Any discussion about electability must consider the whole "crossover" phenomenon. Hillary's big win in Ohio simply cannot be discussed rationally without taking that into consideration.

I have posted several times since the election that my own experience and anecdotal reports to the Plain Dealer suggest that a large proportion of Republican voters voted Democratic. Even the assistant executive editor Kevin O'Brien, a rabid, sarcastic wingnut, wrote a gloating, smarmy column on Wednesday about how he is now a Democrat.

Today's Plain Dealer reported that there were 16,000 crossovers in Cuyahoga County alone--that is Republicans who asked for a Democratic ballot. Now, of course, nobody can know for sure what percentage of those were true change-of-heart crossovers, but the fact that Rush and a local radio talk show host pushed "the plot" (vote Hillary in the spring, McCain in the fall) suggests most had unethical motives. More than unethical, in fact: Apparently crossovers were supposed to be given a pledge to sign that they swear allegiance to their new party and "mean it" and any evidence that they were crossing over to mess with the other party comes with a fine and jail time. That no one has ever been prosecuted on that is no surprise (and evidenced by the cavalier acknowledgment of many, who gave their names, that they did just that.)

As it turns out, most crossovers were not given the pledge at all, and in fact, a couple of elderly precinct workers in predominantly Republican Chagrin Falls said they "helped Republicans all day long vote for Hillary" and then did so themselves. They are named in the story. They make it clear that they are McCain supporters who fear an Obama presidency.

If this happened in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), god knows what kind of results happened in Cincinnati (or CinciNazi as a friend calls that right-wing town), where the single biggest fundraising zip code for GWB outside of Texas can be found (Indian Hill) and where THEIR local talk radio guy is the lovely Bill Cunningham, idiot who stridently promoted votes for Hillary since McCain (admirably imo) chastised him for his unseemly introduction at a rally. Those people are NOT voting for Hillary in the fall.

Ohio was uniquely poised to succumb to this phenomenon b/c we have an open primary and the Republicans had already coalesced around a candidate (It wouldn't have happened if Repubs still needed to be sorting out their own).

Does anybody know if PA has an open primary? They have a similar demographic, and of course there isn't even an ostensible reason to vote for a Repub since McCain has clinched it (although my bro will probably write in Newt Gingrich--ugh)

When people are starting to look at electability, they can't possibly count OH as a shoe-in for Hillary over Barack unless someone does a little more research on this. I'm surprised it's not national news.

She's picking on me.

AKA, where are when we need you?

/affectionate

So YOU'RE the expert on my family and friends, now? Like, I don't know whether my Strongsville neighbors (look it up: lily white Republican suburb) or my scattered family are conservative or progressive? Not sure what game you're playing at, but it ain't pretty. BTW, poor Gary Kucinich (Dennis's bro) lives nearby and has to suffer the same small-time Republican politics that I do.

I don't even know what that last post means. But I'm not a vulgarian. I'm not a flamer, and I have tried enormously to stay specific and avoid personal attacks. I don't believe I have attacked you in any way or come even close to the kind of generalizations toward Clinton supporters that you have toward Obama supporters. I think if you read through my thread of letters you will see the occasional spark of impulsivity or anger but mostly measured commentary. As for the male/female thing about you, I did not anticipate the pile-on and was sort of round- about acknowledging that I'd gotten your gender wrong. The AKA reference was an affectionate shoutout to her, for we all know she'd have some take on it that might make me out to be sexist. I think she and I are OK on that.

I see we've crossed posts. Haven't read yours yet, but wanted to clarify that when I say I didn't understand your "last" post it was the e-mail thing.

Shawn, You say this to me and I am stunned and have no idea what you're talking about:

"And also, if you're a teacher shame on you for tolerating bigotry against the "right" people to hate."

If this has anything to do with the previous jewish conversation, I was not in on that at all.

The most distressing thing of all to me is that you've succeeded in making me cry. I am literally sobbing, and I now have to go explain to my husband and three kids that I've allowed a complete stranger to affect me like this.

I may have reached my limit here, in spite of my very best efforts to the contrary. I simply don't know what to say anymore.

I don't know what my problem is...truly PMS right now I think, and now I've shared way too much.

I really am going to take a break for a little while; apparently I take this stuff way too seriously (Would somebody call the police if you see me back here tomorrow? or at least some kind of mental health clinic that treats obsessive disorders?)

Sorry Shawn if I offended you when I sicced Ignatius at you. I was sorta kidding but could see where it didn't look like that. On the racism stuff, really I wasn't even paying attention. Sometimes I come late to these threads and have no idea what's been going on...God help us if we're supposed to defend everybody from all the dung flying around--I wouldn't even know where to begin. But quite seriously, peace to all.