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Ohio, the ultimate swing state in Election 2004, continues to lean in John McCain’s direction, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state. McCain attracts 45% of the vote in Ohio while Obama earns 41%. That’s little changed from a month ago when McCain led 46% to 40%. When “leaners” are included in the totals, McCain leads Obama 48% to 43%. Full demographic crosstabs are available for Premium Members. Time is running out to save on Premium Memberships. Sign up now and save. Learn More. The most discouraging number in the poll for Obama may...

McCain is viewed favorably by 62% of Ohio voters, compared to 47% for Obama. He also has the support of 87% of Republicans and 15% of Democrats.

With McCain and Obama currently tied in Ohio (according to Public Policy Polling), John McCain might make a very savvy political move by announcing his running mate in front of 10,000 people in Dayton, Ohio the day after Obama accepts his party’s nomination. Thanks to New Talk Radio WHIO 1290AM/95.7FM for this news update: DAYTON, Ohio — Republican Senator John McCain plans to hold a major rally in Dayton on Friday, Aug. 29. Local party leaders speculate that McCain may use the rally as an opportunity to announce his running mate. Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Alex M. Triantafilou, who...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plans to celebrate his 72nd birthday on Aug. 29 by naming his running mate at a huge rally in the battleground state of Ohio, Republican sources said. That’s a week from Friday, and the day after his rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, accepts the Democratic nomination at a 70,000-person spectacular in a Denver stadium. The campaign has begun building a crowd of 10,000 for Dayton, Ohio, according to an organizer. McCain is scheduled to appear with his running mate at a large-scale event in Pennsylvania shortly thereafter. Senior Republicans are in the dark about who...

(CNN) — John McCain will hold a large rally in Ohio and possibly two other battleground states August 29 — the day after Barack Obama formally accepts the Democratic presidential nomination and the same day the Arizona senator is expected to name his running mate, Republican and McCain campaign sources tell CNN's John King. The McCain campaign is hoping to have 15,000 people at the Ohio rally — roughly 5 times the size of McCain's largest crowd to-date. Two other rallies are also in the works for that day, likely in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Campaign sources say the events are...

Predicting a close election in November, former Bush Administration official and Ohio congressman Rob Portman called on Hoosiers to back Republican presidential candidate John McCain at rally Tuesday evening in Fishers. “He’s an authentic American hero and a common sense conservative,” Portman told the partisan crowd. Portman is on McCain’s short list of potential vice presidential running mates. A six-term congressman, he also served as the United States Trade Representative and most recently as President Bush’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, a post previously held by Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Raleigh, N.C. – John McCain has pulled even with Barack Obama in Ohio, according to the newest survey from Public Policy Polling. Obama had led in PPP’s June and July polls of the state. It’s 45-45 with 10% undecided. One factor causing Obama problems is that he’s not doing as good a job as McCain of getting folks in his party to vote for him. While McCain leads 89-7 among Republicans, Obama’s lead is a narrower 75-17 among Democrats. Obama has the 45-28 edge with independent voters. The Democrats neglecting to choose Obama are disproportionately white, female, and middle aged,...

Ohio: McCain vs. Obama

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today released its latest television ad, entitled "Maybe." The ad highlights Barack Obama's "false" and "misleading" attacks in Ohio. The ad will air in Ohio. VIEW THE AD HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiDVRvzjZLA Script For "Maybe" (TV :30) ANNCR: Maybe the applause has gone to his head ... Saying John McCain cost Ohio jobs, though it's just not true. It's Obama's taxes that will hurt Ohio families. Higher taxes on your paycheck, your life savings, your electric bills. His taxes are a "recipe for economic disaster." That's the real Obama. Ready to tax....

More central Ohio school districts plan to close Nov. 4 to safeguard students and accommodate voters, but elections officials are divided over whether that's a good idea. Today, the Franklin County Board of Elections is to weigh whether to ask the Columbus schools to cancel classes on Election Day. The 54,000-student district is nicknamed the "Big Domino," a spokesman said, because others generally follow when Columbus calls a snow day. Deputy Elections Director Matt Damschroder is counting on that to set the trend and clear out space for voters in schools countywide. "Schools are not built for voting," Damschroder said,...

