Glass Half Empty Kind of Guy Sometimes

Jill from WLST posted a bit on Progress Ohio concerning a Harris Poll that looked at Party ID and Political Philosophy Labels, which was discussed earlier today on the Daily Bellwether .

The write-up gives two somewhat opposing interpretations of trend data, one short term, and one long term:

The Harris Polls conducted by telephone in 2006 show the Democrats continuing to increase their lead over Republicans in party identification. Currently, the Democrats’ lead over the Republicans is nine percentage points, up from six percentage points in 2005 and three points in 2004. This is now the largest Democratic lead since 1998, when it was also nine percentage points.

...

The Democratic lead over Republicans has fallen over time from 21 percentage points in the 1970s, to 11 points in the 1980s and seven points in the 1990s.The lead has averaged six percentage points in the 2000s;


Because people like graphs, I made one of both the party ID data, and the Philosophy label ID data. I'll let y'all interpret the first graph however you like (the title of this post should let you know how I think), but I'll offer an opinion on the second one: Isn't the conventional wisdom that it used to be perfectly acceptable to call yoursel "liberal," and then sometime around the Dukakis/Pappy race it became the "L" word, and recently folks have been fighting to reclaim it? That's sure a whole lot of wisdom to expend explaining a series of changes that don't seem to have actually occurred...

Broad and High Front

So as near as I can tell, nobody actually blogs Columbus politics, at least not from the left side. At best we get stories about the mayor's race (Coleman files to run again and it's somehow breaking statewide news, the Republicans have a villain from Common Sense Ohio to play foil). But a question was thrown out yesterday about Coleman as a potential candidate in the 12th, or failing that, the chances that a city council member might step up. So here's a quiz: do Michael and Frankie reside in the 7th, 12th, or 15th? As a matter of fact they do live in the 12th, but how many of y'all actually knew that? I had to check. Charleta Tavares, former Statehouse Rep. and 2002 candidate for LG is a current city council member who also lives in the 12th. They all live in Berwick, which actually makes them my neighbors. Who knew? Not me. So Ms. Tavares has some campaign experience beyond the CC. As does the council member who:

studied peace and conflict resolution at the University of Ulster and Queen’s College in Northern Ireland while teaching at public schools in Belfast and Derry. He served in consecutive internships at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where he taught non-violence and dispute resolution to school children in the most violent parts of the city.

That'd be Andrew Ginther. He was just appointed to council after that application process last month. The media mentioned his credentials as an elected member of the Columbus Board of Education, but nothing about studying Peace and Conflict Resolution in Northern Ireland. I happen to find that sort of thing interesting, even if he does live in the 15th.

Now, it's possible that City Council members would be considered toxic because of the budget they passed this week. Or perhaps the members will all be tripping over themselves to take credit. I don't know. They're not dipping into the rainy day fund, which I guess is good, but does anybody have an opinion? Anybody?

OK. So why am I whining about nobody writing about this stuff instead of just writing about it? Because I'm clueless. Anyone can subscribe to the Dispatch's Metro/State RSS. I don't have time to do much more. Even if I did, I wouldn't catch stories as tasty as Wal-Mart thinking it's "too good" for Columbus. Anyway, does anybody want to start up a group blog with me on Franklin County politics, with an emphasis on County and City level government, and city/suburb relationships? Email me. Know somebody who might be interested? Email this to them. I don't have an ideological litmus test for this project, but anyone who gets involved should be able to play nice with Progressives.

It's only splitting hairs when it's not your scalp

A few days ago, I got on the Dispatch for putting up a headline that inaccurately sensationalized a fire here in Bexley. They stated that "arson" had done extensive damage to a synagogue. As I said at the time, I believed that someone had concluded that the fire "was set," and this turned into "arson" somewhere in between there and me seeing it on the website.

Somebody learned a lesson. The second fire in a week to strike a well known community institution happened Sunday night. The Old Bag of Nails, nominally if not technically in Bexley, burned down, aided by temperatures that apparently froze water in the hoses and hydrants. Today's story by Theodore Decker states:

Fire that destroyed popular pub not accidental, officials say

Whether blaze was set maliciously is unclear, chief says

...

Fire investigators have ruled out faulty wiring or other accidental causes in a blaze that destroyed a popular Near East Side restaurant early yesterday.

Battalion Chief Doug Smith of the Columbus Division of Fire said that someone started the fire at the Old Bag of Nails Pub, but investigators don't know why.

"That is one of the possibilities we are looking into," Smith said. "Whether it was intentionally set to do damage or intentionally set (for someone) to stay warm and blew out of control we don't know, but accidental has been ruled out."

Not accidental. Intentionally set. Someone started the fire. Whether blaze was set maliciously is unclear.

Wow. I don't know who jumped the gun with the word "arson" last week, but it certainly looks like they got their butt chewed off. The closest that the "a" word gets to this story in the CD coverage is in reporting a possible, but clearly unknown and speculative link to a confirmed case of arson nearby.

Note: I actually met Emily Kreider and her staff for the first time at the OBoN there at Broad and Nelson, so it has historical significance for BB. I hope they can rebuild there, and I'd like to take this opportunity to express my sympathy to those victims of fires this week, and my relief that no serious injuries apparently occurred.

Tell me about your favorite Central Ohio Political Blog

So I have LiCoPAC and Columbus RetroMetro (not political per se, but close enough) in my reader, and that's where I get local stuff. UAPA and Plunderbund have local roots but don't tend to focus on Central Ohio stuff. Many other blogs sputtered and croaked post-November. Grandpaboy does some local, and I feel like I should give a hat-tip to frequent commenter Paul and his Save Hilliard Schools for coverage of that issue. I do a very little bit of Columbus stuff, but pretty much only if it has an impact on Bexley or the East Side.

So there's a hole. Where do you get interesting blogging on Columbus City Council, Franklin County Commisioners, Columbus School District, etc.? That's not a rhetorical question. I don't mean "where does one," I mean "where do you...??"

Recapping the Down the Drain Post

I just had an hour's worth of writing eaten by an unexplained system hang. Boiling it all down:

Thank You to Lisa Renee for the kind words .

I usually get on board early with a candidate. Nobody is doing it for me yet.

I'm going to scrap the blogroll and start from scratch. If you're a regular reader and you'd like a link, let me know.

There's been a dangerous uptick in references to 80's alternative music. Do. Not. Get. Me. Started. Thank you.