Does anyone else think that Sherrod Brown's been running harder against Paul Hackett since Hackett dropped out than he was running against Hackett before he dropped out? Odd.

Dear John, When you and Sherrod Brown admitted that Brown campaign staff were leaving anonymous threats at blogs in Ohio, this was the Brown campaign response.

...the Brown campaign quietly circulated a policy memo: Interns and staffers may no longer contribute to any blog save for Grow Ohio.

Recently, however, Phil DeVellis posted at DailyKos, and an avalanche of anonymous quotes has been all over the Ohio blogosphere touting Sherrod Brown's campaign. Is the previous blogging policy for staff and interns no longer in place? If so, why? And what is the new policy?

From email

Via Political Wire

The Wall Street Journal notes that in a recent speech former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan described "the two American parties now as controlled by their extreme wings, even though the voting public is far more centrist... He described the leadership of the parties as "bimodal", meaning clustered at the extreme ideological ends, whereas the voting public was "monomodal", meaning clustered near the middle." "Such situations, he said, create an opening for a third-party candidate who appeals to the center. That, he said, could prompt the candidates of the other two parties to move back to the center, for fear of losing. He said the U.S. political system makes it difficult for a third-party candidate to win."

I hear this a lot. Some colleagues of mine espouse the same opinion too that Democrats are just as extreme as Republicans. When I challenge them to name 1 extreme Democrat they come up with Michael Moore and George Sorros. No, I say, an elected Democrat. Name an extremist Democrat that is currently elected, and tell me what position it is they hold that is extreme. I can name lots of elected Republicans. Whether it's man on dog Santorum, or Tom "Terri Schiavo" DeLay, and now the entire GOP south Dakota legislature, but what I can't name is someone similar in the Democratic Party. Can you ? I Think Anastasia in the comments nails it for me

So many people I know also have this general impression that DeWine is "moderate" which has me scratching my head. I recall a decade ago when Voinovich was considered the "moderate" to DeWine's far-right zealot. What happened? Has he changed or, more likely, has politics changed around him? Many have pointed out that these days when you see an alleged conservative pitted against an alleged liberal, what you're really seeing is someone on the far-right fringe, pitted against a middle-of-the-roader. And of course,that skews discussion and perception.

It didn't take ODP long to begin pushing their unified slate, in fact they have replaced their entire right sidebar with this: Sherrod Brown looks like he is being stretched on a rack ! And someone needs to get AJ Wagner a web banner designer. Heh.

If you are missing Paul Hackett, he is hosting the Bill Cunningham Show, WLW 700. HT to OH-2. While you#039re listening you might want to read Meckler too. Sherrod Brown and Mike DeWine might be uniters after all - because no one seems too impressed

With DeWine and Brown as the presumed nominees for their respective parties in the November election, Comedy Central ought to consider televising their debates.

A few folks are having problems signing up. The issue in common seems to be that they all have AOL accounts. SO if this is you, you might want to contact AOL and ask them to open their spam filter to let your password email through.

At the top you will notice a link to Contract with Ohio.

This is a great idea and has generated a lot of support up and down the ticket, including 6 Democratic Party statewide candidates and Party Chair Chris Redfern.

The pledge itself is pretty simple and desperately needed.

We pledge to be good stewards of your tax money and help rebuild Ohio as a place where people want to live and work

We pledge to end pay for play politics and regain the trust of the people in their government

We pledge to end the culture of corruption that has plagued the state and return government to the people

We pledge to work hard for all Ohioans, not for the special interests

We pledge to listen to all our constituents, making their priorities our priorities

Contract with Ohio also has links to some great resources including district maps and election data. So check it out.

If you're a candidate - Sign up!