The Ohio News Network website is carrying a brief article about former Congressman Rob Portman’s rumored consideration of a 2010 run for Voinovich’s Senate seat. The only bit I hadn’t already heard is a sort of wishy-washy quote from Portman saying he’s “leaning toward deciding to run,” which sounds like he’s either going to try it, or he’s going to consider thinking about it.

For a quote that goes beyond awkward to downright stupid, Professor Tim White at Xavier takes the cake:

“it’s going to be very hard for republicans to win in 2010. If you look at Obama’s approval rating near 80 percent. That makes it very difficult for any democrat to latch on to him to lose,” said Professor White.

I hadn’t realized it, but for a change of pace we’re actually having the 2010 elections on January 14, 2009. Golly, President-elect Obama has a high approval rating? I could manage decent approval ratings myself, given years to prepare, hundreds of millions in PR, and no responsibility to do anything but talk. I’m no Political Science professor, but maybe we should see what the man does before we usher him into a second term, with Democrats from sea to shining sea riding his imagined future coattails.