[UPDATED]: Paul Hackett is a hack, and it's time we acknowledge that

Nobody likes a good narrative better than me, but at somepoint the truth has to trump the legend (look out, Gov. Palin).

Paul Hackett is a darling of the DailyKos crowd and many Ohio progressive bloggers , even though politically, he's much more conservative that they are.  The sole reason for this is because of his performance in the low turnout special election in which he almost defeated Jean Schmidt to fill the remainder of Rob Portman's term.

The very next year, after flirting with running for the Senate instead of a rematch, Hackett dropped out of politics almost entirely.  The Democratic nominee, Dr. Victoria Wulsin, actually outperformed Hackett and came even closer to defeating Schmidt as an incumbent in a regular election than Hackett did in an open seat race during a low turnout special election.

Beyond that, he said that Sherrod Brown was too liberal to defeat Mike DeWine.  And was proven wrong.  He then endorsed Rosemary Palmer over the consensus challenger candidate to Dennis Kucinich.  Palmer performed worse than just about any other challenger.

Then Hackett decided this Spring that he had to denigrate Wulsin's chances this cycle.  As a result, I said on this blog that I was officially done with Hackett.

Now, emerging on DailyKos for more fauning, Hackett today decided to post some of the most gawd awful advice I've ever seen.  And almost all of it is a completely untrue characterization of Barack Obama's campaign in Ohio.

Here's a point by point rebuttal of Hackett's hack of a post:

The Obama campaign has no organized presence in Southern Ohio; southern Ohio defined as south of Interstate 70 which runs east west and loosely divides the state in half both geographically and culturally.  The Obama campaign’s focus of effort is evident in the traditionally Democratic strongholds of northeast Ohio, the Cleveland area and Mahoning Valley, in addition to Franklin County/Columbus in the center of the state.

In fact, Obama has six to seven campaign offices in SEO alone.  Far more than Obama has in NWO, and far more to the nonexistent presence Kerry had in 2004.

Obama himself just campaigned in the region in the past week.  Governor Ted Strickland has been barnstorming the region on behalf of Obama.  And the Governor of Tennessee has spent considerable time campaigning in the region.  In comparison, we got one picture of John Kerry goose hunting last cycle, and that was closer to the Youngstown region than rural Appalachia.

Hackett then goes on to suggest that Obama is taking a strategy to focus on pumping up GOTV efforts in Columbus and NEO and other urban areas to win.  That is not the strategy.

Then Hackett writes:

The only antidote for such an assault is a comprehensive and aggressive personal attack on the Republican ticket focusing on how the personal lives of Palin/McCain evidence their personal unreliability and therefore their lack of character and values to lead America coupled with an aggressive defense of the Democratic central theme of Change.

...

The message is simple and the professionals can refine it but essentially it should contain these elements:

"Sarah Palin?  Can't keep her solemn oath of devotion to her husband and had sex with his employee.  Sarah Palin? Accidentally got pregnant at age 43 and the tax payers of Alaska have to pay for the care of her disabled child.  Sarah Palin? Unable to teach her 16 year old daughter right from wrong and now another teenager is pregnant. Sarah Palin? Can you trust Sarah Palin and her values with America's future?  John McCain? Divorced from his first wife one month and marries a billionaire influence peddler and convicted felon.  John McCain, a record of rash and impulsive decisions.  That’s not change that’s more of the same.”

Like it or not the path to the White House requires paying the Ohio Toll, and traipsing around Columbus or Cleveland and preaching to the converted is no substitute, and for that matter nor is duck hunting with Governor Strickland;  See John Kerry, 2004.

First, you would think an outdoorsman would know the difference between a Canadian goose and a duck.  Second, this is just gawd awful advice.  Attack Palin over unreported claims that she had an affair?  Claim that the pregnancy of her last child was an accident?  Blame her as a parent for her child getting pregnant?

If the phoney "lipstick on the pig" caused faux outrage, this kind of sleazy personal attacks would generate genuine outrage.... against Obama.

Hackett's post is factually blind and tone deaf.  He simply doesn't know the basic facts about Obama's ground game in Ohio as he criticizes Obama for not doing exactly what he is doing.

It's time it was said.   Paul Hackett is a one-trick pony and will stay that way until he decides to do something to help out the cause instead of trying to steal some more of his fading limelight.

Maybe if Paul Hackett acknowledged he was wrong to criticize Victoria Wulsin this spring and was foolish to give Schmidt such partisan fodder.  Maybe if he started dialing for dollars and voters for Vic Wulsin.  Maybe if he went to the Obama campaign offices in Portsmouth, Chillicothe, Marietta, Nelsonville, or Marietta to volunteer or to boost the morale of those volunteers to keep up the fight.  Maybe if he campaigned for Obama and Wulsin in SEO with just a tenth of the intensity he did for himself.

Maybe then he could become the Paul Hackett that the DailyKos crowd believe him to be, and be the political figure I once thought he was.

[UPDATE 1:]  It's official... Paul Hackett hack status was officially declared by Ben Smith on Politico:

Hackett isn't a particularly central figure in Ohio Democratic politics these days, and I don't think the Obama campaign is likely to air the attack ad he suggests, which goes after Palin on the grounds of sex and motherhood.

It includes the line that Palin "accidentally got pregnant at age 43 and the tax payers of Alaska have to pay for the care of her disabled child." (And that's the most printable part.)

[UPDATE 2:]  Here's an Ohio Obama diary on DailyKos that's worth reading. (From a fellow Scioto County native, no less).