Books make great gifts, and are great for all those holiday gift cards. Two books recently released focus on Ohio, the center of presidential politics each election year. One reason is that eight presidents have called Ohio home - among them William McKinley, the 25 th president of the United States, who was born in Niles, Ohio. His 1896 election is considered a pivotal one in American history, featuring the Republican McKinley, the governor of Ohio, facing Democrat William Jennings Bryan. That election has been documented in many books, the most recent of which is "The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters". Its author is Karl Rove, the controversial conservative political strategist and commentator who’s considered the architect behind President George W. Bush’s victories in 2000 and 2004. Rove's SuperPAC Crossroads GPS has spent $6 million in Senate races that experts suggest could go to either party - including Ohio's. Rove talked about his book, the current presidential contest and what he thinks of Gov. John Kasich’s chances in the 2016 race.
The 2016 presidential campaign has been the gift that keeps on giving for comedy writers, satirists, editorial cartoonists and of course political journalists. The endless cycle of rallies, sit down interviews, sound bites, viral videos, angry e-mails and tweets, and all the things we’ve come to know and love about covering the candidates for president in a key swing state are upon us. A new book by a former Ohio political journalist chronicles the craziness of covering presidential campaigns - it's called “Front Row Seat at the Circus: One Journalist’s Journey Through Two Presidential Elections”. That journalist is Emmy award winning former Ohio journalist Jim Heath, who worked in South Carolina before coming to Ohio, so he’s seen politics both north and south. He wrote this book from Arizona, where he now lives..