O’Donnell is not a witch but has secret documents from China, Scott McAdams wears Ted Stevens’s tie, and Russ Feingold runs against Randy Moss, John Raese is not you.
“I’m not a witch.”
Way to address the issue head on!
I propose the Crucible. Throw her over into the river and test her on that one.Â
“I’m you.”
This is something worth testing. I once heard a description from a left of center peron about the Bush — Gore 2000 contest that they were “90 percent the same.” I don’t know what that figure meant. The scales of measurement are hard to calibrate.  Seen from one light, we are 90 percent the same as our homo-erectus ancestors. Seen from another, that 10 percent makes 90 percent of the difference, and so we’re only 10 percent alike.
“None of us are perfect.”
Agreed. But I’ve been hearing that expressed a bit too often by politicians lately. Sarah Palin said it in her 2008 Convention speech, for instance. There is something here worth exploring further — it’s a faltering of Identity Politics.
“I’ll go to Washington and do what you’d do.”
No you won’t.  I have seen where her ilk goes in the terms of the Health Care debate — and it is going in this direction.
The final tag line, and I guess the new theme of her campaign as it is a reiteration – “I’m you.” “Yes we can” is taken.
It does feel that focusing on her candidacy at all is over-empahsizing her campaign. Even in superficial horse-race terms, it’s about like her candidacy against Joseph Biden two years ago — a typical Culture Warrior Campaign against an establishment professional politician.
The other big news that came up with Christine O’Donnell:
She said China had a “carefully thought out and strategic plan to take over America” and accused one opponent of appeasement for suggesting that the two countries were economically dependent and should find a way to be allies.
“That doesn’t work,” she said. “There’s much I want to say. I wish I wasn’t privy to some of the classified information that I am privy to.” […]
Dabbling” in witchcraft, mice with human brains — yeah yeah, I don’t care. But the idea (a) that there would be a secret document laying it all out, (b) that it would have come into her hands, and (c) that her confidentiality oaths would bind her to protect it — all this instantly connects her with the vast reserve armies of conspiratorialist lunatics that anyone in any branch of public life (media, politics, civil service) encounters over the years. I’m never sure which is worse: the person who says, “If you will just spend six hours with me on the phone discussing my single-space document with handwritten marginalia, you will finally understand the true conspiracy!” Or, the person who says, “I wish I could show you the single-space document that contains the final proof, but They would come to get me if I said another word.” It’s a close call.
There’s something noxious about the Democratic approval of the final message in this Scott McAdams advertisement. Understand what McAdams does at the end here, by showcasing the “Incredible Hulk” tie, and “we used to have a Senator like that.” He joins Lisa Murkowski in this race in running off of the mantle of Ted Stevens, and here off of the strong principle of earmarks for Alaska.
Response from Democratic bloggers: Yah!
Hmmph. Well, at least Alaska voters are getting past the fluffier and down to the red meat of that which really is stake in the cynical game.
Regarding Russ Feingold — who I’ve referred to here being “Feingold and 99 Other Senators” — and the ad that the NFL had him scrub — I get the feeling you sometimes run these things just to get some media attention.
… And for Joe Manchin in West Virginia… my thought that he might lose this race (Obama lost to Clinton by 40 percent, for gawd’s sake) … ebbed around the time he said, “I made my money the old fashioned way. I inherited it.” But any other election cycle and John Raese wouldn’t win… who knows what the poor West Virginian voters are thinking with this one — at least Raese isn’t selling “I’m you.”