Much has been made of Christine O’Donnell’s surprising win over the former governor of Delaware, Mike Castle for Republican senate candidate. It appeared that even O’Donnell was surprised herself. Why has so much been made over O’Donnell rather than the others, especially the guy with the porno email? Simple. Christine O’Donnell has a paper/video trail a mile long. She is not obscure.
O’Donnell is an attractive 41 year old woman who has appeared at least 22 times on Bill Maher’s show, Politically Incorrect. O’Donnell was the Christian Activist on the panel. Additionally, she ran at least once against Joe Biden for senator. She has been a spokesperson for Concerned Women for American, and she was the president and founder of S.A.L.T. (Savior’s Alliance for Lifting the Truth). People know too much about her.
She has made public statements about masturbation being adultery. She has confessed to dabbling in witch craft. She has opposed abortion for any reason, including rape and incest. She has some ethics problems about her resume, her graduation from college, and some unpaid college loans. She has said the current president is so liberal he is unAmerican. The list of extreme statements goes on.
O’Donnell appears to be camera savvy. She is no stranger to smiling. She has a beautiful smile. Even Bill Maher said she is a genuinely nice person (and that Palin was mean). But O’Donnell just doesn’t know much about government and the ways of the political world. She appears to be a good Christian culture warrior and confirms many of our suspicions about the collective tea parties being collections of religious right.
The real question is, what is she going to be able to so about that ‘paper trail’ of stupid remarks? *I* don’t care that she dabbled in witchcraft. To each his own, but I sure don’t think her base is going to like to learn that. How can the tea party rebuke charges of extremism with this kind of representation? I don’t see how they can. She is an extremist by many people’s standards.
O’Donnell has cancelled her Sunday appearances on TV.
Meet Chris Coons, the opposition.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/2010_elections/?story=/politics/war_room/2010/09/16/christine_odonnell_post_primary
So much hate against Ms. O’Donnell. It’s amusing to watch the fireworks from the left.
Why do you say hate, Marin? To look at someone’s political attributes, both positive and negative, isn’t hate.
Do you think there is a lot of hate against Obama? I do. Is it hate to say that she has political beliefs that simply are opposite yours? She has made some stupid remarks that are going to be hard to reconcile with much of the public.
The point I tried to make is, there is too much out there on her for her to be able to just put things on hold. she will have to confront them. The more of a public position a person has taken, the greater chance he/she will be swift boated.
Finally, I guess you feel I showed hate since the words I wrote were my own and not quotes. Sorry about that. I guess she should be lucky she isn’t the Prez.
But, unlike the left I won’t call someone racist or say that the level of discourse has bottomed out. If it makes anyone here happy to point out Ms. O’Donnell’s quotes OR to read into them…that’s fine. But, we shouldn’t see anyone here get a peep for talking about Obama.
I personally think it’s fair game…left or right as long as you don’t go after the familes (a politician that runs on family opens him/herself to SOME attacks)
I’ll still sit back and eat my popcorn as I watch the left twist itself over her and fail to recognize that what’s pushing candidates like her being elected is a tin eared administration and democratically controlled Congress that rammed healthcare and finance reform down our throats. They will reap what they’ve sown.
Not too many years ago, there was a feller from down New Orleans way who said something very profound in the midst of a hard-fought presidential campaign: “IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!!!” Bet he is saying the same thing today.
Looks to me like there are quite a few people right here in Washington, D.C. who seem not to know how a government is supposed to be run or the ways of the political world. Look at this veteran congressman named Mike Castle, for instance. All those years in politics and on the Hill, and he got ambushed and run over by a comparative rookie. And then there is Harry Reid calling Chris Coons his “pet” at a time when his fellow Dems who are up for re-election are trying to distance themselves from being seen to be too close to the Washington power centers. Now that was an absolutely brilliant move on the part of someone who is supposed to know the ways of the political world. Poor Chris Coons is already trying to hide from that one.
Not sure when ‘pet’ happened. And I believe Harry Reid might suffer from the same thing O’Donnell does….too much exposure. While never elected, Christine O’Donnell is still not a rookie (IMHO). I think if you have run against Joe Biden for a senate seat, you are disqualified.
If she had not been in a position most of us consider extreme for the past 15 or so years, she might be able to survive. I can’t see America doing a 180 and deciding that those ideas advanced by the far right are now part of mainstream America. We shall see.
