Bad news for John McSame's campaign in the Buckeye State...an Ohio Court has ruled that Libertarian candidate Bob Barr must be included on the November ballot:
Ohio must include the Libertarian Party's nominees on its ballot in November, a federal court has ruled, complicating Sen. John McCain's effort to win conservative votes in a hotly contested state.
More after the jump...
The court order, issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus Jr., directs Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer L. Brunner to disregard her office's current guidelines, which require eligible parties to gather valid signatures equal to one-half of 1 percent of the total vote in 2006 or to have garnered at least 5 percent of the last election's votes. Brunner's office has not decided whether to appeal.
My prediction is that they won't appeal. Brunner's been very tough on the state's GOP recently, and I doubt her boss, Gov. Ted Strickland (D), will be sympathetic to McCain's plight.
This puts Ohio even more in play. Obama is sure to win comfortably in most of Ohio's major population centres...Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, and Toledo have heavy African American and Union/Union-friendly populations...with Cincinatti being the only question mark. The only thing that makes Ohio so unpredictable is the turnout from the large rural swaths within the state (especially in the southern half), which follow patterns in nearby West Virginia much more than they do their more urbanized neighbors.
But Barr resonates with conservative Ohioans' values much more than McCain does. Take it from me...I've lived in Ohio all of my life, and have traveled extensively throughout the state. Most rural Ohioans believe in privacy rights (as in "those @!#%$&! politicians better keep out of my personal business!"), and McSame's endorsement of Bush's imperialistic ambitions won't go over well. Especially with Barr pushing the issue! While many are too racist to vote for Obama, having Barr on the ballot will give them an alternative to McCain, who they might have otherwise held their collective noses and voted for.
While I despise Bob Barr (as a Wiccan, I'm not too fond of politicians who try to fan the flames of hatred against us), I'll be more than happy to watch as he does his small part to turn Ohio blue this year.