Mostly coss-posted from the campaign blog, with addtions made for Bleeding Heartland.

The calendar says September 19 was only 45 days ago.  It has been 45 of the longest days of my life.  Not is a bad way but in literally long hours of hectic, interesting and stressful days.  I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.  Here are some things I’ve learned in the last 45 days:

Some of the side streets of Clinton are among the worst streets in the developed world.  Seriously.  I've been to some pretty run-down places in Europe and certain streets in Clinton put the side roads of Slovakia, Poland and Croatia to shame.  To wit: Parts of Cleveland Avenue, 14th Street by the Arboretum – one of our finer City institutions no less – blocks long stretches of Roosevelt and McKinley, so say nothing of 18th Avenue N. by my own home.   This situation is the product of decades of neglect.  It is going to take at least a decade to fix.