In the aftermath of Claire McCaskill’s stunning 2012 re-election victory, I [Christopher Ave] had lunch with Missouri’s Democratic senator. I wanted to ask about her unusual tactics during the primary race.She's got a column in Politico in which she crows about persuading Republicans to vote for the candidate she most wanted to run against.
So at our lunch, I asked her: Wasn’t it disingenuous to spend money telling Republican voters who to vote for — essentially pretending that you supported Akin?
McCaskill shot me a withering look.
“Am I supposed to apologize for winning?” she asked pointedly.
The ad:
Not that her strategy was a secret at the time. And when Akin's campaign ran off the rails with his "legitimate rape" comment, it was McCaskill who got the Democratic heavyweights to hold off from attacking Akin. At first. Until the deadline for him to withdraw as a candidate passed.
Then the gloves came off.
McCaskill's tactics paid off. She was thought to be the most vulnerable Democrat in the Senate in 2012. She won 59% of the vote.
But it's still not very common for a politician to openly brag about ratfucking the other guy.
3 comments:
She pisses me off sometimes, as she does some political bloggers in Missouri who helped her win both times, but as they will tell you, she beats the hell out of the Republicans she ran against as a senator.
-Doug in Oakland
This is honest. The ad says he's too conservative; don't vote for him. Which is exactly what she thought. I don't even call this ratfking. "Jiu-jitsu" is the mot juste.
But the purpose of the ad was to get the GOP's primary voters to vote for the guy. Because he was the guy she wanted to run against.
It was ratfucking.
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