Sherrod Brown proven correct on key national issues

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http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/118690918566450.xml&coll=2


Washington- Sherrod Brown doesn't say "I told you so," although he might have a right to, given the things that have changed since his election.

(snip)
Need a template to win the presidency by winning Ohio's electoral votes? A lot more can change before November 2008, but for now the methods and message of Brown, already one of the Senate's most reliable Democratic votes, are getting a look.

(snip)
"I think that you can stand up for the middle class and stand up for workers and low-income people and win," he says.

(and a closing snip from a long article)
Given the rise of Brown-style populism, does Brown's election provide a 2008 template?

"I hadn't thought about that," says Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader. "But I do believe what we have been doing in the past, and I mean we Democrats, hasn't worked. So I would think that people should watch very closely how Sherrod really took this race and did it his way."

[Kolesar]

1. Coverage of Brown's work on agricultural price supports & his opinion of Al From/DLC

The first Ohioan in 40 years on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Brown has proposed helping farmers, especially corn growers, by factoring crop yield, not just price, into agriculture subsidies. Severe weather can harm yield and incomes, yet government price supports don't compensate. Brown faces opposition from Western and Southern lawmakers representing cotton farmers and rice growers who prefer the current supports.

Brown's election posed "a question mark" for many Ohio farmers, says Adam Sharp of the Ohio Farm Bureau. Farmers generally supported Mike DeWine, the two-term Republican whom Brown defeated, and with up to a third of Ohio's farm products exported, many disagree with Brown on trade.

But on taking office, Brown quickly met with farmers to hear their concerns. Although it's too early to say if Brown will win them over, Sharp says farmers are at least pleased that Brown is "showing an active interest."

Though Republicans may be skeptical, Democrats were - and are - impressed. Even those who disagree with Brown.

"We may not agree with Sherrod Brown on everything, but it sure is refreshing to see a Democrat representing the great state of Ohio in the United States Senate," says Al From, chief executive and founder of the pro-trade Democratic Leadership Council, which provided the moderate platform from which Bill Clinton rose in 1992. Brown, like many in the ascendant progressive wing of his party, refers to From's group today as "irrelevant," saying it embraced "a special-interest, corporate influence in the party."

:loveya:

[geiger]

2. I'm trying to think of a way to describe his approach to issues

I have not always agreed with him, but he has ended up being right. He studies issues and chooses his own path; he is beholden to noone. He is an interesting study and just a good guy trying to do the right thing, always cognizant of the importance of separating perception/public relations from what is actual reality. He is in seeming awe of our democratic institutions and equally mindful of how easy it would be to lose them.

Canary in the mine, indeed. He keeps the game honest.