I still say that regardless of what the pundits say or don’t say, conservatives might want to ask themselves why John McCain isn’t sitting in the White House right now. Deal breaker! I know far too many people who were giving strong consideration to McCain until Palin was put on the ticket. That sent a whole lot of people off in another direction, who were really having a hard time reconciling several issues regarding the Obama campaign. All of a sudden it became a devil/deep blue sea issue.
The jury is out until November. I wouldn’t buy too much champaign yet.
For me, the behavior of Murkowski and Castle is infinitely more interesting than dirt on O’Donnell. God knows the left-leaning media will keep its zombies busy with O’Donnell dirt for a while (oh, and with Palin probably launching a 2012 run, the left ought to be shaking and piddling themselves like a Chihuahua for a good long time). Meanwhile, conservatives are watching what happens when entrenched Republicans are thrown out on their butts. They are really acting like petulant little kids (a lot like Obama). They truly believe they are ENTITLED to their positions. It’s the coolest thing to happen in a long time.
Not really (piddling). The further to the right the conservatives go, the less threatening they are to Democrats. The people who seem to be piddling are the Republicans, all falling on each other to see who can serve up the most conservative spiel.
I don’t necessarily see the footage on O’Donnell as dirt. I see it as eye-opening on the real O’Donnell. I think people who might have been attracted to the low tax, deficit alarms and smaller government stance of the tea party are going to see that often what they are getting is religious right.
Now that comes as no surprise to some of us. The code words were easily recognized.
Slow, I know you believe very much in the principles of the tea party(s). Does it bother you about religious right issues at all? And I might very well be wrong on this, but I feel like some of them picked up the Tea Party banner and ran with it to advance RR issues.
Any thoughts on this?
The election or non election of the Tea Party is a win for them. If their candidate wins it’s obvious if they lose the Republicans still have to move right toward the Tea Party for their base vote in 2012. So for the Tea Party its a “win-win” So us “lefties” should not look down on their influence!
Bear, are you speaking of the influence of the religious right/culture warriors or the Tea Party?
Some establishment Republicans failed to see this thing coming and to figure out how to make their own place within it in order to come through it standing on their feet. In my opinion, it shows you how detached these politicians become when they are in office for a long time, drink the heady wine of Washington power, and seem to lose close psychological contact with the people, only trying to reverse that image when election time comes. They were warned repeatedly by pundits, by public rallies, by those contentious townhall meetings, by media interviews with individual Americans, by bloggers, and even by pundits and pollsters on the other side of the poitical aisle. Many of them did not listen closely enough. Many mistook the Tea Party movement to be just opposition to Obama and the Dems and something to be co-opted possibly for their own purposes, not realizing that the 2010 primaries put them directly in the first line of fire which was aimed in many, many cases at “career politicians” in general.
These people are beginning to pay a price for trying to carry a political label which does not match in philosophy that of a large body of their natural political constituency. They ignored the contemporary direction of many Republican voters. They even ignored the direction of independent voters in the 2009 Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts elections. In fact, I found that there were Democratic pundits, political consultants, and pollsters who seemed to understand better the mood of a substantial part of the Republican and independent constituencies than did these Republican politcos themselves. Mike Castle walked in the sublimity of long-time power and wound up in a ditch. A guy like former Clintonite Dick Morris, on the other hand, was telling anyone who wanted to listen that the likes of Mike Castle were walking self-blindedly into danger because they could not come to grips with the fact that many Americans have gone past the number crunching game with regard to power on the Hill and replaced that with a strong expression of personal belief in the specifically expressed tenets of the Constitution. Some like Mike Pence and Jim DeMint caught on quickly. Others, like Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, seemed to me to remain somewhat oblivious — until now.
Moon, I would disagree somewhat with your take on the McCain loss. First, I think that McCain made the mistake of believing that his famed military record would give him a substantial leg up on someone like Obama. He did get some of that; but it is my opinion that we have gone past that period in our political history when military feats are enough to carry you to political victory. The era of Eisenhower is long gone. Contemporary issues are now too contentious and too close to all of us to give a military hero a free pass. McCain was dogged by the stances he had taken more recently in the Senate. He lost a large portion of what might have been a natural constituency when he got so heavily involved in the illegal immigration issue for instance. Without going into the right or wrong of anyone on this issue, McCain failed to understand, in my view, just how explosive politically that issue had become.
