Last week, I expressed my bafflement at why Dennis Kucinich's new political action committee, founded with the noble purpose of backing progressive candidates for office, was jumping very late into races that either had major support already from a range of progressive groups or, in the case of his very very late endorsement of Columbus congressional candidate Joyce Beatty last week, candidates who stood almost no chance of losing.

He's upped the ante on that one. Now in the very final moments of the cycle — like the day before yesterday — Kucinich Action dropped yet another completely perplexing endorsement.

As Election Day nears, I would like to ask your support for Congressman Tim Ryan, who is an advocate for working families in Ohio.

I have worked with Tim in Congress and can tell you first hand that he has been a champion for making college more affordable, revitalizing America’s cities and fighting to improve the health and well-being of American families and children.

Tim is a leader focused on improving our economy. In cooperation with other members of Congress, he has introduced H.R. 2378 - the Currency Reform and Fair Trade Act - to bring fairness and a more level playing field to the currency markets.

Congressman Ryan has recently wrote a book that is an inspiration to American politics, "A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit." He advocates a practice of "mindfulness" and the positive impact it has on the individual and subsequently could have on our country.

Please support Congressman Tim Ryan.

Sincerely,

Dennis

Yes, no doubt, Congressman Tim "The Good" Ryan is a worthy candidate. He's also opposed in a massively Democratic district by one of the most insane teabaggers running in Ohio. She stands zero chance of winning.

I look forward on Monday afternoon to Kucinich Action's endorsement of Ohio's 11th district Congresswoman Marcia Fudge — who is running unopposed.

I'm heading to bed shortly because — and here's the reason I have not been able to maintain the type of posting I was hoping to do leading into this election — I am working in the early voting room at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. And we are open for business tomorrow at 8 a.m.

Thanks to a couple of federal appeals court decisions and the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to re-hear them, Ohio once again has in-person early voting the three days prior to the election. Although some people have griped about the hours, they're actually fairly generous.

And they are uniform throughout the state.

Each county's early voting location will be open tomorrow — Saturday — from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., again on Sunday from 1-5 p.m., and on Monday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you are in line to vote by closing time, you can vote, no matter how long the line is. Tonight polls closed at 6 p.m., and we still had a long line. People were finishing up voting shortly before 7 p.m.

For more information about in-person early voting, go hear:

http://ohiodems.org/wp/wp-content/election/voteearlyinperson.html

I want to have a word with my Democratic friends who are biting their nails to the quick and wringing their hands in despair over the election. On progressive websites, I’m seeing people making themselves crazy over every minute movement of every poll when they should be doing something productive, like cleaning the house or making get-out-the-vote calls.

Sure, Romney COULD win next Tuesday, but it’s a long shot. The math is against him. Yet the media keeps hollering, “It’s a tie! It’s a tie!”

There’s a reason for that. The longer there’s suspense, the longer they keep you glued to your TV/radio/newspaper/whatever you get your news from. Earlier this week, the Plain Dealer ran a story about how the presidential election could come down to Ohio’s provisional votes. It could, but that’s an even longer shot. The media would love it, but it could be fatal to our country.

While I understand the media’s self-interested investment in suspense, it angers me that they seem to not care that this is about OUR LIVES. It’s long been commented on that election coverage has come down to scorekeeping: who raised how much money and who is ahead (or behind) in what polls. To them it’s a game.

Maybe that’s why it took the media so long to actually call out Mitt Romney on his brazen, Mandelesque lying (or is Josh Mandel guilty of Romneyesque lying? In any case, they’re owned by the same puppetmasters). After snagging the Republican nomination by pandering to the most extreme elements to ever control a major political party, Romney pivoted (or in the words of one of his spokespeople “etch-a-sketched”) his way out of it by lying about his previous positions and statements.

VoteVets.org, a political PAC that stumps for the interests of veterans, with an emphasis on the younger generation from the current wars, has gone on the air in Ohio with an ad but supporting Senator Sherrod Brown.

