Mitch McConnell, The Populist With Hollywood Production Values

Unpopular Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has turned to wunderkind video producer Lucas Baiano to spice up his image.

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Recent polls suggest that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is underwater in his home state of Kentucky about 18 months before his next election: One recent survey found that 36% approved of his performance, while 54% disapprove. One of his problems, Republicans in Congress, where he is a leader, tend to poll far worse, with about one in four Americans approving.

How to solve this problem? Reintroduce McConnell to Kentucky with some fancy Hollywood production values as a populist fighting for the little guy. And who better for the job than Lucas Baiano, the wunderkind video producer who has produced similar videos for Chris Christie, Tim Pawlenty and Rick Perry. The video in all its flag-waving, Lady Liberty glory:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07SxpNsYZSs]

Notably McConnell, who narrates the video, barely gets any screen time. But then that technique can be pretty standard for Baiano. Here is his video of Rick Perry:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8EL5Atp_vF0]

And Tim Pawlenty:

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/21296895 w=400&h=300]

Cue the fighter jet flyby. Republican activist Grover Norquist calls the new McConnell video a “GAMECHANGER.” Of course, it never quite worked out that way for Pawlenty or Perry. But then their videos almost certainly didn’t hurt either.

UPDATE: The McConnell camp emails to point out that the survey I note above is one of several public measures over the last year of the senator’s popularity in his home state. Others are less grim. A Courier-Journal Bluegrass poll from September of 2012 found that 51% of the state approved of McConnell, with 42% disapproving. And an October SurveyUSA poll found 50% approved.