It's pretty hard to have lawn signs without lawns?
North Dakota has beautiful lawns, just not in February. There are, however, plenty of snowbanks in which to plant lawn signs.
Few people realize that North Dakota played a pivotal role in the 1976 Republican Primary-- and threw away an opportunity to spare the nation from four years of Jimmy Carter.
The delegate margin between President Ford and Ronald Reagan was razor thin. So thin, in fact, that Reagan came to North Dakota to campaign. Like a lot of other college students at that time, my friends and I were not sure whether we were Democrat or Republican or something else. But many of us were charmed by Reagan and the vision he had for the country.
We went to the Republican county convention to drum up support. This was the largest county in the state, but similar scenes were repeated throughout the state. The rank and file were overwhelmingly for Reagan. The party bosses (mostly country clubbers led by an M.D. name C. Warner Litten from our county) were for Ford.
The Litten-led "compromise" to thumb their nose at the rank and file and take North Dakota out of the decision making process was to split the delegation at 9 for Ford, 9 for Reagan and then have the gall to tell the overwhelming majority that under the rules, the party leadership could have awarded all delegates to Ford.
Litten's action effectivelty stopped Reagan's momentum in June 1976. Our governor then was a Democrat from the western part of the state named Art Link, one of the most honest, decent and moral politicians I have ever known. Supporting his re-election was far more attractive to most of us than lining up behind an appointed president who had few policy differences from Jimmy Carter.
More than anything, it was the Country Clubbers slap to the rank and file who sent so many of us over to the other side of the aisle and eventually led to a North Dakota congressional delegation of Democrats only.
That's just pure BS. Ask any cheesehead how to plant a yard sign in the frozen tundra. We know how to do it.
(Hint) You start with a cordless drill and a long bit -- or a steel spike and a 4 pound hammer...