We all knew Ohio was going to matter in the 2008 presidential election. We just didn't know it would be this soon.
As the candidates and their surrogates scurried from the Mahoning Valley to the Miami Valley, we heard the echoes of 2006.
Here's what we--as participants and observers--learned then.
In 2006, Ohio voters resoundingly shouted "stop" to a government which they believe betrayed them. Voters said "no" to pharmaceutical firms writing Medicare law, the insurance industry drafting health care legislation, oil companies dictating energy policy. No more job killing trade agreements. No more special tax privileges for hedge fund managers. No more privatizing government services to line the pockets of campaign contributors.
Now in 2008, voters are asking for something more.
During my first 13 months in the US Senate, I convened more than 85 roundtables, open discussions with community leaders and activists, to learn how we all could work together. Their local problems are more often than not our national problems. Plant shutdowns sending jobs overseas. High energy prices afflicting businesses, homeowners, and renters. Woefully underfunded water and sewer and highway needs.
Voters are looking for big ideas much more than the typically cautious, incremental change at the margins that is usually offered up at campaign time.
Ohioans sense a structural shakiness to our economy. A shrinking, anxious, middle class. Frustrated Ohioans working harder for less money. The loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs with an out-of-control trade deficit. A three billion dollar-a-week war with no end in sight. And, exploding budget deficits infecting the next generation.
As Ohioans have told me, we need to increase buying power among the two-thirds of the American people who have, in too many cases, maxed out their credit cards and borrowed all that they could. Families who, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich points out, have two wage earners and work longer hours than almost anyone else in the world.
More than anything, Ohio voters want to hear big ideas. Perhaps a Manhattan project for infrastructure and alternative energy. Maybe a Marshall Plan that would build our manufacturing base and create good paying jobs. Or a tax and trade policy which rewards corporations that play by the rules and are loyal to our communities and our nation.
The candidate with big ideas will likely win on November 4th. More importantly, come January 2009, the new president will have a blue print for how to repair a fundamentally crippled economy.
-- U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (OH)
I did not see much in the way of responsibility but I did see people who easily assuaged blame at everything but themselves ... I did not see a critical understanding of the issues or the candidates positions just appeals to the lowest common denominator ... If Ohioans want big ideas there is one critical question that is not being raised ... ideas like opinions are easy ... how ideas will or can be implemented cannot be based on promises or promises of solutions ... there seems to be a lack of agency and sadly that lack of agency and responsibility brought about the election victory for someone who obfuscated her duplicity in bringing about the problems Ohio currently has
The case against four more years of Republican rule is overwhelming, but can she articulate it and go beyond her repertoire of wonky "solutions." In the general election how will she clearly separate herself from Bomb-Bomb McCain? Her dismal voting record? How will she inspire young swing voters? NAFTA? How will she make amends with black voters? Arrogance and sarcasm? In the demographics of the Ohio vote Obama won the urban centers. (Educated and African-American). She won everything else (Rust Belt, rural, working class). The delegate margin was only nine so it's a pretty even split.
Depending who gets nominated the question is whether Obama can retain her supporters or she can retain his. If she stays negative the answer is obvious. President McCain. A lot of young voters are not interested in business as usual. Moreover, although Ohio is an economy-driven swing state racism and xenophobia among working class Democrats is the wild card. Can sufficient voters swallow their prejudices and vote their wallets? Maybe.
Outside of the Deep South Ohio best represents the profound contradictions of American Society, the strange amnesia that has permitted voters to act against their own interests. Thus, Obama is the best candidate as he has attempted to elevate the rhetoric and move away from the politics of division and destruction. He speaks for our better angels.
I would remind people of the Greenspan interview.
He really gave a great deal of credit to Bill Clinton for his economic leadership and genius.
And whether you want to admit it or not, the Clintons are a team.
I'd prefer his voice in the president's ear to Cindy's or Michelle's.
I am not saying he was a bad President, because he was surely better than what we have had over the past seven years. However, I am saying that you are deluding yourself if you think he is going to improve the economy. He implemented NAFTA and is committed to the Corporations that he helped deregulate to increase their profit. It is hard to implement regulation and policies on the corporate elite, in order to help a majority of American people, when you were the one who gave them the enormous profits in the first place.
On another note: OHIO and Texas really screwed up the Democratic path to the White House. Hillary is more of the same old same old. Do we really want -- Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush, Clinton -- monarchy. Maybe Obama can't change a lot but at least he will try. With Clinton it will be business as usual and that isn't working real well.
Hillary is right, "talk is cheap", so voters should carefully examine her policies (and her husband's), which are much more in line with GW Bush and the republican agenda than anything that even attempts to throw a few scraps to the poor, middle and working class.
