We’ve seen some oddball campaigns this season, mostly from Tea Party-backed candidates, but until now, most of them at least emphasize relevant issues. Not anymore. Not in North Carolina’s 2nd District. Get ready for Renee Elmers.
Locally, we had Tim D’Annunzio’s machinegun trainwreck of a campaign, complete with talk of saving the world from evil, dismantling the government, and a 1000-mile-high pyramid in Greenland. Nationally, there was the guy in Alabama whose ads featured George Washington urging him to overthrow the government; Sharron Angle in Nevada, who thinks people that can’t afford health care should barter for it, using chickens as payment; and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, who wants to bring back the failures of abstinence-only sex education. But at least those candidates, no matter how whacked out you may think they are, campaigned, or are still campaigning, on actual issues that could conceivably impact their constituents. Not so for Tea Party Republican candidate Renee Elmers, running in the Triangle for the seat held by Rep. Bob Etheridge.
Elmers’ first broadcast ad, right out of the gate, isn’t about health care, or taxes, or earmarks, or, in fact, about anything that’s relevant to North Carolinians’ day-to-day life. Elmers began her campaign against Etheridge with a xenophobic, factually incorrect, not to mention dumb-as-a-rock ignorant, commercial about the Islamic center scheduled to be built a couple of blocks from the site of the Twin Towers attacks — or, as Elmers likes to call it, the victory mosque at Ground Zero. Tells you all you need to know about Elmers’ view of the world, as well as her party’s descent into sheer paranoia and repugnant fear mongering. Check out her ad below.
This article appears in Sep 21-27, 2010.
Well if Etheridge films a response ad he better make sure he doesn’t assault the cameraman. Etheridge is a certified psychopath:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/06/relax–_rep_bob_etheridges_ass.html
If the person Etheridge assaulted had been black, gay or female, and Bob The Bully was a Republican, Grooms be calling for his head on a platter.
PS: You might want to spell Ms. ELLMERS’s name correctly, genius.
Thanks so much — always thrilled to get a complimentary comment from Bulova Accutron (WTF?)
Ms. Ellmers is not really suited well for the position to run for office at this level and it’s quite obvious from a quick study. This is why even CNN is a useless tool for the political elite. They have yet to highlight anything positive about Tea Parties and were the first to come up with the “teabaggers” term on live TV…wow that’s really professional!
Ms. Ellmers is a symptom of what’s wrong with the GOP. There were several other good candidates who ran against her but lost because the establishment would not back them (Todd Gailis) and they entered somewhat late as well. No matter, for Anderson Pooper to say that she represents the entire Tea Party movement is no different than someone seeing a black man bumming money and saying that all blacks are that way.
Ms. Ellmers also was approached by The Independence Caucus to take our vetting questions and go through our endorsement process.
and no response was given to iCaucus from the Elmers campaign.
SCOREBOARD!!!!!!!!!!
Read it an weep!
Elmers whipped Etheridge!
John, you are Democrat hack pretending to be a journalist, working for the Democrat National Committee Stenographer’s Pool. Did you copy your talking points from a DNC fax or are you just naturally an anti-conservative hatemonger?
Sorry Mr. Croom, you don’t get it. The Islamic “problem” is not just a 4th District North Carolina concern and Ms. Ellmers has linked into it, as she and all members of congress should.
Any doubts on your part, read Samuel P. Huntington, Bernard Lewis and and excellent book by Christopher
Caldwell to see what the scholars are saying about Islam and such symbols as the mosque.
Sorry sir, but you are embarrassing yourself.
Chuck G