Stumping for Sharron Angle in the west Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin on Thursday evening, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took the stage and spoke for a half hour. Angle herself delivered a short 10-minute speech beforehand. Both Angle and Gingrich received standing ovations from the conservative, anti-Reid crowd.
Angle’s speech contained a few familiar slogans as well as a revisit of her aggressive “man up” challenge, rolled out in last week’s senate debate with Harry Reid:
Angle drew approving laughter with her “KISS” principle, which preceded her simple solution for America:
Angle then expanded on principle with a few points from her legislative agenda, a to-do list she promised she will address beginning on November 3:
The Angle campaign yesterday launched a new TV ad that will play on Nevada airwaves while President Obama is in Las Vegas for a DNC rally and Reid fundraiser today. The spot replays clips of Obama–the candidate from 2008, and then fades into images of Obama and Reid smiling and embracing while dismal unemployment, foreclosure, and bankruptcy rates flash across the screen.
Reid provided yet more fodder for criticism and ridicule Thursday when he stated in an interview with MSNBC, “People have been hurting. And I understand that. And it doesn’t give them comfort or solace for me to tell them, you know, but for me, we’d be in a worldwide depression.”
Replied Brian Walsh, communications director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, in a statement: “We look forward to Senator Reid explaining these comments to the voters of Nevada because if he was so busy saving the rest of the world, why didn’t he take the time to help save Nevada as well?”
Reid’s high unfavorable ratings along with a devastated Nevada economy mean his re-election hopes will come down to Democratic turnout. Reid needs every vote he can garner, and his campaign’s close attention to demographics in their targeted ads — seniors, women, blue-collar workers, Hispanics — shows he knows it.