By Bob Gibson
Daily Progress political blogger
The size of a small whale, Ron Paul’s Charlottesville blimp has been lighting the night skies along Rio Road and, as of today, Fontaine Avenue.
The white blimp—asking who the heck Ron Paul is—was trucked from its home base on East Rio Road late today to its new home in the sky near the Interstate 64 intersection with U.S. 29 just south of Fontaine Avenue.
The lighted blimp adds a new dimension to the surging Paul effort and appears not to be floated on hot air, but that other Washington staple—a shot of noble gas.
The GOP’s Paul, a Texas congressman and libertarian, is the first of 12 presidential candidates on the Feb. 12 Virginia primary ballots, six in each party, to get his blimp floating over the outskirts of the liberal enclave of Charlottesville.
Can the Barack blimp and Hillary dirigible be far behind?
Has anyone seen a Rudy zeppelin?
For a town that never had a Bush balloon, the Paul blimp is nearly as good as a second moon.
By Bob Gibson
Daily Progress political blogger
The best comment on a blog entry in the past 30 days or so goes to the future mayor of Charlottesville, City Councilor Dave Norris.
Norris, a blogger like current Mayor David Brown, left one of 25 comments on recent blog items.
Showing a wicked sense of humor, Norris chose to comment on Del. Jim Scott’s House Bill 39, which would prohibit text messaging while driving and may be the best little safety bill in the upcoming General Assembly session. Scott’s bill, as summarized on Richmond Sunlight, http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2008/hb39/ would prohibit “operation of a motor vehicle, bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, electric power-assisted bicycle, or moped on the highways in the Commonwealth while using any wireless telecommunications device for the purpose of sending, receiving, or reading any text message.”
Norris commented: “I don’t mind people who send text messages while driving, as long as they don’t write them in Spanish. Some far-sighted legislator needs to introduce a bill establishing English as the official language of text-messaging-while-driving in Virginia.“
A tip of the hat to the next mayor, whose blog, CvilleDave, can be found at http://cvilledave.blogspot.com/ and makes Charlottesville possibly the only city in Virginia with two blogging mayors in a row. Brown’s blog, One City Blog, is found at http://onecityblog.blogspot.com/.
By Bob Gibson
Daily Progress political blogger
Gov. Tim Kaine, who last month stumped across parts of frozen Iowa for presidential candidate Barack Obama, is getting warmer duty on the trail for Obama on Saturday in South Carolina before hitting the Iowa freezer again Sunday.
Kaine will travel to South Carolina and Iowa this weekend, making stops Saturday in Columbia, Camden, and Lancaster, S.C. Those are places I’ve mostly heard of.
On Sunday, Kaine goes back to Iowa and is scheduled to appear at Obama campaign events in Clinton, Maquoketa, Anamosa, Manchester, and Dubuque. I’ve heard of Clinton and Dubuque.
Kaine’s endorsement was more than a warm word or two for Obama, who may do very well in the Virginia Democratic presidential primary on Feb. 12.
Obama, who picked up Rep. Bobby Scott’s endorsement Wednesday, was selected today as the top name on the six-candidate Democratic primary ballot. The second name will be that of Dennis Kucinich, who will be followed in ballot order by Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and John Edwards.
Ron Paul won the draw for the first name on the GOP presidential primary ballot, followed by John McCain, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.
Being listed first on the ballot usually is worth something, so the luck of the draw is probably good luck for both Obama and Paul.
