Sharron Angle’s lousy performance with local media is getting a few yuks in the national media today, but I’m sure that the professionals at the NRSC aren’t laughing, because they understand the media opportunities that she and her soulmate Rand Paul are pissing away.
It probably goes without saying, but running for Senate isn’t the same as running for Sparkly Pony Princess BFF of America. Unlike the national reporters who have nothing to do but breathlessly repeat Palin’s latest tweet or Facebook emission, local reporters are busy reporting real news. Candidates need to work to get noticed, and they need to be available for interviews. There’s even a name that real (i.e., not Paul or Angle’s) political consultants use for getting on the local news: “free media”.
On TV, you can get minutes of free media (versus seconds of paid ads) night after night around election time. In the newspaper, free media gets front-page play that advertisers would kill for. Even a guy as well-funded as Harry Reid will no doubt be appearing all over the local TV and newspapers, because he can answer a simple question about issues listed on his website, and his campaign manager doesn’t call reporters “idiot” after an interview.
The kind of people who vote watch the local news. Staying on Fox and conservative talk radio is such a dead-end strategy that it doesn’t even pass the laugh test. At some point, the pundits who want to pretend that Angle is still a serious threat are going to wake up and figure that out.
Dr. Squid
Not only did the spokesdouche call the reporter an idiot, he was called a fucking idiot.
You can’t buy that kind of bad publicity. Angle is toast.
Martha
I agree with all that you have said. One query though– Could you elaborate why staying on Fox news and conservative talk show is a dead end strategy. Thanks.
MattF
And don’t forget– the wingnut line that Angle is some sort of political amateur is in the so-not-true-it’s-weird category. She’s an experienced Nevada politician. And, interesting to note, everyone– including Republicans– seems to hate her guts. Why is that, you think?
MikeJ
Actually, the campaigns I’ve worked on often used “earned media”.
sherifffruitfly
NRSC types have no-one but themselves to blame. This is the predictable result of cultivating a stupid electorate.
stacie
I hope you guys are right, but Harry Reid (of whom I’m no fan) better run the campaign of his life, because if it becomes viable for candidates to make it to the senate without ever interfacing with the reality-based community, the country is toast.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
Reid is one lucky dude. By all rights he should be toast. First, it was Sue “Chickens” Lowden, and now this? Is this the best Nevada Republicans could muster?
The Moar You Know
On a far larger scale, we’ve got Meg Whitman here in CA pulling essentially the same thing – she can read a script just fine, but sooner or later she’s going to have to actually answer questions.
And her track record on that is not so good.
El Cid
When you say
I think you mean Real America.
stuckinred
.
It’s in the bag is it?
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle: I forgot to add, at least Nevada Republicans are giving South Carolina Democrats a run for their money in the category of most inept state party.
stuckinred
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
thank you
thank you very much
Randy P
I’d have more confidence in that statement if Bush hadn’t been reelected in 2004 after a campaign in a hermetically sealed bubble.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
The solution to the problem here is obvious.
Having local reporters on staff is really expensive. Can they afford to keep spending that kind of money, only to waste it on liburl lamestream media reports like this, which don’t accomplish anything other than to put off the real Amerikans who are the (white)bread and butter of the local market? The “local” TV stations need to go down the same path already blazed by “local” radio – where your morning shock jock drive time program is pumped in from some corporate HQ in Wingnuttsville, Ohio, and the only thing local about it is the advertising spots for Billy Bob’s pawn and gun shop. Then we won’t have these sorts of unfortunate incidents anymore.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Idiocracy won’t be either. Baby steps people, baby steps.
kay
@stacie:
National media can take full responsibility for this. What did they think was going to happen when they allowed Palin to completely block all unfriendly media? She was the Vice Presidential candidate, for God’s sake. She spoke to them, what? Three times, during the course of that whole campaign? Her fans went nuts and cried bias, and the whole national media bowed before the awesome power of the Palinites.
It’s just too bad local reporters are now paying the price.
Of course they were all going to adopt the Palin Dodge. What candidate wants to answer questions?
El Cid
@Randy P: Hell, a lot of people I know barely even seem to remember what it was like under King Bush Jr. and Count Cheney and their Republican Triumvirate of every branch of government.
There was Bill Clinton, then Gore tried to steal an election, then there was 9/11, Bush and Cheney came in to run things for a while and defend us from Iraq, then some financial crisis happened and Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi made it worse and then Obama walked in and started using Chicago style politics to impose soshullism which will ruin America.
Joey Maloney
@Dr. Squid:
Wait, what? The campaign spokesperson called a local reporter a fucking idiot? To his face??
