A great and inspiring congresswoman was lost today, Stephanie Tubbs Jones. The first African American woman to be in the congress from Ohio. She may not have been a Barack supporter, but I hope that everyone will take a moment to think about the enormous loss we have all sustained. She was a true democrat, opposed to the war, and a real person, who really cared about the people in her district.

I hope we can all take time over the next couple of days to remember her. An intelligent woman, who went to soon.

While troubled to see McCain ahead in the latest Reuters/Zogby poll, I was even more surprised at the media's reaction. First of all, this is not the latest nationwide poll. It was conducted August 14-16. The latest nationwide poll is LA Times/Bloomberg, conducted August 16-18 (with a larger sample size), which has Obama leading by 2.

Second, Reuters/Zogby is most likely an outlier. Unless, of course, you're willing to believe that he's lost the support of 12 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 in the last week.

But far more worrisome than Obama's performance in recent national polls are the numbers coming out of battleground states, particularly Ohio.

Doctors say she is still in critical condition contradicting reports she has died.

Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress, has died after suffering a brain aneurysm, said sources familiar with the situation.

She was removed from life support at 12:19 p.m. at Huron Road Hospital, the sources said.

Tubbs Jones, 58, served as a Cuyahoga County judge and prosecutor before succeeding U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes. She has served five terms in Congress and was expected to easily win her sixth in November.

Our hearts go out to her family and friends.

Update: Mixed reports, apparently. Plain Dealer reporting she has died, CNN saying no, her doctors at a press conference are saying she's in critical condition, according to commenters.

She died of Brain Aneurysm in Cleveland. She was 58. She was swerving on the highway and the police officer tried to guide her to the side of the road.  She was rushed to the hospital yesterday and died today (or did she?). News report are conflicting but ..................................................................................

So sad.  She was a good Democrat. However, her district is heavily Democratic and should stay in Dem hands in November.

She could have been a good Supreme Court candidate.

Update:  Although the news said she is in critical condition, she is actually on life support with minimal brain activities. That means she died but they haven't withdrawn the tubes yet.  I am adding this section drawing from my experience of the death of a family member of the same condition in 2005. SHE HAS DIED FOR SURE.

Other News:

Cleveland-area congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones had a massive aneurysm last night and is on life support. It does not look good.

Please send up some thoughts and prayers to her and her family.

She is Ohio's first African-American woman to be elected to Congress and has served Cleveland's east side for 10 years. She is also one of Hillary Clinton's most trusted supporters.

Let's hope she pulls through.

UPDATE (12:14 pm EDT) : Officials were to update her condition at noon. At least one local news station, WOIO Channel 19, is reporting that the situation is grim and life support will be removed this afternoon.

UPDATE II (12:22 pm EDT): From WKYC Channel 3:  

According to police, officers stopped her car late last night in the 2300 block of Lee Road in Cleveland Heights. Tubb Jones was reportedly found unconscious behind the wheel.  Upon reaching the vehicle the officer found the driver, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, to be in obvious medical distress and called for an ambulance.

 

UPDATE III (2:05 pm) : The congresswoman has died. A terrible day.

UPDATE IV (2:34 pm) : The congresswoman remains in critical condition. Reports of her death were erroneous. Please pray for her and her family.

    Rasmussen released new Ohio results today showing McCain up 5 in the state. While this represents an improvement since the last Rasmussen Ohio poll which had McCain up with a 10 point margin, it's hardly cause for celebration.

    For one thing, the last Rasmussen poll had been dismissed in DKOS punditry circles as an outlier. It's much harder to dismiss this one, coming on the heels of a (D-leaning) PPP poll that shows the race dead even in Ohio. More disturbing, virtually all the polling shows that Obama is doing significantly worse in Ohio than in the comparable states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and even Michigan. Ohio is trending with Indiana, which is not where we want it to be.

   I did predict this -- consult my numerous diaries. I come not to gloat but to reinforce the message that fundamental changes need to be made in the Ohio campaign, and we are running out of time.