I know. You're saying "But Josh 'The Empty Suit' Mandel IS a veteran a veteran a VETERAN as he keeps telling us over and over and over in his ads. They're not supporting their fellow veteran?"

Well, no. Because unlikely Josh Mandel, VoteVets.org is about supporting candidates and office holders who provide the services needed by the people who served their country, not someone who appears to support cutting them (it's hard to tell WHAT he supports because Mandel seldom gives a straight answer). Mandel sees military service as a personal badge of honor; Sherrod Brown sees it as something to be rewarded by giving veterans opportunities to build healthy, productive lives for themselves once they're out of the military.

Hence this ad. They're doing a $200,000 ad buy. It may be a drop in the bucket to the big billionaire-funded secret groups who have been attacking Brown on Mandel's behalf, but it's significant given the time frame.

How bad a candidate is Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel? It turns out there's not a major newspaper in Ohio who can find a case to make for voting for him. With the rightwing Columbus Dispatch's endorsement of Sherrod, he has earned the endorsement of every major newspaper in Ohio.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2012/10/31/for-u-s--s...

Maybe every minor newspaper as well, I don't know. If anyone knows of a paper that endorsed Joshie, I'd love for someone to tip me off. I'd like to see what kind of case they tried to make for this abysmal candidate.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/the_wave_for_obama/?source=newsletter

I'm posting this Salon article because I'm a little tired of the panic on the Democratic side, induced by the media's insistence on producing a tied presidential race at all costs. This means focusing on the closest polls, like the one poll — from the University of Cincinnati — that showed the race tied in Ohio, a depressing outcome that would make you wonder about people's gullibility — if it were true. But a half dozen other polls in the last few days all showed President Obama with a lead. And around the country, that seems increasingly to be the story in the final days of the campaign. It's less about persuasion or changing the narrative now — although his compassionate response to Storm Sandy seems to have changed it in the president's favor — than about getting out of the vote.

With reliable polls in Ohio and Wisconsin Wednesday showing Obama with solid leads there, Romney has almost no path to victory on Tuesday. Polls today also showed him holding smaller leads in the swing states of Virginia, Florida and Nevada, and tied in North Carolina.

Get out that vote!

Of course, the Romney campaign and a few of its acolytes are blustering about their upcoming victory, which makes some Democrats I know pee their pants in fear. (I've even heard people panic over the fact that Romney calls his campaign offices "Victory Centers." It's image, people, not a prediction). And of course, the Obama campaign is also spinning hard, putting out figures on early voting that make the president look like he's sitting pretty. It's what campaigns DO.

So get out that vote!

Issue Two — the constitutional amendment to change how Ohio draws its legislative and congressional maps — is going to lose.

That's a travesty. But the deck is stacked high against it. In fact, everyone who is cynical about government and politics, everyone who is not a rabid partisan of a major party, should not even be hesitating before voting YES. The only people who benefit from is defeat are those who believe that winner should take all and that one party which happens to win certain races in a certain year should be able to determine control of the state, not the voters. Every Ohio citizen who's tired of polarized, smear-based politics will benefit.

Because the Republicans were able to drawn insanely lopsided maps by winning certain offices in 2010, they are fighting Issue 2 tooth and nail with lies and tricks. Dubbing it Issue 2 was one such trick. Last year, of course, Issue 2 was the issue to repeal union-busting SB 5, and a no vote was required. This year it's YES on Issue 2.

They followed that by creating ballot language so inaccurate they were forced to revamp it. But the language is still daunting AND you have to scroll through column after column of dense copy in both English and Spanish before getting to the oval to vote. By then a lot of disgusted and confused voters will just vote no, or skip it altogether.

That's a horrible mistake, and one I think the Issue 2 campaign, called Voters First Ohio, has compounded. About a month ago I got the first mailer from the campaign. On the cover it features a nice photo of President Obama and Governor Strickland, and it says "It's time to take the power back!" — Ted Strickland.

The immediate impression is that it's a piece for the Obama campaign. I suspect most people who got it glanced at it and said, that's nice; I was already planning to vote for the president though.

