Woke up this morning to discover that last night’s post about Christine O’Donnell’s new ad was the top item at Memeorandum, with links by Da Tech Guy, Left Coast Rebel, Gateway Pundit and, of course, not Allahpundit. Yet I will quote He Who Linketh Not:
Not a syllable is breathed here about policy, party affiliation, or conservatism; it’s a straightforward “everyman versus the establishment” appeal which, thanks to O’Donnell’s poise and the direct, soft-spoken conversational appeal to the camera, ends up being quite arresting.
RightKlik at Left Coast Rebel sees the ad as a familar product of its creator, Fred Davis. Our MSNBC-watching friend Pete Da Tech Guy reports:
The Morning Joe crowd is laughing their heads off. I’m sorry they have no clue. If I’m O’Donnell I’m playing the clip of them laughing at her at every rally there is. That clip of the Morning Joe team laughing at her is a fundraiser waiting to happen.
This is predictable, and let them laugh. Dave Weigel has observed that liberals seem obsessed with O’Donnell “because at the end of the day they expect to beat her.” Their expectation may yet be disappointed and, meanwhile, O’Donnell is drawing media fire that might otherwise be directed at other Republicans. Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit notes a non-coincidence:
We haven’t seen the state-run media attack anyone so viciously since Sarah Palin came on the national scene in 2008.
This is not a coincidence because O’Donnell was the knockout blow in a rapid one-two combination — following Joe Miller’s Alaska triumph over Lisa Murkowski — aimed at the GOP Establishment by Sarah Palin, Tea Party Express, Mark Levin, and others who have sided with grassroots conservatives in this year’s primaries. After Miller beat Murky, the Establishment saw this punch coming and still couldn’t beat O’Donnell.
Knowing that O’Donnell represents the more powerful populist side of the Republican coalition — the one with the votes — the media are endeavoring to destroy her, to tell their audience: “See? We told you. They’re all a bunch of kooks.” Or, more to the point, a bunch of clowns.
If I had to offer one criticism of the O’Donnell campaign, it would be that they seem to be moving too slow. Three days after the Sept. 14 primary, Byron York called attention to the vulnerability of Democrat Chris Coons:
Coons, 47, is the top executive of New Castle County, home to a majority of Delaware’s population. From a Republican perspective, there’s one really important thing to know about his time in office: In 2004, when Coons first ran for the job, he promised not to raise taxes. Since then he has raised taxes not once, not twice, but three times.
Coons inherited a surplus. Celebrating victory on election night in 2004, he said his “top priority would be to continue balancing the budget without increasing property taxes,” according to an account in the local News Journal. Yet in 2006, he pushed through a 5 percent increase in property taxes. In 2007, he raised property taxes 17.5 percent. In 2009, he raised them another 25 percent.
Coons wanted to raise other taxes, too. He proposed a hotel tax, a tax on paramedic services, even a tax on people who call 911 from cell phones.
A week ago, the O’Donnell campaign sent out this mailer:
Having some relevant experience with video production, I bet it wouldn’t take 48 hours for anyone with access to Final Cut Pro to turn those basic facts into a hard-hitting 30-second ad. And had I been in charge of the O’Donnell campaign, saturating the Delaware TV market with that attack ad would have been Priority One. Yet here we are three weeks after the primary, and it hasn’t been done yet. So where is the attack ad making that argument?
“Chris Coons: He’s bald. He raised taxes. And he masturbates way too much.”
Make him deny it!
