Ted Strickland's blaringly loud 'Sound of Silence'.

On August 4th, the citizens of Columbus chose to raise their own taxes by a margin of only 3,173 votes. Considering the massive forces behind it, namely Michael Coleman, the Chamber of Commerce and a slew of corporations, the margin was surprisingly small, especially when you consider the demographics of the city.

47 miles south and 6 days previous, Ted Strickland stood in a high school in Chillicothe and squeaked, "don't do it."

Sorta.

You see, Ted Strickland was touting his education boondoggle....er...plan, and was faced with an interesting situation. It seems Chillicothe administrators were considering raising taxes in order to help pay for the needs of their schools.

...recent budget cuts are resulting in some agencies looking to place property tax issues on the ballot. For example, the public library in Pike County decided this week to place a 1-mill levy on the November ballot and some in the Chillicothe community have suggested the Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library follow suit.

Strickland expressed strong opposition to agencies seeking local support, in part because people already are feeling such economic stress and he doesn't think they can handle more.

To put it more clearly, Strickland expressed his opposition to local governments raising their taxes because he doesn't think Ohioans can handle the strain in this, the economic environment he enabled.

Now ask yourself this, if Strickland really believed raising any taxes right now would hurt Ohioans, why did he stay silent on the largest tax issue imminently facing Ohio's capital city, the Columbus income tax hike?

Imagine if Strickland had stood up for his supposed principles and publicly said the same thing in Columbus just days before the vote on August 4th. Major news would have been made. All the momentum that the pro-tax hike crowd had created would have been muted. And maybe a couple thousand votes would have gone another way.

But what did Ohio's weakling of a Governor do? He stayed silent. Despite his supposed belief that Ohioans can't handle a tax hike, he sat on the sidelines.

Governor Ted Strickland. Coward.