(c) 2010 F. Bruce Abel
Enjoyed the double-header where first Connie Pillich, then Steve Driehaus, drowned their opponents with accomplishments and relevant facts in faux debate, and artfully dodged the misty raindrops in return. Both of "our guys" were fullsome with pungency and zingers. If raw ability were the determinant they both would win big November 2nd. Connie and Steve, I mean.
Both had prepared, and had been prepared, finely. Steve was jaw-droppingly Kennedyesque, showing, in my opinion, world-class improvement from his prior then-best excellent level of presentation (at the Iron Horse, for example). He, at 44, outed an aged-looking -- HD hurt Chabot -- opponent, who was only 57.
Connie at Princeton High School Matthews Auditorium at 7 pm, and Steve on Channel 9 at 8 pm. I TIVO'd the latter and the former will be available on local cable ICRC.
Connie smoothly demonstrated she was the most effective representative one could be and her opponent pompously said he stood on his "status" of being an IP know-nothing -- proudly not being a politician and proudly not being a lawyer: then demonstrated that he was an up and coming pain in the butt a la Boehner. He flippantly and ham-handedly referred to the 3 C's Rail Plan as "The Crazy Train."
With the false advantage of being free to attack anything or anyone who had actually done anything in the past for Ohio voters and communities, Republican or Democrat, Connie's opponent promised to go to Columbus and lay waste everything of merit east of the Olentangy, and to report the promised chaos (e.g. no more state income tax) back via the internet.
Mike Wilson’s statement, repeated at Matthews:
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/08/cincinnati-tea-party-founder-mike.html
“We see the proof of this [Ohio's inhospitality to corporations] in the news when venerable Ohio companies like NCR (founded in Dayton in 1884)… leave for other states and take their jobs with them. We didn’t lose these jobs to overseas competition. We lost them to Georgia and Kentucky. …”
He said "Governor Strickland offered NCR tax breaks totaling $31.1 million in an effort to keep them in Ohio. While that unfortunately wasn’t enough, what it shows is a recognition that the tax climate in Ohio matters and it is so out of whack that a $30 million incentive is insufficient to keep a company here.”
Of course being such a know-nothing, he was unaware that it was 2007 (pre-Pillich) when the Executive Offices were moved to New York City and he was unaware that the vast middle-class blue-collar jobs at NCR were gone decades ago (pre Strickland); thus he did not know how many – relatively small number-- jobs were lost when NCR finally pulled out its Dayton headquarters recently (1,300 white collar, according to the Dayton Daily News; cf. with 18,000 plus jobs at full tilt, per same story)
http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2009/06/01/daily15.html
"Do you thus advocate throwing untolled taxpayers’ money at corporations whose laborers have already left, in order to outbid other states for their mere 'headquarters?'” the audience thought.
Both debates were noteworthy as evidence that the Limbaugh use of the term "liberal" as a perjorative word, was dead. It was not mentioned in the 7 pm debate. To his credit Wilson eschewed the Limbaugh trope and it was used by Chabot only once, 18 minutes in.
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