All the states that went to Kerry in 2004 will go to Obama. If McCain won't lay off his pro-NAFTA talk, Ohio (a deeply conservative state) will go to Obama.

Politically, Ohio is considered a swing state. The Economist notes that, "This slice of the mid-west contains a bit of everything American—part north-eastern and part southern, part urban and part rural, part hardscrabble poverty and part booming suburb,"[35]

The mixture of urban and rural areas, and the presence of both large blue-collar industries and significant white-collar commercial districts leads to a balance of conservative and liberal population that (together with the state's 20 electoral votes, more than most swing states) makes the state very important to the outcome of national elections. Ohio was a deciding state in the 2004 presidential election between George W. Bush and John Kerry. Bush narrowly won the state's 20 electoral votes by a margin of 2 percentage points and 50.8% of the vote [4]. The state supported Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, but supported Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Ohio was also a deciding factor in the 1948 presidential election when Democrat Harry S. Truman defeated Republican Thomas Dewey (who had won the state four years earlier) and in the 1976 presidential election when Democrat Jimmy Carter defeated Republican Gerald Ford by a slim margin in Ohio and took the election.

Ohio's demographics cause many to consider the state as a microcosm of the nation as a whole. A Republican presidential candidate has never won the White House without winning Ohio, and Ohio has gone to the winner of the election in all but two contests since 1892, backing only losers Thomas E. Dewey in 1944 (Ohio's John Bricker was his running mate) and Richard M. Nixon in 1960. Consequently, the state is very important to the campaigns of both major parties. Ohio had 20 electoral votes in the Electoral College in 2004.

Minotaur029 wrote:To Dr O':

Ohio 2004 - Ohio had a Republican governor with a 15% approval rating and an economy that no one was particularly thrilled with to say the least. Yet despite John Kerry's claims of 400,000 outsourced jobs, Bush was still re-elected by over 110,000 votes.

Dr. O' Nothing wrote:

Minotaur029 wrote:To Dr O':

Ohio 2004 - Ohio had a Republican governor with a 15% approval rating and an economy that no one was particularly thrilled with to say the least. Yet despite John Kerry's claims of 400,000 outsourced jobs, Bush was still re-elected by over 110,000 votes.

Hey, I never said they were smart.
(And yes, there most likely was rampant voter fraud in that state in 2004.)

Really though, Ohio is no South Carolina. Its probably somewhere in between IL and PA on the nationwide liberal/conservative scale.

Rick Reuben wrote:I wonder if those are the same 'Bosnian snipers' who managed to plant that bullet hole in the back of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's head as his plane was 'crashing'?

DrAwkward wrote:

sack of smashed assholes wrote:

Yngwie Einstein wrote:Wasn't Jack Bauer involved in this too?

you ever notice in 24, nothing gets explained when Jack says I can't explain now, but I'll explain later... has he ever explained it later?

Like in "Round and Round" by Ratt! Stephen Pearcy keeps saying "What goes around comes around/I'll tell you why." But he never tells us why! (Unless "Love will find a way/just give it time" is why, but that's bullshit proselytizing.)