Mike DeWine: Media Impresario

The latest Rasmussen note to coders: Poll numbers have Sherrod Brown jumping out to a six-point lead over Mr. Excitement, aka Senator Mike DeWine (R-Yawn). The state has now gone from a "toss up" to one that "leans Democrat." So what accounts for DeWine's dip in popularity? It couldn't possibly be his totally craptacular TV ad blitz. In True Champion, DeWine tries to position himself as a defender of children from rapacious pharmaceutical companies. What DeWine leaves out is the fact that he has taken more than $350,000 in campaign contributions from those same rapacious pharmaceutical companies. And in Sherrod Brown: Protecting America? DeWine accuses Brown of being soft on terrorists. But the ad distorts Brown's record by cherrypicking votes, and DeWine earned widespread guffaws, including on The Daily Show when it was revealed that Brown had juiced the picture of the World Trade Center towers on September 11 by digitally adding smoke to the wrong tower. The latest mudslinging spot consists of a narrator mindlessly intoning the slogan "Congressman Sherrod Brown let us down." Unfortunately for DeWine's drowning campaign, it's glaringly obvious that DeWine -- a member of the party that controls the presidency, the House of Representatives, and the Senate -- let us down way, waaaaaaay worse. DeWine: He's not flashy, but he can lie with a straight face.