In the brief lifespan of the Tea Party, traditional Republicans have fretted over how to successfully harness the energy of its often vociferous members while maintaining a sufficiently big tent so as to maximize the GOP’s political fortunes this November.

The effort to remain united in opposing Democrats has been challenged in bitter Republican primary fights nationwide over the past few months; but with those efforts drawing to a close, the effort to galvanize has begun in earnest.

“This movement, if we can turn out hundreds or thousands to the streets to protest and wave signs and yell and make an impact on public policy debate, then we can make a lot of difference,” Brendan Steinhauser, FreedomWorks’s chief organizer for the Tea Party groups, told the leaders gathered here. “But if those same people go and walk neighborhoods and do all the things we’re talking about, put up the door-hangers in the final 72 hours and make the phone calls, we may crush some of these guys.”

In recent months, FreedomWorks has teamed up with Glenn Beck, the biggest celebrity of the Tea Party movement to promote it. This weekend, with many Tea Party supporters descending on Washington for a rally that Mr. Beck is holding at the Lincoln Memorial, FreedomWorks is staging a convention where Tea Party candidates will address 1,600 activists.

Led from the start by a cable television network’s most polarizing–and popular–personality, the Tea Party has found supporters in right-wing celebrities like Sarah Palin and Rep. Bachman, and suitors from across the spectrum of Republican politics. How well this group of individuals gets out to vote in November is an answer the GOP hopes can be answered with a single, strong voice, in opposing Democrats at every turn. Whether that can be accomplished, however, is anything but a foregone conclusion.

In Colorado, for example, third-party candidate Tom Tancredo is siphoning votes away from the Republican candidate, giving the Democratic nominee an 8 percent lead.

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Columbus’ Liz Lessner, who manages some of the city’s most popular restaurants, represented small business owners on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann in responding to Rep. Boehner’s recent critique of the Obama administration.

From the Governor’s office:

Governor Ted Strickland and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Deborah Delisle today announced that the U.S. Department of Education has selected Ohio as one of the winning states to be funded in Round 2 of the Race to the Top program. Ohio will receive $400 million in Race to the Top funds during the next four years.

“I want to thank Secretary Duncan and the Obama administration for this opportunity to implement what I believe is a visionary education plan for Ohio’s children. Our students deserve every opportunity to succeed in and beyond the classroom, and I believe the creative and forward-thinking initiatives outlined in our winning application provide just that,” Strickland said. “Ohio has shown its commitment to encouraging innovation by passing successful economic development initiatives like Ohio Third Frontier, and this award builds on our job creation strategy by helping prepare the next generation of Ohio entrepreneurs and innovators.”

“I give my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to our education and community partners who supported this application, and our dedicated team of education leaders who worked tirelessly on behalf of Ohio’s children,” Strickland said.

The Round 2 Race to the Top application was submitted by the Ohio Department of Education in June. In total, more than 538 Local Education Agencies, representing more than 60 percent, or about 1 million, of Ohio’s school children, agreed to participate directly in Ohio’s Race to the Top activities. Ohio was selected as a finalist in late July and a team from Ohio made a presentation and answered questions from U.S. Department of Education reviewers earlier this month.

“I am ecstatic that the USDoE recognized the bold initiatives and high expectations Ohio put forth in its Race to the Top application,” Delisle said. “The initiatives, which are the centerpiece of our “Fifth to First in Four” strategy, exemplify what it means to be courageous as educators, leaders, parents and students. We must do everything we can to challenge our students and ensure they have access to a world-class education.”

Ohio’s application built upon many of the activities of the education reform plan outlined in House Bill 1, and the priorities placed on education during the last two decades. During the creation of the Round 2 application, KidsOhio and the Ohio Grantmakers Forum, Inc. played an instrumental role in bringing together representatives from different education groups. They brought together more than 100 individuals representing 70 organizations to attend editorial and review sessions. From these experts, the Ohio Department of Education was able to add clarity, more detail and evidence to the Round 2 application.

“Our work will begin immediately with school districts and community schools which have agreed to be part of our effort to transform education in Ohio and build on the tremendous progress that has been made over the last decade,” Delisle said. “I would like to thank the numerous individuals who helped put our application together, and the dozens of groups which supported our efforts and provided input during the creation of our application. Our collective effort has been recognized and, on behalf of Ohio’s schoolchildren, I thank each of you for your dedication to improving education.”

“I would also like to congratulate the other states that were selected to receive funding, as well as Delaware and Tennessee who received funding in Round 1 of Race to the Top,” Delisle added. “I anticipate that we will learn much from one another as we proceed with each of our plans. Our students all deserve a world-class education that can only be offered if we all begin thinking innovatively.”

The U.S. Department of Education provided prescriptive guidance in terms of centering the reform work on four specific areas: standards and assessments; data systems to support instruction; great teachers and leaders; and turning around the lowest-achieving schools.

The funds will be used to support Race to the Top activities either directly through Ohio schools districts or through state-supported initiatives. Under terms of the grant, at least half of the funds Ohio must be distributed directly to participating schools. A list of participating schools and funding amounts can be found at www.rttt.education.ohio.gov.

