Liz Cheney’s support has faded in Wyoming since the summer, according to internal polling conducted for a super PAC that’s been running ads against her and shared exclusively with POLITICO.
Sen. Mike Enzi (R) has expanded his lead over the former vice president’s daughter by 12 points among likely primary voters since August. The three-term incumbent was up 52 points, 69 percent to 17 percent, in a survey conducted by Bob Wickers of The Wickers Group at the end of October.
Also open thread for sporting events
chopper
yeah but if you unskew it she’s really ahead by 123%.
Baud
Fun fact: In Wyoming, the number of percentage points equals the number of actual primary voters.
Kay
@Baud:
That’s the best part. They all met her personally.
Mike in NC
Dick Cheney badly wants to schedule a hunting trip with Mike Enzi.
Baud
@Kay:
All except the 17 who still support her.
peej
I wonder which state she’s going to try next.
jheartney
Don’t get too excited. It’s an internal poll from a PAC that’s been running ads against her. I’ll believe these numbers when they come from a poll from a non-contestant.
Tommy
I am no expert on the state of Wyoming, but I do live in a very rural area and I assume there are many similar things. We don’t tend to like rude and/or mean people. Liz just seems mean.
Heck the Republicans could have won the open House seat in my district, if they just ran somebody that was a rude asshole.
PeakVT
@peej: Virginia is the obvious answer, since that’s where she actually lives.
Kay
@Baud:
Yup.
There’s her problem, right there.
the Conster
You didn’t warn us that link went to Politico. Bad Kay.
Baud
@PeakVT:
I wonder if hers was one of the 40,000 voter registrations Virginia purged.
Tommy
@PeakVT: She better move south.
James E. Powell
It’s not that I think that the Rich & Powerful are smarter than the rest of us, but I do expect that they get data and analysis from people who are.
The primary is a long way off.
So what’s Liz Cheney’s game here? Does she have a scandal she’s saving till the spring? Does she have inside knowledge of Enzi’s medical condition? Is she just doing the Christine O’Donnell thing where her campaign is her principal means of income?
MikeJ
@jheartney: Even with polling bias built in 52% is quite a hurdle. Think maybe they added 10%? 20%? 40%? She’s still getting beat like a red headed step child.
The Dangerman
So you’re saying there’s a chance!
/Lloyd Christmas
Kay
@the Conster:
This will shock you but Politico has a new(er) education section and the reporter is wonderful. She’s single-handedly trouncing the WaPo and the NYTimes on factual, investigative pieces on public ed. I’m a huge fan. About godammed time.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
So the 17 are all members of the Cheney family?
jheartney
@James E. Powell: You must have missed how totally wrong VP Dick Cheney always was about everything. Seriously, everything he touched turned to excrement. The only thing he was ever good at was getting wars started.
Jay C
@jheartney:
The primary is still months away (anyone know the date?) – so Liz’s numbers still have room to improve: but even so, it looks pretty unlikely that she’s going to be able to unseat an incumbent Senator. Especially one who (AFAICT) is respected, well-tied-into the WY GOP power structure, and has a lot of friends there. And, moreover, whose friends seem fairly unhappy with the notion of a carpetbagger (however “famous”) swanning in and assuming she can put Mike Enzi out of a job.
Of course, if she had bottomless pockets a la Mike Bloomberg, she could just BUY the nom, but that doesn’t look like it will fly in Wyoming.
Aji
@Roger Moore: Either that or Dick has
threatenedpromised to take them hunting.feebog
Liz is a carpet bagging twit who has had every single thing handed to her since she was a child. Really, what can she claim that she accomplished on her own? All her political appointments are so obviously the result of her last name being Cheney that it should be embarrassing. She has done nothing that would indicate that she is anything other than a sock puppet endlessly chanting right wing talking points. The good folks in Wyoming may be conservative, but they aren’t stupid enough to fall for her bullshit.
jheartney
@MikeJ: @Jay C: I’ll agree she’s not looking good. I just think we should save the champagne till she’s been walloped by the voters and not a Politico leaked internal poll.
Tommy
@Jay C: She is a carpetbagger. I know that. You know that. She knows that. I wasn’t born where I live and there is no chance I could run for office and win.It is my experience in rural areas folks tend to care if you were born there.
the Conster
@Kay:
An education reporter who doesn’t quote Michelle Rhee about the necessity for reform? At Politico??? VanderHei must not know about her yet.
