GOP candidate: I will lie all I want, there is no downside.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Meet one of GOP's new hopes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/new-frontiers-in-political-dishonesty/2012/03/26/gIQAi0xScS_blog.html

Meet Josh Mandel, the GOP challenger to Ohio Dem Senator Sherrod Brown. National right wing groups have spent huge money targeting him, and the race could be pivotal to Dem hopes of holding the Senate.
Mandel has been pilloried by Politifact for excessive lying about Brown, particularly with regard to his “pants on fire” claim that Brown is one of the politicians most responsible for Ohio jobs moving to China.

...

Consider his response in an interview last week when asked again to identify a single Ohio job that went to China because of a decisive vote by Brown.

    “If that’s the level of specificity you’re looking for, you’re the reporters — you go do the grunt work,” said Mandel, who lives in Beachwood. “Any reporter who doesn’t believe Sherrod Brown is responsible for jobs going to China is simply out of touch.”

    PolitiFact Ohio already had done the “grunt work” and found that the examples cited by Mandel’s campaign failed to back up his claim, hence the Pants on Fire rating. Right or wrong, Mandel vowed to repeat the assertion “again and again” and said he sees no downside.

[minionofmidas]

There is no downside - it's not as if this isn't a Likely D seat.

[CLARENCE 2015!]

Mandel happens to be an exceptional young man- maybe he isn't yet ready for prime time

[Brittain33]

There is no downside - it's not as if this isn't a Likely D seat.

Really? Ohio senate races have been very volatile recently and early support can melt away. I do think Brown will survive or not by how well the top of the ticket does.

[I'm JewCon in name only.]

I say this will be a democratic hold.


I'm thinking 55-44 Brown.


at worst, for Brown, It could be 52-46.

[RogueBeaver]

Things will tighten in the fall, but I'd still rate Brown a middling favorite. Ohio will be this cycle's nastiest GE Senate battle (nastiest primary goes to D-HI). Since both are popular, Mandel's best shot might be nationalization- a vote for Brown is a vote for Obama.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Things will tighten in the fall, but I'd still rate Brown a middling favorite. Ohio will be this cycle's nastiest GE Senate battle (nastiest primary goes to D-HI). Since both are popular, Mandel's best shot might be nationalization- a vote for Brown is a vote for Obama.

Mandel's not really that popular anymore.  His office-hopping seems to have pissed a lot of people off (including quite a few Republicans), honestly I'm surprised by how much people seem to be holding it against him.  Normally voters forget about stuff like that, but that doesn't seem to have been the case with Mandel. 

[JohnnyLongtorso]

I thought Mandel wasn't particularly well-known, being that he was just swept into office on a Republican wave.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I thought Mandel wasn't particularly well-known, being that he was just swept into office on a Republican wave.

 

No, Mandel would've won easily even in a good Democratic year, but not because Mandel was extremely popular (he never was).  His opponent, Kevin Boyce turned out to be an awful candidate and IRC quite corrupt.  Honestly, Boyce was bad enough that I didn't vote for him, but Mandel ran an extremely racist and Islamophobic ad so I certainly wasn't going to vote for him either (I wrote-in Dwight Schrute).  I already mentioned the office-hopping issue, which is really hurting Mandel.  Also, he's viewed as too being wet-behind-the-ears, I've heard several people (one of whom was actually a Mandel supporter) say of him that "he looks like he belongs in high-school, not the Senate."  I think that Mandel is going to have a hard time convincing Ohioans that he is experienced enough/ready for a position like a Senate seat (regardless of whether or not one feels this is fair, it is going to be a problem for him).  Also, the aforementioned ad is going to come back to bite him.  Also, Brown is simply a far stronger candidate.  Mandel will raise a lot of money mainly b/c there seems to be a small group of extremely wealthy Jewish neo-cons in Ohio who adore him for some reason.  That said, Mandel is still going to do just as badly with Jewish voters as any other Ohio Republican not named George Voinovich (pretty much everyone liked him ).  Basically Brown is almost certainly going to beat Mandel, probably by somewhere between 6-10 points (but if it is 6 or 7 points, that will make the race appear to have been more competitive than it ever was).

[minionofmidas]

There is no downside - it's not as if this isn't a Likely D seat.

Really? Ohio senate races have been very volatile recently and early support can melt away.

Even more reason to try things.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

This is definitely pants on fire lying. Sherrod Brown voted against the US-China relations Act of 2000. He also voted against NAFTA.