Politics: The Slow Death of Ohio Republicans

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Politics The Slow Death of Ohio Republicans With Buckeye conservatives on the worst night of their lives. By David Weigel Posted Wednesday, Nov 07, 2012, at 09:41 AM ET COLUMBUS, Ohio – Right before some of the East Coast polls close, a little before 7 p.m., I park at a reasonable distance from the Renaissance Hotel and find the bar. That's where the TVs are, so it's where we will learn whether Virginia and New Hampshire are as close as Nate Silver says they are. I want to watch it with Ohio's Republicans, and this is where they'll be partying. At 7, the Fox News ALERT came across the screen: Everything was close, especially New Hampshire and Virginia. A distracted crowd of Republicans looked up, pondered the lopsided raw vote numbers coming in from Kentucky, then went back to their conversations. Nothing would really count until Ohio. I took the escalator up to the ballroom. Soon, they hoped, Buckeye Republicans would announce that they'd rescued the rest of America from the death-grip of Euro-socialism.  They bought $4.75 beer tickets and swapped stories from the endless campaign. Mike Robinson, a 33-year-old small-business man who wore blue shorts with white stars, gripped a Bud Light and let me ask him about the final rounds of negative polls. "I'm optimistic," he says. "The president's not going to get the same percentage of the African-American vote. They're not going to come out again. He did a good job in 2008, but this year, I hear that their numbers are down." The 48 hours before this party were a flurry of rumors and numbers and ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Silver Medal There Was a War on Women, and the Women Won The Five Stages of Fox News Grief	Advertisement
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