Dolly Llama
Good God, it looks like Auburn’s going to boatrace Georgia. If we don’t put seven on the board this drive, it’s going to be a long-ass afternoon.
Tommy
@feebog: IMHO she doomed herself with the hunting/fishing license issue. I don’t know Wyoming but as I’ve said a few times I live in a rural area. We take our licenses to hunt and fish pretty seriously.
As you said the residents of that state are not stupid. If I tried to fake where I live to get a license or even worse, didn’t have a license and went hunting or fishing, I couldn’t get elected dog catcher.
MikeJ
@jheartney: There’s no call for champagne even when she loses. Mike Enzi is going to be the next senator from Wyoming, and that’s pretty fucking sad. The only good thing about it is the tears of a Cheney.
Spike
@efgoldman:
Would you believe they’re both in the same conference?
Tommy
@Spike: I did not know that. Stunning.
Amir Khalid
If the Republican primary contest is about claiming the rightmost edge of the party, it can hardly matter whether Liz Cheney or Mike Enzi wins it, right? As US Senator, either would vote in a strictly partisan way. Given what Wyoming voters are like, I’m assuming the Democratic party has already decided the Senate seat can’t be won, no matter whom its candidate runs against. So the excitement here is about maybe seeing a Cheney get humiliated. (Not that this would be such a bad thing.)
James E. Powell
@jheartney:
I didn’t miss any of that. You must have missed how even though Dick Cheney has a consistent record of being wrong about everything, he has never been publicly held responsible for any of it. He has always managed to stay employed near the top of the political food chain. The corporate press/media regard him as THE éminence grise of the GWOT. And I would not be surprised to find that, among Republicans, he is remembered more fondly than that pussweed George W Bush.
Amir Khalid
These pictures are to squee.
Tommy
@efgoldman: Money, money, money. My undergrad school is larger than both of those schools, but we still play DII.
Yatsuno
@Amir Khalid: Democrats can win in Wyoming actually. The governour before the current one was a popular officeholder who I think was term-limited. If Enzi were retiring this might be a different race entirely since he’d jump in with both feet and probably win.
(I can’t recall his name to save my life right now. Plus too lazy to Google.)
Tommy
@efgoldman: I wasn’t clear. The conferences want the East coast schools cause of the media market. TV contract.
Shalimar
@jheartney: You can always wait until she releases her internals that only show her down by 37.
In other news, Liz Cheney will be having the last laugh after her campaign convinces Wyoming seniors that pressing the Cheney button on primary day secretly gives Liz an electric shock. Landslide, here she comes.
Booger
@PeakVT: don’t go there, gurlfren.
Kay
@the Conster:
She’s good. She did a two-part piece on K12 (for-profit online) that is the best thing I’ve read on for-profits in a national publication. No sappy sentimentality or fake “policy” expertise. Just who is behind it and how much money they’re making. She also did this smart political piece about how Rhee’s husband (and several other Dem mayors) no longer use the word “reform” because it’s loaded with negatives. The “r” word, they call it.
I even read her Twitter feed. My fear is that the ed reform media herd will capture her, too.
Smokey Robinson from LosGatosCA
Tears of a clown.
Tommy
I did not think Auburn was this good, maybe they are. Talk about turning a program around overnight …..
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@efgoldman: They’re in the same conference now. Geography means little in a lot of these alignments, especially for the traditional have-nots
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Tommy: Special case. The talent was already there and the “new” coach was the offensive coordinator there two seasons ago.
IowaOldLady
@efgoldman: Former Michigan president James Duderstadt has argued for years that college basketball and football not only corrupt the university educational mission, but are money losers. And that includes Michigan, for god’s sake.
Dolly Llama
13-7. Dawgs are back in it. Could it be that Auburn’s shot its wad early? I’m just glad — and frankly astounded — that Auburn isn’t up 21-7. Our secondary … bless their hearts.
Bex
@Kay: I see the names of four education writers at Politico. Which one are you recommending?
CarolDuhart2
@Tommy: My impression is that if you weren’t born in some rural places, you need to have put down real roots first. If Liz had graduated from college, went back to Wyoming and say married a local, did some real work for the Party, and in short showed that she really cared about the state, then she’d have a chance to succeed Enzi. I think of Howard Dean, who became the local doctor and settled down and worked for the local party and then became Governor.
