Is The Country Ready?

ROCHESTER - 'Is the country ready for a woman?' 'Is the country ready for a black guy?' I hear these questions all the time. I have news for you: it doesn't matter. I could give a rat's ass if some hill billy in Mississippi is ready or not. He ain't gotta be. The fact remains that because the coasts are ready, the South and Midwest don't have a say. The conservative right surges ahead with a scary agenda opposed by the coasts, but they don't care what we think. They write us off and move ahead. We should return the favor.

Basically, as long as Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Washington DC are ready, we only need to worry about convincing Ohio. All those states voted for Gore and Kerry. Gore won New Mexico and Iowa and Kerry added New Hampshire. If either had won Ohio, we wouldn't be in this mess. Does anyone believe that Clinton or Obama would lose any of these states? I don't. Let's not take them for granted entirely, but let's not waste our time caring if Kentucky is ready for Clinton or Obama. They probably aren't. Let them vote for Skeletor all they want. Again, their opinion doesn't matter.

The Republican coalition of Midwestern and Southern states has delivered back to back victories in the Electoral College, but if the last Republican rust belt state flips, the party is over. Finally, Ohio may have flipped. In 2006 they booted Republicans from their state house left and right. This is a good sign. Scary as it may seem to hand the nation's future over to a bunch of Indians, Bengals, Buckeyes and Zips fans, they are more us than some Hot Pocket worshipping nut job in Alabama. So screw Billy Joe and let's get the Dawg Pound on board. Ohio should matter to Northerners. Ohioans face the same issues we do. Aging infrastructure, loss of jobs, rising crime in the cities, urban decay, and cursed sports teams. Shame on us for not bringing them to our side sooner, but we can not afford to bring them over any later. It should be an easy sell. Is Ohio better now than it was in 2000? I don't think so.

I am tired of hearing 'is the country is ready.' If YOU wonder if the country is ready, I suspect YOU aren't because, thanks to the electoral college, the country doesn't need to be ready. Only 21 or 22 states need to be ready, and they are. Midwesterners and Southerners had their President for 8 years, now it is our turn. But only if we can turn Ohio to our side, where they should have been for years.