On the ground in Ohio

NPR did a story this morning on the opening organizational meeting of the Clinton campaign in Akron, Ohio. This is in the liberal, Northeast corner of the state, about 40 miles south of Cleveland. They reported over 100 people showed up, the campaign is being run by someone very well connected to Akron democratic political circles, and Hillary has been endorsed by Don "Mayor for Life" Plusquellic (although he kind of bungled the announcement), in addition to the support of Governor Strickland and influential African American member of Congress Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. Chelsea is on campus at the University of Akron as I type this, and Hillary is in the area at events today through Friday. No sign of Obama yet....Update: 300 at organizing meeting for Obama!

Update: My fears are somewhat alleviated. Huge crowd at Obama event. Standing room only, cars parked in the street and across the street and down the block. Ted Kennedy will be here for a rally on Saturday. I'm anxious to see the candidate, but there's still time.

It's just a snapshot of one community, but combined with the Quinnipiac poll showing Clinton 21 points ahead, I'm a nervous Obama supporter. My understanding is that there have been many states where Obama has out-organized Clinton, with more people on the ground sooner doing grass-roots organizing. I don't think that's the case here in this one city in Ohio. I'm going to the Obama organizing meeting tonight and I will update this later. We may well make up a lot of ground even if we don't catch Clinton in the end, but it will take a lot of hard work.