I have been predicting for months that most of Ohio's newspapers — even the very conservative ones — could not dig down deep enough to endorse Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel. His campaign has been too evasive and empty of content, his ambition too naked, his neglect of his treasurer's job too obvious, his ads too nasty, his accusations against Senator Sherrod Brown too false.

I said the only exception would probably be the Cincinnati Enquirer, which seemed to lag behind all of Ohio's other newspaper in calling out Mandel for his weaselly ways.

Oops!

"Brown dedicated to Ohio's needs, problems"

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20121028/EDIT01/310280048/Brown-dedic...

Elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after two terms as Ohio secretary of state and seven terms in the House of Representatives, Democrat Brown carries a reputation as a liberal.

A closer look reveals a leader who has taken a stand for Ohio workers, jobs and businesses. For his leadership and responsiveness to Ohio’s problems, Brown deserves another term in the Senate. ...

Brown’s gone to bat for jobs here and around the state. He voted for tax incentives for job-creating renewable energy projects and sponsored a bill to award competitive grants to industries to retrain workers.

There's much more, including this dismissal of Mandel and his disgraceful campaign:

Brown’s opponent, Mandel, would continue to practice the politics of divisiveness. His campaign has focused on tearing down his opponent, calling him everything from a “un-American” to “a liar.”Mandel’s slash-and-burn campaign has been heavily funded by out-of-state interests. In his public appearances in debates and at The Enquirer’s editorial board, he showed little depth on the issues beyond his rehearsed talking points. Mandel, frankly, is not ready to represent Ohio in the United States Senate.

Remember Dennis Kucinich's announcement a few months ago that he was starting a PAC to support progressive candidates?

http://www.ohiodailyblog.com/content/debut-kucinich-action

That seemed innocent and noble enough.

But nothing more was heard about this until less than two weeks ago, when he announced his group would be supporting three candidates who already have gotten massive attention from tons of progressive groups; Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren and Alan Grayson.

http://ohiodailyblog.com/content/kucinich-action-pac-announces-support-c...

That was perplexing, that he would pick three such well-supported people so late in the campaign.

This email is even more perplexing:

I would like to ask your support for Joyce Beatty, who is running for Congress in the new Franklin County – based, 3rd Congressional District, in Ohio.

Joyce has been an Ohio State Representative, educator, healthcare administrator, and a business owner. She is a champion who will bring a new voice to Congress. She understands that good paying jobs are a top priority and is a long-time advocate for health care issues – who in her own words, “ ... will stand-up to anyone who attempts to cut funding to Medicare or Social Security.”

Please support Joyce Beatty for Congress – www.beattyforcongress.com

Sincerely,

Dennis

Yes, Joyce IS a terrific candidate. And she is running in a district gerrymandered to be so Democratic she would have to do something really spectacular to lose — like disembowel babies on the lawn of the statehouse.

She's going to win. Period. I am mystified why, with slightly over a week (!!!!!) until the election, Kucinich Action is asking for support for a candidate who virtually cannot lose.

I guess the ways of Dennis Kucinich will continue to always be mysterious.

Apparently there is a big storm coming on the east coast or something. I don't have time to follow this kind of new. But I think it's time to remind ourselves about the cruelest and most savage tenet of modern Republicanism: that government shouldn't help those who are hardest hit by events they can't do anything about .. just because. Because ideology trumps charity and generosity and decency. I guess. I'm reminded of when a hurricane AND an earthquake devastated central Virginia and the area's congressman — the sociopathic Eric Can'tor — said that every dollar spent in federal disaster relief for these twin catastrophes should be gouged out of the hides of programs to help those who are struggling.

(Just in case this evil weenie makes you as mad as he does me, here is the link for his opponent Wayne Powell, to whom I have made several donations: http://www.powellforva.com/)

I'd like to remind people what Mitt Romney said about disaster relief in June of 2011:

Romney said that the victims in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and other communities hit by tornadoes and flooding should not receive governmental assistance.

"Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. [...] We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off.