Wow. There’s someone who’s going places. In a sane world, he’d be going out the door. Not tomorrow, not tonight, but 30 seconds after he dropped that f-bomb.
PS, I finally got me one of them new-fangled bloggy things, and I thought I’d try whoring it for the very first time to all my friends here at BJ. No politics. Food. Just food. With pictures.
mistermix
@stuckinred: No, it’s not in the bag, if she millions of dollars in the bank — does she?
mistermix
@Randy P: The point is that a local/statewide campaign uses local media. Presidential campaigns use national media.
Scott
I’d like to think there’s no way Angle can win — she is indeed running one of the more inept campaigns I’ve seen in a while — but there are a lot of damn stupid people in Congress, and they all got elected somehow…
Randy P
@El Cid:
That’s an odd way to characterize asking for votes to be counted under state rules.
You do remember that the “protests” of “ordinary voters” were Republican party operatives flown in by Grover Norquist, right?
But based on the rest of your comment, I’m thinking maybe it’s just that my snark-o-meter needs calibration. Time for the weekend, I think.
Bubblegum Tate
@MattF:
According to demented Nevada wingnut Mark Noonan–who is, of course, 100 percent on board the Angle Crazy Train–it’s because she “scares the establishment.”
zach
@MikeJ:
Most campaigns call it “earned” these days, and with good reason. Those local reporters don’t just give you the coverage; you have to work for it. Luckily for us, candidates like Angle and Paul clearly don’t feel like earning it.
Ana Gama
This post NAILED IT!
stuckinred
@mistermix: Beats me but I don’t count on anything.
Chad N Freude
@Randy P: Gore only tried. It was Bush who succeeded. And yes, you need a sarcasmic tune-up.
wrb
Perhaps
But many will see it as giving the finger to liberal media and like her better for it.
jonas
@The Moar You Know: I agree. If Angle thinks she can skate by with occasional appearances on local nutwing radio and Fox n’ Friends, Whitman’s plan seems to be to just outright buy the governor’s mansion. Why talk to the press or even run a coherent campaign when you can just run slickly produced commercials across the state 24/7? If Reagan and Schwarzenegger were Hollywood actor governors, Whitman will be our first Avatar governor.
(Reporter: “Madam Governor, a question about the budget negotiations this week….”
Press secretary (holding up hand): “Uh, uh, uh. No questions. The governor will cut a new commercial on Thursday that will address these and all other concerns.”)
Chad N Freude
@Bubblegum Tate: I think that’s true, but probably not in the way he means it.
kay
@The Moar You Know:
I wish that were true, but answering questions seems to lead to more questions. Christ, Obama exceeds the 142 character limit, and media are bitching about how bored they are, and how he’s “professorial” and too wordy.
This stonewall act works like a charm. Ask Sarah Palin. Oh, right. You can’t. She doesn’t answer questions. We’re subjected to her Tweets, they’re almost impossible to avoid, thanks to the dupes in the national media, but it’s really a one-way dialogue.
Chad N Freude
@jonas: I hadn’t thought about it before, but with the CA trying to sell or lease state-owned real estate to raise money in an attempt to cap off the state’s deep-underwater cash spill, maybe Whitman will just buy the Governor’s mansion and move in. No need for all that messy voting stuff.
El Cid
@Randy P: Your snark-o-meter needs calibration.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
In a normal world, her comments on phasing out SS ought to be enough to get wiped out, she grabbed the 3rd rail and humped that motherfucker with glee. And Paul did the same with what I’d call the 3.5 rail on civil rights. it will be interesting to see just how far down the teatard trail America is willing to go and if we will see tea party sign saying “Git yer hands off my social security Sharon Angle” Somehow I doubt it. But this is the age of Aquarius for politics – the second amendment wingnut preacher version.
Keith
I still believe that at some point, Princess BFF will herself implode, and the longer it’s deferred, the more “Mama Grizzlies” and former-athletes-turned-politicians she’ll take down with her. Call me an optimist, but I don’t think this Facebook/Fox charade can go on forever.
Mnemosyne
@Randy P:
Yep, it’s your snark-o-meter — may want to have that looked at. Or just have a couple of drinks after work tonight, that should fix it right up. ;-)
demimondian
@wrb: Yes, 27% of the electorate will be entranced by this performance. However, to win a two way race, one needs to capture another 23% of the electorate. *That* requires free media.
Randy P
@El Cid: The outrage tanks are also drained. I’m planning on a weekend completely free of political news (including BP news), and a Hefeweizen Dunkel or two to help recalibrate the system.
ed drone
What I’m wondering is why no one yet has called her “Right” Angle. Or “Far-Right” Angle. Or “Obtuse” Angle (she is so far past 90 degrees it’s not funny).
