This is from the Alakska report

After a humiliating defeat in the August gubernatorial primary, Alaska governor Frank Murkowski is now the laughing stock of the entire nation after a new poll shows his approval rating lower than indicted Ohio governor Bob Taft.

A new survey was just released today that ranks Murkowski as the nation's most unpopular governor with an approval rating among Alaskans of just 14 percent — 5 percentage points below indicted Ohio governor Bob Taft.

19% of Ohio likes Bob? I had no idea the Taft family was so large.

On the Trivisonno show here in Cleveland, Mike has been bugging DeWine, Brown, Blackwell and Strickland to come in and allow both candidates to be asked the same questions in studio. The other candidate would be in a soundproof booth and couldn't hear the other's answers.

Here is the audio from the original challange from a few weeks ago.

Both Sherrod Brown and Mike DeWine had the courage to go on air, and it went well. Their full "non-debate debate" can be downloaded here. It went very well and I give them both credit for going on Mike's show!

It sounds like Ken Blackwell has already agreed and offered a number of possible debate dates. But Ted Stickland's campaign has been dragging their feet.

Listen to the recording Triv has been playing over and over again, "Ted Strickland, are you chicken?"

frrom the Dispatch

The Ohio State University Board of Trustees yesterday came out strongly against the Learn and Earn ballot measure that would allow slotmachine gambling in Ohio.

"If we are silent, it implies we support it because we could benefit from it," said trustee Leslie H. Wexner, Limited Brands founder. "I think it’s very clever — and bad public policy."

The constitutional amendment, Issue 3 on the November ballot, would send 30 percent of the money raised through slots into college scholarships that students would earn while in high school, hence the "Learn and Earn" tag. It would allow seven horse-racing tracks and two downtown Cleveland casinos to operate 31,500 slot machines.

Wexner said he opposes the amendment because it gives the nine entities a monopoly.

He joked that he’d love to see an amendment that would allow lingerie to be sold in Ohio only in Victoria’s Secret stores, which Limited Brands owns.

"I’d be glad to share some revenue with the state" if that happened, he said.

Wexner is correct.

Learn and Earn has one incredibly slick ad campaign, with cute, racially diverse children singing and parents talking about paying for college. Until very recently, they made no mention of gambling in their ads.

I would think a lot of Republicans have a libertarian approach towards gambling and would allow more gambling to exist. And its funny that some people pretend that anyone couldn't gamble their entire life's savings online right now from the comfort of their own home. And playing a smokey game of poker with the guys on the weekend is as American as apple pie.

But to create this sort of state sponsored monopoly, and to sell it as some sort of cure-all for Ohio's education problems is a crock of you-know-what.