The meaning of Brad Carson

[Bush was AWOL]

December 2, 2004
The Meaning of Brad Carson
By Matt Miller

Brad Carson of Oklahoma is an exceptionally promising 37-year-old Democratic congressman who has been retired from public life (temporarily, I'd wager) after losing to Tom Coburn in the race for the Senate seat vacated by Don Nickles. Carson's defeat, despite (1) his personal attractiveness, (2) the fact that he ran well to the right of his party, and (3) did so against a man who will be seen as one of the Senate's more extreme conservatives, hasn't been properly appreciated. It shows how dramatically the national Democratic "brand" needs to be retooled if Democrats are to become competitive in the South.

As Carson told me the other day, a Democrat running for Senate in a presidential year starts in a serious hole in Oklahoma, given that the state went for George Bush over John Kerry by a stunning 66 percent to 34 percent.

Yet it's not as if being a Democrat in Oklahoma is actually fatal. Oklahoma's governor is a Democrat. So is the Oklahoma attorney general. The state treasurer is a Democrat, as is the state auditor. The state senate is controlled by Democrats as well.

So if it's not Loathing of Democrats per se that explains the lopsided presidential count and Carson's loss, what's going on? The answer seems to be Loathing of National Democrats.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-12_2_04_MM.html

[theblasmo]

1. Smear, Smear, Smear

The election for Senator in Oklahoma this year was the dirtiest campaign I can remember in my 30-something years of living here. Since there was a chance the US Senate could be tied after the election, the Repubs sent tons of cash into the state to help beat Carson, who for all intents and purposes is a conservative. They called him a liberal, used a Washington gay newspaper to "out" him ("Why doesn't Brad Carson just come out and tell us the truth..."), and had dancing cartoon versions of Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton dancing next to him. It worked, for whatever reason. Coburn is a nut. He may be the furthest to the right of any senator in Congress right now. I am embarrassed for the mere existence of this guy and hope Carson will run against almost-as-nuts Jim Inhofe when the time comes. Wanna know how far the Republicans are willing to go or how low they'll go politically? This is it. Someone should study this campaign to show how much dirt a candidate can get. Anyone who worked for Coburn's campaign should be disgusted with her/himself.

[juslikagrzly]

2. Amen!

Our national shame---PsychoCoburn.

While I understand the issues involved in running a democrat for senate in OK, I was very unhappy with how far right Carson ran--he tried to distance himself from the "librul" label and told us all how much * liked him. I really really wish that democrats/progressives would just stand up and state their values, NOT parse them into unintelligible republicanese