Rasmussen released new Ohio results today showing McCain up 5 in the state. While this represents an improvement since the last Rasmussen Ohio poll which had McCain up with a 10 point margin, it's hardly cause for celebration.

    For one thing, the last Rasmussen poll had been dismissed in DKOS punditry circles as an outlier. It's much harder to dismiss this one, coming on the heels of a (D-leaning) PPP poll that shows the race dead even in Ohio. More disturbing, virtually all the polling shows that Obama is doing significantly worse in Ohio than in the comparable states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and even Michigan. Ohio is trending with Indiana, which is not where we want it to be.

   I did predict this -- consult my numerous diaries. I come not to gloat but to reinforce the message that fundamental changes need to be made in the Ohio campaign, and we are running out of time.

The 11 p.m. news just reported that a little while ago, the police right here in Cleveland Heights attempted to stop a speeding car, and found my congresswoman, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, unconscious at the wheel.

http://blog.cleveland.com/...

Oh my goodness, I wasn't sure I'd really seen this, but there it was in all its bizarre glory...

There will be no more sleepovers with voting equipment in Ohio.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a directive today forbidding the practice in Fairfield County and at least 22 other counties of having voting machines and other equipment taken home the night before an election by poll workers or others and brought to polling locations on Election Day.

Huh, who'd have thought this would actually be an issue?  Really?

I was reading a 23/6 article on The Huffington post and this caught my eye.

When they speak of the term Appalachia, people are usually thinking of West Virginia, Kentucky, and eastern Tennessee. But the culture and economic conditions of the Appalachian region extend well into western Pennsylvania and southeastern sections of Ohio. All agree that these two states are important in this year’s presidential election. Under many scenarios the voter outcome in Ohio could either give or deny the White House to Barack Obama.

The 2004 election illustrates the importance of Ohio. In 2004 George W. Bush won the state of Ohio by 119,000 votes. Had John Kerry defeated Bush in Ohio, Kerry would have won the presidency.

    McCain and Obama each have VP short-lists thought to include about five names each. Only one name on each list has strong Ohio connections -- Kathleen Sebelius and Rob Portman. Both Sebelius and Portman were born and raised in Cincinnati. Portman attended the Cincinnati Country Day School. Sebelius attended the Summit Country Day School.

    Overnight, the new PPP poll showing Ohio to be dead even (45-45) has raised Ohio's importance even beyond its prior status as Presidential Galactic Center. With neighboring Michigan also declining into the toss-up category, it's now virtually certain that the national race will be decided in Ohio and Michigan alone. Obama still holds the advantage in that he needs only one of them, but the two have a good chance of voting in tandem this year, and if McCain wins both, he almost certainly wins in the Electoral College. All other states have declined in importance accordingly.
   

So John McCain is potentially doing a VP rollout in Ohio, according to ABC News. In light of this, I have a question: Can someone - anyone - please explain to me why no one in Obama's campaign, in the media, in the progressive infrastructure sphere, in the labor movement or even on lefty blogs, is pushing Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) for VP in any real way?

McCain is going to be a celebrity! He's gathering 10,000 people to hypnotize pander to in Ohio the day after Obama accepts the Democratic nomination in Denver.

John McCain and Barack Obama are perfectly tied in Ohio, according to the newest survey from Public Policy Polling (August 12-14, 2008 survey of 950 likely General Election voters)

Obama had led in PPP’s June and July polls of the state. It’s 45-45 with 10% undecided.

It seems that 17% of democrats are voting for McCain, and 8% are undecided. Most of them white and older in age. I guess Ohio would be a state that the Clintons need to go to to stump for Obama.

Here are the details.

A new poll is out on Ohio from PPP.

Tied

45-45 Obama-Mccain

This is going to be a close one folks!

Well, I spent another Saturday canvassing for Barack Obama and I must say it's now something I really look forward to each week.  I have lived in Ohio for 12 years and have never really felt like this is where I belong.  The city I live in is pretty conservative and has a reputation for being narrow minded.  I've made a lot of close friends in my life, but have only a few in Ohio.  It's just been a difficult, awkward road for me here.  However, in the last few weeks, I have met people that I feel a real connection to and I almost feel like I have a new outlook on my community just from participating in this process.  We as a nation are 100% responsible to "get it right" when we elect our President and it is not only ok to engage our neighbors, it is our obligation.  I have never felt more certain of this.  

