Carnival of Ohio Politics #140

By the time you read this edition of the carnival, we could be about 140 hours from having a good sense of who, if anybody, accurately predicted the allocation of states, electoral votes and the popular vote between John McCain and Barack Obama. I don't know about you, but I was just describing to someone else that I feel and see the time left between now and then as being similar to what an accordian looks like went it's completely smushed and compressed...and out of air.

Being bloggers such as we are, however, means never being out of air.
(The caption says, "The Hazards of Online Voting")
(from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Our first wind starts with the Roland Hansen Commentary's "Toledo City Council Should Stick To City Business."

Please welcome first-time contributor, My Domestic Church, who provides thoughts about the election and the ballot questions, with a particular interest in the Summit County Clerk of Courts race.

I've been remiss this year regarding the Ohio ballot initiatives, which make me all the more pleased that Whalertly has issued endorsements on issues 1 and 2, on state-wide offices and on local and Franklin county races.

Don't mistake Third Base Politics for being out in left field. The next election cycle starts November 5, you know and DJ Tablesauce is ready already with a gubernatorial endorsement for 2010.

A special thanks to Maggie Thurber at Thurber's Thoughts for taking what we all agree is a very good resource and blogging about it. Hint: remember what I said about being remiss on the issues? If you have been too, you must go to Maggie's post.

The Boring Made Dull really underestimates the attraction of his posts, especially when the topic is as important as education but isn't get much coverage like TBMD gives Akron's Issue 8.

Co-editrix Lisa Renee of Glass City Jungle fills up the quota of three this week. She continues her mission of pointing out selectivity when it comes to the Toledo Blade and politicians, highlights how another paper local to her urges a no vote on Issue 5 and 6, and, finally, writes about An interesting article on why only one local candidate is facing opposition there in Lucas
County.

Ohio Republic has an interesting trio this week: plate tectonics (it is an excellent quick read about political parties), why he didn't vote for President and, if you scratch my back, I'll, er, um, well - I'll let you go read how he finishes that one.

If you're a political blogger in Ohio, it's been hard to miss the stories about out of state influences on our election process. Into My Own looks at Californians calling Ohioans for Obama and considers how John Boehner has injected himself into the state election process but at the federal level. Finally, most of us probably feel too saturated with poll information, but there is a lot of it and it is pretty seductive to follow as Into My Own does here.

Seneca County Blog channels some serious hands-on-hip parenting style in Benjamin E. Nutter, you march yourself right up to your room, which tackles the topic of a commissioner possibly going overboard. I just love the image.

Do prosperity and security go hand in hand? So argues Conservative Culture. More unique local coverage can be read in Allen County Sheriff Disobeys Own Rule. Don'tcha love it when that happens? Lastly, some observations about this season's battles for sustenance of the democratic and squirrel-kind.

The Carnival's Ben Keeler offers three from The Point at Ohio.com this week. An Ohio governmental employee went plumbing to see what kind of clogs might be found in Joe the Plumber's records. Ben's local talk radio lineup gets shuffled and John McCain and Sarah Palin
visit Green High School - Ben was there.

Newly added editor, Daniel Jack Williamson of BuckeyeRINO chats up Annette Butler for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, Nick Brusky for Lorain County Commissioner and, in just one of several very thorough posts about casinos and gambling in Ohio, makes the Democratic case against Issue 6.

John Michael Spinelli discusses Obama's choice of Ohio for the closing argument speech he gave yesterday, over at e Pluribus Media and twins it with a post about Obama widening his lead over McCain in Ohio.

This final political book map for 2008 has some surprising patterns in it, believes its creator, Valdis Krebs of The Network Thinker. You really need to check it out if you like unique, interactive ways to view information.

If political speech were measured in dollars only, there's little question in my mind that everyone would not view the amount directed toward Barack Obama in the same way. Divided We Stand, United We Fall reflects on the possibilities.

I'm intrigued with the analyses of what's happening county by county in Ohio, how coattail concerns might be playing out given the reported percentage of independents that appear to be going to Obama and will there be an upset in the Ohio 10th, Dennis Kucinich v. Jim Trakas?

Thank you all for participating and please, honestly, I don't care who you vote for, but I really would like to know that as engaged as we all are in blogging politics, that we will also show how engaged we are by voting.

Good luck to all the candidates.