Liz wasn’t bothered to do the sort of really getting to know you that’s needed in a small population, instead preferring to think her daddy’s connections could do the job. Maybe in New York or California, where celebrity could help. But Wyoming seems to be the kind of place where they need to feel you really care about them and not as a stepping stone to someplace else.
And speaking of that, is Liz Cheney hoping to win a Senate seat in order to run for President someday? I can’t imagine her being all that content in the collegial world of the Senate representing people who care more about cattle futures and grazing rights than about foreign policy.
And I wouldn’t rule Liz out. After 2016, the cupboard seems pretty bare for Republicans. If she can somehow get a term in the Senate, she could make a bid, especially if she could bankroll things with her inheritance and connections.
Tommy
@Dolly Llama: Wow that was a strange play. As an LSU guy I don’t have much love for either team, but I kind of can’t stand Auburn. I think Georgia just got screwed.
Dolly Llama
@Tommy: You know, I’m a regular at a Georgia blog where they swear the officials — Penn Wagers chief among them — have a real hard-on for Georgia. I know SEC officials are shit generally, but I’ve never bought into the conspiracy theory shit. At least not before today.
Keith P
@Tommy: They remind me of the 2010 team in that in the early season, the wins came very hard (and of course they lost to LSU this year), but as the season goes on, they get more confident and start dominating games I don’t expect them to. Bama will be extremely tough (and I expect them to lose, like in 2010), but they’re still a damn, damn good team this year. That running game is just sick.
Tommy
@CarolDuhart2: Clearly. You have to at least try. I mean my parents live in the town my family has (not me BTW) lived in since 1876. They have a vacation house in TN. They don’t say they are from TN :). That seems to be all Liz has.
CarolDuhart2
@CarolDuhart2: And Liz is smarter than Palin, and probably a bit meaner. As Senator, she would balance a more moderate Republican by going to his right. Or she could make her own dynastic bid, making up for the fact that her dad never was able to make his own Presidential bid. Yes, I doubt if even a healthy Cheney would have wanted to go for it-he lacks charisma and the run would expose some things rather kept hidden
But there would still be a vindication of sorts if she became a more successful VP or even President.-especially if she became the first Republican female President.
CarolDuhart2
@Tommy: True, you have to try, but some things require a little more work to make the effort plausible.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
Kay! Even a pack of vitriolic vicious jackals has to priortize sometimes. It’s a big savannah, we can’t take down all the wounded and straggling prey,
Tommy
@Keith P: Their running game is just stunning. They showed a stat a few minutes ago where for like six categories they are #1 in the SEC in rushing. Heck they just mentioned they have like six basic rushing packages and they just run them again and again and dare you to stop them.
I like Les Miles, but I don’t know why we don’t do the same at LSU. Just run the ball. Dare somebody to stop us. We have like 3-4 world class running backs, but at times we seem to forget that.
fuckwit
Just for what it’s worth, and to be extra juvenile, I find the internet more tolerable since I installed a greasemonkey script that changes words.
For example, every instance of “Liz Cheney” is magically changed to “Waste of Sperm”. Every instance of “Dick Cheney” is magically changed to “Face Shooter”. “Sarah Palin” is changed simply to “Troll”. Every instance of “Tea Party” is changed to “teabaggers”. etc etc. So I never have to read these people’s names again. Every time I’m tired of reading about some fevered ego that’s been polluting our collective unconscious, I simply erase their name from my sight. It helps a lot.
Yatsuno
ALLEZ LES COUGS!!!
Keith P
@Tommy: And they’ll often just run the same play over and over again. A few minutes ago, I think they ran the same play 3 in a row. If the opponent doesn’t stop them, they’ll just keep running it. Hell, that last TD was as basic a running play as you can get – straight up the middle – and Mason still went almost untouched for a 20+ yard score.
Gex
It just occurred to me that they might want this so bad so they can run Liz against Hillary in 2016. Which makes me laugh quite a lot. There is nothing they can do to mask the misogyny coming from the right while Hillary is running, even if they run a woman candidate too. And then I laugh even harder because it seems like they can’t even bend Wyoming to their will, much less the nation.
James E. Powell
@Dolly Llama:
Good God, it looks like Auburn’s going to boatrace Georgia.
What does boatrace mean in this context? Where did that expression come from?
Dolly Llama
@Keith P: Well, to be fair, what defense HASN’T run through the Georgia defense like shit through a goose this year?