CLEVELAND — A federal investigation of Democratic Party leaders in Cuyahoga County could pose problems for Barack Obama’s campaign in Ohio, party insiders and political analysts say....

<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio- Ohio is considered a must-win state for both Barack Obama and John McCain. And the highpoint of the presidential campaign in the state could come a month before Election Day.</p> <p>Ohio has created a window in the election calendar, from September 30th to October 6th, that allows residents to both register one minute and vote the next.</p>

COLUMBUS, OH — Republicans can usually expect a friendly reception in Butler County, but the mood of at least one Republican there is less than friendly toward John McCain. Sheriff Richard K. Jones doesn’t think much of McCain’s views on illegal immigrants and wants to make sure the presumptive Republican nominee for president knows it. So when McCain makes a stop for a fundraiser in the county today, Aug. 7, he’ll encounter something you don’t usually see in a presidential campaign: an attack ad from a fellow Republican. Jones, who’s become known nationally for cracking down on illegal immigration in...

LIMA, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain poured scorn on his Democratic rival Barack Obama on Thursday for failing to match his commitment to drilling off U.S. coasts for oil and natural gas. Speaking at a town hall meeting, he returned repeatedly to a theme that has moved to center stage this week in an increasingly bitter contest between the two candidates. The issue could be critical to the November 4 election to succeed President George W. Bush. McCain says he wants an "all-of-the-above" approach to solving U.S. energy problems, which have seen gas prices rise to more...

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The reason so many pundits approved when Barack Obama’s campaign floated the idea of picking pure-vanilla Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana for a running mate this week is that it addressed the biggest concern among Obama supporters in and out of the media corps — that he can’t connect with lunch-pail Democrats in the Midwest. In June, when Obama’s hopes were more audacious, his team was talking about a “new electoral map” in which western and southern states came into play for the Democrat. As they’d say in Biloxi, t’ain’t gonna happen. It was an understandable...

BEREA, Ohio (AP) -- A man who wore press credentials and took photographs from a platform interrupted Barack Obama's town-hall meeting Tuesday by shouting complaints that the Democratic presidential candidate had not called for the audience to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Obama invited the heckler to lead the audience in the pledge, and he did.

05 August 08-"Obama The Unabashed Hypocritical Liar" What a disjointed, delusional head that Obama has..... Excellent excerpt from poster: Jolene Presidential Member = >1000 Posts Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Florida Posts: 1,096 Poster Rank: #74 05 August 08-"Obama The Unabashed Hypocritical Liar" Quote: What is it with Barack Obama? This guy thinks he can get away with telling the most outrageous lies and walk away unnoticed and unscathed. Let's just take his "energy" position. There are enough whoppers in that one alone to take up a whole day worth of blogging. Today in Youngstown, Ohio (land of the bitter...

According to the Indy Star, Barack Obama has not asked Sen. Evan Bayh to be his running mate. At least not yet. The Star is reporting that the length of Obama's visit to Indiana -- he arrives around 6:30 p.m. this evening and does not leave until 3:30 p.m. Wednesday -- has fueled rumors that Bayh will be Obama's choice. Add to the fact that his wife, twin sons and father, the former Sen. Birch Bayh, will be joining him on this trip, and Bayh watch is on every political radar screen. The first rule of picking a vice-presidential running...

The Heartland supersized Sen. John McCain last night at a ginormous motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D. While no one shouted "Free Bird" to McCain while he was speaking -- a pop culture homage to Lynyrd Skynyrd whose 2008 version of the band is playing at the rally -- the Republican presumptive nominee did call attention to the larger than normal size of his crowd: "As you may know, not long ago, a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day."