There's video if you think you can stomach it:

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/06/14/244973/mitt-romney-federal-d...

As regular Ohio Daily Blog readers know, I have been closely following the races of four intrepid women running for Congress in districts gerrymandered to be Republican but with aspects to that redistricting that disfavor the Republican incumbents.

One of those is Angela Zimmann's in northwest Ohio, where she's challenging a blob of do-nothingness named Bob "Who?" Latta. With northwest Ohio's entire economy riding on the auto industry, he opposed the bailout. She has promised a laser focus on job creation. Unlike Kasich, she won't pivot to abortion: she's totally pro-choice.

http://zimmannforcongress.com/

She was endorsed by the Toledo Blade, the biggest paper in the district (In order to pit Marcy Kaptur and Dennis Kucinich against each other, the mapmakers had to throw a piece of Toledo into Latta's district, not that helpful for him).

Now her campaign is claiming the race is a dead heat. You always take such campaign claims with a grain of salt but hey — who knows?

That is why I am posting the following email from her campaign manager and suggesting you give Angela a few hours of your time if you are free and anywhere in the area. If you'd like to know more about volunteering, you can call campaign headquarters at 419-617-0005 or email Tara Thobe at tarat@zimmannforcongress.com.

We knew from the beginning that this would be a tight race. Now we know that Congressman Bob Latta knows this race is close, too.

For the first time in his political career, Congressman Latta is pulling out all the stops: spending hundreds of thousands in ads, going on the attack against Angela Zimmann, and even using his congressional staff to reach out to voters.

Put simply, the numbers are showing that this race is a dead heat.

That's why we need your help. We can win this, but only with your support. This race is too close to stand by - so be sure to get involved before it's too late.

When I was a kid, my family got the Chicago Sun-Times in the morning and the Chicago Daily News in the evening (remember afternoon newspapers?) My father refused to have the city's sober Tribune in the house because he said it was too conservative.

And in its 160-plus year history, it had never endorsed a Democrat for president — until 2008. Like most of the conservative papers that endorsed Barack Obama that year, it played the Sarah Palin card, citing her complete unreadiness for national office as a reason to avoid electing an elderly McCain to the presidency.

I fully expected the paper to revert to form this year, endorsing the candidate who looked like the kind of person the Tribune always represented back in the day — the patrician wealthy investment bankers and corporate CEOs who lived in places like Kenilworth (like our U.S. Senator at the time, Chuck Percy, who would not be welcome in today's Republican party). Mitt Romney looks like the guy they would have chosen to be the model for the face of the Tribune, the guy appearing in the ads saying "I start every morning reading the Trib."

But they didn't endorse him.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-26/news/chi-obama-endorsement...

Sure, there's plenty of hooey about the deficit and how he hasn't "done anything" about the looming "insolvency" of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, a transparent dog whistle to cut those programs, even though they're not the cause of the deficit. And there's more hooey about how increasing taxes on the wealthy would have no effect. Whatever. The headline " What kind of America will we leave our children? The Tribune endorses President Obama and urges him to address the nation's debt crisis" is pure Tribune hooey. Those country has a lot of more pressing crises whose solving would solve the debt crisis.

But it praises the president, saying

I'm even too tired to rag on Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel tonight. So I'm directing you to this piece by Joe Baur at Mildly Relevant News.

http://www.article-3.com/why-ohios-josh-mandel-senate-candidacy-has-nati...

Here's how it begins:

“The only way we’re going to change Washington is by changing the people we send there,” said Republican Senate hopeful Josh Mandel at the City Club of Cleveland during the first debate against Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown. It’s the central theme of Mandel’s campaign, and something Ohioans have seen plastered across television ads and yard signs for months.

Yes, Washington would change by sending Mandel to Congress. But only in the way a nuclear disaster site would change by dropping another nuclear bomb.

You know you want to read the rest!

I'm too tired to write much, but the president's rally last night at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland was magical. It was a perfect, balmy, summery night, and the crowd was so diverse and fired up. Air Force One sitting on the tarmac behind the event made a powerful statement.