In my opinion, McCain was lagging behind in mid-campaign not only because the Bush economy had started to go south but because there were an awfully lot of conservatives who did not quite trust him on domestic issues critical to them. He could not generate the electoral enthusiasm he needed to advance. Many conservatives were torn between holding their noses and voting for the man or just saying the Hell with it and sitting at home in a fit of deep anger. When McCain awakened to that fact and realized that he badly needed to counter that and generate some campaign enthusiuasm, he reached out for someone who gave off the image of being a genuine conservative. That someone was Palin. She was strongly conservative. The fact that she was a successfully self-made political woman was a bonus with regard to the distaff conservative constituency. Now, this was not a unique move by a long shot. Back in 1960, when JFK realized that he could lose the race against Nixon if the Dems did not try to salvage part of the Deep South and the “Bible Belt” in general, he tapped Lyndon Johnson of Texas as his running mate, even though the Kennedys and their people personally detested Johnson. McCain, like JFK, made a calculated move which, under other circumstances, he might not have made.
Where I disagree is the issue of whether or not Palin helped McCain. From what I could see, the presence of Palin on the ticket got a mighty lot of conservatives off their duffs and into the electoral fray almost instantly, even if only to decide to hold their noses a bit less tightly and pull the lever for McCain/Palin. In the end, it did not prove to be enough. But I firmly believe that it was the suddenly failing economy and a growing dislike for Bush which doomed the McCain cause, not a dislike for Palin on the other side of the aisle. In opposition to your comment about non-conservatives who might have been undecided about McCain until Palin came along, I found some of my Republican and independent friends who were so fed up with Bush and the tumbling economy that they actually pulled the lever for Obama. The presence of Palin eventually became a side issue for them. When you asked them why they voted the way they did, they could hardly give you a cogent answer except to indicate that they were simply fed up with the way things were in 2008.
On the other side of the anecdotal coin, I had one guy, a professional man who had been unable to watch one of the Biden-Palin debates, stop his car on the street, come over to me, and ask how Palin had done in that debate. When I told him I thought that there was no decisive outcome and nothing very spectacular on the part of Palin, he just slapped the side of my car and exclaimed: “I don’t care! I’m voting for Palin!” He never mentioned McCain once in that conversation.
Back to O’Donnell for a moment. Please note that I said “comparative rookie.” That “comparative” was in regard to Castle’s much more extensive political experience. I tend to believe that O’Donnell’s previous run against Biden was in the nature of a sacrifical candidate in what was thought to be a hopeless cause. If there had been any kind of a chance, why didn’t Castle run then? Upon looking back, I found that O’Donnell lost to Biden in Sussex County by only 127 votes. The margin was considerably larger in Kent County, but O’Donnell still manage to pull in a rather large chunk of votes. Where Biden killed her off decisively was in New Castle County and in Wilmington. That was in a forget-it year. The times and the opposition are different this time around. Maybe or maybe not.
Actually, McCain was trying to fix the immigration issue. His problem is, he allowed someone else, namely FAIR, NUMBERSUSA, and Tancredo, et al, to define the bill rather than him fighting like a junk yard dog to get the 2007 bill through congress.
As for Palin, I would suggest that those who were voting for Palin would have voted anyway for McCain. Were they going to switch to Obama? I don’t think so. Where McCain lost and lost big were all the moderates to the slightly leaning across the center voters who had some fairly large concerns about Obama. Those concerns vaporized once Palin opened her mouth and Obama it was.
Dick Morris is probably the biggest whore of them all….by the way. He is probably a bigger one than the one he got caught with publically, resulting in his firing. No one seems to remember that.
I suppose the disagreement here boils down to whether conservatives would have stayed home or whether centrists would have voted for McCain. I can’t speak for the conservatives. I can speak for the centrists and they dropped the McCain idea like a hot potato.
All bets are off by me on where this is going to go. I decided many years ago that sometimes the American people need to feel pain from their election decisions. You can’t tell them anything…they have to find out for themselves.
I am afraid such is the case this time.
Well, I still disagree. Tancredo and the others notwithstanding, McCain’s intense involvement in the illegal immigration issue cast a certain pall over his presidential bid in many conservative eyes no matter what. You could see that quite openly on many conservative blogs. People on one side saying he was an arrogant SOB and a likely backstabber. Others pleading for them to hold their noses and vote for McCain on the grounds that Obama would be a potential and far worse disaster. Until the appearance of Palin on the ticket, I myself was increasingly convinced that many dyed-in-the-wool conservatives might just stay home as a perceived object lesson to the establishment Republicans. The image of Ross Perot was not too far in the past.
