OSU Kid Makes T-Shirts, Meets Obama

It’s a good thing voters don’t have to worry about being called flip-floppers, because if that were the case, James Fondriest might not have won the chance to hang backstage at the DNC with Barack Obama. A former Bush campaigner and member of the College Republicans at Ohio State University, the 22-year-old law student left behind his legacy of d-bagginess to become one of ten lucky bastards who will rock out with the presidential (je t’aime double entendre) hopeful.

According to Opener, the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s political blog:
"Just to soak it in and be a part of the experience of it is all I could have ever hoped for," Fondriest said Friday, in between law school orientation sessions. "Meeting the senator and being a part of history will be the opportunity of a lifetime.'
An Obama campaign official said "hundreds of thousands" of supporters filled in a questionnaire on the candidate's Web site to be considered for the spots. The campaign did not provide an exact number.
Fondriest said he filled in his application as he made his second donation of $10 to the campaign online.
Four years ago, he said, he campaigned on behalf of President Bush as a freshman undergraduate, manning phone banks, going door-to-door and even scrawling pro-Bush messages on campus walkways in chalk.
This year, he decided to back Obama and made 500 "Buckeyes for Obama" T-shirts before the Ohio primary. He said he did not view his decision as abandoning the Republican Party, just picking the best candidate.

Jeez, all the guy does is make a few T-shirts, transcend partisanship, and donate $20, and he gets to meet Obama? I guess it’s time to believe in The Audacity of Hope after all.