Ohio On The Blogs: Football Season Tops Political Season

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Ohio is the heart of it all, right? Or maybe only when the state's sports teams are on the field. Technorati tracks blog posts using key words. And Ohio was on the scope in a major way during the football season -- with the Browns having a rare good year, the Bengals another lousy year, and the Ohio State Buckeyes a great year until Jan. 7. That's the day they lost the NCAA national championship game. Within a few days, mentions of the state in the blogosphere took a bigger tumble than Janet Jackson's breast. The March 4 match between Hillary and Obama has Ohio on a bit of an uptick. But politics ain't football.

Ohio Presidential Primary Ballots: Still List Kucinich, Fred Thompson and Rudy

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- The ballots started going out to absentee voters in Ohio five days ago. And six presidential candidates who say they aren't running any longer still are shown as having their names in the race, as the link to the Secretary of State's office shows. Official explanations from elections officials vary: The six suspended campaigning too late to be removed from the March 4 ballot, or they didn't legally withdraw. Inquiring minds are wondering: Might the presence of these non-active candidates affect the outcome in close races? If Edwards gets some 5,000 votes statewide, does he impact Clinton v. Obama?

In the March 4 Democratic primary, voters will see the names of:

• Barack Obama
• John Edwards (out of race)
• Dennis Kucinich (out of race)
• Hillary Clinton

Republicans will find:

• Fred Thompson (out)
• Mitt Romney (out)
• Ron Paul
• John McCain
• Rudy Giuliani (out)
• Mike Huckabee