In Ohio, more Democrat unrest as Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, who is favored by the Democrat establishment in Washington, skipped the President’s speech yesterday. Meanwhile, Fisher’s primary opponent Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner was in attendance, but the President ignored her in his opening remarks.  Politico reports: [T]he NRSC accused Obama of snubbing Brunner because he never singled her out in the crowd. “The President took time to acknowledge Ohio’s Democrat Governor, Senator and congressional delegation during his remarks, but he didn’t think to acknowledge Ohio’s female statewide Secretary of State and Democrat Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner?,” asked NRSC spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson Marchand. “It’s difficult to believe that the president’s omission today was an oversight,” she added. While Fisher holds a significant fundraising advantage, the Secretary of State is counting on enthusiasm from the liberal, grassroots wing of the Democratic party to stay competitive.

• Perhaps wanting to avoid appearing with the increasingly unpopular President to rally for an even more unpopular issue, Fisher cited a previously scheduled editorial board meeting with the Plain Dealer as a conflict.  But as Politico’s Morning Score reports: The problem with Fisher’s excuse: Brunner made it to both Obama’s speech and an event at the newspaper, which featured the two Democratic Senate hopefuls making their respective cases side by side.
• And one day after the Columbus Dispatch editorial board criticized the Democrats’ health care bill, the Cincinnati Enquirer editorializes today on the Democrats’ “arrogant approach to health care.”  Real debate has been sidestepped, while Democrats played a childish game of Catch-22 with health care legislation: Congressional leaders wouldn’t allow Republican proposals to be formally considered, then turned around and accused them of not having alternatives. Among themselves, Democrats cut a series of backroom deals that in any other context would be considered criminal payoffs and bribery.

• Meanwhile, Ohio’s Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman sat with the Dayton Daily News editorial board yesterday and said the current health care system was “broken.” Portman, a former Cincinnati-area U.S. House member, said the health care system is broken but that the Democratic president blew a chance to reach across party lines for a bipartisan solution. “It’s unbelievable,” said Portman…We’re going to have higher, not lower costs.”

Also, the DailyKos notes the divisions surrounding the Ohio Senate Dem Senate primary in a post entitled “DSCC to Ohio voters: Screw your primary.” On May 4th, Ohio’s Democratic primary voters will have a choice between Jennifer Brunner, a progressive who has restored dignity to Ohio’s elections, and Lee Fisher, a corporate Democrat whose achievements are somewhat lacking.  Fisher served as Ohio’s Director of Development, in charge of attracting new industry and jobs to Ohio.  Instead, Ohio lost hundreds of thousands of jobs under his watch, and, in true Sarah Palin fashion, resigned a year early from his post.  Since then, he hasn’t done anything to help Ohioans.  He’s done an awful lot to help himself, though, raising money from all sorts of questionable places…So you would think that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee would remain neutral and allow Ohio’s voters the choice between the candidate of the people, Jennifer Brunner, and the candidate of Corporate America, Lee Fisher.  Not quite. 

• Finally, speaking of Presidential campaign visits, RealClearPolitics asks – with the President’s approval rating stagnant and support for his agenda slipping, might Biden ultimately be the more sought-after surrogate as the midterms heat up? On the surface, that question seems rather silly. Even if Obama’s numbers were to slip further below 50 percent, the benefits of a presidential visit, particularly as measured in dollars, cannot be surpassed. But the decision for Democrats on the ballot in 2010 is whether the potential harm outweighs the potential good. And some — particularly the more than 40 remaining Congressmen running in districts won by John McCain in 2008 — might prefer to keep their distance.  That’s a sentiment Republicans are increasingly hoping to paint as a trend. The National Republican Senatorial Committee pointed to the fact that Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher skipped Obama’s Strongsville event, while Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D), another candidate for Senate, was not acknowledged. Republicans also noted the absence of Robin Carnahan, Senate candidate in Missouri, from Obama’s trip to the Show-Me State last week. Politico reported this weekend that nearly a dozen moderate Democrats demonstrated “a lack of enthusiasm for having Obama come to their districts to campaign for them.”