Angle's Divided House Aided Her Fall

Townhall.com ^ | December 20, 2010 | Guy Benson

[ScottinVA]

No one can beat Harry in Nevada. SEIU, Casinos, Mexicans its a stacked deck.

That, and I think there's another dynamic at work, too. Considering the 14% unemployment rate, it seems voters -- though they knew the dems' policies damaged their state's economy -- allowed themselves to be convinced that only the entrenched and influential Reid could deliver for them. They no longer cared about fixing economic problems long-term. The short-term needs took over.

And that's a condition the dems have been very effective at creating: lowering peoples' hopes and expectations for the future and forcing them to grasp only for satisfaction of day-to-day needs. The result is a weaker, meeker and more submissive population that no longer believes in itself and merely gazes upward to Big Government as the giver of all that is good.

Why else would the Regime now stress that double-digit unemployment is the "new normal?"

[ncalburt]

That Campbell was a DISASTER.

The days before the election there was NO ground team getting people to the polls but Campbell was busy planning the victory party.

Angle was warned by many locals that this clown was screwing up and ignoring the ground game and she ignored them.

[Al B.]

Great insight, BC. Sarah Palin needs no strategists to tell her what to do. She will, however, need campaign "mechanics", lots of them, on the ground in the states.

I hope she's reading resumes over the holidays...LOL.

[catnipman]

Both Ken Buck in Colorado and Sharron Angle managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Both were privates the Tea Party promoted to instant Generals, and both thought they were smarter than they were. Both thought they could spar with the professional press, and both were eaten up and spit out alive.

Neither listened to the professionals. All that they or any conservative candidate had to due was keep on message and keep their mouths shut to deliberately divisive questions. Neither had the discipline to do that.

All any conservative had to do was answer ANY question with one of the following:

1. Cut taxes, cut spending, and cut the deficit.

2. Stop illegal immigration.

3. Support the military.

4. Support strong and effective efforts against terrorists.

5. Repeal Obamacare and replace it with a simple package of true reform.

Scott Brown did this and won in a liberal state. Any GOP candidate could have done the same, but most of the Tea Party candidates weren’t smart enough to keep their mouths shut and stay on message. Sharon Angle, Ken Buck, and Joe Miller obviously liked to listen to themselves cast pearls before swine rather keep their mouths shut and get elected.

[slowhandluke]

A candidate needs to have stock answers / talking points to the ten or twelve major issues, and certainly immigration is one of them. You steer the question to the talking point, and say what YOU want to say, and not necessarily answer the specific question. This one is on Angle. Bad mistake.

And this is what the professionals should have targeted, rather than randomly shifting her schedule which seems more a tactic to get her disoriented rather than a tactic for winning. The comment about sending her to events without preparation seems telling - it sounds very unprofessional, so if these were professionals, the implication is that it was premeditated.

[slowhandluke]

I've got to agree about the moronic status of the comparison of political professionals to mechanics.

The proportion of honest mechanics isn't what it should be, but it's way ahead of the proportion of honest political consultants. While a mechanic might do unnecessary fixes, they don't hope you crash after they've fixed something.

What we've seen clearly is that somebody who worked for Mitt or Huck tend to always work for Mitt or Huck, and not necessarily for the candidate currently paying their fees.

[pepperdog]

Another Nicolle Wallace moment in the 2010 campaign? These political operatives who are practically bred inside the beltway are not to be trusted.

[Nevadan]

There is tremendous truth to the following: “In the end, it may be that none of the potential GOP contenders in Nevada could have beaten Reid. His get-out-the-vote machine was top-notch, and his strategy was executed to perfection.”

More people in Nevada dislike (or maybe should I say “hate”) Reid than like or love him. However, his get-out-the-vote machine was overwhelming. Republicans do not even have a machine. And I don't think we ever will. We have no groups of people such as the Democrats have that we can literally harass and put the fear of the loss of their job over their heads to force them to get out and vote. (If we even tried that Republicans would leave in droves or remain home on voting day.)

A huge factor in the election was the union vote. The unions were very active in busing the workers to the polls. The union reps were there checking the vote registries at the poll sites to find out who had not voted. Then those people were contacted and picked up and taken to the polls. I heard that unions employees had to bring proof back to work that they had voted or they would be in trouble.