Sharron “Obtuse” Angle — works for me!
Ed
Allan
Can she prove she’s NOT a Scientologist? The only thing she forgot to do was threaten to sue the reporter for slander for reading her website out loud…
Bubblegum Tate
@Chad N Freude:
I agree, actually. Several people pointed out to him how GOP higher-ups have been trying frantically to hide her craziness and make her more palatable to the public…he alternately insists that 1) it isn’t happening, and 2) those must be a bunch of goddamn RINOs who the teabaggers are trying to throw out. The cognitive dissonance is strong with that one.
Chad N Freude
The real question is not how stupid can Angle and her handlers be, but how unpopular can Harry Reid be? I can imagine Angle winning simply on the basis that she’s not Reid.
NonyNony
@wrb:
The point is that those people are already going to vote for her (and probably did in the primary). Now she’s at the part of the dance where she has to convince the people who aren’t Republicans that they should vote for her instead of Reid.
And given that we’re talking about Harry freaking Reid here – whose negatives in his home state have been atrocious for the last couple of years – the fact that this is starting to look like an uphill fight for Angle is the astonishing part. The Nevada GOP should have been able to nominate someone – anyone – who could shoot down Harry Reid. But no – the primary came down to a choice between Sue “Chickens for Check-ups” Lowden and Sharron “Second Amendment Solution” Angle.
This is truly an “own goal” as far as national politics goes. Angle actually still could win this one – Harry Reid has a lot of people angry with him – but what should have been a GOP win in a near cake-walk has turned into a real fight. A real fight, I might add, that a lot of the Republican establishment in Nevada don’t seem to want to win – they seem to like Sharron Angle possibly LESS than they like Harry Reid. Amazing.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Right after the heat death of the universe.
Mark S.
I can see how this will play out. Most of these teabaggers will lose and the GOP won’t do as well as they were supposed to. But one will win, and Tweety and the gang will be proclaiming it the Year of the Tea Party and we’ll be treated to two more years of these idiots.
LD50
Perhaps, but that’s the strategy that Caribou Barbie will push to the breaking point in ’12. Should be interesting to see it can be made to work nationally — if someone running for POTUS for the first time can run a whole campaign without ever once having to answer awkward questions.
Chad N Freude
@Bubblegum Tate: Well, maybe that’s an argument against my she’s-not-Reid comment, or maybe she’s-not-Reid will outweigh the Angle campaign stupidity.
Mnemosyne
@jonas:
If Whitman does win, I think Brown’s speech would go something like this:
Martin
The teabaggers and the current state of the liberal left are doing a great job of winning 27% of the vote. They’re doing a great job of crashing the gate, but then they fall flat on their face while the opposition party walks calmly in and takes the job.
Zifnab
@Chad N Freude: Kerry didn’t do too well running on the Not-Bush platform. And while Nevada isn’t exactly a hot bed of liberal sentiment, it’s no Utah or Mississippi. The state has some established unions and populist muscle. Incumbency provides some respectable inertia come voting day.
Midnight Marauder
@Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle:
Let’s not act like this is unique to Republicans in Nevada in any way. This is why I was so eager for the primaries to end and see the Republican batshit insanity carry over into the general. This is only the beginning. It’s only going get worse for people like Angle and Rand Paul, not to mention heavy hitters like Rick Perry, who can’t run away from debating Bill White fast enough. Their entire roster of candidates for office this fall are fucking loons of the highest order. I mean, look at what Rand Paul is saying today:
There is just way too much time for these idiots to further obliterate their electoral prospects for the fall. Waaaaayyyyy too much time.
Culture of Truth
Baca followed Angle through a parking lot, repeatedly asking what she meant by “Second Amendment remedies.” Angle ignored him. As Baca reports: “The reaction from the Angle campaign was swift. Their spokesperson called this reporter ‘an idiot’ — and another term that cannot be repeated on television.”
Oh she’s a real winner, all right.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@NonyNony: Like inviting a Cobra into your tent. Generates lots of excitement and comforts no one.
Bubblegum Tate
@Chad N Freude:
It seems to me that’s the strategy that the GOP is running with–keep Angle as much of a cipher as possible, play the Harry Reid Sucks card at every opportunity, and hope to ride voter discontent all the way to victory.
What remains to be seen is if Angle will buck against that and insist that she be able to spew her crazy (only to friendly outlets, of course) because it’s a “winning message.” That’s what Mark Noonan wants to see. It’s probably what Harry Reid wants to see, too.