President Obama summed up all the reasons he needs to stay in office. I was especially struck the inclusiveness of his pitch — how he views everybody as part of building a better country — in comparison to the Romney/Ryan pitch which is full of cues to dislike and/or reject some (or many) groups of people. The campaign boils down to "We're all in this together" or "We don't owe anyone anything; we only need to help ourselves." Talk about radically different visions of America! I don't want to see a regime of exclusion, bigotry and contempt in the White House.

Toward the end, President Obama said, "If you give me your vote, I promise you, you will continue to have a President who hears your voices." We may not always agree (I especially have some serious differences with the president on education), but it feels like there is someone in the White House who "gets" us. Romney doesn't get us. And frankly, I am beyond baffled that at a time when people from the Tea Party to the Occupy movement are supposedly furious at how Wall Street has robbed ordinary Americans blind, so many people can see the empty, coreless Romney, a perfect embodiment of Wall Street greed and privilege and contempt for working people, as a viable choice.

The internet lit up yesterday after it was reported that Jim Renacci was pulling all of his broadcast TV ads.

Article link: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/10/rep_jim_renacci_plans_to...

It seemed like an odd thing to do.

Democrats who struggle to raise money to buy any TV time at all shook their heads in dis-belief. Being the victims of incredible onslaughts of TV ads has bred the belief that one must relentlessly saturate the TV market in order to win. Not doing this will surely bring about defeat. This sentiment was conveyed in several blog posts including here.

I also shook my head when I first read the news. But then I read it more closely and I can at least understand the logic of Jim Renacci’s move.

First, while Jim Renacci, states that he is pulling all his TV broadcast ads, I’m pretty sure that the million dollar corporate lobbyist ads funded by super PACs will remain.

Next, Mr. Renacci’s campaign outlines that they will still be on air making targeted cable TV buys. They state something along the lines of there is too much clutter in the broadcast airwaves. I can understand the logic in this also.

Here’s the deal, all the polling for this race has shown it to be very tight. I think everyone realizes that the race will be about turnout. So why not try to ensure that the people you are talking to are the ones who have the highest probability of voting for you? If the race comes down to just a few hundred votes and you can get that through a target cable TV buy, why not do it?

After the first presidential debate, there were a few polls that would have had you believe that in the blink of an eye, Mitt Romney had closed the gender gap: that women now supported him at the same rate as men.

Not every polls showed that, of course. And I found it difficult to believe. Because the gender gap between men's and women's support of Republicans in general, I believe, goes much deeper than a few slick words from Romney in a debate could smooth over.

The problem is we've listened to almost two years of relentless attack's on women's freedom, autonomy, and equality from every corner of the Republican Party: state legislatures, congressmen, presidential candidates, and the US Council of Catholic Bishops (let's face it — they are de facto part of the Republican party rather than representative of their flock as this article makes clear: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-religion-politicsbre89l...)

Today we learn that Richard Mourdock, the radical reactionary who defeated Indiana's long-time senator Dick Lugar in the Republican primary early this year by running far far far to his right, made the following statement yesterday during a debate with his Democratic opponent Joe Donnelly:

I've struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.

Apparently, Mourdock's version of God, unlike most of ours', despises women as much as today's Republican Party does.

This one's a headscratcher:

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/10/rep_jim_renacci_plans_to...

Congressman Jim Renacci (R-16) is running against fellow incumbent (and outstanding progressive voice for regular working people) Betty Sutton, since her district was eliminated by Republican mapmakers. It seems like the race is too close to call.

So what does Renacci do? He cancels his broadcast TV ads to go after "targeted groups" on cable TV.

His spokesman told the Plain Dealer,

A lot of voters hate the ads and are tuning it out right now. We had to adapt to the environment and be strategic about how and when we are talking to voters.

Why would cable viewers be any less likely to tune out? And what does he mean by "targeted"? It seems like in a race this close, you'd want to cast a wider net. Plus, if you had a nice, upbeat ad, why would anyone "hate" it? Trouble is, Republicans aren't usually very nice and don't have an upbeat worldview.

