Ohio- "McCain's Volunteers could meet in a Phone Booth"

[Ichingcarpenter]

John McCain's Ohio disconnect

CINCINNATI
Republican Party machinery in the state helped get President Bush into office,
but it's not firing yet on McCain's behalf. -- As the architect of Ohio's ballot measure against gay marriage, Phil Burress helped draw thousands of conservative voters to the polls in 2004, most of whom also cast ballots to reelect President Bush. So Burress was not surprised when two high-level staffers from John McCain's campaign dropped by his office, asking for his help this fall.

What surprised Burress was how badly the meeting went. He says he tried but failed to make the McCain team understand how much work remained to overcome the skepticism of social conservatives. Burress ended up cutting off the campaign officials as they spoke. "He doesn't want to associate with us," Burress now says of McCain, "and we don't want to associate with him."
If McCain tried to gather his volunteers in Ohio, "you could meet in a phone booth," said radio host Bill Cunningham, who attacks the Arizona senator regularly on his talk show. "There's no sense in this part of Ohio that John McCain is a conservative or that his election would have a material benefit to conservatism."

Were McCain running on Bush's 2004 strategy, fractures like these might be devastating. Bush and his chief political hand, Karl Rove, built their winning plan on exciting conservatives with hard-line, often religious-themed rhetoric and policy proposals, such as backing the same-sex-marriage ban and giving churches federal funds to perform social services.

But as the 2008 general-election campaign begins, it is clear this year will be different......SNIP

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-ohio9-2008jun09,0,1838453.story

[Happyhippychick]

1. New bumpersticker: the Phone Booth Candidate

[Richardo]

2. Anyone under 25: "What's a phone booth?"

The old cliches are going to be biting the dust.

That being said, great news on the puny McCain organization :thumbsup:

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

3. I love it...

I lived in Ohio for twenty years, and there is one -- and only one -- way for a Republican to win the state. Run up the score in SW Ohio and hope that you've got enough votes to counter act the votes in NE Ohio. If they're stumbling in Hamilton County, they're in danger of losing the state.

OK, there's more than one way for a Republican to win: Have the Republican Secretary of State use a Republican-controlled company to count the votes.

[OilemFirchen]

4. On a related note

Ohioans sour on Bush, economy

Ohioans don’t much care for the job President Bush is doing and they’re gloomy about the chances for Ohio’s economy to improve.

Those are two key findings in a new Ohio Poll, released on Monday, June 9.

The statewide poll, sponsored by the University of Cincinnati, put Republican Bush’s approval rating at 29 percent. Also, 79 percent say they think Ohio’s economic conditions are getting worse.


Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, has an approval rating of 61 percent in the poll but just 51 percent approve of his handling of the economy.

[HughBeaumont]

5. It may take a while, but the wallet ALWAYS wins in the end.

You need to step on the wealthy and stop their unparalleled greed; otherwise, our horrible economy is going to continue bleeding for everyone except them. Unbridled corporatism, just as it has been the source of every major problem this country has experienced over the last 35 years (and not coincidentally, during every Republican administration in that time), will continue to wreak damage in the trillions unless collectively we grow a spine and rise up against them.

When you watch Sicko's extra footage, there's an interview with the author of The Two Income Trap, Elizabeth Warren. She makes a very true statement about America's utterly lousy health care system, but I think the same thing can be said about every other aspect of human life:

"Unless you're a multi-millionaire . . . you aren't safe."

When did THAT happen?

I don't want to be a lottery winner. I just don't want to have to WORRY constantly . . . about bills, job security, sudden illnesses or accidents or a financial disaster taking away everything I've ever worked and saved for, having to get multiple college degrees just to remain employable . . . God forbid maybe have a little bit of money at the end of the month rather than the other way around. I don't really think I'm asking or demanding too much here.