I met up with “Mike” at the local Bob Evans, a Heartland staple, founded by the eponymous farmer from southeastern Ohio. Mike is a Republican through and through. I knew this, but also wanted to pick his brain on a town like Ashland, which sits nearly halfway between Cleveland and Columbus in the Cuyahoga Valley.”

Just to clarify…’Where Accent on the Individual is a Tradition’ is not the city of Ashland’s motto, is it Ashland University’s motto.

And like the monied Democrats of Beechwood, our “historical district homes” mostly carry Obama signs in the front yard.

We are a red county. More than once, and in fact, just last week (Biden), candidates will pass right through undetected on their whistlestops in Wooster and Mansfield. Most everyone is ok with that. We don’t need face-time or fanfare.

Strong values and corn-fed tradition teaches us to think for ourselves, and understand the difference between right and wrong.

“Though the Illinois Senator was able to gain the Democrat nomination while losing badly in Ohio and other regional states (West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky), Obama’s braintrust should realize that the last person to win the presidency without carrying Ohio was Franklin Roosevelt in 1944. It would clearly be evidence of “Change” were “The Messiah” to pull that feat off.”

I was going to post that no Republican has ever lost the state and won the Presidency, but it looks like it goes both ways.

The key to an Obama victory in Ohio and in the US is to lie about his real beliefs. If the truth gets out, he’s toast. Or if a scandal gets out, he’s toast. What is the chance the Rezko case will indict him?

Now, because, unlike news writers in the MSM, I believe in open discourse, I will address a few issues and mistakes I made. (This is why blogs and talk radio thrive while newspapers, magazines, Hollywood and CNN/MSNBC et al die.)

1. The town is “Beachwood” not “Beechwood” as I called it. I apologize for the error. My grandparents belonged to BEEchmont Country Club (in or very near Beachwood) for over 60 years, so I must have been thinking of that spelling. That said, the fact that there are “4 rather large synagogues and a Chabad center” in the area is immaterial to my point. Chabad “Outreach” Centers are, thankfully, everywhere in America. They have nearly a dozen in Indiana, after all, where the Jewish population is miniscule. And as far as I recall from family functions, weddings and visits, the synagogues in Beachwood are Reform, i.e. liberal, i.e. secular, watered down Judaism. What I was saying is that it’s not a town where you’ll find a hardware store, mom and pop shop and churches dotting the corners. Basically, it is a latte town for RICH secular “progressives” where the yuppie stores and businesses dominate.

2. Yes, to all those who questioned my discussions of Columbus, I know that the city, like nearly every major city in America, is very liberal. We did not plan to stop there nor include it in the article, but there was a severe thunderstorm, so we stopped at my cousin’s. They are conservative and their neighbor is an Orthodox Jew who is a devout Republican. I have been on OSU’s campus, to the downtown, to Germantown and other trendy, artsy, left-leaning areas there. It’s basically like Indianapolis, which is also, surprisingly to me when I first relocated here, VERY liberal for the most part. I was only discussing my cousin and her heroic husband. I know C-bus is, for whatever reason, Obama country.

3. The other “inside info” many Ohioans and others of the region lent was very necessary, and I thank you. My prediction is that McCain will do as well in Ohio as he will in nearby states: VERY well. Ohioans can spot a fake or a radical or a naive person, so Obama will not do as well here as he might in Oregon, Minnesota, Maryland or Vermont. There IS a great deal of Marxism in his rhetoric and demands. That may work in SF or Boston, but again, not in most of America.

4. As to the comment about more statistical evidence and objective data instead of anecdotal evidence and subjective data, perhaps. However, that makes for a boring read, and I am confident the high majority of readers find pieces like this more enjoyable with anecdotes. Plus, you can find those stats and “objective data” on line. I traveled for stories and personal statements.

5. Having made all this clear, my prediction is that Ohioans, overall, will judge the content of Obama’s character instead of the color of his skin (as MLK Jr. asked us to) and not support him, unlike many white and black liberals who are wrongly putting skin color before anything and voting FOR BHO because of that.

I don’t think folks across America realize how many millions of moderate, union, working class Dems, especially women, are voting McCain. As VD Hanson recently opined on PJM:

“In a year that for historical and contemporary reasons should be a Democratic shoo-in, the Democrats have nominated about the only candidate who can lose in November, the Republicans the only one of their own who can still win it.”

Based upon my travels and discourse through all 48 states the past three years, Ohioans, along with Hoosiers, Iowans and perhaps Virginians, are the most alert, honest and knowledgeable folks around, understanding America’s greatness. The Buckeye State will thus go to McCain…unless, as some pointed out, the corrupt Dems in locales like Kucinich’s Cleveland fix the elections…