It's not that Renacci is out of money. He's rich and he has deep-pockets supporters. He's made of money. So I actually have no idea what this means.

But I do know that Teabaggin' Jim Renacci is your typical greed-driven Republican, kowtowing to the ultra-wealthy and the desires of the 1%. Betty Sutton, meanwhile, has been a tireless fighter for ordinary people, such as auto workers; her signature bill is Cash for Clunkers.

If you'd like to help Betty, go here:

http://www.bettysuttonforcongress.com/

President Obama will be back in Cleveland yet again to host one last rally for the troops before the election. Those who were at the rally days before the election on Cleveland's now nonexistent malls (being torn up for the new convention center) remember what an exciting and electrifying event it was, with Bruce Springsteen performing before Obama spoke.

This time the event will take place at Burke Lakefront Airport just east of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum this coming Thursday evening, October 25. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. You can get a free ticket online at https://my.barackobama.com/page/s/obama-cleveland-oct-25. I understand there will be special guest speakers and musical performers joining the President there. As of now, it's supposed to be clear and warm that night so it should be a great evening.

For those of you who just don't like big crowd-type events, the Beachland Ballroom is hosting Sing Out for Obama, with a big lineup of local singer-songwriters including Noah Budin, Bob Frank, Deborah Van Kleef, Mark Freeman, Jim Kozel, Gary Lee, YMZ, and Sheela and the Others. It runs from 7-11 p.m. and it is also free.

The event's promotion says,

Each artist will perform a song written just for the event as part of their 3-4 song set. We know that their songs will motivate folks to vote, and MOST importantly, to vote for Barack Obama and Sherrod Brown!

Local political sponsors include: Cleveland Stonewall Democrats, Cuyahoga Democratic Women's Caucus, Firefighters for Obama/Biden, Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Action Coalition (NEONAC), Ohioans for Democratic Values (ODV), and the Shaker Democratic Club (with more organizations to be added).

This should be a fun time for those who like something a little more laidback that includes beer.

For more info go to: http://www.beachlandballroom.com/calendar.asp

Just weird, especially that hand-on-hip thing.

What's more important though is how you would feel about having a U.S. Senator whose personal ambition outweighed doing anything for anyone n Ohio, except for maybe his donor/owners like Bob Murray (Murray Energy- coal mining interests) and David Brennan (Whit Hat for-profit charter schools). How would you feel about a Senator so lightly qualified that his every move would be mapped out by these big-money interests? In their debate in Columbus last week, the arrogant Mandel called Sherrod Brown a "liar" for saying these things but he did not offer a shred of evidence to rebut them.

Go here to find out how you can help re-elect Senator Sherrod Brown:

http://www.facebook.com/events/400137846724288/permalink/400962499975156...

"... Governor Romney, I'm glad that you recognize that Al Qaida is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not Al Qaida; you said Russia, in the 1980s, they're now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War's been over for 20 years. But Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s."

He's dead on. Think about it. Is that what YOU want (other than if you are a raging racist, of course)?

A lot of people have been predicting since the Cleveland Plain Dealer's endorsement of Sherrod Brown came out a few weeks ago, that they would attempt to balance the scales by endorsing Mitt Romney. I didn't think so. The case is too weak — the Salt Lake City Tribute just endorsed Obama — and the paper's position in very Democratic northeast Ohio is precarious. They didn't need to alienate any more subscribers by pretending that Romney was a good choice.

Today the Plain Dealer proved me right by endorsing Obama.

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/10/on_the_basis_of_sound...

My only surprise was some of the enthusiastic things it had to say about Obama.

It said,

Today, we recommend President Obama's re-election. He has led the nation back from the brink of depression. Ohio in particular has benefited from his bold decision to revive the domestic auto industry. Because of his determination to fulfill a decades-old dream of Democrats, 30 million more Americans will soon have health insurance. His Race to the Top initiative seeded many of the education reforms embodied in Cleveland's Transformation Plan. He ended the war in Iraq and refocused the battle to disrupt al-Qaida and its terrorist allies. He ordered the risky attack inside Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.

