Blowing Smoke at the Mountain State

It is reported in a new Marshall University poll that Governor Joe Manchin (D-WV) is now leading his Republican challenger John Raese by 10 points  for Senate race in West Virginia. That is the headline that everyone remembers.  It does not matter that the result may be an outlier based upon a small sample that may be a skewed model that is heavily weighted towards Democrats by poll that was done in conjunction with a Democratic polling company

Other contemporaneous polling as reported by Real Clear Politics has results that ranged from Gov. Manchin leading by 3 (PPP) to a tie (CNN) to the challenger Raese leading by 3 (Rassmussen). Yet the news in the Lamesteam Media will be dominated by an ersatz story of a favored horse coming on strong from behind.

Governor Manchin was expected a cakewalk special election for the being held by the the appointed Senator Goodwin  (D-WV), who was placeholding the seat since Senator Robert Byrd’s death in late June.  But between the conservative leaning voters of West Virginia and the anti-incumbent mood, Manchin has had a real fight on his hands.

As a sitting Governor, Manchin has a record to run on, which he is proud.  Manchin also wanted to smear his opponent with class envy, pointing out that John Raese’s wife lives in a mansion in Florida.  But it did not help that Manchin owns a 54 foot yacht that is currently docked in Florida and that he approved of fancy improvements to the Governor’s mansion, so the class envy smear was a wash.

West Virginia has always been a state with conservative Democrats, but the Mountain state has been trending Red in the last few general election cycles.  So Manchin needed to separate himself from the Obama Administration to get elected.  Manchin flip flopped on his support of comprehensive health care. Now Manchin wants to hunt down all of the bad features of the Health Care Law. To endear himself with Second Amendment advocates and those opposing Cap and Trade, a campaign commercial shows Manchin taking “Dead Aim” at the environmental legislation.  Unfortunately for Manchin, that ham handed ad made a perfect target for Raese to ridicule and fund raise.

It is unfortunate that the Lamestream Media is more intent on making news than reporting the news.  So it will blow smoke over the electorate so that its favorite son looks like he is roundly winning thereby motivating uninspired Democrats to jump on the bandwagon to actually put Manchin over the top.