With new ad, Fisher makes the same mistakes as his boss

And we thought Strickland took the cake for bad advertising strategy.

Then came Lee Fisher.

Yesterday the Democratic Senate candidate released his first ad, and following the scorched earth pattern blazed by his boss, used it to attack his opponent.

Strickland's stream of attack ads are dumb because his approval ratings are so low and he can't hope to be re-elected until they rebound.

Fisher's first attack ad is dumb because nobody knows him.

That's right. Lee Fisher, the guy who has run statewide approximately 79 times, isn't known in Ohio.

Look at the most recent poll by PPP. 44% of Ohioans don't know enough about Fisher to have an opinion one way or another. Compare that to Ted Strickland's 14%.

In other words, Lee has been lucky. Despite being Ted's Lt. Governor and Jobs Czar, he hasn't yet suffered from the same horrible approval ratings. Sure, his favorables are at -8 compared to Portman's +1, but Strickland is stuck at -18 approval. Things could be worse. That difference is not because Fisher has done a good job. It's just because no one knows him.

That enabled Fisher to use his first ad to re-introduce himself to voters with a positive message and try to make this race competitive again.

What's he do instead? He attacks Portman with the same tired style of advertising that is turning off voters throughout Ohio and the nation.

Fisher doesn't have much cash. He needed this ad to be a hit that provides him a rebound in polling, thereby encouraging contributors and the DSCC not to give up.

He missed the mark. Badly.