After a few caveats it goes on,

Obama's leadership has made a difference when it mattered most. His stimulus package helped avert an even worse economic collapse and initiated investments in education, manufacturing and green energy that should yet pay dividends. His commitment to a balanced path toward deficit reduction won't please the most zealous members of either party, but it makes sense for the nation.

It does go off the rails at one point saying,

College boys. No surprise. They can relate. Because Josh Mandel, at age 35 — old enough to run for president (shudder) — still seems like a callow, self-important little frat boy himself.

I'm on the mailing list of former — and hopefully future — Florida Congressman and outspoken progressive Alan Grayson because his emails are usually pithy, spot-on, and often very funny.

In addition to pitching for his own return to Congress, he has sent his list many emails in support of other candidates. He was pushing for Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic primary earlier this year.

Today he sent out an email promoting the woman who beat Dennis, Toledo Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.

This is another one of Grayson's headscratchers. When they gerrymandered the state, John Boehner's Republican mapmakers stuffed as many Democrats as possible into this district, which is exhibit A for why everybody should be voting YES on Issue 2.

http://votersfirstohio.com/

It's the so-called "Snake on the Lake," the district that wiggles from Toledo to Cleveland, at one point connected only by the Edison Bridge over the Sandusky Bay. Apparently seagulls will be flying votes from one side to the other.

What they won't be doing is carrying a lot of votes for Marcy's opponent, Sam Wurzelbacher, aka Not Joe the Not a Plumber.

Grayson incorrectly states in his letter,

"Do you remember "Joe the Plumber"? If not, you're better off. But let me remind you - because "Joe the Plumber" might be elected to Congress in two weeks."

No. He won't be. Not a chance. That's why the Ohio GOP is letting him play candidate this year. If they had a chance, a real candidate would have stepped out. Remember when Rob Frost, Cuyahoga County Republican chairman, was going to run? He even stepped off the county board of elections to do so. But when the maps came out and it was clear this district was designed to corral as many Democrats as possible, he ended his campaign.

Personally, I think Grayson just wrote this email because he wanted to rag on one of the most absurd fringe candidates running anywhere in the country.

He says,

After reading more wacky comments about abortion from another conservative representative (Joe Walsh) I just have to write this. No matter what our society does, no matter how many laws we create, outlawing abortion will not end it. I don’t why some people can’t seem to understand this. As long as women get pregnant there will always be, for whatever reason, a percentage of women who will want to terminate theirs. We had to learn this the hard way as there were hundreds (probably into the thousands) of women and young girls who were seriously injured or died during a back ally abortions. Outlawing them won’t stop them.

And there is no reason not to keep abortion safe and legal. Trying to create a policy through theocracy is warped and perverse. It denies the reality of what we know about genetics. The idea that God is somehow sitting in heaven carefully crafting each person and then magically injecting them into a women’s body right around the time she orgasms is ridiculous.

Who made your eyes blue? Genetics. Why are you the height you are? Genetics. Why do you look like your parents? Genectics.

We know this. We’ve researched it. We’ve tested it. It’s as true as the sky is blue.

The other thing that the wacked out “Jesus was part dinosaur” people have never been able to explain to me, is that why if God is so pro-life, miscarriages exists. It just makes no sense if you believe their version of things.

My neighbor, who recently bought a house adjacent to mine used to have a Josh Mandel sign in his yard along with a couple other down ticket Republicans. He’s a nice guy, young, does contracting work, and managed to buy one of the nicer houses in the neighborhood.

I asked him what happened to the sign while I was out walking my dog. My question was along the lines of, “it didn’t get stolen, did it?”

His answer was “no.” He took it down. He went on to say, “that dude is an idiot, he doesn’t have a clue.”

I’m not exactly sure how he came to his new assessment of Josh Mandel, but I’m thinking Josh’s recent debates with Sherrod Brown might have something to do with it. I just agreed with him and continued walking my dog. The other down ticket Republican’s signs are still there.