This was diaried yesterday and needs to get more visibility.

Representative Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH) was found unconscious behind the wheel of a moving car yesterday and is now in the hospital.  Link to Politico from this morning:

http://www.politico.com/...

More below the jump.

The 11 p.m. news just reported that a little while ago, the police right here in Cleveland Heights attempted to stop a speeding car, and found my congresswoman, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, unconscious at the wheel.

http://blog.cleveland.com/...

Oh my goodness, I wasn't sure I'd really seen this, but there it was in all its bizarre glory...

There will be no more sleepovers with voting equipment in Ohio.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a directive today forbidding the practice in Fairfield County and at least 22 other counties of having voting machines and other equipment taken home the night before an election by poll workers or others and brought to polling locations on Election Day.

Huh, who'd have thought this would actually be an issue?  Really?

I was reading a 23/6 article on The Huffington post and this caught my eye.

When they speak of the term Appalachia, people are usually thinking of West Virginia, Kentucky, and eastern Tennessee. But the culture and economic conditions of the Appalachian region extend well into western Pennsylvania and southeastern sections of Ohio. All agree that these two states are important in this year’s presidential election. Under many scenarios the voter outcome in Ohio could either give or deny the White House to Barack Obama.

The 2004 election illustrates the importance of Ohio. In 2004 George W. Bush won the state of Ohio by 119,000 votes. Had John Kerry defeated Bush in Ohio, Kerry would have won the presidency.

    McCain and Obama each have VP short-lists thought to include about five names each. Only one name on each list has strong Ohio connections -- Kathleen Sebelius and Rob Portman. Both Sebelius and Portman were born and raised in Cincinnati. Portman attended the Cincinnati Country Day School. Sebelius attended the Summit Country Day School.

    Overnight, the new PPP poll showing Ohio to be dead even (45-45) has raised Ohio's importance even beyond its prior status as Presidential Galactic Center. With neighboring Michigan also declining into the toss-up category, it's now virtually certain that the national race will be decided in Ohio and Michigan alone. Obama still holds the advantage in that he needs only one of them, but the two have a good chance of voting in tandem this year, and if McCain wins both, he almost certainly wins in the Electoral College. All other states have declined in importance accordingly.
   

So John McCain is potentially doing a VP rollout in Ohio, according to ABC News. In light of this, I have a question: Can someone - anyone - please explain to me why no one in Obama's campaign, in the media, in the progressive infrastructure sphere, in the labor movement or even on lefty blogs, is pushing Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) for VP in any real way?

McCain is going to be a celebrity! He's gathering 10,000 people to hypnotize pander to in Ohio the day after Obama accepts the Democratic nomination in Denver.

John McCain and Barack Obama are perfectly tied in Ohio, according to the newest survey from Public Policy Polling (August 12-14, 2008 survey of 950 likely General Election voters)

Obama had led in PPP’s June and July polls of the state. It’s 45-45 with 10% undecided.

It seems that 17% of democrats are voting for McCain, and 8% are undecided. Most of them white and older in age. I guess Ohio would be a state that the Clintons need to go to to stump for Obama.

Here are the details.

A new poll is out on Ohio from PPP.

Tied

45-45 Obama-Mccain

This is going to be a close one folks!

Well, I spent another Saturday canvassing for Barack Obama and I must say it's now something I really look forward to each week.  I have lived in Ohio for 12 years and have never really felt like this is where I belong.  The city I live in is pretty conservative and has a reputation for being narrow minded.  I've made a lot of close friends in my life, but have only a few in Ohio.  It's just been a difficult, awkward road for me here.  However, in the last few weeks, I have met people that I feel a real connection to and I almost feel like I have a new outlook on my community just from participating in this process.  We as a nation are 100% responsible to "get it right" when we elect our President and it is not only ok to engage our neighbors, it is our obligation.  I have never felt more certain of this.