Somehow, Richard Burr has become seen as a “formidable incumbent.” Rob Christensen calls him “an attractive conservative.” The D.C. news sheet “The Hill” lauds how he has “established[ed] himself as an even-tempered lawmaker.” All this is overblown, at best. Polling consistently shows the Senator to be largely anonymous, with what opinion there is split along partisan lines. It’s time for Democrats to change that.
For all Burr’s “Very Serious Person” affectations, the man’s a bit of a lollygagger. His record is full of goofiness. And flippancy, once of a rather grotesque sort: He joked that “I don’t want to be a accused over waterboarding” John Brennan. These are the words of an intellectual and moral lightweight. Democrats could easily flip that “even-tempered” image.
Vapid as he may be, Burr is a dead-serious corporate shill. As a commenter shrewdly pointed out, the Senator spends most his time in-state “giving pep talks to business groups” that want more tax cuts. These pow-wows are just an extension of his work in Washington. He dishonestly claimed that Dodd-Frank, which took on financial profiteering, would hurt Main Street businesses, and voted against the bill. For that matter, much of his “constructive conservative” reputation comes from a plan to let insurance companies in on Medicare. Donors are surely appreciative.
Here we have a bumbling, special interest-beholden DC hack. And there’s a short window to implant that image in the public mind. Burr’s numbers are about where Kay Hagan’s were when AFP launched their first attack ads. Her approval rating never recovered. Democrats can do the same to Burr, but only if they start now.
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
So true….once the REAL Burr gets some exposure he’s VERY vulnerable…and for very good and defensible reasons….Draft Tom Ross..and see if he can’t restore some dignity, erudition, class and effectiveness….and maybe rally some UNC system alums, faculty and staff or supporters to fill in every down ticket race…ah now that is an outcome worth doing…an outcome “devoutly to be wished”
It won’t matter what democrats or progressives do as long as optical scanners and electronic touch screen voting machines continue being used to tabulate our votes without a paper trail for verification. 64% of the voters polled in the last election’s exit poll favored a minimum wage increase yet supposedly the republikan buffoon named Tillis still won – how is that, and what proof is there to verify these curious vote tabulations that defy exit polls? answer=none. Vote rigging has never been this easy and therein is why we keep seeing improbable republikan victories in race after race; the people aren’t so stupid as to continue voting the ‘pro-corporate/austerity for the people’ party into office, they just don’t understand how their votes are counted on machines protected from scrutiny by ‘trade secret laws’ nor how easily and undetectably these voting machines can be tampered with during the voting process. All you have to do is look back to the Ohio vote in the 2004 presidential election and what happened to Michael Connell prior to his Congressional deposition over vote tabulation irregularities – he was ‘Wellstoned’ by the Cheney neo-cons …., wonder why?
The reason people say they support an increase in the minimum wage and voted for Tillis is because they have views on a range of issues and gave priority to those.
Please, let’s just stop with the conspiracy theories. They obscure serious matters and issues that need to be address and just make us look silly.
Gotta agree….and disagree, with both of you. With CosJan, I’d agree that the voting machine issue IS a serious matter and computerized voting of any kind is riddled with potential for abuse despite the fact that many of Hagan herself would insist that there is no voter fraud problem. As for Tillis, agree with Nortley, if he was cheating you’d think he’d have done better than 48%. Honestly, I think a lot of people held their nose to vote for Tillis just because they were voting against Hagan. Her performance with Unaffiliateds tends to support that.
But unless it’s Hagan running against Burr, that isn’t a problem here. Burr has serious cracks under that facade of “formidable”. He is increasingly angering the purists/populists in his own Party, and I’ve yet to see anyone take him to task for being the the face of the badly named Patriot Act and his cavalier disregard for the 4th Amendment rights of all Americans. Democrats need to get real about the kind of candidate they’ll need to put forward against Burr because with a 41% approval rating, he is definitely beatable. Be a shame to let a blown opportunity happen and it’s also a shame that the Democrat’s strongest candidate is focused on McCrory when the Senate should be the greater priority.
Thanks for that analysis of Burr. Very true. More people need to know this about him.