Thread: Grimes Staff Caught on Hidden Camera: She’s Lying About Support for Coal Industry

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DEM REFUSES TO ADMIT SHE VOTED FOR O




40 painful seconds of Alison Lundergan Grimes refusing to say whether she voted for President Obama
Awkward.
www.washingtonpost.com

40 painful seconds of Alison Lundergan Grimes refusing to say whether she voted for President Obama

Comments 1643

By Philip Bump October 9 at 4:56 PM

Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), who is trying to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) this fall, appeared before the Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board on Thursday to make her pitch for their endorsement. The life-long Democrat, whose father represented Kentucky for the party in the state House and who herself has been on the ballot in the state on the Democratic ticket, was asked a simple question. Did she vote for President Obama in 2008 and 2012?
And she didn't answer. Repeatedly.
In an interesting nod to the times, the interview was streamed live, meaning that it took no time at all for Republicans to clip the non-answer and put it online.



Obama is far more unpopular in Kentucky than he is in the rest of the country. Polling last month had his approval rating in the state at about 30 percent, the sort of numbers that wouldn't earn him a victory in the state if he were to run again, not that he won it in 2008 or 2012.
Grimes tries to pivot off of the board's question (for some reason!) by linking herself to Hillary Clinton. There's not a lot of good data on Clinton's approval in Kentucky, but at least the state voted for her husband twice. If you have to be a type of Democrat in Kentucky, be a "Clinton Democrat" as Grimes puts it. Fine.
But there was no reason to do this. Grimes is fairly new on the national scene, but she's not new enough not to know how to answer this fairly simply. "Yes, I voted for him," you say, "but I've been disappointed by a lot of the things he's done, particularly on COAL and JOBS and GUNS" or whatever. It's simple. And then you can say, "but I backed Hillary in the primary" and so on and so on. 2008 was a landmark year, a wave for Democrats, when Obama's approval was sky-high. Of course she voted for him! Dodging the question looks like she's trying to hide her position, which is never the face you want to show -- particularly when conservatives are accusing her of hiding her positions on other things.
This isn't the sorts of incident that makes or breaks a candidate. It's one of the little ruts on the long road they'll be traveling for the next 26 days. But it's a mistake, and in a race in which Grimes needs everything to go her way, this little bit of bad driving is the sort of thing she should both know to avoid and know how to avoid.
Philip Bump writes about politics for The Fix. He previously wrote for The Wire, the news blog of The Atlantic magazine. He has contributed to The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, The Daily, and the Huffington Post. Philip is based in New York City.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...esident-obama/

WATCH: The Most Destructive 40-Second Video You'll Ever See For Obama & The Democrats
When she was asked a simple, straight-forward question...
westernjournalism.com

WATCH: The Most Destructive 40-Second Video You’ll Ever See For Obama & The Democrats

When she was asked a simple, straight-forward question...

Norvell Rose — October 10, 2014



Not that much needs to be said about this brief but breathtaking video — it really speaks for itself. In truth, it screams for itself — screams that Barack Obama has become so toxic, so radioactive for Democrat candidates that, well, at least this candidate is essentially disavowing the president.

Here’s the context for what you’ll see…

In Kentucky’s high-stakes Senate race — a contest into which the party has poured millions of dollars and invested high hopes, Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes is trying to knock off Republican Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader.
Grimes, a life-long Democrat, appeared before the Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board on Thursday to make her pitch for their endorsement.
When she was asked a simple, straight-forward question, she dodged repeatedly. That extraordinary dodge pretty much sums up how so many Democrats feel they must divorce themselves from the once-exalted leader of their party — Barack Obama.
You can see the :40 “scream” by clicking on the video above to learn what this desperate Dem said when asked, “Did you vote for President Obama?”

http://www.westernjournalism.com/wat...the-democrats/

The Alison Grimes campaign may now start imploding.

By: Moe Lane (Diary) | October 6th, 2014 at 10:00 AM | 21

How much money did the Democrats spend on this one, again? – Because I bet that, say, Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA)Heritage ActionScorecard

Rep. Bruce Braley

House Democrat Average See Full Scorecard 4% wouldn’t have minded getting some of that. Or Mary Burke. Or Greg Orman, later this month:

U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes is lying about her support for the state’s coal industry according to Kentucky Democrats, including members of her campaign team, who were captured on a hidden camera video.

The video, produced by conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe, shows five employees of the Grimes campaign and local Democratic Party affiliates speculating that the Democratic challenger to Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)Heritage ActionScorecard

Sen. Mitch McConnell

Senate Republican Average See Full Scorecard 68% (R., Ky.) is only professing her support for the industry out of political expediency.

Oopsie. I am amazed that there are people still in this business who will step on their own candidate’s message like these people did:



Executive summary: O’Keefe got a bunch of Democratic and Grimes staffers on-camera telling the world that:

• Alison Grimes is lying about her coal stance;
• She’s doing that because you can’t win statewide elections in Kentucky if you don’t support coal;
• Democrats, of course, don’t support coal;
• And Kentucky voters are STUPID stupid-heads for liking coal so much.

This would have destroyed Alison Grimes campaign, except that it wasn’t exactly alive to begin with at this point. It’s certainly not going to help her, though. To the point where Kentucky Democrats are probably thanking God right now that at least they don’t hold statewide elections in a mid-term year…

Via @lachlan.
(Image via Shutterstock.)
Moe Lane (crosspost)

O’Keefe is promising more videos, on a national level. I guess from where depends on the answer to the question Where do state Democrats habitually lie about their support of the national Democratic agenda? Oh, wait, my bad: the answer is They all do. So, basically, the next one could come from anywhere – although, preferably, somewhere where there’s a tight Senate or governor’s race.


http://www.redstate.com/2014/10/06/a...kentucky-coal/