If you think that people base their votes for president on the perceived intellect of the candidates, you are waaay off base. If you’re pro-union, pro-welfare, pro-big government and pro-“tax the (increasingly lower-defined) rich”, you’re going to vote for the Democratic candidate, whoever that is. You’re not going to vote for a Republican simply because you think he is more intelligent. And the same works in reverse: if you’re strong on individual responsiblity, a life lived free of government interference and think we already pay way too much in taxes, you’re not going to vote for the Democratic candidate simply because you think he’s more intelligent.
This is why political parties have platforms. You vote for whoever you think will try to accomplish what you want to see accomplished, and not someone who will do the exact opposite but with greater mental alacrity.
In addition to what everyone else has said, the other big difference between Greene and O’Donnell is that Greene is cannon fodder. The most electable Dem in SC would have had his balls handed to him by DeMint, so it may as well have been someone like Green.
Similarly, it doesn’t surprise me that O’Donnell ran against Joe Biden in his previous election, because no Republican really had a chance in that one, and they might as well put up a nutjob. But this time they had a chance–in fact, an almost sure chance if Castle had made it through the primary–and they still put O’D out there.
When I saw that old picture of O’Donnell on Politically Incorrect I recognized her immediately. I used to watch that show faithfully, so I probably saw all 22 times she was on.
She struck me then as a complete airhead. The stuff that would come out of her mouth was just idiotic. She may have been ‘fun’, and I suppose she was cute, but as someone roughly on the same side of the fence as her, she used to just make me cringe whenever she opened her mouth.
Of course, she was quite young then - just out of college, I believe. So you can kind of forgive a certain amount of stupidity at that point in someone’s life. But I wasn’t much older at the time, and she still came across as a mediocre intellect at best.
I haven’t followed the race in Delaware, and haven’t heard her speak since then, but man… if she’s still like that she’s not exactly an asset to the tea party or to the Republicans.
Since I haven’t heard her for 15 years or so I’ll give her a chance, but if she’s anything like she used to be, I won’t be a fan.
Politically Incorrect hasn’t been on the air for 15 years? No, I think you’ve heard her speak more recently than that. And I hope you’re not making excuses (“I’ll give her a chance”) to set up a change of heart (“She’s a new woman! She usedta be dumb but now she’s a super-genius!”) because otherwise you sound refreshingly honest, Sam.
It was that long ago. The clip where she said she dabbled in witchcraft was from 1997.
And no, I’m not trying to set up some kind of, “She’s a changed woman!” angle. I’m just being fair. I haven’t heard a word she’s said in more than a decade, so I’ll give her a chance - but I’m not expecting anything different.
It aired from 1993 or 1994 (depending whether you believe Wikipedia or IMDB more) until 2002. His show now is called Real Time but is fairly similar in format.
That was my point–that if Sam has seen all 22 appearances of C. O’D. on PI, and PI last aired in 2002 (and she’d been a regular guest, so I’d imagine she last appeared in 2002 or maybe 2001) it hasn’t been 15 years since Sam last saw her–all I was suggestng that being close to 100% off on the last time he’d seen her sounded like he was setting up a “Ok, she USED to be crazy a long long time ago, but now she’s a mainstream Pubbie and I support the New Christine 100%” type argument.
If I understand the right wing logic, what Whacky Christine said herself in her youth is completely irrelevant. But Obama is responsible for “palling around with terrorists” based on what a peripheral acquaintance did when he was 8 years old.
Oh, come on. I just picked that number out of the air. I figured it was that long ago based on where I used to live when I remembered watching her. Hey, if the last time she was on was ten years ago and not fifteen, mea culpa, I guess. If you think it’s important to you.
Either way, I’ll judge her based on what she says now. From what little I’ve heard in the last couple of days, it doesn’t sound like much has changed. She’s probably got some political experience and maybe knows to use her inside voice when uttering batshit looniness, but I don’t think ten years can magically make you smart.
What I find more troubling, in fact, is that I’ve heard that she has a pattern of not paying her staff. That would elevate her from stupid to unethical. But I haven’t got all the details on this yet.
By the way, if I was looking for some kind of ‘out’ to forgive her and start supporting her, why would I have posted these messages in the first place? Why would I volunteer that I found her to be excruciatingly stupid fifteen years ago? Have you mapped out some Machiavellian plot that you think I’ve got going on or something?
Rest assured, if I start supporting her for any reason, it will be because of an honest change in assessment, not because I was playing some game with you.
I don’t even think a dead head righty like you can make that leap. She needs to be ignored.
She filters off campaign finances for personal use. So we don’t have to worry about her going broke.
Even Fox turned on her a bit for a Sunday no show. She stood them and a news program up. I suppose she was provided with a campaign manager who stopped her before she could make a bigger fool of herself. Perhaps Palins old coach is available. He did not get much done with her though.
Like STONE will demonstrate in this thread, they will try to minimize her statements as youthful errors. They will pretend she has grown past that and has become a reasonable candidate. That will be a hard sell. (maybe soft sell since she is against masturbation).
It’s always interesting how easily discussion about politics that should be all about economics gets all steamrolled by politics of emotion – masturbation, abortion, witchcraft.
Who cares what platform she ran on? The voting public cares about such laughably unimportant issues as whether a candidate wears an American flag lapel pin at all times. Do you really think they’re uninterested in whether a candidate is a total loon?
Well, actually, 8 or 9 years ago, but who’s counting? It was a small point, but it stuck out because you were specifying a time frame that (in the same post) you were contradicting, and I was wondering if there were any larger significance. If you say there’s not, then I’ll take your word for it. I saw most of her appearances on Maher’s show, too (and I would have to guess that I last saw her more recently than 2002, so I would have made a bigger error than you in the opposite direction) and she emerged as a loony figure of fun for Mahar to mock and deride. I’d have placed her decades if not lifetimes away from being a serious candidate for a major public office, an airhead, a ninny, a silly babbling incoherent nutbag.
