It’s been 50 years since the famous Nixon/Kennedy debates first hit the airways, and Democrat Harry Reid hasn’t seemed to learn much about being on TV.
Two nights ago, Reid, with his 24 years of experience in the US Senate, squared off against his Republican challenger Sharron Angle. Reid looked dazed and confused at times, Angle, a relative political novice and grandmother looked confident and poised. Reid would never look at Angle–except for at their introduction, not once that I saw did he look over to even give a glance to his opponent. She addressed Reid, looked at him often and told him exactly what she thought and what the people of Nevada thought. Like the debate of 50 years ago, if you watched it on TV I’m sure you got one impression, for the few who may have listened here on radio in Nevada you may have gotten another impression. Either way, Sharron was impressive.
Reid was also seen often fumbling with his papers and taking notes. Angle spoke from her heart. There were nerves, but did I mention this was a Reno grandmother taking on the most powerful person in the Senate?
As for the substance, the two could not be more clearly divided. Angle made it clear that this is a battle between larger, more intrusive government and smaller government dedicated to liberty for the people. At times she got specific and direct. “Man up Harry Reid, we have a problem with Social Security,” quipped Angle at one point. Reid played the typically evasive lifelong politician who could not defend his foolish comments of the past, like, “this war is lost,” when talking about a pre-surge Iraq while soldiers were still fighting and dying in the battlefield.
For 3 months here in Nevada we have been pelted with ads telling us that Sharron Angle is “extreme.” Too extreme for the job as US Senator, too extreme for state Senator, too extreme for a local librarian–is the impression that you get whenever you watch a Reid ad slamming Angle in this state. While addressing Angle in front of a group a couple days ago I mentioned that if she were “too extreme,” then I am too extreme, Nevada is too extreme, and our Founders were too extreme.
The polls show the two neck and neck in this race. The Nevada media, of course, is beside itself. After the debate, one commentator asked why we would want to move from the #1 spot in political power in the Senate to #100. Many in the activist old media still do not get what this election is all about. We no longer want that sort of power structure in our nation. The supposed #1 spot in Washington, DC should be below the positions of Governors and even state representatives. This nation was designed with states holding the power, not bureaucrats in Washington, DC. I know it will take a long time for many to understand this concept, but I also know the media will be the last to figure out what is happening in this election. Besides, if Reid holds so much power in DC and says that it is his “job to create jobs,” then why is unemployment in Nevada the worst in the nation? Seems to me Reid is not doing his job and should be fired.
There were no major gaffes in the debate, except perhaps Reid saying that English is the official language in the United States. It is not. He voted against it in 2006 and we are the only nation on the planet that is so afraid of its own shadow that it refuses to declare its own language “official.” Reid should’ve known that. Did I mention he’s been a Senator for 24 years? Even the liberal Las Vegas Sun admitted that Reid blew it big time on a simple question that does speak to the heart of many problems, especially here in the desert southwest.
Angle should get, and deserves to get a bump in the polls after their only debate. She showed what she has been preaching here in Nevada for months. No fear. No fear against the power of an intrusive federal government that works to sap the strength from its people. During this election, nobody represents that power more than Reid.
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