More from the stupid file

I'm a rich negro

Strickland looking better to defeat Blackwell
Monday, July 31, 2006
GENERALLY SPEAKING MICHAEL E. HANKE

Republican candidate for Ohio governor Ken Blackwell decided last week that he wouldn’t show his income tax return to voters, something even wealthy, low-rated incumbent Republican Gov. Bob Taft did in both his runs for the state's highest office. This is a political mistake. The refusal becomes the story. Voters wonder why. It is better to open up all information, which only election junkies would look at, thus getting it out of the way of real issues.

Meanwhile, Democrat candidate Ted Strickland says he will release his tax returns. Of course, this will be a lot easier for the Southern Ohio congressman, since he doesn’t have as much as his opponent. Blackwell is a millionaire, with most of the money presumably coming from the sale of a string of radio stations he owned with other investors.

This Blackwell political gaffe was exacerbated when his political mouthpiece, Carlo LoParo, said this to the Dayton Daily News: “... If Ted Strickland wants to highlight the fact that he lives paycheck to paycheck on a congressman’s salary, that’s his right. My understanding is he doesn’t have any investment income and it’s a pretty simple return."

If LoParo was trying to make his candidate more attractive to some rich voters, that was a pretty good statement. The problem is those voters already were voting for him. The last time I looked, the wealthy were in the minority in Ohio, and since their votes don’t increase with their portfolios, perhaps LoParo should have held back on the cheap shot.

It’s one vote, whether you have a million or you have a buck. Since many, many Ohioans live paycheck to paycheck, like LoParo says Strickland does, the Republican spokesman probably helped the Democrat candidate.

Maybe this all is irrelevant. I don’t usually make political predictions this early, but I've been watching this race, and I think it is over. Unless he commits some enormous political blunder, Strickland wins with about 54 percent of the vote this November.

I'm sure the hillbillies will be happy to have Blackwell's income tossed in their face. It should also help the black voters be reminded of who he is.

What an ignorant comment to make in an election.

54 percent? No, I think Strickland will come closer to 60.

There's nothing working class white people dislike more than a black man lording his riches over them. Blackwell's base is working class whites.