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COMMENTARY

Hershey: Fight for control of GOP ray of hope on Dems’ cloudy days

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By William Hershey, Staff Writer 11:28 PM Saturday, December 12, 2009

Politics is about as gray and dreary as the weather these days for Democrats in Ohio and across the country.

Take Gov. Ted Strickland.

Three years ago, Ohioans elected the preacher-psychologist from Duck Run with 60 percent of the vote.

Strickland used to hug the folks across the aisle.

Now Senate Republicans won’t even give Strickland the votes to fill a measly $851 million hole — measly when you’re talking billions of dollars — in the state budget.

A Rasmussen Reports poll last week showed Strickland trailing by nine points to former Republican Congressman John Kasich, somebody most Ohioans haven’t even heard of, in a possible 2010 governor’s matchup.

Poor guy.

Then there’s President Barack Obama. Obama may be the toast of Oslo — where he picked up the Nobel Peace Prize — but back in the good old U.S.A., lots of folks would prefer he stayed in Norway.

A Quinnipiac University Poll, also released last week, found voters across the country giving Obama his lowest approval rating ever — with 46 percent approving of his performance and 44 percent disapproving. Just last June the president’s approval rating was a lofty 59 percent.

But take heart, Democrats. There is sunshine on these cloudy days.

The Republicans are taking care of that.

GOP leaders would like to dismiss the refusal of the Ohio Republican Party’s screening committee to endorse former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine of Cedarville for attorney general as meaningless in the so-called big picture.

Maybe it is.

It also could be just the tip of an intraparty iceberg that has the potential to sink Republican hopes for a triumphant 2010 after miserable showings in 2008 and 2006.

DeWine is vying for the GOP nomination for attorney general against Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost.

Yost is running to DeWine’s right as the true conservative and the screening committee decided not to pick between the two of them.

Yost is appealing to the Tea Party movement and others who believe the party lost its way with DeWine and other pseudo-Republicans who cooperated too much with Democrats, didn’t hold the line on spending and generally forgot what they were supposed to stand for.

“We want smaller government. We want our government to support the free market rather than curb it,” said Rob Scott of Kettering, a Republican who worked for Ken Blackwell in the 2006 governor’s race and now is president of the Dayton Tea Party.

While Ohio Republican Chairman Kevin DeWine, Mike’s second cousin, doesn’t want to antagonize the conservatives, he knows that, even in a tough economy, a candidate perceived as too extreme probably wouldn’t sell with the voters. So he and the party punted.

The party’s snub of Mike DeWine has caught people’s attention.

“The news is truly remarkable,” political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, said in an e-mail. “...I knew DeWine was running for state AG and I simply assumed he’d be the GOP nominee and have a good chance for a fall comeback.”

Some of the GOP intraparty split may be driven by Sarah Palin, who’s touting her book and maybe gearing up for a 2012 presidential run, Mark Caleb Smith, director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University, said in an e-mail.

“While I think her main target is Obama, an awful lot of Republicans are suffering by comparison,” said Smith.

Smith said that Mike DeWine’s fundraising skills and experience will “make him tough to beat” for the GOP attorney general nomination.

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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I see Jim is earning his money today. You know they get paid more for each republican insult. Jim definitely has the liberal propaganda down pat today. Jim you guys need to come up with some new ones, we are bored of the same old lies. Dream up some new ones for us.

Leslie
12:58 PM, 12/14/2009

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The left still won't admit that they have had control of the House since 2006 and have done absolutely nothing about the economic crisis except try to spend it away. Go read the Sept 1999 NY Times article showing Clinton initiated the mortgage crisis by mandating loans to individuals who could not afford them....even though his own economic advisors warned him not to. While both parties have major issues, I'll stick with the Republicans.

J
12:37 PM, 12/14/2009

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Jim everything about Obamas views are not even CLOSE to mainstream,he voted to let babies that were born alive during an attempted abortion be set aside to die without care, he wants to put HUGE TAXES ON GAS & OIL because of socalled global warming,he has appointed members of the Communist party usa & democratic socialists of America to positions that are not held accountable to no one but him,he appointed a RADICAL HOMOSEXUAL TO safe school czar, who was teaching highschool kids about fisting

Philman
6:17 AM, 12/14/2009

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Jim,
I believe the Wasilla city official web site to not be propaganda. It is much better to see the facts at the source than to read the story teller's version.

earl
8:36 PM, 12/13/2009

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Earl,
So you only believe facts from right leaning news sources? Anything from the left lacks credibility? Is that what you're saying? This is the problem with so many of you guys. You can't filter and logically conclude what's propaganda and what's not. There's propaganda on both sides. Believe it or not, Palin left Wasilla 22 million in debt. IT"S TRUE!
I loath Sarah Palin. I loath her lack of intellect, her miminal education, her lies, her rambling interviews, and her undeserved success.

Jim
8:23 PM, 12/13/2009

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