In a post reflecting on the political implications of Strickland’s budget, I stated that I believed that despite Strickland getting 1-2 days worth of positive coverage for the deal, that it still wouldn’t be near enough to dissuade public opinion that Ohio’s economy is in shambles and that Strickland poorly managed the deficit crisis.
Well, I was really wrong on those 1-2 days.
Initial coverage primarily discussed the tax hike and the legislature, rather than Strickland’s preferred message that he saved the budget or saved schools..
Tom Blumer takes a look at much of the coverage here and finds that while there is still debate behind how to frame it – tax hike or tax cut delay – it’s clear that coverage revolved around the tax issue.
In fact, it looks like of all the papers reviewed, only the Plain Dealer mentioned the Governor in its headline. The others focused on lawmakers and the tax issue.
And as for day 2? Well, take a look at the front pages of every major newspaper in Ohio, courtesy of the Newseum website.
See any mention of the budget deal? Nope. Not a bit.
Clearly, from a political perspective, this budget deal wasn’t the big win Strickland’s campaign consultants wanted it to be.