    Special pleading for the importance of Ohio is superfluous. Poblano at fivethirtyeight.com rates Obama's chances of winning without Ohio at just 17.37%, while McCain's chances without Ohio are a deminimis 2.41%. By those projections, there's over an 80% chance that Ohio will determine the national outcome.

    Moreover, Ohio is now the only dead-even state in the nation, according to Poblano's poll tracking, "on the precipice of flipping." Recent Ohio polls are wildly erratic: Democrat-leaning PPP had Obama up by 8, then Rasmussen had McCain up by 10. Quinnipiac evened the score with Obama +2. WTF?

    The spring refrain was that Obama had a winning strategy without Ohio, but that is looking less likeley. It depended on holding Michigan and winning at least one big eastern red state -- either Virginia, North Carolina or Florida. But Michigan and Ohio are falling back to the standard pattern of being fellow-travellers. Whoever wins Ohio will likely win Michigan, too. Virginia is looking more winnable for McCain, and it's by far the best Obama bet compared to North Carolina and Florida

It's ironic that an organization tasked with monitoring the truthfulness of the campaigns spews analysis that is so lacking in that very quality. The latest example can be found in a Newsweek article about an Obama ad criticizing the McCain involvement in the Ohio DHL deal. The ad is entitled, Distorting the DHL Deal . Now the title is pretty damning, the problem is the contents of the article do not justify the title. And that is the real distortion.

While DailyKos is a key stronghold in the netroots movement, it must be admitted that using the internet has certain, tangible limits in terms of voter outreach. Many demographics, primarily the higher age groups that vote strongly for McCain, still largely get their news from newspapers.

Given the amount of writing talent available in the blogging community, it seems logical that this would be a good place to find quality letter-writers. Many newspapers in key swing states have circulations in the hundreds of thousands.

Interested in helping the cause? Oodles of info below the fold.

Actually, I'm doing a bit of false advertising. The subject title should end in question marks, not exclamation points. Real question marks, not rhetorical ones. I'm looking for real, true, sincere, snarkless feedback as to why the guy I'll later mention has never been given a good looksy for the VP slot. Sure he's appeared on a Kos poll from time to time, but each time out, he was the dude bringing up the rear. Usually scoring a few points below Other, Pie, or Not This Shit Again.  More on the bloke who just might be the worst VP pick of them all after the flip.

Don't mind my diary errors, I only write one here every 4 years, I swear.                    

So far.... ;0)

The subject of politics is one that you can never grasp at one glance, it's something you have to live through daily to even understand how it works, and one of my subjects I tend to read about most often. The first favorite topic for me though is art. I wanted to be an artist when I was in the 8th grade at St Agnes, but I had this teacher who told me I had no talent. (BTW I'm now 45yoa) My parents told me I had to study something that had a safe salary behind it, and art was not it. In my junior year in college, my parents came to visit me on campus and was looking at some graphite sketched images taped to the walls, and pronounced that my roommate was very talented. I then quietly informed them that I had done them in between elementary education classes. And they, after closing their mouths, asked "Why didn't you tell us you could do this?" And I, being the long time obedient Catholic schooled oldest and only daughter before 5 brothers, replied "Because you told me I had to do something in which I would have a steady salary."

To be continued......

Obama slams McCain Campaign and its lobbyist connections for causing job losses of 8,000 in Ohio.

Here is the script:

Woman: If DHL, if something happens, it’s going to be like a ghost town.
Man: I thought I was doing a good job providing for my family. And then to have that taken away….
Announcer: In Washington, John McCain helped pave the way for foreign-owned DHL to take over an American shipping company.
McCain’s campaign manager was lead lobbyist for the deal. Now, thousands of Ohio jobs at risk.
Man: It’s tough times, when it’s a foreign entity coming in and sucker punching us. That’s how this felt.
Obama: I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.

More after the jump...

With Jerome Corsi in the news with his new book. few have noticed some of Jerome's previous projects. one that really caught my attention was his book with Kenneth Blackwell:

Kenneth Blackwell and Jerome R. Corsi. Rebuilding America: A Prescription for Creating Strong Families, Building the Wealth of Working People, and Ending Welfare. WND Books, May 4, 2006. ISBN 1581825013

so who is Kenneth Blackwell?