wonkity wonkity wah-wah-waaaaahhh

Last night my dad called to inform me that Eric Fingerhut, my gubernatorial candidate of choice and the wagon to which I had hitched my post-grad star, has dropped out of the race. Which sucks on lots of levels- Eric is the most innovative and savvy policy guy of any candidate, totally devoted to Ohio's economic competitveness, and a truly decent, likeable man. I can't say he ran a great campaign ("what campaign" is more like it) and he should have locked up his announcement by November to be viable, but it's a shame nontheless that the Ohio Dems are crowding around Strickland like sheep running from a panther. Yeah, yeah, Strickland's a good guy and he's raised money and his Early Childhood Development plan made me like him quite a bit more- but I'm still voting for a Democrat by default instead of with enthusiasm.

So I'm already reeling from that announcement when PAUL HACKETT announces, with his usual delicacy, that he too is dropping out of his Senate primary, because of backroom manipulations and pressure from party leaders to make way for Sherrod. Again, no secret that I luuurrrve Sherrod and am no fan of Hackett or his reckless, self-aggrandizing decision to run in this race. But a) it's stupid to alienate a charismatic Iraq war veteran loved by the blogosphere from politics entirely, as Hackett claimed (to which I call "drama queen," and say he should have made the responsible decision on his own long ago) and b) it is VERY clumsy of Chris Redfern and the D-trip to apparently nudge two primary contenders out in the same day (or even remove one in close proximity to the resignation of another).

So...some ends are positive, some negative, all are kind of inevitable, and poorly orchestrated. Time to regroup.