Alex Sink: meet the mirror. You lost because of YOU, and your state party

Alex Sink: meet the mirror. You lost because of YOU, and your state party



I wasn’t going to do any more retrospectives on the 2010 election, because I’m already on to the business of how we progressives move forward. But if there’s one thing I hate in politics, it’s people pointing the finger at everyone other than themselves when they lose. President Obama is catching hell from some of his base for capitulating to a barrage of reporters’ demanding that he take responsibility for the beating Democrats took on November 2nd, but at least he manned up. Alex Sink on the other hand, thinks she lost the Florida governor’s race because of … Barack Obama. Madame, please.

Ms. Sink, who lost the Florida governor’s race by 61,966, and a razor-thin 48.87 percent to 47.71 margin to near-felon Rick Scott, turned to the Ronald Reagan Library legacy folks at Politico to vent her spleen, and to point a finger at the White House for her troubles. So let’s dig into her argument, and splash a little truthiness on it.
First up, Sink’s summary judgment, in which we’re seeing the first draft of Florida’s Democratic political machinery’s attempt to alter history in order to evade responsibility for the colossal failure that took place on November 2nd.

-snip-
Ahem.
So, smarty-pants blogger, if it wasn’t the president’s handling of the Gulf oil spill, and it wasn’t “Obamacare,” could Alex Sink’s fortunes have been torched by Obama himself? I mean, Glenn Beck tells me he’s out to destroy the country, state by state…
Indeed, the president’s approval rating in Florida is under water — 45 percent to 54 percent, per the vaunted exit polls. And more voters — 34 percent — said they were voting to send a message of disapproval to the president than to show support — 24 percent. But was that enough to take Miss Alex down? Let’s examine the numbers.
For starters, the largest share of voters — 40 percent — said Obama was a non-factor in their vote this year. What mattered more was who turned out (and who didn’t.)

-snip-
Conclusion (finally)

Unforced errors like that, and textgate, and Sink’s failure for the first two thirds of her campaign to run as a woman (so much so that late in the game, some people still weren’t clear on that), or to capitalize on the pent-up Hillary Clinton support in the state, or to do retail campaigning for month after agonizing month in the early days of the campaign, even though liberal donors and supporters around the state were literally screaming for her presence; or to use Rod Smith (who allegedly exists, though I can’t verify it) or to pick a running mate with a strong point of difference from herself, or to wear some damned lipstick and stop coming across like the town librarian, or to get some TV and debate training, or in short, to do any number of things that could have gotten her those 62,000 votes, scar this campaign from beginning to end.

-snip-

http://blog.reidreport.com/2010/11/alex-sink-meet-the-mirror-you-lost-because-of-you-and-your-state-party/

Oddly enough, Sink doesn’t mention the fact that the DNC and Obama’s organizing wing OFA poured resources into Florida on her behalf to keep her competitive with Scott. Sink also neglects to mention that she had leads in polls in the final days of the election until she got caught cheating in a debate — and then lied about it. That didn’t do anything for her relationship to Florida voters, either.

After the debate, the Sink campaign released a statement from the candidate announcing that the advisor who sent the message has been removed from the campaign. The advisor was not named in the statement, but a campaign spokesman confirmed it is Brian May, who signed the rules agreement before the debate on behalf of the Sink campaign.

“After the debate tonight, one of my campaign advisors admitted he tried to communicate with me during one of the breaks,” Sink said.

“While he told me it was out of anger with Rick Scott’s repeated distortion of facts, it was a foolish thing to do. It violated a debate agreement and I immediately removed him from the campaign."

On the question of President Barack Obama's job performance, 54 percent said they disapproved, while 45 percent approved. On Obama's signature health care law, a majority want it either expanded (30 percent) or left as it is (19 percent). About 44 percent of voters said it should be repealed.

link