Hagan, Dole and the 90s

Published August 30, 2014

by Gary Pearce, Talking About Politics, August 29, 2014.

WRAL’s Mark Binker says the claim that Senator Kay Hagan votes with President Obama 95 percent of the time is “something of karmic payback for Hagan, who benefited from a similar claim leveled against then-Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008.”

 

There is a little-noted back story to the Dole ad: It wasn’t really about voting percentages. It was about age. And it was a devastatingly clever attack on Dole.

 

At the time, serious-minded fact-checkers focused on whether the ad, sponsored by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was correct when it said Dole ranked 93rd in effectiveness in the Senate and voted with George Bush 92 percent of the time.

 

But watch the ad (it’s in Binker’s story) and listen to the two old codgers rocking on the porch. One says, “I’m telling you, Liddy Dole is 93.” The other replies, “I heard she’s 92.” At the end, one asks, “What happened to the Liddy Dole we knew?” The other says, “She’s just not a go-getter like you and me.”

 

The subtle but powerful message: Liddy Dole is too old. Her time has passed.

 

Now, a direct hit on her age (she was 72 in 2008) would have backfired. But the sly hit worked.

 

So don’t expect the 95 percent hit on Hagan by Tillis’ campaign to work like the 2008 ad did. For one thing, voters suspect – as Binker’s fact check shows – that the 95 percent includes a lot of minor votes.

 

Hagan and her allies have run a brilliant campaign so far. They’ve portrayed her as a moderate (“just right, just like North Carolina”) and they’ve painted Thom Tillis into a box with an unpopular legislature in Raleigh.

 

This attack won’t change that.

 http://www.talkingaboutpolitics.com

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August 30, 2014 at 3:25 pm
Tom Hauck says:

The claim that Senator Hagan's voting with President Obama and Senator Harry Reid 94% of the time may have included many minor votes but they included all the major votes as well.

She was proud to tell us that under the PP ACA (aka Obamacare) "if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" and "if you like your health care plan, you can keep your healthcare plan" even though we have learned it was known that it was not true when they said it.

No one likes to be lied to.

August 31, 2014 at 1:58 pm
Norm Kelly says:

Tom Hauck is right. Not only does the 90+% include many minor votes, which are still lib votes, but it includes many major votes.

The unfortunate part about the editorial and Tom's reply is that most of the people who will vote for K fall into 2 categories. First is those that are pre-disposed to vote for her because there's a big D after her name on the ballot. These people would vote for ANY candidate so long as that D shows up.

Second are low-information voters. These people believe what they see in campaign ads. These people believe what they read in the N&D. They are called low-information voters for the simple fact that they don't KNOW what the truth is, they rely on the candidate themselves to keep them informed, and they DON'T QUESTION any information provided to them by the candidate. Low-information voters tend to vote for the incumbent because they see no reason not to trust the person already in office. And they vote for the D because the N&D endorses the D whether they deserve it or not. And for some reason that escapes thinking people, low-information types seem to trust the N&D.

Those who know that K is NOT a moderate, already KNOW that K & the occupier lied to us about Obamascare, and KNOW that both knew they were telling lies when they told them. And neither K nor the occupier cared enough about the citizens of NC to worry about telling the lie.

And for all those editorial writers, low-information voters, and pre-disposed Demon voters, one has to wonder what it would take to get them to change their minds. What has K done to reduce the annual deficit? What has K done to reduce the national debt? What has K done to improve the VA health care system? What has K proposed to secure the border? (or is it more important to allow more demon voters into the country to secure her position?) What has K proposed to allow some privatization into the VA health care system? What has K proposed, endorsed, worked on to get the occupier back in line with the US Constitution? How has K responded to the IRS targeting political opponents? What has K done to get to the bottom of all the lost emails in various departments due to crashed hard drives? What has K done to allow MORE energy exploration within the borders of the US?

You see, there are a lot of areas where K isn't just vulnerable. These and other areas show she is in lock step with the occupier, though she finds herself attempting to create distance. These areas show that K is NOT EVEN CLOSE to being a moderate. What is K's position on allowing states to OPT out of Communist Core? Wouldn't someone who claims to be moderate at least be willing to accept that states should be allowed to choose? There are so many other areas where K is in complete agreement with the occupier that prove she is just another lib trying to lie, once again, to voters. K already knows she has her lib base ready to vote for her. Now, claiming she's a moderate, she's attempting to get the middle-of-the-roaders who can't make up their minds to side with her because she's trying to paint herself as one of them. How many of the incapable-of-making-a-decision moderate voters will find her mis-information appealing? Keeping an open mind is one thing. Not being able to recognize the truth when it's right in front of you is something else altogether. More Republican voters show a willingness to have an open mind than lib voters do. Just remember, when Republicans run a candidate that's a wanna-be, Republican voters CHOOSE not to vote for the wishy-washy candidate. This shows that we have an open mind about our candidates, and are willing to NOT vote for them just because there's an R after their name on the ballot. As opposed to lib voters, and the N&D, that support the D virtually no matter what.