Frustrated Ohioans haven't given up on GOP

[jaysunb]

I grew up in Cleveland, but always realized that, " once you stepped outside the city limits, you were in Oaklahoma" <sigh>

One year before Ohio voters could again decide the presidency, they are feeling feisty.



• Quinnipiac University Poll, August-September 2007: Part 1 | Part 2They are unhappy with President Bush, pessimistic about military success in Iraq and worried about the state's economy, a new Plain Dealer poll shows.
"I see an overall frustration from people I know," says survey participant Steve Fisher of Westerville, who describes himself as an independent. "Everyone sees there is a lot that could or should be getting done, but it doesn't seem like our elected officials want to get together."

While the survey results suggest America's bellwether state might be turning against Republican leadership, don't paint Ohio blue just yet. Ohio voters -- often a barometer of the national mood -- still look to the GOP to guide them on national security, immigration and taxes, issues already getting plenty of attention in the presidential campaign.And Ohio voters, who have been wrong only twice when picking the president in the last 107 years, remain deeply divided along party lines, providing more evidence that Ohio will again be a battleground on the road to the White House

http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2007/11/plain_dealer_ohio_poll_novembe.html

[Demeter]

1. The Definition of Insanity Applies Here

[oasis]

2. What a bunch of dumbasses. (eom)

[gratuitous]

3. Ohioans as Dean Wormer

After all the chaos, death, destruction, bankruptcy (financial and moral) and corruption visited on our country by the Republicans, they ask Ohio, "Do you think you could see your way clear to give us just one more chance?"

[AX10]

4. After all of what has happened, we can't get 51% on our side?

:wtf: The GOP has gone Charles Manson on the country (and the world) and there is still a divide as to who to vote for next year? Come on now, the Democrats are not perfect, but the GOP is absolutely horrific!

[ingac70]

5. Sick! Ohio has been one of the hardest hit....

by GOP domestic policy in the last 6 and a half years, and they ask for more!

Masochists!

[AX10]

6. Michigan has learned alot. They put Democrats back in charge...

and Hillary defeats Rudy G 56%-40%.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. They have a very dedicated evangelical base there for some reason.

[Arugula Latte]

8. That's my home state. Maybe the industrial waste has gone to too many brains there.

What a pathetic state of affairs.

[Auggie]

13. Mine too. Though I'm not taking a poll of just 625 registered voters seriously.

The PD is edited/published by a bunch a pukes too.

[givemebackmycountry]

9. Sad-

When Ohio State lost today IN THEIR OWN HOUSE I was thinking serves you right.
I was HAPPY to see all those sad sack faces in agony.
I was thinking "EFF YOU!" serves you right to suffer.

If it comes down to Ohio and some "sleazy" stuff happens again that puts another whack-job Republican in the White House?

I say we send as many buses up there as possible to pull our DU friends out of that hell hole.

[OHdem10]

10. Columbus has turned Democratic.

In the recent elections Sherrod Brown ran as a Progressive.
He and also his wife when making speeches for him througout
the state introduced themselves as Progressives. He wons
handily. At times terms Liberal and Progressive used interchangeably.

I would say Ohio has turned purple. Our Party signing
every damn Trade Deal is not going to help them.

Trade Issues hurt in all states. Someone had better have a heart
to heart with our party.

[mwb970]

11. The SW corner is *so* right-wing it distorts the state's results.

Cleveland is Democratic, Columbus is turning away from the right wing, and bush's approval rating in the SE region is 18%. It's the folks down in Jean Schmidt country that are making us look bad.

[Berry Cool]

14. You said it. I'm so sick of DU bashing Ohioans collectively as idiots

on the basis of some stupid poll or other that not only implies a huge majority of us voted Republican in 2004, but that we are about to do it again.

Please, people, before you bash...remember that Ohio is not that easy to classify. And it's not really "Oklahoma once you get outside the city center," either. That's way too broad-brush a description. There are blue and purple pockets outside that. Trouble is, Dems are already looking for a scapegoat to blame if they lose in '08 (although I have a tough time imagining that will happen), and Ohio makes such a handy one. Forget that our votes get stolen. Don't worry about that. It's so much easier to just condemn us all as a bunch of stupid one-toothed Jaysus freaks who fail to learn from past experience.

If there's any reason Giuliani does as well in polling here as he does, and poses a threat, right now, it's because right now Ohioans really haven't thought about him much apart from his "hero of 9/11" image. The average Ohioan who is not deeply into politics doesn't know or think much about him aside from that dated media image.

If Dems want to do something to win Ohio, and Rudy turns out to be the Republican they have to deal with, they will have to do something to dismantle his image with the vast majority of Ohioans: "I really don't know much about him, but he sure took charge of New York on 9/11, didn't he?" If anything, he's probably MORE appealing to some of them because he isn't your typical Republican social conservative Ken Blackwell-type nut. It's Rudy's image as a mildly progressive MOR candidate that has the scariest potential to lose Ohio for the Dems. The way I see it, anyway.

Stop worrying about the Bible-thumping gay haters in Ohio, and start worrying about the provincial soccer moms and dads who aren't really aware there is a difference between New York City and New York state, but they do remember Rudy sure seemed to be there when New York needed him, and he doesn't strike them as some religious nut either, so hey, OK, they'd vote for him.

[Naturyl]

12. War, xenophobia, and greed are definitely GOP planks.

And that's what "national security, immigration and taxes" mean when they are spewing out of a right-wing mouth.