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Ted Strickland long ago painted himself into a corner.

In 2006, the Democratic governor, then a little-known congressman from southern Ohio, made the kind of campaign promise that often ends up slung tight around your neck. He boldly told anyone who would listen that he'd solve Ohio's intractable school-funding dilemma or he wouldn't be worth his salt as governor.

"I said that if this issue were not dealt with, regardless of whatever positive things I may achieve as governor, than I will consider myself a failure," Strickland has repeated to reporters since then.

Somewhere during the countless hours Strickland and his top folks spent debating exactly how to extract himself from said corner, they must have realized something.