Ohio has supported the winner in 27 of the last 29 presidential elections. It is perhaps the nation's most critical swing state. But it will turn against Obama if he does not provide jobs real soon !

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Pittsburgh Tribune-Review -
As Go Jobs, So Goes Ohio -
By Salena Zito -
Salena Zito is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial page columnist -
POWHATAN POINT, Ohio
May 15, 2011


As Go Jobs, So Goes Ohio


Some excerpts :

Joyce McNears peers over her reading glasses and asks a question, expecting no answer: "Why is the president still not talking about jobs?"

Along with her son and grandson, the 66-year-old McNears matriarch is counting stock and rearranging shelves in the family hardware store that has seen good times and bad times in this Ohio River town.

Lately, times have been bad.

Joyce has lived in Belmont County and voted for Democrats all her life. Yet President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, both Democrats, won't get her vote next year.

Belmont went for Obama in 2008 but voted against his policies in 2010, when the Democrat-rich county went for Republican Rob Portman for U.S. Senate.

That's a problem for Democrats going into 2012 because Ohio has supported the winner in 27 of the last 29 presidential elections. It is perhaps the nation's most critical swing state.

"Democrats had an awful time in Ohio in 2010 and arguably did as bad there last November as anywhere in the country," says Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

A lot of that awfulness involves the economy and jobs.

Ohio was hit particularly hard when the recession barreled through in 2007. By 2009, after stimulus dollars failed to improve the state's unemployment rate (higher than the national average), and after bailouts and spending issues raised concern about the nation's future debt, Ohio became the first state to hand Obama chilling disapproval ratings.

Going forward, economic predictions are cloudy at best.

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