"Ohio's message for Obama in 2012"

Ohio people at a teachers' rally celebrate the failure of a state law to curb unions' bargaining power. Photograph: Amy Sancetta/AP

Jason Farago (GuardianUK):

Ever the bellwether, Ohio voted down a Republican anti-union law. This is a riled electorate neither side can take for granted---With one year to go, Obama's team has been looking at increasingly exotic electoral college permutations, stretching as far into red country as Arizona and Georgia, to win him a second term. But on the evidence of last night, and especially considering the large turnout, the president may stand a better-than-fighting chance in the traditional swing states where many have already written him off.

The purplest of purple states, the one whose political class loves to remind you that they've picked the winning candidate 12 elections running, has not turned its back on Obama, so much as it has registered its disgust with a political class indifferent to its suffering. It was that disgust that put Kasich in office last year – and led to his spectacular defeat last night. Thus, as always, Ohio remains an American microcosm – and while the GOP capitalised on that a year ago, in 2012, the field is open. MORE...