Brown, DeWine center of attention on national TV shows

Associated Press 

Democrat Sherrod Brown said he isn't celebrating too early in the wake of another poll showing him ahead of GOP Sen. Mike DeWine less than two weeks before the election.

"I'm not dancing in the end zone, I'm fighting for middle class Ohioans and we'll see what happens," Brown said in a nationally televised interview Wednesday on CNN.

Earlier in the day, a Los Angeles Times-Bloomberg poll showed Brown with 47 percent and the two-term incumbent DeWine with 39 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The results prompted CNN's conservative commentator Bay Buchanan to say of Brown, "He's in a strong position right now." Democratic strategist Paul Begala called DeWine "toast."

But national media still characterize it as a tough race that is essential if Democrats are to take the six seats they need to control the 100-member Senate. "NBC Nightly News" aired a report on the race Wednesday as anchor Brian Williams broadcast from Columbus and Comedy Central's Emmy-winning news satire "The Daily Show" will be based in the Ohio capital next week.

In a taped interview on CNN's "The Situation Room" a few minutes before Brown appeared live, DeWine was generally on the defensive. He disagreed with President Bush's assessment earlier in the day that the U.S. is winning the war in Iraq.

"I don't know that you can say that," DeWine said. "You know, this war has hit Ohio very hard. As I travel around the state, Ohioans want our troops home just as soon as they can, but they also want us to leave in the right way."

He denied he was negligent as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee for accepting what proved to be faulty intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He tried to go on the offense, accusing Brown of voting against intelligence funding and spy programs.

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10/25/2006 / Permalink / (all tags)