How do you like him now?
The White House announced Monday that President Obama will visit Georgia with a stop March 2 in Savannah.
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The trip will be the third stop on Obama's "White House to Main Street Tour," and is designed - according to a White House official quoted by Morris News Service - "to give ordinary people a chance to describe their economic challenges."
In related news, eggs and tomatoes are on sale at Kroger.
'Other' still winning
Speaking of visiting politicians, I'm not sure how things worked out for John Oxendine's visit to Columbia County this past weekend for a FairTax "town hall" meeting.
Our little snowstorm seems to have gotten in the way. The library didn't actually open until 1 p.m., but the classrooms off the lobby opened for the town hall at 11:30 a.m., a library spokesman said.
Oxendine's visit came just days after a new InsiderAdvantage poll that seems to show his lead growing in the race for the Republican nomination for governor.
There was one puzzling conflict between the polling firm's press release and Oxendine's own announcement, however. Oxendine's camp says his margin of support in the poll "marks a significant increase over the last gubernatorial poll conducted by InsiderAdvantage."
The announcement shows Oxendine at 25 percent in the Feb. 9 poll, up from 21.3 percent in another poll by the firm last May.
The conflict, though, was in the InsiderAdvantage/RosettaStone Communications press release. Referring to the results of the latest poll, it says "notable differences include a small drop in support for ... Oxendine." But it doesn't supply the previous poll numbers for reference.
RosettaStone spokesman John Garst clears that up. While Oxendine's camp specified an increase in support compared to the last InsiderAdvantage poll, the RosettaStone release compared the latest poll to more recent polling by other organizations, including Rasmussen.
Comparing the more recent numbers, Oxendine's support has shown a small decline in recent weeks, Garst says.
For other results in the latest poll, Karen Handel - who is scheduled to visit the county Feb. 27 - comes in with 9.6 percent. Nathan Deal has 9 percent; Eric Johnson is at 6.9 percent; Austin Scott is at 3.2 percent; and Ray McBerry is at 1.4 percent.
Perhaps the most telling number in the poll, though, isn't how many of the likely Republican voters polled prefer any of the six Republicans running; instead, it's the number of people still undecided. While that number has dropped a few points since last May, nearly half of those polled still haven't picked a horse in the race.
For the candidates, this means there are plenty of uncommitted voters still waiting to be wooed. But it also means none of the current candidates have caught fire yet. It's a long way to the July 20 primary.
Meanwhile, responses to another poll question are bad news for proponents of Sunday package alcohol sales.
The overall results of the poll show half of likely Georgia voters favor Sunday sales, with just 38 percent opposed and 12 percent undecided. But among likely Republican voters, support and opposition are split exactly at 46 percent each.
"With no clear mandate among Republican primary voters, expect little movement on the issue of Sunday sales among a Republican-dominated General Assembly," the pollsters say.
Politicians like stronger breezes in their polls before committing to the direction the wind blows, and that "favored" number would have to climb significantly before any of them would have the guts to set sail on a course toward legal Sunday package sales.
Temporary ski resort
While it wasn't exactly the use the developers intended, Marshall Square certainly was a busy place Saturday.
The steep, manmade hills in the empty development made great sled runs after the snowfall.
Less-advanced sledders were sent to the bunny slopes behind the library.
(Barry L. Paschal is publisher of The Columbia County News-Times. E-mail barry.paschal@newstimesonline.com. Follow at twitter.com/barrypaschal.)