Chad N Freude
@Zifnab: I hope you’re right. My anti-pessimism meds aren’t working.
liberal
@Mnemosyne quoted:
California has been screwed since Proposition 13. You can’t hand that much money to rent-collecting parasites who, as Mill famously put it, get richer in their sleep, and not suffer some kind of consequence.
liberal
@Martin:
(yawn)
Dr. Squid
@Joey Maloney:
I had to look at the TPM link above…
I suppose, it could be “idiot asshole” or “idiot fuckhead”, but let it be said that the spokesnozzle went with one of the seven dirty words plus “idiot” to characterize a Vegas reporter.
FTR, Angle is from Reno this week. From what I’ve read, she’s just spread her sunshine all over the state over the last 30 years.
Chad N Freude
@Bubblegum Tate: I wasn’t thinking of the GOP. It looks like the Grownup Old Pharts don’t like her either. I’m worried about the Little People who bother to go to the polls.
Brachiator
It might depend on the market and the candidate. People who have their minds made up and so are immune to reflection may tend to hunker around Fox News, but are probably more likely to vote than the people who dip into local news.
heh
@The Moar You Know:
Unlike Arnold or Reagan, Whitman doesn’t have much of a public persona. She is selling herself under a generic “rich business person can run the state like a corporation” flag, which can only take you so far.
Also, here in Southern California, the most popular talk radio station (KFI), which may lean toward the conservative side but is more independent than people give them credit for, can bite back hard. Already, Whitman is being furiously mocked for taking a hard stand against illegal immigration during the primary, but now turning around and buying huge chunks of time on Spanish language media. This is not going to help her with the conservative faithful nor is it likely to convince Latino voters that she has their best interests in heart.
wrb
@demimondian:
Maybe.
My suspicion that more encounters with local media would do her as much good as this encounter with CBS did. It is a distraction from her winning theme, which is Harry Reid.
I think sticking with tame media, even if it is national and trying to avoid drawing attention away from Reid might be her best strategy.
Minimize the “this woman is nuts” stories so people can feel comfortable voting against Harry.
Chad N Freude
@liberal: Without arguing the merits or lack of them of Prop 13, a large part of its popularity was due to the protection of non-wealthy homeowners, retirees, etc. from their use as cash cows for cities and counties that found it an easy way to get the funds they needed.
Chad N Freude
@Brachiator: KFI *may* lean right? Maybe I should listen to them more often than I do, but it sets off an anaphylactic reaction.
David in NY
@Chad N Freude:
Paying property taxes makes me a “cash cow”?! I’m flattered!
SiubhanDuinne
@El Cid:
Fixed.
Brachiator
@Chad N Freude:
I’ll defend the proposition that KFI should be listened to — sometimes. Morning man Bill Handle is conservative on many issues, but strongly supports choice, gay rights, and national health care. Sports guy Rich Marotta loves him some Obama and was an early supporter, and is also an excellent and fair political analyst who knows tons about political history and especially presidential campaigns. John and Ken are strange beasts, almost reactionary on some issues, but unlike a Limbaugh or a Hannity, they absolutely refuse to kiss any politician’s behind simply because he has an R after his name. I give J&K credit for pointing out factual errors in LA Times stories and columns, especially when Times’ editors try to wear a cloak of journalistic infallibility. I also note that KFI carries Limbaugh (but dumped Dr Laura due to low ratings), so I can understand why the station would seem toxic to some.
That said, anybody who is seriously interested in serious, fair, and informative coverage of a range of issues should listen to, stream, subscribe to the podcast, visit the web site for — Larry Mantle’s Air Talk on public radio station KPCC, 89.3. At his best as an interviewer and host, Mantle gives more well known hosts like Fresh Air’s Terry Gross a run for her money. Afternoon host Patt Morrison (who is also an LA Times reporter) is no slouch either, but sometimes seems to be channelling her inner Maureen Dowd.
liberty60
@SiubhanDuinne:
fixed, per Limbaugh
SiubhanDuinne
@liberty60:
I question the “per Limbaugh” part: I see nothing explicit there about “grabbing the ankles” (although it is implied).
wmsheppa
For a hilarious, locals take on the NV Senate race check out http://lasvegasgleaner.com/
Allan
Remember, Nevada has a “none of the above” option on the ballot. I can’t believe I’m typing these words, but George Fucking Will actually made this cogent point on teevee recently:
gocart mozart
@Martha:
Going only on FOX is preaching only to the converted.
catclub
@wrb:
Many will, but the point is, not enough and not a majority.