“We will make every effort possible to ensure that the participating schools are able to carry out the initiatives they identify in their action plans,” Delisle said.

A total of 538 public school districts and community schools signed memoranda of understanding to participate in Ohio’s Race to the Top efforts. Of those students participating, the award will impact 81.5 percent of African-American students, 73 percent of Hispanic students, and 66.3 percent of economically disadvantaged students statewide. The Ohio Department of Education will begin working with each entity on its implementation plan. Plans must be submitted by November.

Sunday’s New York Times explored the potential affect of letting the Bush tax cuts expire, or of not doing so:

With the battle over whether to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy shaping up as the major political event of the fall, opponents of repeal were handed a bounteous gift this summer when Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and 38 others announced that they formed a pact to give at least half their wealth to charity. After all, what better illustration could there be of the great social good that wealthy people can do when the government lets them keep their hard-earned dollars to spend as they please?

The problem is that the exceptional philanthropy of the superwealthy few doesn’t apply to the many more people defined as rich in the current debate over the Bush tax cuts — individuals earning over $200,000 and couples with revenues over $250,000. For decades, surveys have shown that upper-income Americans don’t give away as much of their money as they might and are particularly undistinguished as givers when compared with the poor, who are strikingly generous. A number of other studies have shown that lower-income Americans give proportionally more of their incomes to charity than do upper-income Americans. In 2001, Independent Sector, a nonprofit organization focused on charitable giving, found that households earning less than $25,000 a year gave away an average of 4.2 percent of their incomes; those with earnings of more than $75,000 gave away 2.7 percent.

The Blade reports:

In the same two Wyandot County-owned fields where crops once grew stands a $44 million solar farm that even on overcast days can produce power for 4,500 houses – an amount that doubles on sunny days. And three-month-old PSEG Wyandot Solar Farm north of Upper Sandusky gives employees of First Solar Inc.’s factory in Perrysburg Township a chance to glimpse thin-film solar panels they build in action when visiting co-worker Dan Williamson of nearby McCutchenville. “They just love seeing our end product, a working solar field,” said Mr. Williamson, an eight-year First Solar veteran who works in maintenance. During the dedication ceremony Thursday at this solar farm, which is Ohio’s largest, Mr. Williamson and more than 75 other attendees got a close-up look of the fields of fixed modules surrounded by fences. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee, First Solar Chief Executive Robert “Rob” J. Gillette, and others spoke at the celebration about 65 miles south of Toledo. “What we’re really doing today is ‘flipping the switch’ on the future,” Mr. Strickland said.

The Governor’s office released the following statement on the news that statewide unemployment had dropped for a fourth consecutive month:

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland today released the following statement on Ohio’s unemployment rate, which was 10.3 percent in July, down slightly from 10.5 percent in June.

“Ohio unemployment rates have declined for four months in a row and the private sector created 10,500 Ohio jobs in July.  That’s a clear sign businesses are investing in Ohio.  In recent months we’ve seen growth again because in recent years we have lowered taxes, cut red tape and invested in the industries creating jobs that are hard to outsource.  A recent study by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank shows that over the last three months Ohio has the sixth-fastest growing economy.  We have a long way to go, but Ohio is moving in the right direction,” Strickland said.

In July, Ohio employment included a net gain of 10,500 private sector jobs which were offset in part due to the loss of 8,700 government and school jobs, for a net gain of 1,800 jobs for the month.

From the earliest months of Obama’s presidential career, the former Senator from Illinois has been compared with Ronald Reagan, if only for his gifts as a communicator.

But as Obama’s approval ratings have dipped during persistent economic challenges, more complex parallels have been drawn: that of two gifted orators whose first two years as president have abutted similar obstacles.

Obama’s presidency has looked like Reagan’s in some broad ways. Both men succeeded unpopular presidents of the opposite party. Both offered big and bold plans — Reagan with massive tax cuts, Obama with a massive stimulus and national health care — that set the country in a new direction. Reagan’s goal was to shrink government. Obama’s efforts have enlarged government.

Both presidents were forced by events that preceded their elections to contend with economies in serious trouble. Both saw the unemployment rate rise sharply during their first two years in office — under Reagan, the unemployment rate hit 10.8 percent by November 1982 — and both saw their approval ratings decline as the numbers of jobless grew.

For much of this year, Obama and his team have taken some solace from the fact that Reagan’s approval ratings were even lower at comparable points in his presidency. That is no longer the case. In the past week, Obama has hit a new low in his approval rating, according to Gallup’s daily tracking. It now stands at 42 percent, virtually identical to Reagan’s in August 1982. (Both Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter dipped below 40 percent during their second year in office.)

The Plain Dealer reports that exports are on the rise, with the $20.2 billion value of Ohio’s exports six months into the year up 29 percent from 2009.

“We’re seeing the demand for manufactured goods come back, which is a good thing for Ohio,” said Deborah Scherer, director of the Global Markets Division at the Ohio Department of Development.

Exports are a pillar of Ohio’s economy. One of every 13 jobs in Ohio’s private sector was linked to the manufacture of exported goods in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

One of Ohio’s leading export sectors — autos and auto parts — was up 74 percent through June, after taking a big dive last year.