No, I wasn't going to vote for no-name spendthrift Tim Hagan; nor did my vote have much of a chance for support of Bob Taft, a thoroughly unimaginative personification of the Ohio Rockefeller Republican. His vote was in the "going, going" category before it immediately slammed to "gone" upon my being accosted by a radio ad.
Only slightly paraphrased:
Governor Taft discusses the importance of reading in primary education!...I think it's important these days for children to be able to read because there just aren't many unskilled jobs out there anymore...
...Reading is important for schoolchildren because if they can't read, they'll fall further and further behind.
Brought to you by the campaign staffers who obviously wanted to dissuade already disaffected voters. If the quotes were off-the-cuff, I'd understand. But they weren't. The complete lack of vision was disappointing. I figured writing in "Ronald Reagan" was a little too flamboyant, so I undervoted.
My misgivings weren't unfounded. Less than a week after last November's election, Governor Taft "found" a budget deficit. Yes, Ohio carries an amendment requiring a balanced budget so running temporary deficits with economy-bolstering, revenue cultivating tax cuts is difficult to do. But not impossible - and when a tax base is dynamic, cuts can never be ruled out. There's even a middle road: cut spending and avoid raising taxes. Taft didn't even try, and conservative Republicans are rightly showing him up.