Some idiot Kosling named Kagro X wrote: On my block, in my very purple, exurban Northern Virginia neighborhood, we have a problem.
When I moved out here 12 years ago, this was still solid red country, with wingnut Republicans representing us pretty much from top to bottom. But over the past few years, through growth fueled by a steady march of new neighbors moving in from the northeast, or out our way from bluer Arlington and Fairfax counties, we've turned out our most egregious nutbar Republicans in favor of Dems across the board (with the lingering exception of Rep. Frank Wolf).

So it has come as something of a surprise to me that my little bellwether street has sprouted McCain yard signs during this past week, with seven homes displaying ten prominently placed signs. We're purple, like I said, but you can't tell that this week, because there are literally zero Obama signs anywhere to be seen. In fact, I've been up and down the neighboring streets, too, and the story is the same there. Not quite the same numbers of McCain signs, but the same number of Obama ones. Zero.

That got me concerned, and I headed out to the Leesburg, Virginia, Obama office to see about getting myself one, thinking that some visibility for the Democratic ticket on my street was more critical than ever. My neighbors sometimes need "permission" to display their Democratic preferences, even though our Republican friends don't seem to wait for anyone's invitation.

But out at the Obama campaign office, I got some unwelcome and unexpected news: no signs. Not only no signs, but none expected to arrive any time soon, possibly for as long as five weeks! So dire was the situation, I heard, that volunteers in the office were taking up collections to have their own signs printed.