Angle: 'Go, Arizona, go!' By: Charles Mahtesian July 24, 2010 05:16 PM EDT
LAS VEGAS—Sharron Angle, the media-shy GOP nominee against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), delighted a crowd of conservative activists Saturday with a speech that embraced Arizona’s controversial immigration law and sketched out her tea party-infused values.
Delivering the keynote speech to the Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s annual RightOnline Conference — an event held as a conservative antidote to the liberal blogosphere’s annual Netroots Nation conference, also taking place this weekend in Las Vegas — Angle told a rapt audience of roughly 1,000 attendees of the need to secure the nation’s borders.
“Go, Arizona, go!” she exclaimed. “Arizona has taken their 10th Amendment right to take care of their borders and protect their citizens.”
“Every state needs a least one sheriff like Joe Arpaio,” she said, referring to the lightning rod Maricopa County sheriff who has cut a high profile as an illegal immigration foe.
Angle’s appearance before the conference was preceded by a litany of conservative activists and media personalities, including former New Jersey AFP Director Steve Lonegan, who alluded to Democratic criticism that her views place her well out of the mainstream.
“Who is the extremist in this race?” he asked several times in a call-and-response with the enthusiastic audience.
“Harry Reid,” they called back.
Angle’s stage demeanor marked a departure from the speakers who went before her, many of whom delivered stemwinders against President Barack Obama, the Democratic Congress and sometimes even the Republican establishment.
She entered to a standing ovation, eschewed the podium and instead paced around the stage with a microphone, speaking in a soft, deliberate tone.
“Every one of us understands we have a calling and a purpose. And our purpose is to hand down liberty and freedom to our children, not deficits and debts,” she said.
“It’s one nation under God, not one nation under the government,” she added. “We can do better. We have the simple solutions. Reagan gave us the solutions. We the people are the solution.” .................>>>>..................>>>>..............................http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40182.html
Reid rebounds but still faces uncertain future Louie Traub / AP
updated 7/25/2010 5:22:04 AM ET
HENDERSON, Nev. — Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid's chances for six more years in Washington may be like tossing dice in a casino, even if he has made headway against Republican challenger Sharron Angle in a state with the nation's highest rate of joblessness.
The four-term Reid holds a slight lead over Angle in the latest polling, thanks in part to her unsteady performance since winning the June primary and to Democratic ads portraying her as an extremist. Video of Angle scurrying away from reporters has mixed with television commercials of older voters upset about her call to phase out Social Security and Medicare.
But an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says Reid has a "a serious problem" with voters frustrated with the economy. The July 15 memo is based on polling research conducted for a union-funded group that is running TV ads against Angle. The race is wide open, the memo concludes, despite Reid's improved standing and voters' alarm over some of Angle's positions. The winner in November will be the candidate "who makes the more persuasive case that he, or she, is more dependable and can be counted on to deliver for Nevada in these tough economic times," the memo says.
When asked about his standing in the race, Reid on Saturday said he didn't pay attention to fluctuating polls. "The No. 1 problem we have in Nevada is jobs," he said.
Nevada's unemployment rate of 14.2 percent is the highest on record in the once-booming Silver State and well above the national average of 9.5 percent. A record number of home foreclosures also has rocked the state.
Angle is trying to recover from a rocky, sometimes embarrassing stretch in which she's attempted to transform her mom-and-pop primary campaign into a multimillion-dollar general election operation.
She no longer talks about phasing out Social Security and Medicare; she says they should be "personalized."