Enraged voters, too dumb to appreciate the purveyors of pork . . .
That was Mike Allen's take on Morning Joe today. Politico's chief political correspondent labelled "absurd" the decision of Utah and Nevada voters not to re-elect Bob Bennett [done deal] and Harry Reid [likely goner]. And why is it such a bad mistake? Because Bennett and Reid are proven pork providers for their states.
Allen offered his analysis in response to Mike Barnicle's suggestion that in the current political climate, bringing home the bacon might actually backfire on politicians.
MIKE BARNICLE: Mike, I think we're talking sea change here if I understood you correctly a few minutes ago. Are you telling me that earmarks, or whatever you want to call them, that these people go back to their local districts and say I got you $2.5 million for the hospital. I got you $4 million for this elementary school. That that is now being counted against them by many voters?
MIKE ALLEN: That's a great way to put it and that's exactly right. And that's the big change that we see in the culture. The best example of this is the Utah Senator Bennett. He's an absurd poster child for Washington. He's sort of inconsequential, he's avuncular, he's conservative. There was no reason for his state to turn on him. Nobody delivers for Utah the way he does. And now you have these other senior senators who are now in danger. Voters are not thinking with their pocketbook, they're thinking with their heart, and with their rage. You have people who are—an even better example: the idea of Nevada kicking out Harry Reid is absurd! He's the #1 senator: #1 out of 100. Nobody delivers for Nevada like Harry Reid. The fact that he has, frankly, very little chance of getting re-elected unless there's some astounding change in the polls is Exhibit A for the thesis that, Mike, you just articulated.
WILLIE GEIST: You're right, Mike. It might be absurd but it looks like it's going to happen.
With his talk of voters thinking with their "rage" instead of their pocketbooks, Allen sounds like a 2010 version of Peter Jennings, who famously claimed, after the 1994 elections swept Dems out of power, that the American people had acted like two-year olds having a "temper tantrum."
What does it say about Allen that he finds it "absurd" for voters to send packing politicians who would cost them trillions more with their spending schemes than would ever be brought back with a few fistfuls of pork?
