Ohio Governor Ted Strickland wants it made perfectly clear that he doesn’t want to be Vice-President:
Ted Strickland, the popular governor of Ohio and a prominent supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, is not going to be Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate.
“If drafted I will not run, nominated I will not accept and if elected I will not serve,” Strickland told National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered. “So, I don’t know how more crystal clear I can be.”
That’s about as Shermanesque as you can get, I guess.
On a related note, Strickland doesn’t seem to optimistic about Obama’s chances in the Buckeye State:
Strickland did say he is committed to helping Obama win his pivotal state in November. Asked what Obama’s chances are, the governor replied, “I would say somewhere around 5 in a scale of 1 to 10. I think it’s, I just think it’s a challenge because of the nature of our state.”
Ted Strickland. Obviously not one of those Hillary supporters who’s gotten 100% behind Obama yet.
I live in a Rust Belt Ohio city. Two of the regions largest employers (a GM SUV plant and a DHL Air Express HUB) have announced pending shutdowns in the past week. If Obama comes to the area and outlines a coherent strategy for dealing with the nations job losses and overall economic malaise, people will support him. In past elections a lot of blue collar workers have voted republican based on social issues. IN this election, it is all about the economy.