Representatives Dennis Kucunich, Ron Paul, and Ralph Nader are not bought and owned by Corporate America, Its why the Democrats and Republicans do not like these upstanding law abiding men, who believe in and stand to Protect , Defend , Preserve the United States Constitution.
The fact is the people running for the office of the president , are in fact lying about change! when members of Congress are owned by Corporate America, they stop working on behalf of the Citizens of the United States, thats been seen and has been in play for a long time now.
The Republicans in the Congress have been against the Constitution, they have obstructed Investigations into all the Illegal activities of the Administration, they have torn down the rule of law governing all so-called men, and the list is vast.
The Democrats in the Congress again go against the Constitution, They in turn have not, Protected , Defended , nor Preserved, the Constitution based upon the "Oath they all took. They have as well became a part of the problem and not the solution in cleaning up the vast Corruption in the Congress.
The Corruption will continue and it is " We The People who keep getting the short end of the "Stick. We the people deserve the kind of Government that we elect.
Corporate owned Media is the other Corrupt side of the coin, The media today should be broken up due to its corrupt nature, its a " Right Wing structure laying, Lies, Misinformation, and covering up for this corrupt administration. It is the Propaganda Machine for the Republican party, which is very obvious in the daily cycle of garbage that they report on.
The Iraq war has cost our nation 4000 troops KIA, 25,000 wounded and $2 Trillion (with a "T") dollars of our national treasure.
Ohio's "share" of that $2 trillion would be about $100 Billion. Had we invested our $100 billion in Ohio's factories, infrastructure, schools and people... here's where we could be right now:
Dozens of newly- tooled factories building state-of- the- art wind turbines, solar arrays, and electric vehicles with tens of thousands of new skilled manufacturing jobs... high speed rail linkages between Ohio's major cities along with commuter light rail... at least one new school in each of Ohio's 450 school districts... health care coverage for all Ohioans.
But instead... a mindless war, costing us a $ billion dollars a day, with no end in sight.
Yes Senator Brown, it seems that all of our Big Dreams-- in Ohio and elsewhere-- must remain on hold until we elect a President (and more Senators like yourself) who have the political courage to say "No!" to the fear mongers and stop this miserable war.
Further, U.S. citizens must be willing to forego the notion of DOMINANCE, esp. dominion enforced by egregious, military expenditures. Many former members of the army, air force, navy, Marines, etc. are still of a mind that considers military intervention as a first recourse.
This is exactly what all of us have been talking about. Politicians whose fluff says volumes about their agendas. Your state has been just identified as just as backward as Alabama in 1956 and you write a blog about how Ohioans want 'big ideas'? Nice spin move slick! The bigger question at this point is "Do you HONESTLY believe what you just wrote?". And if you do, you are about as in touch with reality as George Bush!
http://www.powells.com/biblio/61-1565849280-0
Maybe you should ask the rest of the representatives in the House why they don't want to work to move forward these Big Ideas you, all of us and Sherrod Brown have been talking about for all this time instead of beat up on one of the few members of Congress that agrees with you.
And are you anonymous as well? Or should your nom-de-plume be one I recognize? Perhaps this is a piece of information which I am lacking. Margaret Thatcher in disguise?
Hillary only won by 10 points here and she had been campaigning in Ohio a lot longer than Obama. A major ice storm hit the state about 4pm on election day and continued through the night. Trees were down, power lines were down all over the place. The bus lines were delayed at least an hour and many were cancelled. When I left work at 5pm my car was encased in ice, it took me a half hour to chip my car door open and scrape the ice off my windows then it took me an hour to drive 4 miles home. I sincerely believe that the vote would have been a hell of a lot closer if we hadn't had biblically crappy weather during the prime voting time of the day.
In 2006, Ohio cleaned house politically and if these voters are looking for big ideas they know damn well they aren't going to get them from conservative politicians. That Ohioans gave Clinton a victory means very little. The delegate count is what matters and Clinton gained very little in that regard. Whatever...I'm not convinced Obama would give us any bigger ideas than Clinton; perhaps he would but that remains to be seen. What I'd find interesting is a comparison between total number of voters who voted Democrat vs Republican in Ohio and I'd like to see the percentage of those voters who are newly registered. My guess is we'd see a continuation of the national trend towards greatly increased numbers of Democratic voters.
I am very proud of my congressmen !
In view of the result in Ohio last night, this is utter nonsense. Most voters seem to be impressed by scare tactics and dubious rumors and are unwilling to do anything that might require any courage. They want the safe and the tried and true and the predictable. That's why the experience thing works. That's why the 3 AM phone thing works You don't get much change from someone who's been in the system for 3 or 4 decades, at least not on this side of the looking glass.
Ohio is one, ONLY one, state in a country that has realt needs that stretch beyond the borders of it's sovereignty, and, evidently, the minds of its voters.