Dolly Llama
@James E. Powell: “Run away from.” “Beat the fuck out of.” “Make look stupid.” “Embarass.” It’s a synonym for a lot of things.
Dolly Llama
@James E. Powell: Check out the second definition here.
James E. Powell
@Dolly Llama:
Thanks. My googling only came up with the drinking game. I was confused.
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
You were not kidding!!! Squuuuueeeeeee!
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Dolly Llama: You think SEC refs are bad? You ain’t seen nothin’. Come out here to the West Coast. Our Pac 12 referees cause more national controversies than any other conference by far.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Yatsuno: Wilbur’s gonna be cryin’ in his beer tonight! Wring out one more win and bowl game here we come!
Yatsuno
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Two. 6-6 won’t get us bowling, but 7-5 should. Couple this with the fact that UW lost their hot stud QB last night and it definitely looks possible, especially since the Purple and Piss haven’t been spectacular the last few Apple Cups. I’m thinking Utah will be a big problem here, but we’ll see. Utah is fortunately a home game.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: That is an avalanche of cute!
SFAW
@efgoldman:
I thought UConn had a half-decent futbol team. Am I mis-remembering?
Betty Cracker
Come ON, Jawja. FFS!
Dolly Llama
@Betty Cracker: Betty, you can’t be looking forward to your game. Hope you don’t suck as bad as we’re sucking.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@SFAW: They have in the recent past, but they’re awful this year.
Betty Cracker
@Dolly Llama: I’m anticipating a butt-whupping! And subsequent taunting from my old grandma, who is a South Carolina alum and football fan!
Bill in Section 147
I think this was a push-poll. If they had asked, Who would you vote for, the odious Liz Cheney or incumbent Mike Enzi? She would have pulled in 27%. Without the modifying adjective they couldn’t have realized it was Dick’s daughter.
Heliopause
Meanwhile, in Humanitarianinterventionland, north Africa division, lawless militias run the country and dozens of protesters are gunned down in the streets.
Yatsuno
@Heliopause: So you’re pro-dictator then? Good to know!
raven
@Dolly Llama: We’re one bullshit motherfucking call away. . .again.
SFAW
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
Looks like they’re ranked number 11 in the country, and it looks like they’re playing for some championship of some sort tomorrow, in
Nuevo AztlanTejasTexas, so I don’t know about that.raven
Makin a run at em.
raven
Holy fucking shit.
Betty Cracker
@raven: I’ll be darned! C’mon, doggies!
Betty Cracker
Holee sheeeit!
raven
HELLO DOLLLYYYYY!
raven
HELLO DOLLLYYYYY!
raven
I’m shaking so bad I can hardly type.
Dolly Llama
I can’t believe this damn game.
Dolly Llama
Just hold on, hold on, hold on
Dolly Llama
Pleasepleasepleaseplease
raven
@Dolly Llama: These kids got heart.
Dolly Llama
I prophesyed it.
Betty Cracker
OMFG
max
Talk about an immaculate reception.
max
[‘Whoa.’]
Dolly Llama
Raven, can you believe this shit, Dawg? I’ve been out of work most of the week with a bad back sprain, so I’m watching it with a head full of pain medication. I hope this is all a bad hallucination.
raven
I don’t know, I just don’t know.
Dolly Llama
One play decides it all.
raven
@Dolly Llama: bennet
Dolly Llama
Over. Hell, I’ll bet the Auburn linemen are still hitting Murray late on the ground. Why, oh why, couldn’t the receiver have batted the cocksucking motherfucking ball down? Why? Oh why?
James E. Powell
That was an amazing finish. I have no dog or tiger in this one, but heart goes out to Georgia fans. It is always tough to fight your way back into the game only to have it whisked away on a once in a lifetime play.
Dolly Llama
@James E. Powell: Thank you, James.
FlipYrWhig
@Yatsuno: Freudenthal.
max
Yeah. What James said.
max
[‘That was… rough.’]
Keith P
My God, what an ending to a game! I changed the channel in disgust when Nick Marshall got sacked on 3rd down (couldn’t stomach the end), only to read on Bleacher Report that on 4th down, he bombed out a miracle TD. Wow.
Dolly Llama
@Keith P: A tipped ball off two (extremely dim, apparently) defenders’ hands. The throw wasn’t within five yards of the throw until our dumbasses tipped it. Don’t worry. You’ll get to see that one replayed a LOT over the next day or two.
