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President Obama is on the campaign trail again in Ohio for yet another bottomless-spending “jobs bill.” He recycled his “I will fight for you” lines circa 2008, bashed the insurance companies (that have been meeting with his pal Tom Daschle and visiting the White House over the past year negotiating the best Demcare deals they can), and channeled Scott Brown-style populism — droppin’ his g’s as he talked ’bout the hard-workin’ people who drive the same kind of trucks he bashed Brown for driving last week.
Yes, Obama is promising the little people he’ll fight for them once he gets to the White House (never mind that he’s been there fighting against them for the last 12 months):
Let’s do the time warp again. It’s just a jump to the left…:
Jim Geraghty Tweets: I’m watching a man who has steadily expanded government spending try to get a crowd to chant, ‘we want our money back’.”
The usual q-and-a includes audience members asking Obama to heal them.
Remember Henrietta Hughes?
Welcome to Year Two of Obama’s Mega-Church of Government — known to the rest of us as the Barack-y Horror Picture Show (thanks to Michael T. for the suggestion).
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Context, via The Hill:
The presidential visit comes as Ohio’s Democratic governor is facing a tough reelection battle. Gov. Ted Strickland was swept into office in the Democratic tide of 2006, but since then the economy in Ohio has remained stagnant.
The Buckeye State is grappling with a budget crisis and unemployment has reached 10.9 percent. Strickland is expected to face John Kasich, a former Republican congressman who also worked for Fox News Channel and Lehman Brothers, in the general election. Kasich has led Strickland in some recent polls.
Still, Strickland sounds upbeat about his chances in November.
“I wouldn’t say it’s gone wrong with me politically. I am dealing with a recession that obviously was not of my own making. But I am responsible for managing the affairs of Ohio as we move through this recession and get to recovery. Quite frankly, some of our own internal polls are not as negative as those that have been published,” he told The Atlantic last week.
Ohio is considered a battleground state in part because it’s on the frontline of the 2012 redistricting fight. The state is expected to lose two of its 18 congressional seats during reapportionment after the Census is complete, and whichever party holds the governor’s mansion will have leverage.
The governor is one five members of the state’s Apportionment Board, which redraws the state’s congressional and legislative districts. The plan ultimately has to be approved by the state Legislature and then signed by the governor.
The governor can use the threat of a veto to influence the way the Legislature draws up the new districts, said Douglas Johnson, a fellow at the Rose Institute who studies redistricting. “Veto power gives them negotiating power.”
Should Ohio swing Republican in 2010, it could also spell trouble for Obama’s 2012 reelection bid.
