The test case race: in Ohio, Sherrod Brown is running for the Senate as Thomas Frank's dream candidate. Can economic populism vanquish culture and terror in a red state?(ELECTION 2006 SPECIAL)

THE WORLD HEADQUARTERS OF THE GOODYEAR TIRE AND Rubber Co. is still in Akron, Ohio, but all they make there now are decisions. Except for a few specialty racing tires, Goodyear hasn't made tires in Akron in years. Industry here is dead, dead, dead, and there is nothing we can do to revive it.

Apparently, Sherrod Brown never got that memo from the Atari Democrats. Twenty-five years after the cutting-edge members of his party gave up on quaint ideas like manufacturing and collective bargaining, Brown, a seven-term congressman from northeast Ohio, is running a campaign for Senate ...