James E. Powell
@Dolly Llama:
Why, oh why, couldn’t the receiver have batted the cocksucking motherfucking ball down? Why? Oh why?
I wonder if Marty Schottenheimer still asks the same question.
Betty Cracker
@Dolly Llama: Sweet cartwheeling Jeebus, that was a tough one. And man, that last hit on Murray was vicious. I was glad to see the kid get up and walk off. Tampa tough!
The Dangerman
I can’t recall the last ballgame I’ve seen better than that one; instant classic, one for the ages. Wow.
Keith P
@James E. Powell: Same question the Ravens coached must have asked last week. But this one meant more (to me, at least). Feels good to be on the other side of a game like this (Auburn pulled a similar miracle against Ole Miss this season as well, but less of a miracle catch)
@Betty Cracker: Murray’s tough, yes, but not very bright. He’s lucky to have his vertebrae intact after tonight. Foolish of him to go helmet down into a linebacker on a run earlier.
Dolly Llama
@Keith P: Congratulations to y’all. You owned our asses for most of the night — and obviously just enough of the night.
The Dangerman
@Keith P:
He was ridiculously close to the line of scrimmage, too; still good, but it was too close if he had pulled off another miracle.
Dolly Llama
@Keith P:
I don’t know about Murray’s brightness, but given how many late hits he took, I’d agree with you about his vertebrae. I just congratulated you on your victory. Can we just leave it there?
Go GATORS!
Betty Cracker
And the Gators go up 14-6! Ol’ Ball Coach is frowny!
burnspbesq
If you see someone aimlessly wandering the streets of your town with a strange, goofy grin on his or her face, chances are he or she is a Duke fan.
Whiskey Tango Hotel? Duke 48, Miami 30. Duke is now 8-2, and may be in the Top 25 tomorrow.
James E. Powell
@burnspbesq:
Duke is now 8-2, and may be in the Top 25 tomorrow.
Well, that’s hardly a surprise, Duke is one of the elite programs in the . . . wait, you’re talking about football? Holy shit!
burnspbesq
@James E. Powell:
Hell of a day to be a Dookie. We also won first-round NCAA tournament games in field hockey and women’s soccer today.
Dolly Llama
@burnspbesq: Doooooooooooooooooooooooook!
ETA: If I wanted to be a shithead about it, I’d point to it as a sign of just how shitty the ACC’s Coastal (or is it the other one?) division is this year wrt football. But I won’t. Hope they beat Florida State in the ACCCG. Heh.
raven
@Keith P: Murray’s tough, yes, but not very bright
you’re a fucking idiot
Dolly Llama
@raven: Yeah, I was inclined to be gracious except for that shit.
raven
@Dolly Llama: Fuck that shit. Did you hear the interview with Marshall?
burnspbesq
@Dolly Llama:
Indeedy. If we win our last two, at Wake and at Tarholes, we get FSU in the championship game. A realistic hope against FSU would be that none of our key players get injured and miss the bowl game.
Dolly Llama
@raven: Nope. Had to turn it immediately over to Florida/USCe in deference to the missus. What’d I miss? Link? Brief synopsis?
Betty Cracker
I hope the Bucs draft Clowney. Dude is a monster.
West of the Rockies
Everyone sort of stopped talking Cheney here, but I do hope it hurts — I hope she feels rejected on a personal, visceral level; I hope she looks in the mirror with something resembling human humility and at least asks the question, “Could it be that I am a complete jerk?”
Dolly Llama
Betty, don’t look now, but your Gators have been playing a damn gutsy game. They just fell behind 16-14, the first time they’ve been behind all night. I think y’all can manage that. I’d love to see it for my wife’s sake. Are you excited or what?
Betty Cracker
@Dolly Llama: They’re bringing it! I loved that 4th down call, even though it didn’t work. Gutsy!
Betty Cracker
Noooooo!!! Fuck fuck fuck!!!!
Betty Cracker
Well shit. Not unexpected, but disappointing nonetheless. Pppfft.
seaboogie
@Amir Khalid: An antidote to politics.
Dolly Llama
@Betty Cracker: Sorry. Imagine how me and raven feel. Next time you see Corner Stone, you ought to ask him about it. He’s a big USCe/Clowney guy.
Jebediah, RBG
@Amir Khalid:
Holy crap cute overload!
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Oh, were they talking about American football?
You’re just jealous because they’re not located in RI.
lee
@peej: my guess is Texas