If you look at the stats for the whole state, Reid won in the counties with the major union presence: Clark & Washoe. All the Reid campaign had to do was concentrate their efforts on the these counties. It was close in a couple other counties, but in the rest of the counties Angle won by huge margins:
Sharon Angle's Vote Total by County
Eureka County 69%
Esmeralda County 67.5%
Lincoln County 67.3%
White Pine County 67.3%
Elko County 63.5%
Churchill County 63.4%
Lander County 63.2%
Lyon County 59.9%
Douglas County 59 8.%
Humboldt County 56.9%
Nye County 54.3%
Pershing County 52.7%
Storey County 52.7%
Carson City 48%
Washoe County 44.9%
Mineral County 43.2%
Clark County 41.3%

Add to the union support, the RINO support, the illegal alien support, and voter fraud that surely took place because their is virtually no proof of citizenship or ID needed to obtain a voter registration in Nevada, it made it hard for Angle to win.

As for Angle appearing “crazy” that was the message from Reid from the very beginning. She was “crazy” and “extreme” for believing in conservative values. Much of what she said was twisted and misquoted by Reid and his campaign. She was definitely not a slickly packaged politician.

[ridesthemiles]

As soon as I saw that the SEIU was maintaining the voting machines in Clark County,I knew the fix was in.You don’t go into election day down 4 points and win by 6 without massive fraud.”

As a Nevada voter, That is the main reason I think Reid won.

Also- Clark County is a source of many illegals who vote. ACORN is still VERY active there. Darrell Issa may think that ACORN is gone, but they are not. They have changed their name in many states.

[ridesthemiles]

The word around NV after this incident was that she was ‘crazy’.””

Reid’s camp were calling Sharron crazy from the first jump.

[windsorknot]

I prefer Angle’s “craziness” to Reid’s corrupt tyranny.

[Nevadan]

Since Reid’s definition of crazy is anyone who believes what the vast majority of freepers believe, I agree!

[roses of sharon]

Reid's water-boys on FR (upthread) often repeat the accusation that she was “crazy”.

The only crazies were those who voted for a Democrat who gave them 14% unemployment, and are turning NV into a Third-World failed state like CA.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”The word around NV after this incident was that she was ‘crazy’.””Reid’s camp were calling Sharron crazy from the first jump. “

The lesson to learn ?? If your opposition is calling you crazy from day 'one' then don't record him a campaign commercial (in a school) that looks like it is really true just after you surprise everyone by doing well in the debate.

[r9etb]

Reid ran a great race??????????????????

He came from behind (if we believe the polls) and beat the living crap out of Sharron Angle.

Yes, he was a terrible candidate. But his campaign ran a great, focused race that concentrated on the fundamentals.

Meanwhile, as the article points out, Angle's campaign was foundering in ideological thumb-twiddling.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

This is the one that really killed her, and as the author says it reversed what she had gained from beating Reid in the debate. The word around NV after this incident was that she was ‘crazy’.

It certainly was unnecessary for Angle to say they looked Asian. Tea Party candidates who are rookies on the national stage (and not gifted like Reagan) need training to avoid stepping into traps. It's a shame, because then they become more like their opponents.

However, what she was trying to say ("What we know, what we know about ourselves is that we are a melting pot in this country. My grandchildren are evidence of that. I'm evidence of that.") made a lot of sense. But the race-baiting media (including some on Fox) and special interests keep telling them that they are Mexicans first.

- Juan Hernandez, McCain Hispanic Outreach Director

[sickoflibs]

RE :”I prefer Angle’s “craziness” to Reid’s corrupt tyranny.”

Don't forget Reid's role (big push) in ending DADT, you have to wonder what all those Hispanics that came out to save him think about that.

Unfortunately there is a limit to what us supporters can accomplish in districts where we are in the minority and the candidate gives the Democrats even more ammunition. Sadly, it looked like Angle's campaign had really turned things around and might still win.

[sickoflibs]

She was trying to avoid the kid’s question with that answer, but it backfired. She wasnt prepared for it. It was the same question an illegal’s kid asked Obama in a MD school so she shouldnt have been surprised by it.

The only Asians in NV are visitors in the casinos.

[Lancey Howard]

This is a very interesting piece. I came away from it with the conclusion that Angle didn’t do a good enough job “quarterbacking” the two campaign factions, or at least placing somebody clearly at the top of the food chain to make final decisions on her behalf. You can’t go through an entire campaign with two factions butting heads. It’s an indication that nobody was in charge. That’s ridiculous.

[lentulusgracchus]

(Art., quoting Brendan Steinhauser)

“It’s a very delicate balance,” he explained, “and it starts with respect. ....You go to a mechanic to get your car fixed, right? The same applies to politics.”

Respect was nonexistent with the "pros" -- typical establishment characters, arrogant and self-serving.

Remember, you can't be "establishment" and still be "conservative". It's like being a "nice *sshole". It's an oxymoron.

And the difference between political operatives and car mechanics is, if you take your car to the shop, you get it back -- the mechanic doesn't end up owning your car and the truth. "His car? What do you mean? It's always been my car ....."