Las Vegas Sun political guru Jon Ralston is taken aback by a press release from Republican Sharon Angle’s campaign bragging about her astounding $14 million third-quarter fundraising haul. From the Angle release:
This is a testament to the hatred of Harry Reid, the nation’s disapproval of President Obama, and the unprecedented grass-roots support for Sharron Angle. Harry Reid is losing this race, he knows it, and he is just going to get more desperate over the final three weeks.”
Ralston:
I’ve read plenty of such missives over the years that have vicious language and stinging adjectives. Indeed, the Reid campaign has called Angle “crazy” and said she has “lost her mind.” But “hatred” is such an awful word — a word I forbid my daughter to use — and yet it sums up exactly why the Senate majority leader may lose to a woman who just last week talked of Sharia law existing in cities in Michigan and Texas.
It’s hatred that has brought this Senate race, with three days until voting begins, to a place where Angle can win. It is hatred that brought her that $14 million haul. And it is hatred that courses through the American electorate, bringing venomous and vitriolic assaults upon anyone who dares to suggest Obama-Reid-Pelosi is not a three-headed monster.
Good times. As Joe concluded after his road trip across the country, there’s a lot more to the national mood right now than reflexive anger and outright hatred. But there’s also no denying that those pitched emotions are real and powerful right now.