Public and private polls confirm that, as usual, Ohio is an accurate barometer of the national political trends. Bush has slumped badly here, as he has across the country. Ohio adds its own twists to the national story. Some sectors of the economy have shown improvement in the past year. But a series of financial scandals have hit the dominant GOP, and embattled Republican Gov. Bob Taft is suffering from pathetically low approval ratings after admitting that he was slow in reporting free golf outings and other favors from lobbyists...
...the dominant factor in the changed political climate -- identified by my Republican friend and confirmed by the voter interviews -- is the war in Iraq. He reminded me that last August, nine Marines from a Columbus-based unit had been ambushed and died in a single attack and that earlier that same week, five other Marines from the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park had met a similar fate...
"...What people can't stand," he said, "is this unending story of two or three more Americans dying every day -- and nothing to show that the end is in sight."
Far more than anything else, the voices in Columbus suggest that the president's biggest problem -- and therefore the Republicans' biggest worry -- is the unresolved and uncertain struggle in Iraq...
