h/t to Caleb Howe

The race for Nevada’s senate seat is probably my favorite Congressional race of all–mostly because the whole thing is irritating the crap out of the progressive establishment, from the basement bloggers right on up to our friends on Capitol Hill. What once was a dead bang winner for the GOP is now anyone’s game, so say the increasingly nervous soothsayers on the left.

Personally, I blame Sharron Angle for all the drama; after all, she’s just so easy to hate! She’s smart, pretty, articulate, friendly (thank you, RightOnline,) and rose from the obscure foam of the tea party (#outrage! #racism!) to become Harry Reid’s (D-elusional) worst nightmare. Shuuuuuuun!

Hard to believe a few short months ago, the liberal camp was convinced that Harry Reid was doomed to fail at the hands of an energized, enraged conservative base. Way back in 2009, before the advent of the Angle campaign, Nevada locals were convinced that Reid was in for popcorn-and-a-coke-worthy battle of the ages. So much doom, so little time to blog about it.

All that changed, of course, with the rise of Sharron Angle–her status as “that tea party candidate” allowed the beleaguered Reid camp to rise from the ashes and sling brand new mud all over the GOP’s Last Great Hope© to defeat Reid in 2010. It was obvious from the beginning that the MSM would be chomping at the bit to cast clouds of doubt over Angle and her campaign:

Angle, who sat at a measly 5 percent in the polls in April before the national umbrella group Tea Party Express endorsed her and funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into her campaign, garnered 40 percent of the GOP vote to crush one-time front-runner Sue Lowden by 14 points.

snip

…there can be no doubt the race in this decidedly purple state where Democrats have a large registration edge and which President Obama won in 2008 is now the No. 1 test of whether the tea party movement has mainstream appeal. Even tea party leaders acknowledge that if Angle does not defeat Reid, the damage to their cause will be catastrophic.

So…beautifully…passive aggressive. If I were a liberal wingnut columnist, this is exactly how I would start my attack: damn the tea party, damn their candidate, and damn their money-bombing socially-engineered anti-Obama serf-led rebellion! Wingnuts! RAAAAAARGH!

RAAAAAARGH, indeed.

Not to be thwarted by polls suggesting that Angle was fairly evenly matched with our stalwart Senator, the media started playing a new game, called “It doesn’t matter because BOTH of these candidates suck and we hate them so SHUT UP. HMMPH.” Case in point:

As a result of the early barrage of attacks, Angle is now nearly as unpopular as Reid.

In the latest poll, both Reid and Angle won “favorable” ratings from 38 percent of voters. Reid was viewed unfavorably by 51 percent — about where he has been for most of this year — and Angle is now seen unfavorably by 47 percent. That’s 4 percentage points higher than two weeks ago and nearly double what it was in June, just before she won the primary and ran into the Reid buzz saw.

The Reid buzz saw? Really? In the space of a few short months, Harry Reid has graduated from moldering wet blanket to indomitable power tool; I wonder if the MSM would flip over and sing the same song if the Tea Party decided to shake things up and endorse Barack Obama? Just a thought.

As of July 28, Rasmussen had Angle trailing Reid 43% to 45%. 58% of voters think Angle holds “extreme” views–no doubt due to our helpful friends in the MSM. Nevada “leans democrat,” Reid’s manufactured optimism is catching on, and Angle has been nearly-successfully painted as a nut. It’s not like nobody saw this coming, but it’s still unbelievable when you consider that Angle’s opponent is a perfect example of the cronyism and rabid progressivism that is currently running this great country into the ground.

Behold, the power of the liberal machine. With a wave of its swizzle stick, it was able to flip not only the media, but public opinion, in favor of a candidate who just a few short months before was seen as the lamest of all lame ducks, already stuffed and taking a turn on the Republican spit.

Lucky for us, Republicans and conservatives at large are still fighting for Sharron Angle. Those of us who pay enough attention to see what has happened remain confident that public opinion can flip right back around, especially because of the growing conservative presence in the new media. It’s time to do everything we can to amp up the fight, because you can be sure Harry Reid isn’t going to back down. Like it or not, the lefties are very good at what they do–old media, new media, fun with soundbites, everything–and they’re going to throw everything they’ve got behind the tried and true media woodchipper.

When it comes down to it, though, the woodchipper is all they have left to bank on, and that is why we keep fighting. Anyone with a single firing synapse knows that Harry Reid is a dead stick; the only thing keeping him going is the constant barrage of anti-tea party, “Angle is a loony” propaganda.

It’s dishonest and unethical, but dishonest and unethical is what the left does best.