Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Ohio Nightmare

by Max Johnson

I just don't understand Ohio voters at all. I keep pressing refresh on Nate Silver's NY Times blog hoping that it will change the polling for Ohio Senate and Governors Race. How could the polls have the two worst possible candidates in the lead for election in these critical offices for Ohio? The big picture here is that the Ohio Republican party has been in power for most of the last 25 years, and where are we? Voters gave one of the worst Governors ever, Bob Taft, two terms in office. The Republicans have won basically on the pledge to cut taxes. In good times and bad, their only platform is to cut taxes. It is a winning strategy to get elected, but a losing strategy to govern a state. This is like telling your bank that you will balance the budget of your business only by reducing expenses. "I will not even consider working to create additional resources for my business. Any price increases or new product offering is off the table." See how long your banker would tolerate this recklessness and keep extending credit to you.

They are the party of "no." They have done nothing when they were in power and now they want their old jobs back. I understand throwing the bums out, but do not understand putting back the guys who got us in trouble. They have isolated us on the international stage, and have preached fiscal responsibility without acting responsibility. I never get the sense that the Republican elected officials have ideas for solving problems, but are great at marketing. This is the party of Abramoff and Gingrich who were run out of Washington for mismanagement and scandal. This is a small tent party that has alienated its traditional base in Hispanics with no answer to immigration issues except building fences and law enforcement. They preach small government, but don't mind if government gets involved in the sex life of our soldiers and wants government involved in deciding who can marry and what pain relief doctors can prescribe. The Republican party is the party of hypocrisy and slogans.

In Ohio, John Kasich is the Republican nominee for governor. This is a man who was employed at the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers. He made millions off of the misery of Ohioans. This was a company that was up to its eyeballs in subprime lending. This is a company that destroyed many neighborhoods in Ohio, and Kasich was their point man in Ohio. Kasich stands for Wall Street and Wall Street caused the near depression that we witnessed. He picked a woman as his running mate who shipped jobs to Florida. He has advocated destroying the Ohio budget by eliminating income taxes. As a commentator on Fox News, he adopted extreme positions to get face time, and the guy does not have a compromise bone in his body. We have a huge debt in Ohio, and we need all options on the table. I just can't imagine a worse candidate for office.

Rob Portman has a lead over the weaker Democratic candidate Lee Fisher. Ms. Brunner would have energized more Democratic voters, but Fisher is more of a main stream candidate who can attract independents. What do we actually know about Rob Portman? What are his signature positions that he is running on besides not agreeing with Obama? I think that all we need to know is that he served in the Bush administration. He was a loyal soldier in the administration that took us to a useless war, began torturing people, allowed a city to drown, and gave corporations a free ride. Portman was in charge of two areas of the administration that could only be considered a failure. The US trade deficit went from a negative $390 billion to $670 billion during the decade of the Bush administration, and Portman was the US Trade Representative. Bush and Portman excelled at not paying for the Iraq war or prescription drugs, or no child left behind or the 2001 tax cuts while Portman was at the Office of Management and Budget. This is really all I know of Portman, but that alone would seem to make him unelectable. Not in Ohio. This is a nightmare. How can this happen?

No comments: