Attn Democrats: gotchas are not going to cut it this cycle

Just a little bit of advice to Democrats in Ohio: gotcha politics and lame fake scandals are not going to change the political dynamic this cycle. No matter how hard you try to catch Republicans in awkward situations or try to paint Tea Party folks as extremists it will not change the fundamental fact that unemployment is over 10%, your popularity is droping like a stone and you have no answers.

The latest example of this strategy is some bad jokes at a fundraising event. Yes, the jokes were in poor taste and not even funny. Yes, that is a headline if there ever was one: politicians are not funny!  Anyone who has ever attended any of these events could tell you that. Most politicians are just not funny and they don’t have a history of timely humor either.

As an aside, let me just say to any and all political activists, Tea Party organizers, and others involved in campaign events:

Please just shut up about the birth certificate! LET IT GO!

I don’t think these type of things matter a great deal but why waste everyone’s time and energy on this. Focus on what is important.

But in the end all these little controversies are just distractions. The fundamental issue of this election is jobs, jobs and jobs. Out of control federal spending and big government solutions that will only further hamper the economy are undercurrents that reinforce the jobs issue.  Any candidate who doesn’t get that is in trouble.

Rob Portman gets it. And he has focused his campaign like a laser on the issue.  And that is why he is leading in the polls despite running against two experienced candidates holding state wide office.

And this is why the left wants to attack him anytime anyone in his general vicinity says anything remotely controversial. This despite the fact that the left – both elected officials and activists – has smeared an entire populist movement of active citizens by making vulgar sexualized and derisive comments. Despite the history of poor taste and outrageous accusations that liter the history of the left and Democrats in this country.

Heck, most leftist blogs are unreadable thanks to their angry vulgarity and mouth frothing style. And yet Democrats stumbled over themselves to praise them when they need their money. And no one required denunciations. The hypocrisy here is staggering. The GOP is the only party who is required to distance themselves from any possible scandal or comment in poor tastes. Democrats compare President Bush to Hitler: perfectly fine. Republicans make a joke about Obama’s birth certificate: outrage!

But in the larger picture these gotcha attempts and fake scandals are just media moments and they won’t sway any votes or impact the campaign in any real way.

So on second thought, Democrats keep focusing on them while Republicans focus on the issues that matter. We will let the voters decide what is important.

Brunner Fisher most boring primary in history?

Speaking of Lee Fisher and Jennifer Brunner is this the most boring primary evah? I mean this is supposed to be a battle royale for a crucial Senate seat. Democrats fighting for their political lives. Progressives showing their might, etc. This race is pretty important in Ohio and even nationally. And yet … nothing.

I will confess I have not trolled the lefty blogs for the latest talking points or arguments but it seems to me this primary is producing absolutely nothing of interest. Not debates between candidates no juicy arguments about the direction of the party or why either candidate is clearly superior.  The media seems bored by it as well.

Are the Dems afraid of taking shots at each other? Is Fisher just going to assume his money and his establishment support makes him the winner? I she afraid if he attacks Brunner he will lose the leftist base?

Is Brunner counting on support from the base and from women putting her over the top? Is she afraid to take shots at Fisher? Has she done any polling? Can she afford to?

I find it interesting that sixty days out we have a critical primary but one which is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

Fisher and Brunner absolutely clueless on job creation

Read this article and weep at the Democrats conception of economic development:

Fisher said he is the only candidate who has been on the ground creating and saving jobs under the leadership of Gov. Ted Strickland. He said he is part of the team that helped convince V&M Star Steel to build an expansion on the border of Girard and Youngstown and helped secure the Chevrolet Cruze for the General Motors plant in Lordstown.

Fisher said he has championed for health care reform and a patient bill of rights.

“I believe I can take my experience with job creation and retention in Ohio to Washington, D.C., where I can help move Ohio into the field of green technology and help take advantage of the state’s strong manufacturing base,” Fisher said.

Seriously? Did “Job Czar” Lee Fisher actually say that outloud?  And people didn’t laugh him off the stage?

Just a reminder, folks. Ohio unemployment stands at 10.8% worse than the national average. How many jobs do you think V&M Star and Lordstown plants involved. Well, Ohio has lost something on the order of half a million jobs since Fisher was elected. Created or saved indeed.

But wait, Jennifer Brunner might be worse:

Brunner said Ohio needs to move away from manufacturing and into the fields of clean energy and biomedical technology. She also said the nation needs to solve its health care “crisis” to ease the strain on small businesses.

“There is no silver bullet to create jobs. It will take cooperation among many levels of business, government and advocacy groups to grow Ohio’s economy again,” Brunner said.

Ah, the brilliant insight! Move away from a manufacturing into clean energy. Sure, that will fix the economy. Oh, by the way, the manufacturing of medical devices is a potentially strong field for Ohio so moving away from manufacturing isn’t so simple. High technology manufacturing is different than traditional manufacturing.

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John Kasich: Ohio’s Next Governor

Yes, I just claimed that John Kasich is going to be Ohio’s next governor. This is not meant as hyperbole. I really believe Kasich is going to beat Governor Strickland in November.

This is not based on deep study of the polls or a county-by-county analysis or anything of that sort. It is more of a gut feeling based on how I see the campaign playing out. Now, of course, a great deal could change in the intervening months: scandals, gaffes, the political environment, etc. But right now I don’t see any of that happening in such a way to change the underlying landscape.

I have begun to think that elections are determined in many ways by some pretty basic elements. What is the mood, what is the central issue or issues, how the candidates are perceived and what are their one sentence arguments for running.

On these basics Kasich is simply better situated to win than Strickland.

Details – such as they are – below.

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Leveraging the power of social media in Ohio campaigns

Interesting article at the Daily Caller: What’s social campaigning got to do with it?

In the 10 states where leading political prognosticators deem the Senate seat a “tossup” (Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania) an analysis of social media tools being employed by the various candidates from Jan. 29-Feb. 6, 2010, revealed some striking results.

Here is the section on Ohio:

Ohio provides yet another example where both candidates could be doing more to launch the social campaign strategies. The presumptive GOP nominee, former Congressman Rob Portman, is only utilizing some bare-bones social media tools; while Portman’s campaign is showing strong Facebook (4,018 fans) and Twitter (1,210 followers) numbers, he has thus far failed to incorporate YouTube, SMS/text, MySpace, LinkedIn, Digg or Widgets. To his credit, all the following are also being used by his campaign: a blog, Flickr, email sign-up and grassroots/action center.

Fortunately for Portman, his two rivals in the Democratic primary—Jennifer Brunner and Lee Fisher—appear similarly situated with their weak social media strategies. Brunner has 2,208 Facebook fans, compared to Fisher’s 2,817 fans; Brunner has 1,286 Twitter followers compared to Fisher’s 806 followers; and both have nearly the same number of YouTube channel views (585 vs. 518, respectively). While Brunner is using SMS/text and a campaign blog, Fisher is a rarity in that he’s using Digg—but neither Brunner nor Fisher has embraced MySpace, LinkedIn or Widgets.

What do you think? Will social media play an important role in Ohio campaigns? Will it be a difference maker or just another component? Who do you think is best utilizing these tools right now?

Chart of the Day: What Unsustainable Looks Like

Veronique de Rugy:

In 2010, Medicare and Medicaid cost 5.0 percent of GDP and Social Security cost 4.8 percent of GDP. Combined, that’s less than 10 percent of GDP. By 2020, the combined cost of these three programs is already projected to grow to 11.4 percent of GDP; extrapolating forward at constant growth rates, their cost will be at about 14.4 percent of GDP by 2030.

