Posted on 11/06/2008 5:52:55 AM PST by xzins
COLUMBUS: Ohio's 2008 presidential election was memorable for what it wasn't: controversial, plagued by problems, record-setting, crucial to winning the White House.
After partisan bickering that set the stage for controversy, and the persistent memories of failures in 2004, the 2008 presidential election was extremely quiet in Ohio on Tuesday with few problems reported.
However, despite balmy weather with temperatures in the 70s, turnout looked likely to fall significantly below the 80 percent mark that had been projected. There was a chance it had not even hit the 72 percent mark reached in 2004, which set a record in Ohio for a presidential election. Turnout reports ranged as high as 86 percent in Perry County, while many counties hovered in the 60s and low 70s.
Despite having clinched President Bush's re-election in 2004, Ohio simply played a supporting role in 2008, as Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency with relative ease.
Still, the race for the Ohio's 20 electoral votes was tight. According to unofficial results, Obama won by about 200,400 votes out of 4.5 million cast. Bush had won Ohio by about 118,000 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast four years ago.
The campaigns of both Obama and Republican John McCain campaigns said they were satisfied with how things went across the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at ohio.com ...
Yeah, I am thinking the Lindsey Grahamnesty/Susan Collins ticket could do it for us in 2012! /sarc
I talked to some Ron Paul folks before the election and asked if they were going to go vote McCain. Pretty much the answer was no across the board. They didn’t see any difference between McCain and the dems.
If you look at the way Georgian voted this time around, the pubbies that showed up voted McCain, then a bunch ticket split and voted liberatarian in the Senate election because they were pissed about the bailout.
I really believe that if McCain had suspended his campaign and gone to Washington and led the way to stop the bailout altogether he would’ve won. When he and Obama agreed that the bailout was necessary, the key difference between them disappeared.
McCain is an honorable man. But politically he is nothing but a tactician. Just like Dole, they were both just “deal-makers” In the Senate, that may be an attribute, but that is the antithesis of leadership when it comes to being President. McCain had no real strategy or rationale for his campaign, and if he had won, the best we were going to get was a caretaker, do no harm type of governance. The ball was not going to be moved forward on conservatism in any way shape or form.
America needs and will vote for a movement conservative. I’m not sure why Mark Sanford of SC doesn’t get more attention. He is a resolute conservative who isn’t taking any earmarks for his state.
I think governors like Sarah Palin, Mark Sanford, and Bobby Jindal are the future of the party. We need to get away from the idea that Republican Senators bring anything to the table.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. has served on the District Court since August 23, 1996.
Prior to taking the bench, Judge Sargus served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio from May of 1993 to August of 1996.
The Supreme Court didn't rule on the merits. It sounds like Brunner is going to prison eventually, and you've got Gov. Strickland all flushed out in the open saying flatly that there is no vote fraud in Ohio.
You also need to look at were they not counted. Looks a lot better than seeing 110% in black precincts.
Huckabee turns out to be the best communicator, doesn’t he? Then it was in order: Romney/Thompson, McCain, Hunter.
Thompson and Hunter were the two provable conservatives in that mix.
If conservative voters stayed home, why were there such long lines days before the election. I remember reading on FR a comment about someone whose parent waited in line two days before election day to vote and gave up after 4 hours. I saw long lines in OH on Fox. Where are these votes?
The math fact in all this is that there were fewer voters in 2008 than in 2004. This was supposed to be a huge voter turnout year. Everyone said it was so.
The math says it is not so.
Fewer people came to the polls.
Who did not come and why did they not come?
That's a pretty keen insight. Thanx.
I was a Fred Thompson fan, but after seeing your comments about senators running for President, I think back to what I saw as some of Fred's drawbacks, and that "Senate collegiality" was a hallmark he had, too.
A few years ago we had Republican governors running out our ears. Wonder what happened to all of those GOP governors? They can't all have been named Bush or turned out to be cheeseburgers.
When you nominate the party maverick to be your standard bearer, there are political consequences. McCain spent a large part of his campaign attacking the Rep party and distancing himself from it. Loyalty begets loyalty.
I think we'd all be well-advised not to trust Huckabee as far as we could throw him.
He flipped on immigration. In 2005-6 he was all over LULAC, slobbering on them and telling them how welcome they were in Arkansas. Saw a photo of him giving a speech to LULAC's national convention when they held it in Little Rock. He was at the podium, orating away, and behind him on the dais sat Bill Clinton, watching him with fox eyes and a clever look on his face. Naw, there is something wrong with Arkansas politics -- it's the Stevens machine. I think Huckabee is the Stevenses' Republican double-down bet. I think he's just another Clinton.
Of course, in 2007 Huckabee was swearing up and down that he was rock-ribbed on immigration, honest Injun, etc. etc. Yeah, right. Oh, and he's evangelical, too -- washed in the blood, dyed in the wool, brother! -- speaks first-rate Evangelical English, too. Amen. Yeah, right.
You have had a lot of Dems running for Gov in red states running as conservatives. Sebilius in KS, Schweitzer in MT, Strickland in OH, Manchin in WV, etc.,
You still have good Republican governors in Riley in AL, Barbour in MS, Jindal in LA, Sanford in SC, Palin in AK
But then you have RINO types that think they have to run as RINO’s because they are in blue states. Rell in CT, Pawlenty in MN, etc.
I think too that republicans have destroyed their brand to the point that “Conservatism” isn’t exclusively owned by Republicans any more. Dems are winning Governorships, House and Senate races running as conservatives. Regular folks don’t care if Howard Dean is the chairman of the DNC or if the Dem platform is pro-abort. If the candidate in the race shares their values, they will vote for them. That is exactly what the dems have pulled off the last two election cycles.
The question for the dem party is, do these conservatives they are electing change the party to be more reflective of them, or do they end up leaving the party if the institutional democrats remain liberal. I think the end result is the latter, but the Republican party has to reclaim the banner of Conservatism, or else there will be a third party and Republicans will become the whigs.
Joe the Plumber needs to do some plunging in Ohio. It seems corrupt from top to bottom from registration to voting. NO ID and no verification of any substance, the dead voting—total castrophe. Joe the Plumber needs to launch his political career there and get that clog of filth out of the sewage system of Ohio that backs up every election
It really isn’t about Huckabee in my mind. I was simply commenting on his ability to communicate. He was the best of those running this year in that category. Without that ability, there’s no way that Fox gives him his new TV show.
In an earlier post on this thread, I suggested a conservative caucus within the Republican party that would vet only 2-3 candidates for the presidency in any election year. If Huckabee could have gotten through a conservative screening, then fine. If he couldn’t, then that would say something, too.
I find it amazing (I guess I really don’t) that so many of the close races went to Democrats. It always seems to work out that way. There is no way I won’t believe that there wasn’t some chicanery involved in these results. In my state of Louisiana, which has an Acorn presence, Mary Landrieu and John Kennedy were neck and neck the whole night, and lo and behold, Landrieu eked it out like she always does in her always close elections.
Romney was a non-starter. The McCain issues in the South would have been a bloodbath for Romney.
In the national election, the turnout was DOWN over 500K over 2004. A net 3M votes (3%) switched from Pub to Dem. Hardly a “landslide” as is being reported by Pravda-DNC (MSM). Given the number of new registrations reported, this is at least curious.
yes they stayed home they gave the election away.either they stayed home because mccain wasnt Pure enough or stayed home because they bought the media bs no sense voting if you are convinced the other side won
they did that before* conservaties * and look what we got pelosi and reid and now obama
And it again raises the question, “Where were the conservatives?”
It makes me sick how PUMA fooled all from that hillbuzz site.
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