Reuters has an interesting article on how Ohio, and towns like Chillicothe in particular, can be pivotal in the 2012 presidential election.

One of the exceptions was in 2008, when the county backed Republican John McCain. Chillicothe, however, went for Obama.

Both parties see politically divided Ohio as perhaps the decisive state in the presidential race between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. So Chillicothe and neighboring towns will have an outsized say in determining the future occupant of the Oval Office.

In November, the Obama campaign chose this city of 20,000 as the site of his first campaign office in Ohio.

Get ready for a brutal 2012 election cycle.

Redistricting claimed Dennis Kucinich as a high-profile victim, as he was defeated by Marcy Kaptur in a brutal primary campaign. Kucinich claimed that the Kaptur campaign was “utterly lacking in integrity” and he would not congratulate her. Some of the claims in this race were pretty pathetic, so Kaptur will have some work to do to bring Kucinich supporters along in the general election.

This is good news for the President.

Obama leads GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney by seven points in the latest state poll by the Democratic-leaning pollster PPP, besting the former Massachusetts governor 49-42. Rick Santorum trails the president by 6 points, 48 to 42. Obama also beats Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul by by 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Obama’s numbers are up 8 points since the last PPP poll.

This is very bad news for Mitt Romney, as there’s really no way he can win without Ohio. Romney’s problem is that he supported SB5 and Issue 2, and there’s video to prove it.

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets members of the audience at a campaign rally in Dunedin, Florida. It’s been a brutal campaign in Florida, but Romney seems poised for a big victory. The problem is that he’s really pissed off Newt Gingrich, who vows to go all the way to the Republican convention. If that’s the case, we might actually see these guys battling in Ohio.

Mortgages are a huge issue in Florida, and they will be a big issue in Ohio as well. Newt’s connections to Fannie Ma are killing him, but Mitt Romney is also vulnerable on this issue, as he has said that we need the foreclosures to speed up and have the market bottom. That might help the financiers on Wall Street, but not the people struggling to stay in their homes.

Fortunately, interests are incredibly low, so the economy is picking up steam. People are refinancing and also looking for deals, so there’s a ton of research being done online. There are many examples. Gocompare is one the most comprehensive services in UK for range of financial products. Compare Natwest Mortgages quotes online on Know Your Money.

Expect the mortgage issue to remain a hot topic. The Obama administration has a much different approach, and meanwhile Romney and Gingrich are tearing each other apart on the topic.

Grover Norquist discusses his anti-tax pledge in Cleveland.