West of COLUMBUS, OHIO, on I-70 — In Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio we’ve talked with lots (and lots) of people still on the fence about their vote this fall. If you don’t live in a swing state, the level of ambivalence would probably surprise you. (It’s certainly surprised us.)

The undecideds we’ve spoken with seem to not particularly like either candidate — they don’t dislike them, exactly, but they certainly feel nothing particularly positive about them. And they don’t appear likely to be swayed by a list of positions on the issues.

So this morning, we set course for Columbus, Ohio, looking for political activists, volunteers and others who have some enthusiasm for their positions.

The Obama Campaign’s field office is in a temporary office on Rich St., coincidentally across the street and 10 yards north of the Ohio Republican Party’s much more permanent building, at the corner of Rich and Fifth.

We spoke first with the head of the Ohio College Republicans, Jonathon Snyder, who talked about his campus-organizing efforts and the number of crossover voters — Democrat and Independent alike — who he saw coming to volunteer for McCain. He mentioned a traveling College Republicans group doing a driving tour of the US, blogging at http://whereisthered.com/.

Later, we spoke with the deputy communications director for the Obama campaign, Tom Reynolds, who described the campaign’s 88-county efforts in Ohio, opening field offices in counties John Kerry hadn’t contested in 2004. “We don’t have to win these rural counties,” he said, “we just need to keep the numbers down for McCain.” He also described the crossover appeal Obama has for Republicans and Independents. Political identity, at least according to folks working on campaigns, seems to be a very fluid thing.

Around Columbus, we saw teams of people working for “Grassroots Campaigns,” standing on the street and registering voters. They told us they work five-hour stretches, holding a clipboard, getting “around 20 new registrations per shift.”

Talking with voters, there’s a tone of engagement in Columbus that we haven’t heard before now on this trip. Serious attention is being paid here by both campaigns, and many more people we spoke with on the streets know their chosen candidate, and volunteer it easily.