Progressive columnist and radio talk show host David Sirota sees an opening for Republican Ken Buck to mount a conservative/Tea Party opposition to Sen. Michael Bennet’s positions and proximity to the Obama administration and to Wall Street. But Sirota also says Buck might offer a critique that gives true progressives–followers of the recently defeated Andrew Romanoff–less of a reason to get out and vote for the “establishment” candidate, playing on Buck’s own outsider image (segment is good, jump to 3:10 mark for the exchange):
I think Ken Buck has the potential to run a campaign where he goes after Bennet from both the left and the right. He makes a kind of a left/right critique of Bennet’s ties to Obama; ties to big corporate money; and then also makes a conservative critique along the lines of the traditional Tea Party folks.
WhoSaidYouSaid.com (a Colorado blog charting Democrats’ “candid” moments) speculates that some of the hard-left activists in Colorado may be reluctant to support Bennet, a notion apparently confirmed by Sirota’s own analysis, and continues a theme that the Denver Post also noted before the primary–that the anti-insider/anti-establishment mood permeates both parties.