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McFeatters: The Ohio political pulse
Palin's hot; McCain's not; Obama's got the lead
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Four years ago, Clark County, Ohio, voted Republican instead of Democratic, as it had in 2000, thumbing its collective nose at John Kerry and giving President Bush enough votes to win Ohio and thus re-election.
The county was deemed so vital that a British newspaper, The Guardian, urged its readers to write letters to undecided voters in Clark County, urging them to consider the international repercussions of electing the right president. (The letter-writing campaign was somewhat of a disaster, leading The Guardian to drop Operation Clark County after targeted voters starting writing back with pointed suggestions on what the newspaper could better do with its time.)
No Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio since 1860 when Abraham Lincoln won. For the past 100 years, the winner in Ohio went to the White House 24 out of 26 times. Only two Democrats, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, won the White House but lost Ohio. In 2004, Kerry and Bush and their running mates traveled to Ohio 82 times between the March primary and the election.
Today, voters in pivotal Clark County are struggling to figure out how to vote. One certain sign: There are ubiquitous yard signs for local and state candidates; there are surprisingly few for either Obama-Biden or McCain-Palin.
Despite growing concerns about Sarah Palin's credentials to be vice president (and frequent reminders by Democrats that one out of three vice presidents eventually becomes president), in Clark County Palin still is hot. McCain is not. Questions about Obama still are legion, but in Ohio he is leading McCain, 50 percent to 42 percent, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. Nonetheless, Ohio is still considered skirting the margin of error, and both sides are fighting hard for the state.
The financial meltdown and collapse of Wall Street have chilled voters to the marrow. Springfield, once a farm-implements capital of the world, has become a poster child for the Rust Belt. It is fighting to remake itself a retirement Mecca as a regional healthcare provider, but for-sale signs litter its neighborhoods and ads offering cherished pets for sale fill the classified newspaper columns as owners find their dogs and cats too expensive to feed. The county was hit hard by the remnants of Hurricane Ike, with some homes out of power for more than a week and yard debris still lining some streets.
The county has been losing population since 1970, declining from 157,000 to 144,000. The median annual household income in 2004 was $40,800, compared with $43,400 for the state of Ohio, and only slightly higher than it was in 2000.
Interest in the election is high. Applications for absentee ballots are much higher than in 2004; on the first day it was possible to vote early, there was a line.
And how do Clark County and Ohio, which preferred Bush in 2004, rate him now? His approval rating is an abysmal 24 percent; his name rarely even comes up in political conversations. It's almost as if voters are surprised he is still president. But whether it is fair or not, undecided voters are tending more each day to link McCain to the nation's current rash of staggering problems, especially on the economy. By almost 20 percentage points, Ohioans overall do not like the administration's $700 billion bailout plan.
But, as elsewhere, voters here are holding their breath, waiting for an October surprise that could change election dynamics yet again. "I'm too old for such a roller-coaster election. You wake up in the morning, and everything is all topsy-turvy again," said one woman sorting through two-for-the-price-of-one packages of chicken breasts at her local grocery store. "Truth is, I don't think any of 'em make much of a difference."
Four years ago, she said she had four Bush-Cheney signs in her yard. This year she has rejected efforts of both Republicans and Democrats to put signs on her property.
— Ann McFeatters writes for Scripps Howard News Service. Her e-mail address is amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.
Posted by sslocal on October 6, 2008 at 2:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
No matter who wins, we will be worse off.
Posted by cassandra2 on October 6, 2008 at 6:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We are up bleep's creek to be sure, but possibly we will be less than we are now. Some things will work better with Obama.
We will, for example, be able to change the balance on the FCC board so that fairness, some curb against media monopoly will prevail. Right now some 6 or so corporations determine what most Americans can know and what spin is put on that information. And this has been a disaster leading the people to agree to an unjust war and an erosion of our civil rights.
We have the possibility in the duress of the times to regain that spirit that brought us through other hard economic times as one people diverse as we are. We will have a leader of multi-ethnicity for whom inclusiveness is a built-in instinct.
It's gonna be a rocky road, but it will be best with a smart guy willing to listen as well as speak.
Beyond that we have legions of better informed people outside the mainstream, especially here in California, who have been working on the real issues not discussed in the silly campaign--peak oil, peak soil, peak water, severe climate change, population overshoot--why not a smart person for a change able to listen to them?
Posted by sslocal on October 7, 2008 at 1:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
So, reading your words I would say that you think McCain/Palin would be bad for the country and electing a, well electing Obama would be good.
This despite having a entitlement plan equal to 1 trillion bucks. We don't have the cash to do this. Even if we did I would be against it. Smaller, more eficiant Gov. is what we need. Not some all powerful entity that oversees our every move. Community police forces dressed in uniforms? Can you say brown shirts?
The list against Obama goes on and on but you know what I am talking about. You have read the stories and heard the reports. You simply cover your ears and make noise until it is over. Keep your blinders on sister. Just watch what he does, if he is elected, and then tell me that he meets your expectations.
You may yet be forced to wear the burka.
Posted by acerbas on October 8, 2008 at 8:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You are both silly, silly people.
I tend to think that sslocal is correct in that no matter who wins the election we will be worse off. But I agree with Cassie that we will be worse off, sooner, if McCain wins.
I'm not sure why I think so, though. I looked at Obama's web site and I find no evidence that he has paid any attention to knowledgeable people so far. He listens to his mainstream economic advisors, and we have seen how prescient they are.
His energy policy fails to mention peak oil, and seems to center around subsidies to manufacture hybrids and wind turbines, ineffectual boondoggles both.
Not a mention of human overpopulation. Population is the word that no politician dare touch, but it will turn this little planet into a smoldering ash heap.
These legions of informed people you refer to, Cassie, I am very curious as to what you think they can and will actually accomplish.
I am convinced that you do not fully appreciate the implications of Overshoot.
Thirteen years ago Richard Leakey, the world's foremost paleoanthropologist, a man whom Time magazine annointed one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, published The Sixth Extinction. http://tinyurl.com/3rbrxl He depicted how the human species is destroying life on this planet. No life, no elections, no politics, no people. He will be speaking in Santa Barbara Friday evening. http://www.focusonplanetearth.com/ind... I suspect he will draw a crowd of
a few hundred people, maybe a twentieth of the crowd that will show up for the U.S.C. football game, or a hundred thousandth that will watch American Idol.
More recently, the world's greatest biologist, Edward O. Wilson, published The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. http://tinyurl.com/yph5b3 And humans said, "Sorry, can't hear you, must have a bad connection, got to to to Steve Thomas BMW and buy that new M3 I've been dreaming of."
I'm glad I'm old and won't be around to see the worst of the die-off. Sorry 'bout you folks with grandkids, though, they are s*****d.
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