Lickety-Split Links (022510, Morning)

Wow — “There are 10 people in East Ohio who want Zack Space’s job in Congress and eight who want the seat held by Charlie Wilson.”

Space (OH-18) and Wilson (OH-06) each have a Democratic challenger. Nine Republicans are facing off to run against space, while three GOP members want to go up against Wilson.

This is the kind of competition you usually see when a seat is open. Maybe that’s because these two seats, for all practical purposes, actually are.

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The recent Quinnipiac poll shows Ted Strickland leading John Kasich 44-39. The was even three months ago.

As to why, you can believe this pathetic spin, or consider my suggestion: Blame it on ORPINO (the Ohio Republican Party In Name Only).

The good news in the poll is that Strickland owes his lead entirely to a 15-point edge with women. Kasich has a 7- point lead with men, and I don’t see any reason why that would shrink. He should be able to erase the gender gap by getting Mary Taylor out there prominently after addressing what should be minor concerns brought up during my coverage of the Kasich-Taylor announcement.

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Three days ago, I was going to mention a few things on the 30th Anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice,” the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team’s 4-3 victory over the Soviet Union’s supposedly invincible skaters in Lake Placid, but things intervened. Here they are anyway:

• Amazingly, ABC was not able to carry the game live — The New York Times reported on why:



• U.S. Coach Herb Brooks really did give the “You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here” speech.
• Brooks was a bit of a walking contradiction (link is to a slow-loading PDF). He said he was not pleased at much of the public’s reaction to the victory, emphasizing that it was a triumph of “athletes over athletes, not one way of life over another.” Yet he still supported the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow: “I identify with the athletes, but I favor the boycott. … We are members of the free world first and athletes second.”
• The U.S. victory is considered the greatest upset in sports history here and here.

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Speaking of anniversaries missed — Five years and three days ago this set of posts started things here at BizzyBlog. Intense thanks to all who have visited, read, advertised, commented, tipped, linked, and contributed.