Given how deep is the animosity in Nevada against Harry Reid (that is, of the slight majority who have a negative opinion of the 28-year Washington veteran), all Sharron Angle, his Republican opponent on this fall’s ballot, needed to do in their sole debate last night was show that she’s not the extremist his camp has made her out to be.
While his nasty ads have upped her unfavorables, such that a majority of Nevadans see her as extreme, those opinions aren’t as deep as their feeling for Mr. Reid. After all, she’s only been on their radar screen for a few months while he’s been a force in Nevada politics for decades. It will take longer to reduce his negatives than to cut hers.
The general consensus is that Angle did what she had to do (and then some) last night. Over at National Journal’s Hotline, Lindsey Boerma and Josh Kraushaar sum it up, “Throughout the Nevada Senate campaign, it was Republican Sharron Angle who looked unprepared for-prime-time. But after last night’s debate, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid looked more like the gaffe-prone politician as he struggled to make headway in one of the closest and most consequential Senate contests.”
Ed Morrissey puts her debate performance in context with Reid’s strategy:
The problem with a demonization strategy based on voter unfamiliarity with a candidate is that the candidate usually gets a chance to either confirm or destroy the impression before an election takes place. Harry Reid gambled on painting Sharron Angle as a nut, but in the end it was Reid who struggled to explain himself in the only debate in the Senate race for Nevada. Veteran political analyst Jon Ralston, no fan of Angle, declares her the winnersimply by showing Nevadans that she was far from the portrait of a lunatic that Reid had painted
Michelle Malkin reports that “channeling Reagan’s warrior optimism,” Angle responded to Reid’s condescension with a smile, asking “for Nevadans’ votes to restore prosperity and freedom and American exceptionalism. Without notes.” Wondering if she scored a TKO, John Hinderaker thinks her performance last night may have helped her seal the deal, “Angle’s positions on the issues are more popular than Reid’s, and if she held her own and gave as good as she got, as was evidently the case, the debate should give her a boost.”
She dragged him up and down the aisles by his teeth! I loved every second of it. Its as if the grandma next door is running for Senate, but a smart and well-informed grandma.
I mostly heard both were terrible and its mostly Reid’s loss because they came out even. It seems to be basically what the race has been the entire time.
Senator Reid had to prove Sharron Angle is a nut crazed zealot; however, he failed miserably given his charges were never based in reality. On the other hand, Sharron Angle tarred & feathered Harry Reid in some many rhetorical ways. I love it when she told Senator Reid to “man up.” She also asked him how he became a millionaire on public salary. Angle’s directness is a good contrast to Reid’s obtuseness.
As a Mormon, I gotta wonder how Reid morally justifies all of the lying and smearing he has engaged in throughout this campaign.
Angle definitely won the debate. Man Up Dingy Reid, and may you have a long life outside of public office. Congratulations to the new Junior Senator from Nevada, Ms. Angle.
As a Mormon, I gotta wonder how Reid morally justifies all of the lying and smearing he has engaged in throughout this campaign.
The same way Nancy Pelosi’s version of Catholicism endorses, supports, and demands public funding for unlimited abortions.
LMAO. U’re suggesting Mormons don’t regularly lie and smear? WTF? What was Prop. 8 all about? That’s the standard Mormon MO when it comes to politics, whether it’s their politicians in office or the president of their church.
Karl, why won’t you talk about the Angle-Reid debate instead of trying to the subject?
Reid might be a Mormon but he should’nt be. And to Karl, Mormons do not regularly lie and smear they just stand up for what they believe. If you don’t know what Prop. 8 was all about you must be the idiot you sound like.
Another thing about Mormons is our belief that one of the worst sins you can commit is stirring up contention; i.e. turning people against one another. Stirring up hatred against the opposition has been a hallmark of Harry Reid’s tenure as Democrat leader.
Combined with his profiteering from unethical land deals and his pattern of lying and smearing against Sharron Angle, I have to conclude that Harry Reid is not sincere in his professed faith.
Although having to listen to both of them for an hour was not a very pleasant experience–neither is a very fluent or polished speaker in this kind of setting–Sharron Angle easily took down Reid by staying focused and on message and by refusing to back down from her attacks on him. Reid, on the other hand, revealed himself to be a bumbling doofus who rambled at times and who couldn’t give a straight answer to a simple yes-or-no question. Beyond that, on a few occasions he engaged in lawyerly evasions and indirectness in sidestepping the defense of his unworkable policies, and when he wasn’t doing that, he was often condescending to those who, he claimed, didn’t understand the health care reform bill. His closing statement was as embarrassingly incoherent as his opening statement.
Sharron Angle showed that she wasn’t crazy, and she came across as plain spoken, with ideas that any but the fiercest Democrat partisan or ideologue could understand. Even on the issue of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell–where I’m sure I’d disagree with her position–her answer seemed reasonable, and not like the extremist she has been made out to be: she simply said that the policy is under review and we should wait for the report to come back from that review before the Senate votes on changing the policy.
