'All the cars with Romney bumper stickers have been keyed...'

The 2008 presidential candidate who promised to unite the nation if elected has instead, upon governing, driven the nation to a second civil war. The frontline state in that conflict is Ohio. Folks there are more divided than they can ever remember, and Ohio boasts the reputation of being the national decider in presidential elections.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Ohioans talk politics at their own risk":

CINCINNATI — Johanson Perez, a 29-year-old night baker at Panera Bread who is not a fan of President Obama, had a "70-comment fight" on Facebook with a friend over Donald Trump's $5-million offer for the president's school and passport records.

"I'm sure we won't be as close after the election as we were before," said Perez, who'd stopped for lunch at Price Hill Chili, a neighborhood institution on the city's west side. "It's almost like he's in a cult."

At a nearby table, political independent Greg Littel, 20, a University of Cincinnati student who favors Obama, said he was dismayed by vandalism in his liberal neighborhood.

"The political conversations have been more hostile and people have been taking that physically out on each other," Littel said. "All the cars with Romney bumper stickers have been keyed."

Over a sandwich at the bar, Ed Miller, 79, a Republican real estate agent and former minor league shortstop, said one of his oldest friends, an Obama supporter, stopped speaking to him recently. Miller had just given the man's grandson an expensive basketball signed by University of Kentucky coach John Calipari.

"I played ball with this guy!" Miller said. "How can you be so uniformed, so ignorant, about what's going on? If Obama gets in here for four more years, our country is gone. I mean flat-out gone."

Continue reading.

And see Christi Parsons and Maeve Reston, "Rhetoric soars as Obama, Romney start closing arguments."

UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers!