Taft, whose name should've ordinarily be associated as the anti-Eastern Establishment (the original RINOs), has utterly disgraced his grandfather's memory. However, even in saying that, Voinovich & Taft haven't yet technically caused numerical damage to the party (we still, after all, have majorities in the legislature, the Congress, statewide offices, etc), and didn't have a negative (or would it be positive ?) impact on those statewide initiatives. But while the national media was crowing that the unpopularity of Dubya almost cost us that special Congressional election, that very much was more the cause of the state of Taft and the state GOP.
Unlike with MA, however, we have the anti-RINO waiting in the wings to tackle the damage being inflicted by the RINO leaders, that being Ken Blackwell. Failure to elect him Governor will indeed result in those numerical losses that haven't yet materialized. Between having to fight the RINO establishment and the media (What ? Allow an uppity n***er oreo Republican to WIN ?! No way !), he also has to battle the 'Rats... it'll be a tough contest next year, but I think he'll pull it off. Blackwell in my opinion is also potentially Presidential timber.
I could be wrong-it's happened before, some have fooled me (mostly women, though-:D), consider myself a good judge of character-which is why I never voted for Taft or Rhinovich. EVER. Went third party or no vote at all for that spot, as I could read them like a book-and I was right. Never voted for DeWhine, either. But I WILL vote for Blackwell. Especially if along with my gut feeling, he also has your endorsement. You impress me with your political knowledge. I wish more on FR were as informed as you, while I do consider myself to be good at analyzation also, but primarily in my state. Wanted to ask you something-Blackwell is from Cincy-fairly conservative down there, but there are a LOT of (conservative)people around my area (Toledo, unfortunately a Dem stronghold for eternity)who call him a RHINO. What do you think the basis was for such rumors to get spread? I've never heard one phony thing about the man, myself, but I know deep in my heart that Petro, Taft, Betty "overstuffed" Montgomery, and all the other 'country clubbers' we have in high positions here do NOT like him-and probably share that 'uppity n*&^%r thought.