Josh Mandel???? Really?

I saw some clips of the debate between the candidates for the Senate seat in Ohio between Sherrod Brown , the incumbent Democrat, and Josh Mandel the Republican. As we all know by now Ohio is a state that leans conservative and the fact that Brown won this seat at all six years ago was a bit of a surprise.

Therefore one would think that the Republicans in the state would find a very strong candidate to win back a seat that they should, rightly, consider theirs for the taking. Instead they have chosen as their candidate Josh Mandel. I will be the first to admit that I do not know much about Mandel, but in watching this clip he seems like a fairly weak candidate.

Not to be superficial but he looks like he is about 14, looking a bit Icabod Crane ish. He is not the handsome conservative, he is the nebbish, wonky, looking one. In a state like Ohio with a fairly significant bubba vote this cannot be a help. I like Sherrod Brown. Any true blood liberal that wins a Senate seat in a state like Ohio is a great politician, he is one of my favorites, that said I think he was very lucky to come up against a candidate such as this in his reelection fight. Of course he still is not sure of victory, turnout in Ohio should be high, but suppression efforts for the top of the ticket will certainly hurt Brown as much as President Obama.

Ohio in so many ways means everything this fall. It is pretty much assumed that while Obama could win without Ohio Governor Romney cannot and thus the leads that the President has had have to hurt Republicans to the core. One wonders what Mr. Romney, as he has been running for President for six years, was thinking when he suggested letting the automakers go under. Did he think that Obama could not save them and thus it would not be an electoral issue by the time he ran again.

At the Senate level Brown was always considered an in danger Democrat. To his credit he has done nothing to modify his positions, no one could call him a Bluedog Democrat though that might well have helped his chances. Getting Mandel for an opponent was a blessing, much like Claire McKaskill struck gold with Todd Aiken in Missouri. What is remarkable is that Mandel to some extent, and Aiken with a very legitimate chance, could both win victory. If they do win these races it will be a proof that in some states Republicans could run a corpse and win the race.

If this becomes the cast it might be simply that the Democrats will have to sit back and wait for the Demographics of the country to catch up to them. The Republicans in that time will have to find ways to achieve their goals while also softening up their stances to gain Hispanic votes.

Seriously if Josh Mandel is a United States Senator come January that will tell you all you need to know about the state of the Democratic party.