Is O'Donnell really stupid?

[Timothy W.]

There seems to be a lot of fear of attractive conservative brunettes to the point that they have to attacked as "stupid" by people who never really qualify that statement and when they do qualify it, it turns out they are factually wrong and she is right. I have to admit that I haven't sit down and listened to O'Donnell beyond soundbites. I've only read what she's come out with, so I found an interview she was going to be one where she was basically going to explain who she is and what she's about and sat down for a good 15-20 minutes and listened to her talk (without a teleprompter).

I'm going to skip past the politics of who she is and what she's about and focus on two political strategies she employed. In my opinion, politics are beliefs but where you measure intelligence is in how they are delivered and the strategies you employ.

The first is her response to the smear campaigns against her. Her angle on responding to this is that a vote for her opponent based on these smear campaigns is a vote in support of dirty politics that keeps good people out of office. She came out with this right when she revealed that a recent piece about a supposed one night stand that was written for the Gawker, was written by a person, a former Boy Scout, paid to write that smear piece. She indirectly showed how the Coons campaign has turned Boy Scouts into paid political hit men and then asked if that's the trend you want to set for future generations. That's pretty sharp because that cuts right past politics and to a core dissatisfaction people have been feeling for quite sometime....and it plays the guilt button which, as Obama illustrated, is quite effective.

The second thing she did, which was brilliant, was the same week that Obama announced he was coming into town to campaign for Coons - she had a rally called "Democrats for O'Donnell" and had as her featured speakers LOCAL Democrat leaders who were dissatisfied with what Washington has been up to lately. You talk about turning someone's attempt at "momentum" right against them, Obama is toxic in local constituencies that aren't populated with his sycophants and she capitalized on this by siding herself with names that don't mean anything to us, but mean something to Delaware voters in their local community. Obama flies in, talks for 20 minutes and flies out. These local Democrat leaders are there 24/7, talking to people. I don't care who you are, that is a very smart move.

We will see on Tuesday how it all plays out but it is interesting to see people rely so heavily on the characterization of political candidates as "stupid" or as some Democrats have tried to use lately "b-tch" or "whore", especially when they are factually wrong in how they came about that characterization. I would caution you in your use of it because by now, it's a tired, overused assertion. It reveals nothing more about the person you are attacking while revealing a whole lot more about you.