Strickland is still a semi-legend in Southern OH. Schmidt was actually helped in the May primary against Bob McEwen in Scioto and Pike Countes because voters crossed over to the Dems just so they could vote for Ted.

It will be interesting to see if Strickland can maintain his pseudo-conservative veneer as gov. He might get away with it because the GA and Taft finally did a couple of right things with taxes, and hopefully they’ll buy a clue and accelerate the schedule income tax cut. That would possibly enable Strickland to coast for a couple of years, which I wouldn’t mind if the state’s econ recovers. But… there’s a reason why the GOP is often called the Stupid Party.

I disagree with what you have to say about Taft, because I am not sure his resignation would have helped us that much. He had already taken us of the rails, way before Tom Noe, etc. His utter lack of ideology and vision is what got us on the wrong track in the first place. The fact that this came after 8 years of Voinovich only added to the problem.

As for your comments about Jean, you are right on with those, too, except I won’t concede that her Republican critics deserved to be labeled “right wing.” They are careerists, posing as ideologues, and the right wing doesn’t deserve the blame for their actions. I mean, they tried to run Bob McEwen as the more social conservative opponent to a woman whose present job was head of Greater Cinci Right to Life. That’s just nutty. Everyone could see it was all because they just didn’t like her personally, and that’s when that group lost me.