One of Nevada’s most prominent female Republican political figures says she’ll vote against GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle because of what she called her “extreme” anti-abortion views.
Sue Wagner is a former lieutenant governor, state legislator and Nevada Gaming Commission member.
Wagner said Friday she’s not endorsing Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But she becomes the latest prominent northern Nevada Republican to speak against Angle, who’s in a tight race against Reid.
AP PRESS
Rusty: Although there are a large number of prominent Nevada RINOs for Reid, most of their support for him was predictable given their voting records and past dependence on federal dollars Reid channeled to their pet projects around the state. Some of them also figured that there was no way Angle could win, and they wanted to be sure to ingratiate themselves with Reid. One of those is a fellow named Sig Rogich, who once served as an advisor to Reagan and GHW Bush, and the comments about the debate on the Las Vegas newspaper blogs indicated that Rogich looked particularly uncomfortable last night.
Although I’ve lived in Nevada for a number of years now, I’m not at all familiar with the name Sue Wagner, and I expect many Nevada voters won’t know or care, either. Still, I think it’s telling that Ms. Wagner, while refusing to endorse Angle, is also saying that she’s not endorsing Reid. If anything, that’s a sign that the RINOs for Reid realize they may have gone too far in endorsing him this year, and she has expressed her displeasure with Angle while effectively coming out in favor of either a lesser party candidate or a vote for “None of the Above.” That suggests to me that people like Ms. Wagner want to be able to claim innocence if Angle wins, but they don’t want to be responsible for the disaster of another Reid term, either.
rusty, don’t think things like that will resonate much, given Harry’s high negatives and Angle’s performance last night. I’m sure that news will get drowned out much as the media wish to push it to try to handicap the new frontrunner in this race.
Actually, being attacked by the Republican establishment may help Angle; since people are as angry at the Republican establishment as they are at the Demonrats.
And isn’t it cute how suddenly the Progressive left are suddenly fans of the Republican establishment.
Reid certainly isn’t a great option for Nevada
As a mentor once told while at a big corporate shoe company : rusty, people don’t get fired, they just stop doing their job. Methinks Mr. Reid isn’t too excited about another term in DC.
If Ms Angle does take over, it will be interesting to see how she handles herself in side the Beltway circles.
Harry Reid is a profound embarrassment to Mormons as a whole. There is a contrast between his gutter tactics and the ethics of men like Bob Bennett, Gordon Smith (sadly no longer in the Senate), Orrin Hatch and Michael Crapo. The race was tight before the debate. Now that Harry soiled himself in the debate, Angle will bring his Senate career to an end. As for Sue Wagner, who cares what she thinks? She’d preserve Reid for the sole reason that Planned Parenthood may thereby remain free to slaughter a few million more babies? Their blood be on her hands then.
Maybe you might want to see this:
Holy Jeremiah Wright, Batman! In the Nevada Senate race, Republican nominee Sharron Angle is now having to put some distance between herself and her own former pastor, John Reed of Sonrise Church in Reno, after Reed attacked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s Mormon religion.
In an interview with the Reno News & Review, Pastor Reed attacked Harry Reid, making some rather inflammatory comments regarding the Latter-Day Saints Church being a “cult” — and alleging conspiracies involving big business and secret murders:
“The Christian community–all the Christians, theologians and scholars, all recognize that, that Mormonism is a cult. I have books in my library on cults, and it lists Mormonism right there with all these bizarre cults. Well, there must be a reason. I mean, here a member of a cult is one of the most powerful people in the United States. Doesn’t that alarm you? And his allegiance is to Salt Lake City.
…
You know, there’s some weirdness with that, but nobody questions it, nobody asks one question to Harry Reid and says, ‘Tell us about your faith. What does a Mormon believe?’ Ask him about the holy garments that he wears that protect him from evil. Isn’t that kooky? Ask him about getting his body parts anointed by oil. Isn’t that kooky? Ask him about when he goes to the temple and he gets baptized for dead people. Isn’t that kooky? Ask him about the hit squad of the Mormon church and why they need people to kill Mormons that go against them.”
Maria–That story first emerged about two weeks ago, if I remember correctly. It got a little attention at the time, but it has since been mostly forgotten. Although it has the potential to hurt Angle among Mormon voters, I doubt it will have much impact, as she has already distanced herself from the remarks of her former pastor, and she hasn’t been a member of that church for a while. On the other hand, I’ve got two additional observations: 1). Such attitudes towards Mormons are not uncommon in fundamentalist Christian churches–which is one of the reasons Romney’s candidacy never caught on among so-called religious conservatives in 2008. 2). Such attitudes towards Mormons are also prevalent among various liberal activists (c.f. Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven)–including gay liberal activists, which may be one reason that the story hasn’t gotten a lot of play. If the liberal activists were to remind liberal voters that Reid is a Mormon, more of those liberal voters might stay home.