In a sane U.S., about the only thing that Ohio Republican candidates would have going for them this fall is the fact that their state is not likely to get hit by a hurricane.

But with so many opportunities to vote against their own best interests--high unemployment, high gas prices, environmental devastation, a dysfunctional education system, unprecedented government corruption, just to name a few--what Ohioan could resist the impulse to maintain the status quo and send their Republican congressmen back to D.C.?

Lets hope that his fears are justified and Ohio finally wakes up.

And from here it feels like the Democrats just aren't getting it. When it comes to Democrats vs Republicans I agree with Democrats probably 99% of the time, and there's so much corruption in the Republican party (both nationally and at the state level) that it's impossible to remember it all. And yet... I'm not excited for Sherrod Brown or any other Democrat. The Democrats haven't made me care. They're neglecting a very important part of their job. A throw-the-bums-out campaign only works if you're fired up about it. That's probably true of any type of campaign, actually. But Democrats in Ohio and nationally continue to be this Republican-lite boring white man in a gray suit with a power tie corporate schmuck looking & sounding type of person. (I'm not referring to Sherrod Brown here: I don't actually know anything about him -- which is part of the problem.) I was rooting for Mike Coleman, but now he's out. I was rooting for Paul Hackett (the Iraq war vet who you may remember from almost beating a Republican in a very conservative district in an Ohio special election that got national attention), but apparently the Democratic leadership muscled him out. But these are the people we need: people with fire, with conviction. People like Howard Dean. The party needs to stop trying to find candidates who don't have any flaws (you think Bush has no flaws in his personal life? *coughDUIcough*) and instead try to find candidates with the personal character and charisma to be able to talk their way out of them. The Republicans will attack whatever there is to attack, so we can't be too worried about that. If like John Kerry there's not much there, they'll talk about him falling down snowboarding. So forget all that: find candidates that inspire people! Then, and only then, will Democrats take back the Congress.

Embrace your inner retarded zealot. Vote RNC in Ohio. It worked before it will work again.

Oh the candidates can try to run from Bush but in the end all the Republican voters will vote for the party of Bush and all it represents to them. Bush's numbers could be in the low negative numbers and people would still pine for the golden age of gay bashing, war, tax the poor, blurring the wall between church and state and fuck over everyone else. And Democrats will continue to blog and whine about it.

Walter Shapiro's Ohio article is useful and informative, but omits a key disappointment: The seat now held by Jean Schmidt. She is the most odious and disgraceful member of the Ohio delegation, possibly of the entire House. Paul Hackett could have beaten her, and should be running against her now. But a combination of miscommunications, Brown's inconsistency, and Hackett's resentfulness appear to have now given her a free ride. This foulup could have been avoided by better management from the DCCC and DSCC.

Let's hope Ohio voters wake up to the realization that neither of these parties represents them and goes third party.

As much as I would love to see Republicans lose control of the Congress, I cringe when I see the Dems using high gas prices as a campaign tool. A Democratic congress won't be able to lower gas prices, nor will a Democratic White House. Promises to "fix" the gas problem will come back to haunt them. It's simple economics: there's more demand for oil, and there's less oil to go around, and what oil there is comes from parts of the world that are endemicly unstable. Of course, Carter and his cardigan proved that actually trying to enact policies around the coming changes is never good electoral politics. Sigh.

jf

A few facts about Ohio from a resident of the Buckeye State:

1. More people 21-30 are leaving Ohio every year than any other state in the union.

2. Our unemployment rate is higher than the national average (5.0 as of March vs. 4.

3. Our method of funding schools has been found to violate the 14th amendment...at least 6 times, and still hasn't been fixed.

4. The Republicans will win Ohio in a walk.

Our State and local Democratic parties can't run a campaign to save themselves, as they've demonstrated over and over again. They've alienated what could potentially be a fantastic political resource in Hackett. Taft as an approval rating that is, if I recall correctly, almost in the single digits. If the Republican's win the governer's mansion in Ohio, it will almost certainly be the end of the Democratic party in Ohio.

Until the well documented voting irregularities that led to Bush's "win" in Ohio in 2004 are addressed, expect more of the same.

Have you read ANY of the facts involved in the 2004 Diebold voting debacle? There is NO POINT is discussing anything other than vote fraud -- if the votes aren't counted accurately, there's no point in any sort of debate.

The Feds ought to descend on Ohio and take over operation of the state while an army of special prosecutors unravels each and every Buckeye State scandal. There are plenty of them. MAJOR corruption, going to the highest levels of government.

This is an outsider's perspective. I will surprised if Ohio voters do not show a ferocious backlash in response to the massive election fraud which occured in Selection 2004. I assume that this is the reason for the almost laughable extremes to which the Republicans went in crafting their recent draconian election "reforms". They were anticipating a backlash vote and were attempting to compensate for it.

In 2004, the Republicans used election fraud strategies which are often used sucessfully in the South. However, in the South, there is a long history of alienation, dating back to Reconstruction, which has left a lingering effect on the Southern psyche. Voters have a tradition of feeling isolated from the government. They are more willing to accept disenfranchisement and to embrace the family or small group as a substitute for the government as the power structure controlling their lives.

Ohio, a nothern state, never suffered through Reconstruction. Therefore, it has no experience having a nonrepresentative government. To have its vote hijacked in such a blatant fashion, with the national press and both major party candidates participating in a conspiracy of silence must strike the citizens of that state as outrageous, even Kafkaesque. They have had two years to stew. Now, they have a chance to express their opinions in a way that the mainstream media can not censor.

I have expressed some of these ideas in graphic form at my website. Here is the link to "Nixonians Pt 2. Ohio":

http://www.grandtheftelectionohio.com/051228.htm

The best thing that Ohio Republicans can do is disavow Bush and Karl Rove and run on a platform of election reform.