Yes, Moon, I remember full well Dick Morris and his toe sucking. Seems now like a minor “crime” compared to subsequent “woo-woo” events in the same administation, if you can imagine a First Lady having to assign one of her female aides to keep the young and sweet White House dollies away from the Oval Office. Anyway, I must admit to being mystified at first by the arrival of Dick Morris in the pundit and “consultant” positions he now appears to hold. After watching his contemporary moves at length, however, I must say that this “toe sucker” has got some political acumen, which probably explains how he wound up as a close Clinton advisor in the first place. I don’t know if this is true or not, but he claims to have been the one to advise Clinton to change his political ways after the 1994 electoral disaster and to have helped Clinton win an easy second term by capturing a bigger slice of the moderate and independent votes.
As far as the rest of it goes, I also think that all bets are off. Whatever the case, future political historians are going to make hay over this entire episode. There seem to be a lot of people now who have decided to adopt that old Spartan thing about either coming home carrying your shield or coming home prone upon it. And, incidentally, I see reports now that the “Right” is beginning to make a resurgence — in Sweden, of all places.
Wolverine – very good synopsis.
O’Donnell dabbled in witchcraft, and we are to ignore it, we are told by the Birthers – they just want you to believe whatever they say.
The problem with Dick Morris is he has no loyalties. I doubt anyone cares that he was with a prostitute. He was fired for that prostitute having access to confidential conversations with the president.
I know nothing about Hillary having to hire a girl friend to keep her husband away from anyone. She was apparently blindsided by the Lewinski situation.
Still a Clinton supporter…regardless of unsavory behavior. Its between him and his wife.
Wolverine, I don’t argue at all that McCain fell out of favor over immigration with conservatives. I just don’t agree with the conservatives, starting with anything involving a fine being considered amnesty. It sounds like a penalty to me and to anyone else who understand the definition of the word amnesty. McCain should not have let that one get away from him.
McCain’s attraction to centrists, pre-Palin selection, was that he was a moderate Republican and worked across the aisle. Once Palin hit the scene, centrists headed for the hills and decided to take their chances with Obama.
I guess no one will ever know. However, I can’t tell you the number of centrists I talked to who immediately dropped any ideas of supporting McCain when Palin came on the ticket.
People who can work across the aisle are very appealing to centrists.
And meanwhile, back to O’Donnell. What qualifies her for Senate? She has never held public office for anything. Has she held a job other than working for Concerned Women?
Does anyone consider that a serious job? Phyllis Schlaffy’s group is pure religious right.
I could care less if O’Donnell dabbled in witchcraft. What kid hasn’t fooled with a ouija board? Kids do dumb things. However, I suspect I am more forgiving than Schlaffly’s crowd.
I listened to Bill Maher last night on this subject. He is holding good to his promise of releasing a video a week until she comes on his show. He also said she, unlike Palin, didn’t have a mean bone in her body. He likes her. His skit was funny.
She’s over 30, an American citizen and she lives in the state that she seeks election in. She’s qualified.
The electorate will determine if they want her to represent them. With all the panic evidenced on here and Huffington I think there is a good chance she’ll make the cut. If nothing else, she’s getting a lot of free advertising!
I LOVE THIS!! The left is coming unhinged and are making these mid-term elections so entertaining. They just don’t get it… and never will.
I don’t mean what legally qualifies her. I mean what makes her appealing to voters? As she held previous office? Has she held a job that would make her vastly more qualified over her opponent? How about her ethics violations? How has she supported herself for the past 20 years? She is 41 years old.
The resume isn’t real long in the income earning category.
Marin, don’t mistake the coverage here on this blog as ‘panic.’ I certainly really could care less who Delaware elects beyond the fact that all senators seal our fate. I do think, however, that O’Donnell is probably emblematic of the type of candidate who attracts tea party votes. Do you not think we should be taking a look at that if we are to be informed voters?
It isn’t just Huffington, it is all the online papers. When Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck appear to be the king and queen of tea party, then you can rest assure they will stay in the spot light. They are seen as FAR right. Its probably about time that Obama share the spotlight with those in the tea party. Smart democrats will sit back and watch the carnage going on amongst Republicans and the tea party.
PSSSSTTTT I am not panicking over the rogue soldiers or the woman being executed either, they are just articles. The rogue soldiers really should receive more attention.
I think the conservatives here will ‘get this’ http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2020215,00.html and those that are left of center will continue to have a tin ear.
O’Donnell is basically in the same boat. I think the common independant voter of DE will see this media assault on O’Donnell as another female politician being beat down by the press and it may swing votes her way. People like an underdog and she’s coming out swinging.
