakers took the stage, ranging from Lebanon's mayor to U.S. Senator Rob Portman, who arrived in a bus with Gov. Romney moments before he spoke.  Then Romney himself addressed the very friendly crowd, and gave a good speech full of hard-hitting sound bytes (though not too much actual information). 

I wish I had had a better camera, but with only my little Canon PowerShot I got the usual grainy low-resolution image.  Romney was on the stage, just right of the blue banner in white shirtsleeves, but he shows up poorly - perhaps an omen for election day.