Mike DeWine for Governor campaign launches on the Columbus Dispatch editorial pages

At some point, you have to admire the Columbus Dispatch's complete abandonment of journalism ethics.  I mean, you let a guy announce his candidacy for Governor by giving him an editorial column, instead of a newsstory that addresses some of these points.

Today, the Columbus Dispatch published a column by former U.S. Senator/widely rumored GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine titled "Ohio needs new direction in tough times."  Nowhere does the Dispatch editorial writers notify its readership that this column is written by a person who has the personal ambition to run against Governor Strickland, and therefore, is a less than objective critic of the current Governor.

DeWine actually writes:

Ohio's long-standing, structural problems didn't start with Gov. Ted Strickland, though they've continued under his watch.

And yet, the reader is never reminded that DeWine used to be Lt. Governor, which would seem to trigger an obvious question:  Why didn't DeWine do anything to solve these structural problems?

Like Kasich, DeWine is trying to present himself (despite their strong ties to the Ohio GOP politics of the past) as agents of "change" and "vision."  Yet DeWine is long on criticsm, damn near absent on solutions.

DeWine writes:

Key to that is reforming our system of education.

Um, Senator?  You then go on and essentially endorse Governor Strickland's education reform, your only stated objection is how it's going to be paid because you can't seem to understand that federal stimulus money this cycle will be replaced by growing government revenues generated in a growing economy post-recession.

Politicians are in the business of selling hope, but when there's a real crisis, you have to act like it and use the bully pulpit to sound the alarm. That means bringing all the parties together -- public and private sector and nonprofits -- to start figuring out what to do. We need to get strategic about every major aspect of state government, look at it as if we were starting from scratch, and re-examine the functions of each department and agency.

This makes three GOP candidates for Governor running on doing what Governor Strickland has actually done.  Look at his education reform proposal.  Strickland brought educators and business people together to formulate it.  That's why the Ohio Business Roundtable earlier this week endorsed Strickland's education reform... because their Chair was a major actor in drafting it.

We should, for example, overhaul Medicaid, which eats more than one-third of the state budget and is projected to grow rapidly for years to come. To get a better bang for our taxpayer bucks, the state needs to be a much smarter health-care purchaser, and get better prices and results.

Overhaul it how?  It's great to say you want to make a major entitlement more cost efficient.   Um, but saying and doing aren't the same.  Find one candidate who actually ran on a platform of "I promise less efficient government spending."

While higher education can be a great economic driver, Ohio isn't doing a good enough job partnering our colleges and universities with business to translate the fantastic research at our schools into real jobs and new businesses. Ohio always prided itself in a long history of inventors and entrepreneurs, and it is time we recapture our dreamer mentality. 

Senator, perhaps you should meet Eric Fingerhut sometime.  He's the Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents.   Under the Strickland Administration, Fingerhut and the Governor have launched the new University System.  It does, exactly, what you're proposing needs to be done.

DeWine ends with his call to arms:

Real change often comes only when we are forced to change -- when things get so bad there isn't any other option. This is Ohio's opportunity to reinvent itself and do the types of things that should have been done years ago. It isn't about making modest, incremental changes anymore in government. It's about acting as if Ohio is in a crisis of historic proportion -- because we are.

Ohio is enacting real change.  You're running on it as your own.  And if these are changes that "should have been done years ago," then why should we believe that a former Lt. Governor can bring that change.  Mike DeWine:  Visionary Agent of Change.   Perhaps it's time for you to see your eye doctor again, Senator.  You've clear lost your mind.  And the Dispatch has lost any shed of journalist dignity it had left.