She looks great for 41. I had thought she was in her 30s — not that it matters.
Thanks for the link, Marinm. Woosh. Halperin laid it all out in that one. Gotta read that guy more. He can cut to the bone.
@Moon-howler
What makes her appealing? She’s got HAIR, a great smile, glittering eyes, she’s cute as a button (strange expression BTW), nice figure, good voice. What’s there NOT to like?
As I’m making stupid remarks, here’s another one. Dick Morris – whenever I see him on TV I think of him in that fancy hotel sucking the toes of a “paid-for”woman.
Furthermore – I’d love to see him trying to change a tire on the Beltway!
OK – enough. I’m having a fancy tuna salad for dinner.
She does look great, Marin. She seems almost child-like. Sort of like Wow! Look what I did.
From the article that you assume the centrists are too …dumb? uncalculating? to understand: (Time)
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2020215,00.html#ixzz106t7Q5I1
I believe the article just really said that Sarah Palin is in the driver’s seat right now because she has rock star quality. This doesn’t say much for her followers other than they are vapid non-thinkers who got swept up in the worship of Palin. There are light-years between now and the presidential election. She has plenty of time to shoot herself in the foot. She has yet to articulate how she would do things different. It is all sound bites.
What I find scary is that welter-weights think they know how to fix the economy. Most people don’t understand what happened to it, much less how to fix it.
I prefer to listen to Paulson and Bernake and other people who have a much firmer grasp of macro-economics than someone like Palin or O’Donnell. If that makes me an elitist, so be it. I also wouldn’t attempt to launch a rocket or take out my own appendix.
I will agree, she is slick. I thought she was slick when she resigned. I think she is slick and calculating now. Her followers will love her and her enemies will wait for her to step on that inevitable banana peel.
MH, I said left of center not center.
She doesn’t need anything outside of sound bites right now. The advantage of being on the outside looking in is that you can say and do more than if you were actually responsible. Mr. Obama learned that the first day he got his security briefing and backed off on the idea of removing forces from the Middle East.
I think the professional left loves to hate her and those that surround the TP and they do so at their own peril because they are misjudging the electorate and don’t have a firm grasp of the economic reality for the common person.
Mr. Obama’s answer at a town hall gave that away — I understand your paint (but I don’t feel it)
I am left of center on some issues but I guess overall it balances out. I can be right of center on some things.
I am mulling over whether any candidates need more than sound bites. I think they do. And you are right about outside looking in. Then reality smacks you dead on. I expect Mr. Obama wasn’t as blind sided as many people thought. But even if you aren’t blindsided, political reality is often very different from real reality…I will hand you that one.
Actually, the digging remark was first said by Clinton as was ‘I feel your pain.’ Clinton was demonized and vilified by the right. Now he is being quoted. Oy vey!
I actually don’t think anyone hates Christine O’Donnell. How could anyone hate her? She is pleasant, affable, and just over-all charming. Her smile is infectious. I would vote for her for ambassador somewhere.
I just think she represents what the non-right sees as a person with simplistic answers for complex questions and will not take her seriously. Perhaps that assessment sells her short. We shall see.
I am waiting to see what
At the time I think a party will paint anyone’s words a certain way to make them look bad or score points. You see it all the time and the re-use of “I feel your pain” is a good example of it.
To be honest, I use that phrase a lot. Because, as we saw with Fenty — when the electorate is up in arms over something having an elected official that just doesn’t get it or doesn’t have the same issues as the common folk risks losing his seat. If you can have a frank moment with someone (preferably without cameras around) and tell a person, I understand where you are coming from, I feel it and for you and I share in it some…..to connect that way speaks a lot to that persons ability to lead, communicate and reassure a person that things will get better.
Going back to the Obama TH answer. If he had just said, “Ma’am, I hear where your coming from and I spend a lot of my time trying to both understand the problem and finding a way to fix it.. We’ve had ideas (not good ones but go with me on this!) and we’ve made some progress but I can assure you that our future (connect!) is not beans and franks — with hard word it can be more than that.
It’s a fair critique to say that some answers may be too simplistic (like to save money on healthcare we nationalize it!) but I think sometimes we also over complicate answers. Sometimes action is better than years of studies, focus groups and concensus building.
I might be to Mr. Cuccinilli’s right on many things but you may find that with regards to civil rights I side with the People over the State. That’ll get me coined as a lefty by most but labels don’t bother me — what matters is what the Constitution says.
All I want to know about O’Donnell is….Does she weigh more than a duck?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTdDN_MRe64