On This Week with Christiane Amanpour, we are all very, very shocked that people like Christine O'Donnell are somehow taken very, very seriously. As if the constant media barrage had nothing to do with that -- or with the success of crazy people
October 17, 2010

On This Week with Christiane Amanpour, we are all very, very shocked that people like Christine O'Donnell are somehow taken very, very seriously. As if the constant media barrage had nothing to do with that -- or with the success of crazy people like Sharon Angle, who for some reason was also taken seriously (because we didn't want to hurt the widdle feelings of the disgruntled fringe teabaggers):

Meghan McCain, author of the book "Dirty Sexy Politics," said Christine O'Donnell, the Republican candidate for Senate in Delaware, was real trouble.

"Well, I speak as a 26-year-old woman and my problem is that, no matter what, Christine O'Donnell is making a mockery of running for public office," McCain told anchor Christiane Amanpour. "She has no real history, no real success in any kind of business."

McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that the message, "that sends to my generation is: one day you can just wake and run for Senate, no matter how [much of] a lack of experience you have. And it scares for me for a lot of reasons."

"I just know, in my group of friends, it turns people off because she's seen as a nutjob," she said.

You know, Meghan, this might have been a good time to apologize to the public for your father, who after all, set the precedent on lowering that bar... you betcha!

Amanpour asked political analyst Matthew Dowd about the curious backgrounds of some Tea Party-affiliated candidates that have come to light recently.

He said when people vote for them, "they are votes of passion. They are like crimes of passion, in that in the aftermath you think, 'maybe I shouldn't have done that,'" he said. "But in the middle of a time when the country is so angry at Washington ... they turn to candidates that are so outside, that many of those candidates are either nuts, or somewhat off or not competent."

"But in the end," Dowd said, "if you had to switch places with the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, the Democrats would switch places with the Republicans in a minute if they could in this year's election cycle."

Dowd, who has worked for both Democratic and Republican candidates, said that the voters of Delaware will serve as a final check against O'Donnell, who is running for a Senate seat in Delaware for the third time.

"Republicans nominated somebody that's not qualified, that's probably incompetent, and has said some crazy stuff," he said. "The great news is, the Delaware electorate is probably going to send her packing one more time."

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon