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Go Home Ohio Revisionism

TIMOTHY NOAH SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

Ohio Revisionism

BY TIMOTHY NOAH

When I said I share most of Jon Chait's politics, I didn't mean I share his crotchets, too. I have crotchets of my own, thank you very much. I thought that would be self-evident, but I keep seeing comments expressing dismay or wonder at how I differ from the guy. I'm not Chait, okay?

I don't plan to take a full inventory of the ways in which we differ. But to answer the question foremost in the minds of Chait loyalists: No, I do not have particularly strong feelings about Ohio, which Chait loathes. (Virginia, on the other hand...) I gave the state a lot of thought back in 2004 and came up with this. Unkind readers might point out that my hypothesis--if Ohio Democrats failed to win the state for Kerry they'd be stuck with Jerry Springer as their gubernatorial candidate--proved original and wrong in roughly the same measure. In the end Springer stayed out. The Democrats went in 2006 with Ted Strickland, who won. Then Strickland got beat in 2010 by John Kasich, a Republican. So sue me. You can't wound me deeply about this because, as I said, my convictions about Ohio are not deeply felt. I had a nice enough visit there, the highlight of which was getting a chance to see James Thurber's childhood home, where you can look at where the bed fell.

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17 comments

Thank God for that ... the Life in Ohio series was about as inside jokey as Jonathan ever got, and it was weird.

- NR409654

September 14, 2011 at 1:23pm

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So far, so good. 2 to 3 postings a day is a good average. Naturally you're going to be compared to Chait, we loved him, mostly. But as I say, so far, so good. I live close to Virginia, and Virginia politics (and economic policies, and traffic) are really hard to take, I agree.

- AllanL5

September 14, 2011 at 1:30pm

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Right on NR. This feature was juvenile, too, as I wrote on the thread below this one. It was something you would imagine a college freshman writing. At first, I thought it was light-hearted and ephemeral, but Chait kept it up. And he is pushing forty, in fact, he turns forty next year. So anyway, no more Life In Ohio. Fabulous. And to the Timothy Noah why can't he be more like Jonathan Chait crowd out here, I ask you: Why can't you be more like Timothy Noah (i.e., thoughtful, articulate, measured)?

- liberalref

September 14, 2011 at 1:30pm

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I'll do my best. But sometimes I'll be juvenile in my own special way.

- Timothy Noah

September 14, 2011 at 1:32pm

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I for one am very stoked for a blog post where the author regularly hops back on into the fray. As great as Jon was (is), that's not something he ever did. Unless my suspicions about Mr Rat actually being Chait engaging in some mischief were correct, of course. Welcome to your online family, Tim. We're honored to have you.

- Tristan

September 14, 2011 at 1:46pm

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As long as Mr. Noah doesn't make fun of Life in Michigan, I would accept his abandonment of Life in Ohio as mutual disarmament.

- wildboy

September 14, 2011 at 2:08pm

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If Perry wins the nomination can there be a "Life in Texas" series?

- Attrill

September 14, 2011 at 2:44pm

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libref- not sure if you read your own comments, but I've a feeling that you're in the "can't he be more like Jonathan Chait crowd".

- Nari224

September 14, 2011 at 3:15pm

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If Perry wins the nomination can there be a "Life in the New Nation of Texas" series?

- Sophia

September 14, 2011 at 3:16pm

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Tim--like you, I live in northern Virginia (I know the "Denzel Washington" High you mention from the movie) and like it here very much. Great services, transportation and public schools. Democratic stronghold. In many ways, a liberal/progressive paradise.

- ballston

September 14, 2011 at 3:44pm

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As a relatively new resident of the city with all the monuments of Confederate generals (and most unhappily of Eric Cantor's district -- *groan*) I'll happily forward any new tidbits for a "Life in Virginia" series if you desire...

- cspencef

September 14, 2011 at 4:59pm

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I write my own comments and I proof them, so yes I read them, N. And I hated the Life In Ohio series, so what makes you think I am in the crowd that I was critical of? As ever, hermeneutical skills are in short supply out here. That is a very funny line, Timothy, about being juvenile in your own special way.

- liberalref

September 14, 2011 at 7:30pm

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Virginia, where I lived for the first 25 years of my life, is not one state, but three. There's NoVa, where Tim Noah resides, that is indeed like any other Mid-Atlantic state with sprawling suburbs, an itinerant population and a Democratic voting disposition. Then there's Hampton Roads aka Tidewater--where I hail from--that is poorer, blacker, more industrial (Newport News Shipbuilding and the ports of Newport News and Norfolk), and heavily military. Thanks to the Navy and the Air Force, Tidewater too has lots of folks from elsewhere, though they tend to be more down-market and conservative than NoVa's professionals. Finally there's the rest of the state, the "real South" part of Virginia that includes Richmond and the rural remainder. The fact that the same state can elect Tim Kane and Bob McConell governor in consecutive terms reflects the tensions between these three regions. NoVa votes reliably Democratic, Richmond and the rural rest votes reliably Republican and Tidewater is a toss-up with blacks and unionized shipyard workers tending to vote Democratic and military retiries tending to vote Republican.

- AaronW

September 14, 2011 at 7:46pm

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Ahem. I would alert the good libref to the probable hacking of his TNR account (again). You may want to look back two posts to the "O Lucky Man" post, and check the very first comment, eg: 09/13/2011 - 4:23pm EDT | liberalref This is a good post, Timothy, but you could have left out the part about the "Republican clowns." That sort of thing was blessedly absent from Jonathan Chait's blog. This is more redolent of the many Manichaean commenters who dwell here. Personally I'd worry less about gauging other's hermeneutical skills, and work on the old reading comprehension myself.

- Nari224

September 14, 2011 at 10:50pm

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It's Tim Kaine.

- liberalref

September 14, 2011 at 11:32pm

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I could have written "like Jonathan Cohn, or Noam Scheiber, or Bradford Plumer, or Franklin Foer or Richard Just," etc.; i.e., in The New Republic tradition. You don't pass reading comprehension and you don't get to collect $100.

- liberalref

September 14, 2011 at 11:38pm

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... you could have, but you didn't. And then you chose to sanctimoniously inveigh against others, for the very behavior you had just engaged in. Do go on!

- Nari224

September 15, 2011 at 6:53am

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