Monday, September 27, 2010

Missed opportunity doesn’t reflect well on the Whitman campaign

When Dem loudmouth Bob Mulholland smeared Bobby Jindal by calling him an "anchor baby" in Fresno on Friday, he handed the Whitman campaign an opportunity to render Mulholland powerless and completely take him out of the campaign.

A demand by the Whitman campaign for a resignation would almost certainly have resulted in him being fired by the Brown campaign.  At the every least, Mulholland would be tainted after having been forced to apologize.

Inexplicably -- inexcusably, in my opinion -- there was no response at all from the Whitman campaign. 

As a result,  Mulholland -- a paid "independent contractor" for the Dems -- will hold court after the first debate tomorrow, giving reporters juicy quotes that will grab headlines and potentially put the Whitman campaign back on its heels.  
 
Why no response from the campaign?
 
I hope they weren't relying on the Fresno Bee, who heard the smear, to call Mulholland out.

All the Bee did was to meekly get "clarification" from Mulholland.  Reporter John Ellis then tweeted Mulholland's pathetic explanation for his smear:



Ellis didn't even mention the slur in his reports on the protesters. 

I'm not saying John Ellis is blameless or that he is doing his job.  You and I both know what Ellis would have done if he had heard Sarah Palin or another Republican call a Dem politician an “anchor baby”or a "wetback".  In this case, Ellis gave Mulholland a pass when Mulholland said he was merely using GOP terminology.  It's not fair but that is reality.  Republicans can never rely on reporters to hold Dems accountable -- which means it is up to the campaign to do it.

Spokesman Rob Stutzman had a natural connection for the campaign to hit Mulholland over his smear.  Stutzman is also working on the campaign of Dan Lungren, who is running against a Democrat  happens to be an Indian-American.   Just like Bobby Jindal.  A natural segway to get a Dem candidate to condemn the slur by Dem spokesman Mulholland, right?   But Rob Stutzman spent his weekend tweeting about Steve Winwood, and doing who-knows what else.

There was nothing from anybody else at the Whitman campaign, either.

Were you too busy golfing, guys?  Having fun in the Cupertino sun?  Were you clueless?

Or -- maybe the worst scenario - were you over-confident?

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