Despite (or maybe because of) all the media attention, Linda McMahon, the Republican candidate for Senate in Connecticut, is still losing by a relatively wide margin to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. But that doesn’t mean liberals are super-excited about their likely victory.
Today’s tepid endorsement from the New York Times is a classic of the genre.
In the first sentence, they call him a “charm-free, experienced public servant.” The second paragraph dutifully recounts his accomplishments (fighting tobacco, cleaning the environment, supporting people screwed over by greedy institutions). The third paragraph concedes that he “has troubled us by occasionally telling audiences, falsely, that he served in Vietnam,” but his apologies have been accepted.
And that’s it for him!
The endorsement goes on to admit that “we have larger concerns with the Republican, Linda McMahon,” call the wrestling business “demeaning,” and argue that McMahon “does not seem ready to take on the issues of war, the economy, public welfare and justice in Washington.”
No fun wrestling analogies, nary a positive quote that Blumenthal can use in an ad. That sound you hear is the Democratic base mumbling indifferently on their way to the poling station.
