Barack Obama is a typical liberal Democrat, and he's more than willing to employ the same dirty tricks, and employ (literally) the same foul players on the political scene. Gateway Pundit has a post up which talks about one dirty player in particular, Patrick Gaspard, a man who recently worked for an SEIU affiliate in New York. What's interesting is what Gaspard did in 2004:

The Kerry effort will be aided by America Coming Together, an independent group working to get out the Democratic vote. The group plans to stage marches before Election Day to polling stations that open early in key states to put ‘peer and community pressure’ on low-propensity voters, said Patrick Gaspard, the group's national field director.

America Coming Together, or ACT, was fined over $700,000 for illegal fundraising, but they did much more. They hired felons to canvass neighborhoods in several states, including here in Ohio. As pointed out at GP, several of them even ended up going back to jail following the 2004 cycle. To top it all off, the slime was knee-deep in Ohio:

The Ohio Republican Party sued in Marion County just before its county courthouse doors closed at 4:30 p.m., asking for a restraining order against state and county Democrats and the political group America Coming Together. The suit claimed they were peppering the Republican strongholds of Marion and Greene counties with misleading taped phone messages. Republican attorney Mark Weaver said several dozen GOP voters complained to party headquarters that the messages directed them to an improper polling place or told them, incorrectly, that they needed to bring identification or a utility bill to the polls.

I hope that this isn't the change we're supposed to be waiting for, because it's nothing new. It's old political tricks, by an old ultra-liberal machine, with old policies, old tactics, and an old hatred for the will of the American people. Isn't it time for Barack to drop the "hope and change" mantra when he's engaging in the same old dirty politics?

I had the opportunity a few days ago to interview Jo Ann Davidson, the Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee, and it was a very interesting conversation. To give you a little background, Jo Ann is from Ohio, and spent a lot of time in the state, in both elected office and organizing successful campaigns. She has a lot of knowledge about what it's going to take to win in Ohio, both nationally and locally. We got to talk a strategy a bit.

Jo Ann repeated something I've heard time and again from various Republican strategists. She said we have to win the "collar counties", or the counties that make rings around the metropolitan areas to win the state. We're going to lose Cleveland, but we should be able to win Lake and Geauga counties. We can underperform in Cincinatti, but we should win Butler and Warren counties. In addition, Southeast Ohio has long been the swing area that makes or breaks campaigns. Winning SE Ohio and "collar counties" will once again be key in 2008.

She also talked about John McCain as the nominee, and said he has unique appeal that really gives us a fighting chance this election cycle. When questioned about Conservative angst, she said she's confident he'll make an appeal and said his pro-life record and his record on judges (Gang of 14 being an exception) are vastly superior to Obama's. I asked her if McCain will put counties like mine, Trumbull, into play, and she said he'll fight everywhere, harkening back to his Youngstown visit. I'd say she had a cautiously optimistic tone about Ohio in 2008, and she described the political environment as "better than 2006", which is surely pleasant to hear. On 2006, she said Ohio had a mix of local issues (Bob Ney, rare coins, etc.) that worsened the environment, and that's no longer an issue. As a whole, the 15-minute phone interview gave me some great insight into how the RNC thinks about Ohio, and I'm eager to talk about this more on the state and national level.

I am a fan of Representative John Boehner, because I believe he is a Conservative fighter in the House. It also helps that he has contributed to ROTR. Recently, a reader of mine told me to "go back to being Boehner's mouthpiece" when we got into an argument, and I had to think thoroughly about whether that was a good or bad thing. I decided that giving Boehner's point of view was simply giving the Conservative point of view. To close out on this, Boehner has been named one of the most Conservative Congressmen in the country:

House Minority Leader John Boehner of West Chester.

The local Republican tied with seven other U.S. House members for the HIGHEST score among conservative members. That means that Boehner and the seven other lawmakers are MORE CONSERVATIVE than 93.3 percent of their House colleagues.

I backed several horses in several races last night, and one of them, Kirk Schuring, managed to win his primary. He'll be the GOP standard-bearer in an important contest come November, in a district where the Dems believe they can create a fight. The Hill has the results:

Schuring, who had the endorsement of outgoing Rep. Ralph Regula (R), was the favorite heading into Tuesday’s voting. However, he trailed Miller much of the night and did not clinch the victory until after he got a bump Wednesday morning when results from his base put him at 32,503 votes to Miller’s 28,989, with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

Schuring will face state Sen. John Boccieri (D), who won his primary 64-36, in a general election race that could turn into a battleground.

This isn't a race that could turn into a battleground. This is a race that will turn into a battleground. The Democrats are dumping tons of resources into OH-16, and they'll continue to do so as long as they believe it's winnable. We have a battle folks.

It's Clinton's revenge on Obama, for trying to set the narrative that she's dead. She has won Ohio and Rhode Island tonight, and is close in Texas. She's setting the stage for a long campaign that may extend into the summer. It's beautiful, isn't it? They're going to rip each other apart for at least another 7 weeks, probably longer. MSNBC has the Ohio news:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton threw up a roadblock to Sen. Barack Obama’s path to the Democratic presidential nomination by winning the giant Ohio primary, NBC News projected Tuesday night.

Clinton, D-N.Y., and Obama, D-Ill., split the smaller Rhode Island and Vermont primaries, according to NBC News, leaving Democrats to wait for Texas, the second big prize of the night, to provide clarity to the tight campaign.

To be completely honest, I don't care whether we face Hillary or Obama in November. I think John McCain is a stronger candidate, and is able to beat either of them. I love watching the Democrats fight, and this thing is going forward. This'll be fun.