certainly knows there is no such thing as bad publicity. Struggling to gain traction against Tommy Thompson, Mark Neumann, and Jeff Fitzgerald, Hovde suddenly finds himself under the spotlight.
It is attention that previously he could not buy. He has loaned his campaign nearly $2 million. Despite that and plenty of TV spots, a Marquette University poll released this week notes that Hovde is the least recognized of the four candidates. Only 27 percent of poll respondents were able to share an opinion of him.
That is likely to change quickly. The Huffington Post reported on comments he made while speaking to the Greater Brookfield Chamber of Commerce. Noticing a reporter in the audience, Hovde said:
"I just pray that you start writing about these issues. I just pray. Stop always writing about, 'Oh, the person couldn't get, you know, their food stamps or this or that.' You know, I saw something the other day -- it's like, another sob story, and I'm like, 'But what about what's happening to the country and the country as a whole?' That's going to devastate everybody."
After receiving criticism for his remarks, "I will gladly debate Ms. Huffington any time and any place in front of a room full of journalists on what she has done for the less fortunate versus what I have done.”
For a man who repeatedly touts himself as an outsider, Hovde sure plays the game like a seasoned veteran (he did live in the nation’s capital for nearly 25 years after all). He wasted no time attacking the conservative’s favorite bogeyman “the liberal media” for allegedly taking his comments out of context. A fundraising solicitation also used the issue to ask for money.
Hovde should be thanking the Huffington Post and other media outlets for giving his campaign more attention than it has received since he officially launched it back in early March. Millions of dollars did not result in this level of attention. How would it have happened without the media people like Hovde love to hate?
This is not to say that Hovde is the first candidate for office to exploit media attention for personal gain. It happens all the time and candidates from both sides of the aisle are more than happy to do it when it benefits them.
Nor is he the first candidate or politician to make comments that appear insensitive during a time of challenging economic conditions. Chances are if you are a politician or a candidate for U.S. Senate, you’re doing better than the vast majority of the American people. Their day-to-day reality is quite different from that of most people.
The moral of the story here is to be skeptical of candidates repeatedly insisting that they are an outsider or somehow different from the rest. They probably are not. Hovde may not currently hold a political office, but by immediately attacking the same old targets and rapidly launching a fundraiser based on controversial remarks, he sure acts like an insider.
You might actually be better off sticking to conventional wisdom rather than attempting to forage on your own for the same. You've picked some real doozies - although I will give you credit for not restricting yourself to Democratic doozies alone. Too bad there's not a Screw Loose Party. You'd be in hog heaven.
@toader...She needs a man! What kind of troglodyte are you anyway?
By the way, I am voting for Hovde in the Republican primary. That would make the regular election a much closer race.
Also, admitting you voted for Tom Reynolds without first stating that you'd spent the day pounding brown mumblers at Club 113 and voted as you did on a dare really makes me question not only your ability to chose a candidate, but to concoct a plausible excuse for having made such a boneheaded move in the event you did enter the booth sober and intentionally vote for that fruitcake. I vote for people who have a chance of winning. Voting for Perot or Anderson was the equivalent of tossing up your hands and admitting you can't make a logical decision regarding the two (and there are ALWAYS only two) viable candidates in a final election. So much for putting a lot into your voting decision. When in doubt, punt.
"By the way, I am voting for Hovde in the Republican primary. That would make the regular election a much closer race." For someone who defiantly (apparently) votes for folks he knows won't win, I wouldn't expect anything else. BTW, were Hovde to actually win (instead of Thompson) the primary, the spread would be larger, not smaller. You apparently have less confidence in your breath of fresh air than I do. Then again, if you thought she might win you'd probably be voting for her opponent or some third party no-show.
As I recall, Tom Reynolds got elected the first time he ran by idiotic Republican voters, not my measly independent vote. I voted (D) when he ran again, of course, as he became the typical Tea Party nut, and, as happens today with Tea Party types, did not follow through on his public promises. Of course, your outrageous falsehoods about drinking in one of those bars where you are a resident habitue the day I voted for Reynolds are false and libelous. What is a brown mumbler? But you just lost control of your senses when you said those atrocious lies. I vote my conscience in general elections, and not necessarily for whom I think might win. It sends a message. Just like the perennial candidate Ron Paul is trying to influence the Republican Party in spite of being a loser. You should try it, there are many Christian/Fascist/Reactionary parties out there for you to vote for, or you could simply write in your own name instead.
***************** Where do you look when someone uses a term that confuses you, Dirk....