Battlegrounders
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OHIO: GOOD NEWS FOR W [Kevin Holtsberry 11/01 01:56 PM]
Good news for the President in Ohio. The Ohio Poll out of the University of Cincinnati has Bush over 50% and leading Kerry by a hair. The final Ohio Poll has the race basically tied at Bush 50.1 and Kerry 49.2. Also of interest, it looks like George Voinovich will coast to victory as he is leading State Senator Eric Fingerhut 65 - 34.8. It also look as if the ballot initiative to prohibit same sex marriages and civil unions will pass, it is leading 59.2 - 40.8.
OHIO: DOES WEATHER MATTER? [Jonathan Adler 11/01 01:38 PM]
The Cleveland forecast for tomorrow is rain. If weather affects turnout, this is good news for Bush, as Kerry needs a strong showing in Northeast Ohio to win the state.
OHIO: ROCKING THE VOTE [Jonathan Adler 11/01 01:36 PM]
The morning drive-time DJs on Cleveland’s popular alternative rock station, 92.3 Extreme Radio, were talking about broadcasting portions of “Fahrenheit 9/11” during tomorrow’s show. Meanwhile, Senator Kerry will be in Cleveland tonight for a rally with Bruce Springsteen.
MICHIGAN: JUST SAY NON [Henry Payne 11/01 01:16 PM]
A car ride into Detroit is a reminder this election season of why public policy matters. Take Exit 54 (or any Detroit exit) off I-75 and follow Grand River Blvd. into the heart of a city that has been ravaged by years of the same Democratic agenda preached by John Kerry: class envy, racial resentment, high taxation, monopoly public education, and union empowerment.
This is a living laboratory for Democratic policies.
Abandoned buildings choke block after block of Grand River. Once alive with businesses, these storefronts were abandoned when the city stopped providing adequate city services, bowing to racial furies that declared white businessmen were unwanted here. A city government built on cronyism and union obedience has yielded a regulatory thicket that most small proprietors find impenetrable. Negotiating a business license is akin to pulling teeth, and even when acquired, city services dominated by public unions - privatization is a dirty word here - are haphazard at best in a city that boasts the state's highest taxes.
Behind these storefronts lie neighborhoods in severe decay. Seventy percent of families in this predominantly black city are without fathers, a calamity accelerated by years of Democratic Party welfare programs. A poor public school system is made worse by the lack of time these fractured families have for their children at home. Just 30 percent of high school students graduate.
For those families that do have ambitions for their children, state Republicans (there are no Republicans in Detroit city govt.) have approved charter schools over Democratic and union opposition. The waiting lists for these schools run into the thousands. This year, a major effort by Republican businessman Robert Thompson to seed Detroit charters with $250 million - that's right, $250 million - was rejected by the Detroit City Council and their union puppeteers. The Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm, raised not a finger to prevent this catastrophe from unfolding.
In Pontiac last week, President Bush met with black church and political leaders to promote his ideas for school choice and tax cuts and how they can help revitalize urban America. Detroit will vote overwhelmingly for Kerry. But for the 1.5 million residents who fled Detroit in the last 30 years, they have already voted on Democratic policies with their feet.
MICHIGAN: MORE LAST MINUTE [David Hogberg 11/01 01:07 PM]
Four items of interest from my weekend trip to Michigan.
1) On Saturday, my boyfriend received a call from "Laura Bush," urging him to vote for W. On Sunday morning, he received a call from the Kerry campaign asking for his vote. This leads me to believe that the Bush campaign did its get-out-the-vote calls on Saturday, while the Kerry campaign had the calls planned for Sunday. The significance: Saturday night a wind storm hit and there were 165,000 customers in the Detroit metro area without power from Saturday night through Sunday, and still 77,000 without power as of 4:30, when I left. Those without power probably went elsewhere on Sunday and had no answering machines to hear the Kerry pitch. That's a lot of missed votes!
2) The Sunday Bulletin at the Catholic parish we go to had an insert laying out issues for Catholics to consider when forming their conscience for voting. The local Republican Committee wisely placed pamphlets on the cars in the Church parking lot which compared Kerry and Bush on the same issues highlighted in the Church bulletin and read "vote your values."
3) Kerry has a campaign rally scheduled for the Detroit area tomorrow. The tickets have already been distributed. The events has been moved because of a chance of rain. I wonder how many people will not hear of the change in time (their TV doesn't run without electricity) and head to the wrong local, and then no have enough energy to make trek across town.
4) The temp dropped nearly 40 degrees overnight, and it will stay cool and rain is predicted for Election Day.
MICHIGAN: DOWN TO THE WIRE & DIFFERENT STRATEGIES [Henry Payne 11/01 01:06 PM]
Troops are mobilizing on both sides to get out the vote Tuesday. Republican volunteers will be driving voters to the polls, while in Detroit, Democrats are organizing "Knock and Drag." As a volunteer told WJR news radio: "We're gonna knock on the door and drag you to the polls!"
With voter surveys showing the Michigan race too close to call, campaign surrogates continued to stump around the state. Michigan's 2000 choice, Al Gore still can't let go of that campaign as he harangued the faithful at Lansing's New Mount Cavalry Baptist Church: "Anybody ever tells you that a single vote doesn't count, ask them to come talk to me about that. I am Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States."
In Romulus, Mich. north of Detroit, Veep Cheney presided over a pep rally of several hundred supporters wearing t-shirts emblazoned with "48 Hours to Victory." Cheney said this weekend's Bin Laden tape was a reminder of the need for leadership in the Oval Office. "President Bush understands the War on Terror and has a strategy for winning it, and Sen. Kerry does not," said Cheney.
Under union contract, the Big Three auto companies give their employees Election Day off, which should be a boon to Democrats trying to get their base to the polls. Union turnout in the 2000 race was above expectations, a key factor in Gore's victory. However, union membership is not a guarantee of party support, as many union members are also cultural conservatives. Reports one election volunteer: "On three streets in south Oakland County (north border of Detroit). I met quite a few Bush people who were 'quiet' supporters: no lawn signs or bumper stickers. One woman, a public school teacher, told me that she had to be 'in the closet' about her support for Bush because of her union (NEA)."
The Election Day forecast in Michigan is for 50 degrees and rainy in Southeast Michigan (Kerry country) and cloudy in more conservative western Michigan. |
