Your pro wrestling exec turned Senate candidate, in pictures:
Thomas Hackett, a TPM reader and author of Slaphappy: Pride, Prejudice and Professional Wrestling (HarperCollins / Ecco, 2006), emails with his take on Linda McMahon:
I don’t carry a brief for the McMahons, Vince or Linda, and I don’t share their politics. But a few years ago, I wrote a book about professional wrestling — a book of cultural anthropology and reportage — and for what it’s worth, I found it difficult to deride the family or their company, WWE. Linda was the Hillary to Vince’s Bill, the more disciplined but less charismatic of the two.
This hit late in day yesterday so you may have missed it, but the latest CNN/Time poll gives Sharron Angle a 2-point lead over Harry Reid in Nevada.
Here’s the most current TPM Poll Average of the race, with Reid clinging to 1.3-point lead: Read More
Apparently it’s hard to find a disgruntled blue collar worker … in Ohio. Former Rep. and current gubernatorial candidate John Kasich (R) hired an actor to play the role for one of his TV ads.
Jon Stewart on the Christine O’Donnell ad: “You’re me? Because I don’t recall the last time I had to deny I was a witch.” Watch.
It’s not just Kasich. From the NRSC’s casting call for a TV ad in the West Virginia Senate race: “We are going for a ‘Hicky’ Blue Collar look. These characters are from West Virginia so think coal miner/trucker looks.”
TPM Reader MM weighs in on last night’s comments on Vince and Linda McMahon:
I don’t think you can forgive the McMahons for the steroid use and abuse of narcotic painkillers by its independent contractors simply by dismissing the performers as “unstable narcissists.” Even if you grant Mr. Hackett’s claim (and I do), you have to hold the McMahon’s responsible for the decisions they made in creating their product.
If you look at the history of professional wrestling (by which I mean, look up some random clips on Youtube) you’ll find a high percentage of normal to athletic bodies in the sport right up through the ’80s where the comic-book muscleman era began, under the leadership of the McMahons.
Axelrod on Letterman last night: Only one thing can explain why the presidential seal fell off Obama’s podium while he was speaking this week … witchcraft. Watch.
The top 5 budget items the House GOP’s “Pledge to America” would cut.
Still no luck in the search for the missing American allegedly shot by “lake pirates” along the Mexico-Texas border. Possibly complicating the case is that the local sheriff on the U.S. side has a history of disputes with Mexican authorities and is an alarmist when it comes to border security. We’ll have more on that later.