Playing The Paranoia Angle, Part 2

The Nevada GOP is shipping Sharron Angle to Washington to make the rounds and meet her putative colleagues in the Senate should she beat out Harry Reid.  I personally think she's being read the Riot Act and being told in no uncertain terms that she needs to ixnay on the spending cuts, but it could be to get some bitchin' recipes from Lindsey Graham.

Since Angle’s victory in last Tuesday’s primary, Republicans in Nevada and Washington have become increasingly concerned that the former assemblywoman has not responded aggressively enough to attacks Reid began only minutes after the polls closed. They said that unless she does, Reid could create an indelible image of someone too “extreme” for the independent voters in Nevada who will quite likely determine November’s election results.


“If you start off in a hole, it’s really hard to dig your way out of it,” said Chuck Muth, a former executive director of the Nevada Republican Party.


Several Republicans also told POLITICO that Angle’s decision to do selected interviews with conservative media outlets — avoiding even the local press in Nevada — is creating the impression that she is nervous about some of her more conservative views being picked apart. 

This is one of those rare instances where Politico is accidentally telling the truth.  But as Steve M. pointed out yesterday, this whole "only talking to right wing media outlets" is now par for the course for Republicans.

I'm not sure this can possibly ever work for liberal candidates, or even centrist candidates -- lefties and even media mainstreamers like to ask tough questions once in a while -- but I absolutely think it's the future for the right. I think we're going to look back in ten years and be amazed that back in the '00s and the twentieth century right-wing pols actually gave interviews to journalists who weren't part of their own noise machine; in the future, it simply won't happen.

And he's got a point.  The Angle angle is simply that mainstream media is illegitimate and only Rush, Glenn Beck, FOX News, Sean Hannity, etc. are the only sources of news left.  Angle playing the victim card is just as important to her campaign as it is to the right-wing media outlets, which run on nothing but outrage and Cavuto marks.

The plan almost worked with Sarah Palin.  It has been refined and improved for a whole slew of candidates in 2010.