Who's got the (political) button? He does

The retired teacher has collected buttons for 40 years.
FOREST, Ohio (AP) -- Retired history teacher Jim Taylor knows his political campaign buttons -- all 4,000 of them.
He keeps them in what his family has dubbed the "history room" of his home in this village 70 miles south of Toledo. Taylor had the room added to his house when his hobby outgrew his habitat.
Taylor, 54, is retired as an American history teacher at Riverdale High School. He teaches part time at the University of Findlay and a local community college.
Taylor got the button bug during the 1960 campaign in which John Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon. The best of them have played a key role in determining an election, he said.
"The guy that gets the most terrific slogan is the one who wins. 'I like Ike,' for example. That's ingrained in all of us," Taylor said.
He keeps a panel dedicated to Jimmy Carter's buttons in the 18-by-30-foot room. The Democrat's toothy grin and peanut farmer image "won him the White House," Taylor said.
However, some memorable lines have helped the opponent and not the man who spoke them, such as George H.W. Bush's campaign for a second term against Bill Clinton in 1992, when his "no new taxes" pledge came back to hurt him.
"I'm convinced that was the probably the final blow for him," Taylor said.
Not predicting outcome
He's holding off a prediction for the outcome of Tuesday's election -- at least by looking at the buttons.
"Not this time," he said, pointing to a display of more than 100 buttons for Sen. John Kerry and President Bush. "Sometimes they stick. Sometimes they don't."
Taylor liked Kerry's "Hope is on the way" slogan but says it really didn't catch on. Bush has benefited from the "Dubya" moniker, although he's not sure why voters like it.
"I think the thing Bush uses effectively is the swagger and the cowboy-hat effect," Taylor said.
Taylor's first acquisition was a Kennedy button. To accommodate the collection, the couple built the room onto the back of their Hardin County house. It also holds presidential busts, banners, autographs and other items.
"What's the sense in having a hobby you couldn't see?" Taylor said. "You know what I'm really proud of? When you go into my room, you don't know if I'm a Democrat or a Republican."
Taylor has seen Bush and Kerry at nearby rallies this year, but his favorite was Kennedy, he said. He even has some re-election items made before Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, including a set of mini-California license plates: "JFK 464."
"Kennedy was very inspirational," he said. "It was just a different sort of time."