Ohio Governor Ted Strickland Gives His First "State of the State" Address

Details of Which Were Both Surprising and Encouraging

Last week, Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio gave his first "State of the State" address that delivered much on detail that was not expected by the Republican controlled Ohio House and Senate. This at the very least should encourage very thorough debate.

I try to get a feel for several different perspectives on an issue when I write political opinion pieces. That may seem like I want to have someone else develop my thoughts or opinions for me, but I truly find it useful to see where common ground might actually be between both sides of an issue and focus in on that, as I am ever hopeful that someday we will actually get to the point in this country where party lines are no more, but real solutions become the norm.

I was very anxious to see the results of Governor Strickland's address, and for a candidate that was widely criticized during the campaign for lacking vision, I felt that he delivered not only many detailed policy initiatives, but a fairly large tax cut that I am sure that the Republican controlled House and Senate of Ohio wasn't expecting. The details of the address were kept very "hush hush", so the initial reaction by Republicans in my opinion was very genuine in the fact that House Speaker Jon Husted and Senate President Bill Harris sounded encouraged by what they heard. Typically the opposite party response is one of attacking what they feel are the weak spots of these types of addresses and use them as their sounding boards to their supporters. With this not being the case this time around, I feel there is hope that true solutions may be in the cards.

However, funding of several of Strickland's initiatives remain somewhat cloudy, and that is where things could get sticky after the period of dialog between leaders of both parties in Ohio. Another potential problem is there potential contradictions in initiatives that could provide spark some political fireworks. The biggest example of this would be the Ohio school voucher program.