Ohio, USA

Ohio, Ohio, that’s all the chattering class is talking about. The fate of our nation rests with Ohioans. We’re told that the election all comes down to these 18 electoral votes. Gazillions of dollars are being poured in for radio and TV ads; 188 million at last count. I would think a saturation point would have been reached by now where the message falls on deaf ears, irritates the listener and might work in reverse. I’m almost ready to drive there and establish residence in time to vote.


There is much to admire about Ohio, topographically, geologically and historically. The geography dictates the climate which in turn plays a part in its political leanings. The southern border is the Ohio River, with Kentucky and West Virginia on opposite shores. This is part of coal mining Appalachia and Cincinnati (a blue inner-city dot in a sea of red) Sections to the north are Blue (Akron, Cleveland, Toledo), now wooded, were covered with glaciers at one time and are termed a glaciated plateau. The central area (Columbus) has a different soil and population, roughly divided as the nation is.

According to some Ohioans there are 4 seasons: Winter, Still Winter, Almost Winter, and Construction.

Between 1877 and 1923 Ohio gave birth to seven presidents, more than any state before or since. If the country ended at the Mississippi River it would be just about in the middle but it is still regarded at the beginning of middle America. What could be more American than its claim to be the home of hamburgers, Life Savers and baseball?

When I think of Ohio several great cities come to mind, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Youngstown, Dayton and Akron. Yet the capital and largest is Columbus. Amazingly, 50% of the United States population lives within a 500 mile radius of Columbus and half of all North America is within a one day drive. Is that possible?

There is a piece of history between Connecticut and Ohio, little known except, I suspect, by Ohioans. After the Revolutionary War Connecticut claimed a strip of land extending into Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and eight other states, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. They called it their Western Reserve. To pay off war debts they relinquished the land however a chunk in northeast Ohio, once called New Connecticut, still retains institutions with that name. One such is Case Western Reserve University. Moses Cleaveland headed the team of surveyors in 1785. The “a’ was dropped from his name when they named the city of Cleveland on Lake Erie, after him.

The major cities vote Democrat and have mayors and Congressmen of that party yet the state legislature is weighted with Repubs. Senators are often split. At one time Ohio had 26 electoral votes but has been in decline since 1968. They don’t call it a Rust Belt state for nothing. It has voted for the winning candidate all but twice in the past 100 years. Winning Ohio is regarded as essential for Romney. No Republican has ever been elected without it but Obama has other paths to reach 271 electoral votes.  It is, in a way, a microcosm of our whole country, sharply divided on urban / suburban / rural lines. With the Republicans in charge of polling places, early voting and their playbook of dirty tricks this election could well hinge on provisional ballots which are counted on the 17^th. We may not know for a while whether to whoop it up or go into mourning.