Soccer Dad

Democrats accuse steele of blending puppies

Well not really. Well as the Hedgehog Report reports

No, this is not the latest attack ad from the Democrats against Michael Steele. It is actually a scene in the next great ad from the Michael Steele campaign telling Marylanders what they can expect from the Democrats this year. One thing that has struck me so far in this campaign is number of people who don’t follow politics that have mentioned to me, knowing that I do follow politics, is how much they like Steele’s ads. When compared to Cardin’s string of standard anti-Bush ads, which is all he seems to be doing thus far, Steele’s ads seem to be standing out and making an impression on the people I come across.

I'll admit, though I'm a Republican I'm not 100% sold on Steele. His distancing himself from President Bush was extremely ham-handed. Still these commercials have the aim of painting a guy who headed a political party and served four years as Lt. Governor as an outsider. And he does them with panache.

The Fix at the Washington Post also likes the ads

As The Fix has said before, we are fans of Steele's unconventional ad campaign, which seeks to break through the clutter of typical campaign ads. Steele's newest ad is an attempt to further his "outsider" image while insulating himself against the Cardin campaign ads -- call them comparative, call them negative -- sure to come.

"Soon your TV will be jammed with negative ads from the Washington crowd," says Steele directly to camera. "Grainy pics and spooky music saying Steele hates puppies and worse. For the record, I love puppies." He adds that he would ban all gifts from lobbyists to members of Congress and eliminate last-minute amendments to spending bills to reduce pork-barrel spending -- burnishing his reform credentials.

Still the Fix points out the biggest handicap facing Steele are the numbers.

Since this post kicked off with raw numbers, let's finish it that way too. The most recent count of Maryland's registered voters showed Democrats at roughly 1.7 million, Republicans at 900,000 and independent/unaffilated voters at 430,000.

Do the math. If Steele wins every Republican and unaffiliated vote, he still is 400,000 votes short of the total number of registered Democrats in the state. Of course, not every registered voter (Democrat, Republican or independent) will cast a ballot on Nov. 7, but the numbers show the immensity of Steele's challenge.

4 years ago, running with Ehrlich, Steele was part of a team that won against a candidate lacking both in charisma and a strong record. Steele wins the charisma battle with Cardin easily, but Cardin has the advantage in terms of his record.

Will the charisma be enough?

UPDATE: I see that I started a conversation on Memeorandum. It comes full circle with IMAO claiming that he could come up with a better smear of Steele than blending puppies.

Technorati tags: Michael Steele,Ben Cardin, Maryland Politics.