Leadership Quote by Bob Taft

Ohio gets pitched here less as a place than as a rebuttal. Taft’s language reads like an answer to an accusation that Midwest states are flyover, stagnating, or culturally peripheral. The “we don’t talk about enough” opener is a sly move: it invents an unfair silence, then positions him as the reasonable adult correcting the record. It also lets him praise without sounding like he’s bragging; he’s merely restoring balance.

The real engine is the triangulation of “cities, small towns and growing suburbs.” That list isn’t geography, it’s coalition-building. Each community type is a voting bloc, and Taft stitches them into a single identity: diverse enough to feel modern, cohesive enough to feel safe. “Affordable” does double duty as pocketbook empathy and moral signaling. In American politics, affordability is rarely neutral; it implies you’re not getting fleeced by coastal prices, taxes, or a lifestyle you didn’t ask for.

“Destinations within reach” is carefully non-specific, a promise of convenience without naming what Ohio can’t plausibly outshine (mountains, oceans, global capitals). It sells proximity: you can have amenities without the stress, culture without the chaos.

Then the clincher: “There is no better place to raise a family.” It’s not a measurable claim; it’s a values claim. The subtext is order, stability, and normalcy, a quiet counter-narrative to the idea that opportunity requires leaving. In the early-2000s era of deindustrial anxiety and brain-drain talk, this is civic reassurance dressed up as lifestyle branding.