That’s the real issue in Ohio according to locals, and Democratic nominees are ignoring this problem in their national debates. Without any meaningful solutions presented at the Ohio debates last Tuesday night, many residents feel like the candidates that are ‘working for them’ don’t even know what they care about most.

This article off of Yahoo! contends that the race in the Buckeye state “hinges on NAFTA”. However it also notes that bickering over NAFTA is an oversimplification of the regions complicated economic problems.

In the article, Cleveland State University economist Ned Hill says that, “Ohio’s economic woes are due to far more complex causes than globalization or a trade agreement, but the general hatred of NAFTA in the state makes it an easy target for politicians.”

When candidates refuse to address the underlying causes of issues that matter most to voters, they circumvent any real progress being made towards a solution. By scapegoating issues, politicians do a disservice to the same people they are trying to serve.“You walk two blocks down my street, and see 15 for sale signs in front of houses, and a lot of people are pissed,” said Bill Callahan, a Cleveland resident who worked on the One Ohio project with Governor Strickland.

It’s a good thing Mr. Callahan isn’t from Maple Heights, “with a population of 27,000,[it] ranks No. 1 in Cuyahoga County in foreclosures per capita, according to Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit research group,” taken from this New York Times article from September 2, 2007.

People are right to be pissed. Pissed that the mortgage crisis exists at all because of thoughtless government regulations and greedy corporations. Pissed because they feel like nobody who can help them out of these disastrous loans will. Pissed because they’re running out of options: if the current administration can’t keep a roof over their heads, and the potentially incoming one won’t, who will?