Readers may recall that I'm a bit down on the prospect of John McCain finding a running mate who will do him more good than harm. However, one person who might fit this description is John Kasich. He was a popular nine-term Congressman from Ohio, a state Republicans desperately need to carry. And he's originally from western Pennsylvania, another key area. Kasich seems to possess a blue collar appeal that his party desperately needs. To be sure, he was never a Senator or a Governor, but he held a leadership position in the House, serving as Chairman of the Budget...

BARACK OBAMA is doing everything he can to make it look as if the election is a mere formality, and adoring media types are keen to play along. Yet the latest USA Today-Gallup poll puts John McCain four points ahead, while the RealClearPolitics average of polls gives Mr Obama a meagre two-and-a-half-point lead. Optimistic Republicans recall that Michael Dukakis was 17 points ahead of George Bush senior in the summer of 1988, and still lost. So there is plenty of evidence to suggest that this election, like the previous two, could boil down to a tight race settled by close...

Readers may recall that I'm a bit down on the prospect of John McCain finding a running mate who will do him more good than harm. However, one person who might fit this description is John Kasich. He was a popular nine-term Congressman from Ohio, a state Republicans desperately need to carry. And he's originally from western Pennsylvania, another key area. Kasich seems to possess a blue collar appeal that his party desperately needs. To be sure, he was never a Senator or a Governor, but he held a leadership position in the House, serving as Chairman of the Budget...

The latest Quinnipiac Swing State Polls are out: Florida: Obama leads McCain, 46% to 44% Ohio: Obama leads McCain, 46% to 44% Pennsylvania: Obama leads McCain, 49% to 42%

Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign released its latest television ad today entitled "Celeb." The ad takes a swipe at the perception that Sen. Barack Obama is "the biggest celebrity in the world" because of his much covered Middle-East/European tour last week. The ad opens with a huge crowd screaming "O-Bama! O-Bama!" then flashes images of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Obama -- not together and by the way not very subliminal lining him up with the Britney and Paris celebrity train wrecks) -- hitting the screen with the announcer proclaiming that "Barack Obama is the biggest celebrity in the world."...

Has Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine's chances of landing the coveted spot as Obama's Veep risen? According to stories at both The Politico and the Washington Post Kaine has risen to the level of serious contender, along with Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. The WaPo story has close Kaine associates acknowledging that Kaine has told them that he has had "very serious" conversations with Obama about joining the ticket.

The Sen. Barack Obama campaign held a conference call this morning on one of the key battleground states in this race: Pennsylvania. Team O, led by Gov. Ed Rendell, stressed the importance of registering and winning over the one-million-plus, un-registered voters spread out over the Keystone State.

McCain gains 5 points in one month.

John McCain has opened a modest lead over Barack Obama in the key swing state of Ohio. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Buckeye State shows McCain attracting 46% of the vote while Obama earns 40%. Last month and the month before McCain held a insignificant one-point lead over Obama. Seven percent (7%) of voters say they’d prefer a third party candidate over either McCain or Obama and another 7% remain undecided. When “leaners” are included in the totals, McCain leads Obama 52% to 42%. McCain is now viewed favorably by 57%, little changed from a month ago....

John McCain has opened a modest lead over Barack Obama in the key swing state of Ohio. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Buckeye State shows McCain attracting 46% of the vote while Obama earns 40%. Last month and the month before McCain held a insignificant one-point lead over Obama.

The Sen. John McCain campaign launched a new Web video titled "Obama Love" that takes a swipe at the perceived media bias towards Barack Obama. According to the campaign e-mail, the video "highlights the media's love affair with Barack Obama -- or as MSNBC's Chris Matthews says, that thrill going up my leg." Played to the tune of Frankie Valli's "Can't take my eyes off of you" -- one of Valli's most popular songs. Perhaps, it will turn out to be a hit for McCain as well.

Tonight ABC aired their interview with Sen. Barack Obama with correspondent Terry Moran conducting; here is a clip of the segment that ran on ABC's World News Tonight: Moran: If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you support the surge? Obama: No. Because, keep in mind that -- Moran: You wouldn't?

