Bush in danger of losing pivotal Ohio; K & E taking advantage

[quinnox]

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Florida is so passe. This year's must-have state is Ohio. "If it was all about Florida in 2000, it's Ohio, Ohio, Ohio in 2004," said state Rep. Sylvester Patton, looking out the window of his downtown office building at Youngstown's Historical Center of Industry and Labor, a two-story brick reminder of the epidemic of joblessness in Mahoning Valley.

Standing guard outside what is commonly known as the steel museum are statues of workmen, carved from steel and thus untouched by an economy so weak that the local newspaper on Patton's desk carried an inch-high front-page headline: "Staggering job loss."

Kerry and rival John Edwards are devoting enormous time and money to Ohio and its 140 delegates, giving voters a preview of their strengths and weaknesses as potential general election candidates.

The winner will challenge President Bush, whose vulnerability is evident throughout the state. Democrats and Republicans believe job losses — as well as political shifts toward the GOP in Florida and elsewhere since 2000 — will make Ohio the ultimate Nov. 2 battleground.
...No Republican has ever won the presidency without Ohio.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=694&e=20&u=/ap/20040226/ap_on_el_pr/battleground_ohio

I'm starting to wonder if even Osama would be able to save Bush.

[aquart]

1. Has Osama closed a factory? Then arresting him won't matter.

But the CEOs who get $10-20 million in bonuses for firing American workers, if he put some of them on trial, watch his polls rise. Bush won't do it, of course.

But that's the only thing that would work: show he's serious about changing the corrupt corporate landscape.

He should have broken up Microsoft. Then he could have run as a giantkiller. But he didn't do it.

[buckeye1]

4. You got the grove.

bin laden is just another blown out tire.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

2. I live in Ohio, & my part of the state is mostly GOP.

I live in southwest Ohio (the Dayton/Cincinatti area) and this part of the state, outside the inner citys, seems to be pretty solidly GOP. Its a very culturally conservative area.

The Democrats have won Montgomery & Clark Countys (which contain the citys of Dayton & Springfield) in the past, but they probably need to increase their margins here...winning bigger in those two countys and losing by a closer margin in the more republican areas (like Cincinatti), so as to build a statewhite majority vote for a Democratic candidate.

Ohio is actually a pretty diverse state, basicaly Republican, I think, yet there are some strong Democratic areas, so it will be interesting to see how the Democrats fair here.

[Kolesar]

5. Cincy has historically been a company town, owned by P&G

Proctor & Gamble holds sway over everything that happens in that town. The newspaper does not print anything that P&G would not like. Such influence and drowning out opposing messages can really affect the electorate.

There is also a historical factor that southern Ohio was largely settled from Virginia, as opposed to the immigrant populations that established the northern cities. It actually helps to have an ethnic-sounding name in Cleveland (like Kucinich!).

[Yogi]

6. Welcome, Walerley Hills Hiker

I too am from Ohio 50 mi. north of Columbus. Here also is largely replubs but with job loss in Ohio and outsourcings, I believe the democratic canadate can win in Ohio.

[Kolesar]

3. Youngstown's integrated steel mills closed in 1960, 1977, and 1980

The unemployment rate was about 50%. That was a good while ago. What is amazing is that some of the adjacent towns like Boardman and Niles have had a commercial building boom. I thought the Mahoning Valley would have looked like an abandoned coal mining town by now.

Youngstown was always a labor-democrat town. I have heard that some voters became "reagan democrats" in national elections. I hope they don't make that mistake again.

[gristy]

7. Here's a lame claim from the article:

"as well as political shifts toward the GOP in Florida and elsewhere since 2000 - will make Ohio the ultimate Nov. 2 battleground."

We can certainly debate if the writer's assertion is even true. But it is also irrelevant. What is relevant is what political shifts have occured since the war on Iraq. And even more specifically, everything that's happened since the shrub's staged Hollywood landing on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific.