Ohio is the Florida of 2004?
“Ohio is the Florida of 2004,” said Gerald Austin, who has run many Ohio campaigns and Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential bid. “This state is up for grabs.” (via Salon.com article about labor and other groups gearing up for to defeat President Bush in November.)
Having been in Florida during the 2000 presidential election (and then later witnessing a presidential appointment by the Supreme Court), the phrase “Ohio is the Florida of 2004,” quite literally gave me chills. It was bad enough to be a resident of the state that (through a system of voting fraud and political pressure) sent Bush Jr. to the White House the first time.
Does this mean that Nader will hold a rally here at Ohio University and pull swing votes away from the Democratic candidate (as he did at the University of Florida)? Alachua County (where I and UF resided at the time, and where UF remains to this day, as far as I know) may have cost Gore the 2000 election (you know, the actual election, before the behind-the-scenes politics took over).
Oh me-oh, oh my-oh, oh Cleveland Ohio! (20 bonus points for anyone who knows that reference.)