Thespis Journal

Ted Strickland is being considered for the Vice-Presidency, and it makes great political sense. Ohio is pivitol to the election of any President. It’s unfortuante that there is not a strong Republican Governor that could do the same thing for a Republican ticket.

 Friday, September 07, 2007

WASHINGTON — It’s almost a year before the presidential nominating conventions, but speculation has begun that Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland could be on a short list of possible running mates for whoever wins the Democratic nomination.

Strickland is popular, and not just with Democrats. According to a Quinnipiac University poll, released Wednesday, 54 percent of Republicans said they approve of the job he is doing. More importantly, he is popular in a state that could very well decide who America’s next president will be.

“Given the lesson of the 2004 election — that it is very difficult for either party to win the White House without carrying Ohio — the Democratic nominee would be foolish not to at least consider Ted Strickland as his or her running mate,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac University’s Polling Institute.

The Washington Post last month listed some of the positives the 65-year-old governor would bring to the ticket: He is the son of a steelworker, a former Methodist minister, a former six-term member of Congress who earned an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association and an advocate of abortion rights and universal health care.

It did not mention the brief flurry during the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary in which a rival criticized Strickland for having once hired a man as a congressional aide who had been convicted of exposing himself to children. Strickland said he was unaware of the man’s record when he hired him in 1997. He eventually won the governorship with more than 60 percent of the vote.

Strickland is doing his best to discourage any VP speculation. “He intends to finish his career as the governor of Ohio,” his spokesman, Keith Dailey, said Thursday.

Such statements have done little to quell the parlor game that political junkies, members of the media and even top aides to presidential candidates engage in long before the primaries even start.

“I was a Bob Graham proponent in 2000 because … he could come as close to anyone in delivering Florida,” said Chris Lehane a senior aide to Democratic nominee Al Gore in 2000. In 2008, “you look at an Ohio with a Strickland — governor, minister, seemingly capable of giving you the Buckeye State — and it makes sense at this stage to speculate about him being in the mix.”