Irony: Cleveland Jewish News Smears Rob Portman

UPDATE: Cleveland Jewish News has changed the headline. It now reads: “State reps urge Portman to sever ties over group’s “Nazi” posting” See? That is the kind of power this blog wields …

I wasn’t planning on writing on this issue (I have little time to write as it is) but when a friend pointed out this headline I felt compelled to post:

State reps urge Portman to sever ties over “Nazi” past

When you read that headline what do you think?  You think Rob Portman has some sort of connection to Nazi’s in his past, right? It clearly implies a connection between Portman and Nazi’s; a skeleton in the closet that requires he come clean.

Now those who follow Ohio politics more closely might know that this is not the case.  They might actually know that this issue is a trumped up red hearing put together by desperate Democrats hoping to distract voters from real issues.

You see, an organization known as COAST (Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes) used a bit of hyperbole on their web page. Here is the outrageous hate speech in question:

COAST started with just two people, and virtually no funds, yet has had a profound effect upon politics in southwest Ohio. The Nazis in the State Legislature have created draconian campaign finance reporting laws that make criminals of those who fail to complete their paperwork correctly, but COAST refuses to be cowed by this intimidation and we encourage you to jump through their hoops and attempt to comply with their silly forms. It is important. You activism is needed. The Ohio Secretary of State has the rules for establishing and running a PAC.

Now would I have used that kind of terminology? No. Is it effective or appropriate? No.

But does it rise to the level of outrage that public office holders must sever any and all ties with the group and denounce them in public? Um, no.

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Governor Strickland: incompetent or corrupt?

The scandals just keep coming from the Strickland administration:

A state investigation of an alleged scheme to cover up the use of illegal immigrants to remodel a state-leased office building is now in the hands of the Franklin County prosecutor’s office.

But state troopers say they had to stand their ground to ensure the case reached the prosecutor.

Former State Highway Patrol Lt. Col. William Costas, who retired this month as the agency’s No. 2 leader, said investigators had to defend their authority to investigate the case under questioning from the top two lawyers to Gov. Ted Strickland.

Two points stand out to me:

• Prosecutor Ron O’Brien finds the questioning by the governor’s lawyers odd, saying it was clear the patrol had authority to investigate and serve search warrants in the case.
• An investigation by The Dispatch found that the meeting came after a lobbyist close to Strickland met with Markus on behalf of the company under criminal scrutiny. The two men met two days before the patrol began its probe.

Correlation does not equal causation and all that but this is fishy to no end.

Oh, you want a little insight into how Democratic politics works? Here you go:

Andrew Fries, the lobbyist’s son, is a $41,273-a-year aide to Strickland. Another son, Thomas Fries Jr., makes $100,178 annually as executive director of the Ohio State Racing Commission, the board of which is appointed by the governor. Fries Sr. and his wife, Mary, have donated $23,750 to Strickland’s gubernatorial campaigns since 2005.

If you add up all the various scandals and missteps of this administration there are really only two options: incompetent or corrupt. Either Strickland is incapable of finding people of integrity to work in his administration or he is playing politics with the law and seeking to reward/protect cronies.

Personally, I embrace the healing power of AND …

Develop the Outer Continental Shelf

If there is a more idiotic component of our energy policy than refusing to develop the Outer Continental Shelf I am hard pressed to name it. No other coutnry in the world refuses to develop there resources in the way we have. That is right, NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!

Heck, we haven’t even studied the area in decades. I know there are some who will see the oil and gas industry as the big bad guys but anyone who has spoken with them or spent any time with them will tell you that they know this stuff cold.

Since this is post YouTube video day (or it seems like it anyway) I have a video to go with this mini-rant:

You will have to wait patiently for the longer more well argued off-shore drilling post (don’t hold your breath, I know …).

Portman for Senate RV Tour through Northeast Ohio

I have done a few updates from the Portman for Senate RV Tour.  But this one is a bit more professional (less shaky flip video style). It does a nice job giving you some of the local flavor that the RV Tour involves but also highlights Portman’s laser focus on jobs and how Washington policies are job killers at the worst possible time. Worth a watch:

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