Can barely stand to watch - local news covering Mourdock "win" speech.

[salin]

I don't get cable. I only watch local tv. Haven't seen Lugar ads - only Mourdock ads (one in particular) over and over again. The message was that Lugar was good - but then he changed... and became an 'insider' (after all these years - only seemed to happen after Obama became president - was the implication.)

This was the meme paid for by SuperPacs. The ads weren't about the extreme positions of Mourdock. The ads were about replaying and imprinting the current conservative talking heads (tv and radio) meme.

Had this been a close race, I would have a different observation. But Mourdock ran 20 % points above Lugar. This feels like it is about the POWER of propoganda funded by legal SuperPacs delivered to us by the Supreme Court in the Citizens United Case.

For those thinking this makes an opening for the Blue Dog Dem (Bayh-like Donnoly) - the whole state has been getting weeks of 2-3 times an hour ads of moderate toned promotions of Mourdock, with almost no reponse for Lugar which frame the election not on the positions of the extreme right (which Mourdock touts, if you read his positions) but on Lugar being old and out of touch. Unless boatloads of money pour into this state - the impression of a "good guy" (now with great name recognition) is better than a long trusted name - is the one that lasts.

I am so disgusted and saddened by tonight's results. Again if Mourdock had one by several percentage points, my comments would be different.

The effect of the SuperPac Ads here - resulted in a 20% point win - and none of the ads ran any teaparty/far right theme beyond the deficits and voting with Obama. The framing has been fairly innocuous per the positions of those funding Mourdock and Mourdock himself.

IMO this was an object lesson on how effective the role of huge money (Superpac) in a single race can be.

Consider this a lamentation.

[Demoiselle]

1. Thanks for your take on this sad story.

I was unhappy enough when I thought that Lugar's defeat was the result of far-right poison going after a reasonable man. The thought that it was the result of an incredible amount of money dumped, unanswered, into tv ads is equally--maybe more --depressing. I join you in your lamentation.

[salin]

3. The ads (one primarily) that played multiple times an hour - were absent of teaparty stands.

Nothing about what they stand for. The main issue was deficits and those votes in the depths of the crisis that included spending, were the focus. The far right nature (and positions) of Murdouck were never addressed. Given the saturation of the message (several times an hour on local stations) I am guessing that many voters were responding to the deceptive (hide the message of most of the candidate's positions behind a singular seemingly commonsense message) it is hard to draw any other conclusion. The SuperPac money unleashed on elections by the Supreme Court has turned "free speech" into free deceptive and marketed speech to those who are rich enough to through out hundreds of thousands of dollars (and sometimes millions) into a single election cycle. IMO, We the People have lost our voice.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. let the GOP be run by superpacs. I don't care who they pick

hope the dems can pick up that seat