The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that a new national poll has determined Gov. Bob Taft has the lowest approval rating of any governor in the nation.

According to the Dispatch, New Jersey-based SurveyUSA, an independent firm that does polling primarily for television stations, found that the Republican had an approval rating of 19 percent.

From the story:

Analysts said Taft is being blamed for Ohio’s bad economy and tax increases in recent years, and that voters also may be turned off by his lowkey leadership style.

"He’s a very pleasant and competent man, but he’s not a great communicator," said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said other recent polls have produced a wide range of results, and that the governor is focusing on selling his tax plan to boost the economy.

"We can’t pay attention to such inconsistent numbers," Rickel said. "We’re going to continue to focus on reforming Ohio’s tax code and creating jobs."

Still, analysts said the results from SurveyUSA are consistent with other recent polls that showed a low approval rating for Taft.

The Ohio Poll, for example, conducted by the University of Cincinnati, found that 34 percent of those surveyed in April approved of Taft’s performance — the lowest governor’s rating in the poll’s 24 years.

The people who should be paying attention to these poll numbers are Ohio's Republican state legislators.

Citizens concerned with having the private concealed handgun license information published by anti-gun media outlets certainly deserve to know why a man with such incredible political weakness was allowed to kill a proposal to amend House Bill 9 to close the media access loophole simply by threatening a veto.

Why is it that the Republican caucus is still afraid to do the right thing for Ohioans in the General Assembly, even if it means a veto override?

In 2003, the answer was obvious – then-President Doug White said term-limited Senators like himself were looking for "life after the legislature" – job appointments from Taft. They were trading their votes for a chance at a cushy state post. White got his appoinment.

But the situation now is much different. When the next round of term-limits hits, it’s not just certain Senators and Representatives who will be jobless – it’ll be Bob Taft. For most Ohioans, according to this poll, that day cannot come soon enough.

May 12, 2005
Cleveland Plain Dealer

The Plain Dealer editorializes (May 7) that "Congress must give consumers the ability to protect their personal information, no matter who happens to possess it." Yet this newspaper has on several occasions used the media access loophole to disseminate information about law-abiding Ohioans who happen to exercise their right to protect themselves through the concealed-weapons law.

Can you folks even spell "hypocrite"?

James J. Kerste

The Associated Press is reporting that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, recalling how her father took up arms to defend fellow blacks from racist whites in the segregated South, said Wednesday the constitutional right of Americans to own guns is as important as their rights to free speech and religion.

From the story:

In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Rice said she came to that view from personal experience. She said her father, a black minister, and his friends armed themselves to defended the black community in Birmingham, Ala., against the White Knight Riders in 1962 and 1963. She said if local authorities had had lists of registered weapons, she did not think her father and other blacks would have been able to defend themselves.

Birmingham, where Rice was born in 1954, was a focal point of racial tension. Four black girls were killed when a bomb exploded at a Birmingham church in 1963, a galvanizing moment in the fight for civil rights.