Is Angle Screwed?

If you haven't heard the news Sharon Angle is looking at a bad day today after tapes were released of her attempting to trade favors with primary rival Scott Ashjian. This is going to be a field day for the Harry Reid camp. That's pretty much all that anyone can say about this. Considering the fact that Angle has been running as the anti-politician and then to be caught trading favors and even using the term "juice"...that's pretty devastating. On top of all that she's going against Harry Reid. The leader of the senate, a good old boy in Nevada politics, and probably the most savvy politician out there today.

The article says she needs to have a good debate. That's not going to make a shred of difference, in my opinion. First off, how many people actually watch these debates? I live in Northern Virginia, in the shadow of the capitol, where half of everyone I meet works for the government in some capacity, and no one ever watches the local debates. And even if they did, it's not like Harry Reid is inexperienced with public speaking. No this is bad news for Angle. I predict that we'll see the slight lead Angle had on Reid (it's towards the bottom) yesterday in the polls evaporate pretty quickly.

Angle needs to get in front of the issue before it gets out of control, which it is almost certainly guaranteed to do. If she does that then she still has a chance. Nevada's unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation and a lot of people are angry at Reid over that, but most people when it comes to local politics will almost always vote for the devil they know over the one they don't.

Fun Fact: If you've ever seen Casino, in the scene where Robert De Niro, gets his license pulled by the Nevada Gambling Commission, the man De Niro is yelling at for taking bribes from him is supposed to be none other than Harry Reid, who was the head of the Commission during the time period the film portrays.