[Newspoetry] 2004 October 6th Wall Street Journal

[William Gillespie]

Swing States Pay The Price

stubbornly working class, formerly libertarian
Ohio can't choose which suit to vote for

the tax for indecisiveness
in Cleveland has risen to $270,610

forced to lay off 250 police and
450 other workers last year
(11% of city employees)
to solve a $30 million deficit
the downsized city must provide
security for frequent campaign stops

$27.50 for plumbers to accompany secret service
on a sweep of the convention center
$82.50 to disconnect the sprinkler system
to protect Senator Kerry
$485.10 for the fireman who sat up
all night in President Bush's hotel
$66,887 for 135 patrolmen, 80
squad cars, covert surveillance,
bomb and canine squads, and a
SWAT team to protect Bush's motorcade

$12,958 in Lima, Ohio (pop. 4500)
$640 for bike racks to cordon off Bush
$2459 (plus $960 for a truck)
to remove lampposts for Kerry

in Cedar Rapids the police training fund
was spent to encircle a park with dumptrucks

reporters' bar tabs and local television advertising
barely offset the cost to the struggling city economies
says Susan Helper from Case Western Reserve

"Fifteen hundred reporters on expense accounts
make some dent. It's not like 1500 manufacturing
jobs paying $20 an hour. But it's better than nothing."