Republican Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann, appeared on MSNBC to drum up support for McCain by criticizing Obama and his connections to Bill Ayers. In the course of the interview she insinuated that people with liberal views were anti-American and that members of congress should be investigated for holding anti-American views. This set off an interesting chain of events:
-Instead of energizing the Republican base, it energized the Democratic base, angry about being called anti-American.
-By the next morning Bachmann's opponent, Tinklenberg, had raised roughly half a million dollars.
-The DCCC (which helps funds Democratic candidates) gave Tinklenberg's campaign $1 million having previously ignored the campaign.
-The RNCC (which helps funds Republican candidates) dropped funding for two TV ads it was running for Bachmann.
-A former Republican governor of Minnesota endorsed Obama citing Bachmann's comments as a turning point for him.
-Polling from before the interview had Bachmann ahead by 3%, afterwards Tinklenberg was ahead by 4%
-40% of voters in her district said that they were less likely to vote for her because of her comments. Only 8% said they were more likely to vote for her.
It's a good day for democracy when people realize that criticizing traditional political beliefs isn't treasonous.
No comments:
Post a Comment