So it's getting close to crunch time. John McCain by now should be cutting down his big field of vice presidential contenders to a short list of six to eight names. To stay a step ahead of him, then, in order to make sure our criteria and our favorites at least make the cut, we on the outside should be explaining how the candidate should be reaching his final choice. ~snip~ Choice #1. Former House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich: More and more, the Pennsylvania native and former Ohio congressman looks like, all things considered, the wisest choice. Compare Kasich...

Randy Brinson says he "almost fell out of my chair" when he heard that expected Democratic nominee Barack Obama had chosen Zanesville, Ohio, as the setting for a recent speech in which he embraced the concept of using faith-based groups to help carry out government social service efforts. It wasn't that Zanesville struck Brinson as an odd locale. Quite the opposite. It was that Obama had clearly figured out something that Brinson already knew. "Zanesville is Ground Zero for conservative evangelicals in Ohio," says Brinson, who, as founder of the voter registration organization "Redeem the Vote," knows a thing or...

You can consider Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) as definitely not enthused by former Vice President Al Gore's speech Thursday on U.S. energy policy. Voinovich had an initial one-word response — "ridiculous" — to Gore's speech at Washington's Constitution Hall, in which the Democrat called for the United States to end its dependence on carbon-based fuels and begin using renewable energy to produce electricity within the next 10 years. Voinovich elaborated that ruling out carbon-based fuels such as coal would be unreasonable because of the country's vast energy and economic needs. Instead, he said the country should take a multi-pronged approach...

Photos from the Obama ralley in Dayton, OH (7/18/08) (waiting for doors to open)

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio -- McCain was asked by a questioner at a town hall meeting Wednesday, "When you gonna come out and say, 'Read my lips, I am not the third term of Bush?'" "I have not thought of it exactly in those terms," McCain said, laughing. "There are issues that I have agreed with the president on, and there are issues I have disagreed on." He said he respected the president, but "I believe it is the time for change in America; it's the right change, not the wrong change."

ARLINGTON, Va., July 9 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator John McCain will deliver the following remarks as prepared for delivery at a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, OH, today at 3:00 p.m. EDT: Before I take your questions, I want to begin by talking about the issue in this campaign that Americans worry the most about -- the American economy. All of us know what is happening to the economy. It is slowing. More than 400,000 people have lost their jobs since December, and the rate of new job creation has fallen sharply. Americans are worried about the security of...

Drawing the sharpest distinctions yet between himself and the man he hopes to replace, Sen. John McCain said Tuesday his presidency would focus on climate change issues, reducing federal spending, closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center and eliminating torture by the U.S. government. In a meeting with the Tribune-Review's editorial board, McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said "spending got out of control" under the Bush administration. He blamed Congress for pushing spending and the administration for failing to halt it.

Roughly 18 months after his defeat in the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry spoke at the commencement of Kenyon College, a small liberal arts college in rural Ohio. The students and faculty, predominantly Kerry fans, were regaled with his stories from the night of the election...

Sen. Barack Obama did patriotism yesterday, today it is faith and by the end of the day both speeches will have been done in back-to-back states that swing: Missouri and Ohio. The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator plans to go to Zanesville, located in eastern Ohio, to visit a church program that provides food and clothing assistance to those in need.

By all accounts, Barack Obama should win this election. He and his brand control the image, the message and, to a large extent, the media of this election cycle. Yes, the media. He has enough money to buy ads every day from now to election day, glossy magazines cannot wait to put his image on their covers, Hollywood types are so smitten that they wear his image on their clothing and YouTube is bursting at the seams with homages to him. It is definitely his to win -- or to lose. It all hinges on two things: likability and character.

Once known as the Mother of Presidents, Ohio is now getting poorer, older and dumber – and making all the wrong moves to reverse the situation. And that may actually be a plus for Barack Obama. His party is finding that lofty, vague promises of change combined with high-spending, high-tax, welfare state-ish policies are a political winner in the state. How else to explain why Gov. Ted Strickland's approval ratings are in the mid-50s or why Democrats may even win control of the state House for the first time in 14 years? But as a formula for economic revival, it...