Fox viewership is still way below that of the over the air networks. It is just bigger than the other cable networks.
Chad N Freude
@David in NY: No, residential property taxes were the principal means of funding counties, and they found it easy to just raise assessed values to raise more money. It made life difficult for a lot of non-wealthy homeowners, and Prop 123 provided a draconian cap in the annual permitted increase in assessment value. The rich made out like proverbial bandits, but grandmas on Social Security were greatly relieved.
Chad N Freude
@Brachiator: Couldn’t agree more about Larry Mantle. Disagree about Patt Morrison, who knows how to conduct a debate between advocates of opposing positions while not advocating anything herself. Her columns in the Times are pretty good, too.
If anyone here is interested in listening to this sort of thing, KPCC streams everything they broadcast and podcasts a lot of it.
Joe Gandelman
I don’t usually leave comments (due to time) but mistermix’s point here about free media is an excellent one. I did a post on my website about Angle and added that quote to it as an update. This is one of the best posts I’ve read on Angle and the media and the likely impact on her campaign.
Laura Clawson
I third the people who point out it’s mostly called earned media. Perhaps that’s partly a nice spin for flacks who like to think they do more than they do, but there’s also truth to it.
asiangrrlMN
I wish I could be as comfortable in believing she has no chance of winning. I do not. We had Norm Coleman take over Paul Wellstone’s seat in MN, fer god’s sake.
Sigh. This far right feeding frenzy is really getting me down.
Mnemosyne
@Chad N Freude:
But as with so many California propositions, it had a poison pill hidden in it: it also applied to commercial properties, not just single-family homes, which means that huge corporations are paying the same property tax today that they paid in 1978.
The cure has caused far more problems than the disease.
Anne Laurie
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
You’re dispiritingly correct, except that Our Corporate Overlords have been working on this for years already. (The ‘talk radio’ market was first-to-fall, is all.) The New York Times bought and has done their best to destroy any number of local papers (including the Boston Globe, for which I will never forgive them). And of the three ‘original’ network news here in the self-styled Hub of the Universe, one is owned by a Miami conglomerate with a religious dedication to the ‘if it bleeds it leads’ mantra — so Channel 7 boasts that it covers ‘more national news’, which is true if you define national news as ‘Enquirer-style stories about celebutards and Darwin Award winners’. Thank gods for the interwebz, unreliable as they are, because without them Americans would have entirely forgotten what competitive media markets look like.
Chris
Correct … and it gets worse.
With your house, if you add on a room, the new room is taxed at “current market value”, but if you repair the wall that falls off an existing room, the existing room remains taxed at “Prop-13-adjusted value”.
The same applies to a commercial property, such as an oil refinery.
If your refinery is badly in need of modernization so that it will be efficient and stop killing workers, and you do that, why, that’s a Major Upgrade and it gets taxed at market value. But if you wait until pieces explode off, killing workers, and just fix those, why, that’s just a repair, and you keep your low tax rate! So guess which one actually occurs.
Comrade Kevin
@Chad N Freude:
More like the only way.
mac
Harry has seniority that will bring needed tax dollars back to NV. Sharron will go to the senate and her ideology will not allow her to send tax dollars back home. Earmarks create jobs.
Ken
@Brachiator: “[Whitman] is selling herself under a generic “rich business person can run the state like a corporation” flag, which can only take you so far.”
Especially since most corporate management techniques aren’t available. You can’t sell off the underperforming counties to other states or countries. Nor can you create dummy states, load them up with your toxic debts, and let them go bankrupt.
Graphictruth
@NonyNony:
Harry is a known quantity (used to “live” there) and is widely known for being as honest as you could expect, coming from Nevada and all.
And truth be told, a lot of Republicans love the way he’s been sticking it to them as Senate Majority Leader. Yes, he uses lube and takes “no” for an answer…
They are, I think, seriously worried at the thought of Harry losing his seat, and therefore the Majority Leadership. And then they might face a Majority Leader who, you know, leads and stuff.
….um… that political calculation is kind of compelling, actually, since the “upside” here for the republicans is that, in the worst case, they “win” by getting Sharron Angle , who kinda makes Michelle Bachman look reasonable and well informed. Six years of pure comedy gold and deadly quotations to use to mercilessly pummel any legislative initiative she supports. Six years of punchlines. Hell, at the end of that term (and with luck, a few more teabaggers like her) there won’t be a Republican Party to run *for.*
…so get out there and support Angle’s campaign!
Steeplejack
@Ken:
Heh. Thanks. I had quite a complex, pleasant daydream about this.
rikyrah
The chicken lady was the SANE GOP Candidate.
the chicken lady.