(ePluribusMedia OhioNews Bureau)
"Ohio is such an important swing state that if Howdy Doody was governor, he would be considered a potential running mate. I don't consider myself a Howdy Doody, but the point is, whatever interest there may be in me, it is related to Ohio's importance." (CPD)
Although the reference to Howdy Doody may be lost to voters born after the nationally popular kids show ended in 1960, it gave first-term Democratic Governor Ted Strickland, another chance to sound and act like Will Rogers, another folksy American whose laid-back, ah-shucks style endeared him to Americans of his day.
OHIO GOV AS VICE PRESIDENT?
Handicapping why first-term Democratic Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland should be on the shortlist for vice president in 2008, one northeastern pundit forecasts Ohio will again be the key state in selecting the next president as it has in the past, and that adding Strickland, who is his own man and not a puppet by any means, to the ticket would secure the Buckeye State and the White House for Democrats.
Strickland, a soft-spoken, poplar political centrist who is a psychologist and minister opposed to gun control and who has allowed state executions to continue, is proposed as a great running mate, despite his age, 65, and despite his stated desire to end his political career in his home state.
Frank Luntz, the noted Republican pollster whose long client list has included Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani, thinks Strickland is an obvious top-tier candidate. "Ohio's the state," he said. "The strategy [for the nominee] is to take a large red state and make it a blue state. Do that and it's over."
If the presidential election were today, Ohio would easily belong to the Democrats - with or without Strickland on the ticket. Picking Strickland would probably prevent Ohio from slipping away.
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer's Brent Larkin makes it clear that Republicans, who took a beating in Ohio last fall and may again find coal in their electoral stocking next year, based on President Bush’s handling of his war, his response to Hurricane Katrina and the mounting assessment of his administration as incompetence, are hoping beyond hope that they can cut and run from the blind support they gave (and still give) to his deranged policies and voters will play along. In hindsight, Republicans have never won the presidency without winning Ohio and in the last 102 years Ohio has voted for the winner in 24 of 26 elections.
WILL 2008 BE OHIO'S YEAR AGAIN? MAYBE, MAYBE NOT
Although Ohio still has 20 Electoral College votes and is considered by some analysts to be the front runner in battleground states for the 2008 presidential contest, it is loosing population because it continues to loose jobs. Come the next decennial census in 2010, Ohio may drop political weight as it sheds a congressional seat or two. As western states like Arizona or New Mexico or Colorado grow, they will gain congressional seats, thereby tipping the balance away from once powerful Midwestern titans like Ohio.
So in close political contests like 2000, when Bush beat Gore 50-46 percent in Ohio, or in 2004 when Buckeyes went 51-49 percent, Bush over Kerry, Ohio will still be important. But the shift to western states, which are expected to turn blue as a result of their growing Hispanic populations, who are more likely than not to vote Democratic, may take Ohio out of the picture as the win-it-or-loose-it state for presidential hopefuls.
Remember the vote differential in 2000: Bush 271, Gore 266. Had Gore won the eleven votes from his home state of Tennessee, he would be president, no matter the outcome in Florida. In 2004, the vote differential was wider: Bush 286, Kerry 252.
So while Ohioans and Clevelanders still see themselves as the center of the political universe, the 2008 election may be their last hurrah for claiming center stage.
UNLIKE JEFFERSONS, OHIO NOT MOV'IN ON UP
Classy, smart and distinguished Cincinnati state senator Eric H. Kearney, with help from fellow Democratic colleagues Tom Roberts of Dayton and Shirley Smith of Cleveland, is proposing that Ohio, to avoid missing the party to pick the next presidential candidate, move its presidential primary up from March 4 to Jan. 29, 2008.
Justifying his bill, Kearney, who was elected last year to his first four-year term, said it would "keep Ohio relevant" during the presidential selection process and said Ohio should follow suit with Florida, Nevada, South Carolina and Wyoming, states who have made the leap forward in time.
"Ohio faces many unique challenges that national candidates need to address," said Kearney, a Democrat from North Avondale. "Home foreclosures, economic decline, and access to quality health care are serious issues that deserve the attention of anyone seeking national office."
Timely and relevant as it maybe, Senate and House leaders, who are still Republicans, won’t lift a finger to help Kearney. Making matters worse for the trio, their own state party says it won’t go along for the ride either. A spokesman for the party said doing so "would risk losing national convention delegates."