CINCINNATI — The questioners were critical, some were combative, and few attendees were converted at a town hall meeting with U.S. Sen. John McCain Thursday, June 26. Republican presidential candidate McCain stood in the middle of a board room at Xavier University, surrounded by faculty, students and more than 150 voters. Campaign officials said the voters were undecided Democrats and Republicans, invited through a random phone poll, and they questioned the senator from Arizona on energy independence, foreign policy and women's rights. The first question came from Jack Kuntz, owner of a Cincinnati company that converts cars to run on...

Last Friday, Newsweek released a poll that had Sen. Barack Obama up 15 points over Sen. John McCain. Today, the LA Times along with Bloomberg released their poll showing Obama up, you guessed it, 15 points over the presumptive Republican nominee. The LA Times/Bloomberg polling data shows in a four-way race that Obama is over McCain 48 percent to 33 percent with independent candidates Bob Barr and Ralph Nader holding a combination of 7 percentage points and the rest are undecided. In a two-way race, Obama's lead narrows only slightly to 12 percentage points. University of Virginia political science professor...

Move-On.org is taking a firm stand on a campaign promise that Barack Obama made that said he would filibuster any wiretapping bill that had retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that let the feds listen in on. MoveOn says in the letter “We need him to honor that promise.” The posting urges supporters to tell Obama how they feel by calling his presidential campaign to let him know that “you’re counting on him to keep his word.” Last Friday Obama announced his support for the intelligence surveillance law that is highly unpopular with most left activists; the money, momentum and votes...

Shades of Dukakis, Obama up 15 THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW BY: Salena Zito In May of 1988 after all of the Democratic primaries ended presumptive nominee Michael Dukakis enjoyed a 54 to 38 percent lead over then Ronald Reagan wing man George H.W. Bush. H.W. went on to win in that November handily This evening a new Newsweek poll shows Obama having a giant lead, from 51 percent to 36 percent, over McCain among registered voters across the country. Obama got his bounce, Dukakis style.

Hey, swing state Florida, I will not offshore drill The Sen. Barack Obama press machine issued this statement that Obama will deliver at his media avail this afternoon, in which he pledges (where have we heard that word before?) to keep the federal moratorium against offshore drilling in place: "When I am president, I will keep the moratorium in place and prevent oil companies from drilling off Florida's coasts," the statement reads. "That's how we can protect our coasts and still make the investments that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices for good."

Bill and Jill Bill Burton, communications director extraordinaire for the Obama campaign reached out and touched someone today on the McCain campaign: his counterpart, Jill Hazelbaker. Here is the content of the email he sent out to reporters before the McCain conference call: “Jill – hope you’re well. We’d like to add our campaign counsel, Bob Bauer to your conference call with Trevor Potter so that we can arbitrate some of the disagreements that the two of them have over the meeting they recently had. If you can please shoot me the dial-in, Bob is available to join for the...

Congressman Altmire hearts McCain PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW By Salena Zito Rep. Jason Altmire, whose congressional district went overwhelmingly for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the six-week primary that was Pennsylvania, kind of likes Republican presumptive nominee Sen. John McCain’s proposal to invest in nuclear energy and clean coal. Here is the statement that he released today on McCain’s proposal to construct 45 nuclear reactors by 2030 and spend $2 billion a year in federal funding on clean coal. “I have always been a strong supporter of nuclear energy and clean coal technology, and I welcome Senator McCain’s announcement today that he is...

Republican John McCain is a most militantly pro-free trade presidential candidate. That fact, alone, should guarantee his defeat in Ohio and other industrial states where his strategists entertain hopes of surfing a "Reagan Democrat" crossover of working-class Democratic voters to the GOP column this fall. All that is required is that Barack Obama campaign as a critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement and other deals that have battered workers, farmers, communities and the environment in the U.S. and abroad. Unfortunately, Democrat Barack Obama, who smart signals on trade issues when he was competing with Hillary Clinton for his...