After a few months since I stopped writing my column that appeared every Friday in The Journal-Register, Open To The Public is back. Only this time, OTTP is back in blog form.
For those of you who are saying, “Who is this Robert Harding fellow?” here is a brief introduction for you.
I have lived in Orleans County all 22 years of my life. I lived in Albion before moving to Medina prior to starting kindergarten. I have called Medina home ever since.
I am a 2004 graduate from Medina High School and this fall I will be officially completed with my bachelor’s degree from SUNY Fredonia. My degree will be in political science and being that one of my “loves” is politics, that is what we will be talking about here.
Right now, I am still hunting for a permanent job. But that hasn’t stopped me from a few different projects. I am the administrator and lead editor for New York NewsLadder, a site that allows users to post top news items from newspapers and websites and allows consumers to see the top news from New York all on one website. Blogging isn’t new to me. Currently, I’m a blogger at The Albany Project – a political blog with a focus on New York State.
So what will we be talking about here? Politics, politics, politics. I will try to talk about Orleans County politics as much as I can, but we will also talk about the big presidential race between Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain. This year, we also have an open congressional seat here for most of Orleans County and statewide there is a battle brewing for the New York State Senate.
I look forward to talking politics with you and hope we can have smart and sensible debate. I make no bones about the fact that I am a Democrat. That said, I will be reaching out to Republican candidates like Chris Lee to introduce you to all candidates and give you a taste of what you will be looking at in November.
If you ever have any questions or comments that you want to send to me directly, feel free to e-mail me at robert.harding22@gmail.com.
This is a great opportunity and I hope we can make the most of it.
My best to all of you,
Robert
Tags: Barack Obama, John McCain, New York, New York State Senate, Orleans County, Politics
September 18, 2008 at 8:48 pm
My god, man. Have you no social life?
September 18, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Russ,
Blogging is my job, essentially. So think of it this way: From about 8 or 9 a.m. every day I get up and start writing, editing and being an administrator. By about 5 or 6 p.m. every day, I’m done.
After that, I go out to dinner or go to an event of some sort and just enjoy life.
September 21, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Hi Robert even though I love your ideas and such I am just plain disappointed in the Journal. They took down our community forum with no explanation. I understand you have no control over this but the Journal has lost my business. I will boycott anything to do with them The Daily News is my official Newspaper. Good luck I think you can go a long way. You always support your facts wether I agree with you or not your a smart man. Good Luck I will vote for you “Let’s Fix Orleans County Together”!!!
September 22, 2008 at 5:00 am
Weiner,
It should go without saying why the forum was taken down. To my knowledge, someone complained and the forum was removed. The forum being removed should not impact your views of the Journal. The forum was offered and it was open so that adults could debate and discuss the issues. When people couldn’t behave themselves and stay civil, there was no other choice.
I have talked with others from the forum. They weren’t surprised it was taken down.
In any event, thank you for the kind words and praise. We don’t always agree but we respect each other. I thank you for that and hope to hear from you here a lot.