Forget Florida. This Time Around, Ohio is the Key

[RamboLiberal]

Makes you warm and fuzzy considering the Diebold voting machines and the Diebold bigshot's promise to deliver Ohio to Bush. NOT

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4124.shtml

Florida is so passe. This year's must-have state is Ohio. "If it was all about Florida in 2000, it's Ohio, Ohio, Ohio in 2004," said state Rep. Sylvester Patton, looking out the window of his downtown office building at Youngstown's Historical Center of Industry and Labor, a two-story brick reminder of the epidemic of joblessness in Mahoning Valley.

Standing guard outside what is commonly known as the steel museum are statues of workmen, carved from steel and thus untouched by an economy so weak that the local newspaper on Patton's desk carried an inch-high front-page headline: "Staggering job loss."

<snip>

"This is the center of the political universe," said Jo Ann Davidson, former speaker of the state House and regional chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign.

If so, the planets are not aligning for Bush. The state was second only to Michigan in the number of jobs lost in 2002. Its unemployment rate increased from 4.0 percent in December 2000, just before Bush took office, to 6.0 percent in December 2003. The state's current unemployment rate is seventh-highest in the nation.

State polls show Bush's approval rating in steep decline. Interviews with voters from Youngstown to Toledo - the state's hardest hit economic region - underscored his plight: Democrats are angry and vowing to vote in record numbers while even some Republicans are having their faith tested.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. That's why they're shoving Diebold down our throats.

[tom_paine]

7. Exactly.

My greatest fear is that "Ohio Goes for Bush" is a foregone conclusion and the "election" already over.

I cling to the slimmest of hopes that the American Experiment is not dead and buried with a Diebold stake through it's heart.

[rhino47]

2. I live on Pa/Oh border.I really do not see * winning ohio.

The steel tarriffs he took off 18 months early really pissed ohio off.
Every commentator in the said that when * did that he wrote off pa ,oh and wv.I believe that.I have not heard of one single bush supporter as I canvas ohio for edwards.But then again Im dealing mainly with democrats.Southwestern Ohio may perhaps go * but thats not enough to carry the state.
Hell even here in Pa Ridge couldnt even carry Pa for * in 2000.
Not even in Erie county where ridge is from.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. Just in case, I'm putting a hex on him.

:grr:

[katieforeman]

4. Edwards would definitely beat Bush in OH.

When I was back in Dayton for Christmas, I found that Democrats and Independents really liked Edwards. What kind of response are you getting in your canvassing?

[mac2]

5. Ohio is Kucinich country

What everyone has to worry about is our vote being stolen either by the computers or the media.

I read a book by Gore Vidal called 1876. It tells about the stolen election and the payoffs of the election for the President. Sounds like that type of corruption is back today.

Paper ballots counted locally and publically are the only answer. Call in the UN for election 2004 or it will be stolen again.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

6. Im in southwest Ohio, and this area is pretty much GOP.

This is the Dayton/Cincinatti area. With exception of the citys of Dayton and Cincinatti (and some of the smaller citys around here, like Springfield), this area is pretty conservative and the GOP seems to be pretty powerfull.

[mac2]

9. And.....?

Southern Ohio, except for the city, is poverty sticken is it not? How far will the Repubs get when people don't have jobs, health care, armers not producing to pay for their taxes, etc. People aren't always party loyal when their world falls apart. Right now...it is.

Change is in the wind..if the computers aren't manipulated and the media lies allowed.

We won in 2000. We can do it again.

[maxsolomon]

11. ummm, cincinNati

3 n's, 1 t.

-love, mr. picky cincinnati expatriot.

[depakid]

8. If Ohio's the key, we're doomed.

Forunately it's not and we're not.

[sonias]

10. Not forgetting Ohio

Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
Published on Wednesday, February 25, 2004
by the Free Press, Columbus, Ohio
The Governor of Ohio, Bob Taft, and other prominent state officials,
commute to their downtown Columbus offices on Broad Street. This is
the so-called "Golden Finger," the safe route through the majority
black inner-city near east side. The Broad Street BP station, just
east of downtown, is the place where affluent suburbanites from
Bexley can stop, gas up, get their coffee and New York Times. Those
in need of cash visit BP's Diebold manufactured CashSource+ ATM
machine which provides a paper receipt of the transaction to all
customers upon request.
(snip)
As Blackwell pressures the Ohio legislature to adopt electronic
voting machines without a paper trail, Athan Gibbs wonders, "Why
would you buy a voting machine from a company like Diebold which
provides a paper trail for every single machine it makes except its
voting machines? And then, when you ask it to verify its numbers, it
hides behind `trade secrets.'"
Maybe the Diebold decision makes sense, if you believe, to paraphrase
Henry Kissinger, that democracy is too important to leave up to the
votes of the people
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The BBV vote push in Ohio is crucial. Keep the spotlight on old Wally "Slimey" O'Dell

Sonia