Matt Lauer Asks Brown and Whitman to Take Down the Negative Ads

At today’s Women’s Conference, Matt Lauer asked both candidates to take down their negative ads.  Eventually, Jerry Brown agreed that he would be fine with both candidates just talking to camera in nice positive spot.  Meg Whitman seemed to hedge away…

5 thoughts on “Matt Lauer Asks Brown and Whitman to Take Down the Negative Ads”

  1. Guess the 14000 folks at this event didn’t like Meg’s idea that we are all stupid and haven’t been buried in her crappy advertising for YEARS!

    Everyone got into the World Series spirit and BOOED her snarky attitude and answer.  

    See ya Meg.

  2. Wow, Whitman blew it big time. And Brown’s campaign is just devastating in how quickly they get these things turned around into video form.

  3. I’m out here trying to get people to avoid overconfidence, keep their game faces on and turn out the vote, and she pulls something like this.

    I’m not entirely joking.  When I was canvassing for Brown today, several people said the likes of “Why bother?  It’s over!”  I spent a lot of time talking up Barbara Boxer, Kamala Harris, Dave Jones, and Props 23 and 25 as reasons for still working to get people out to the polls.

    Clever tactic, Ms. Whitman, trying to make us let down our guard, but it won’t work!

  4. Whitman got punked — and brilliantly so — and that’s fun to watch.  Schadenfreude and all.

    But this little exchange is great for how it shows Brown.  At his age, he still has a supple mind.  He’s an incredibly fast thinker and has the self-confidence, authority and experience to be decisive and act on it in real time.  Great political instincts too.

    In a way it was like watching Muhammad Ali in his prime.

    Contrast that to Meg, who couldn’t decide or promise anything without going back to her staff and having a meeting about it.  Meg looked like she was still too committed to running negative ads, and maybe so, but I suspect she just isn’t used to making up her mind and acting on her decision.  She just sat there trying to make the moment go away, in large part because she was too dull-witted to take advantage of it.

    That my friends, in four minutes and fifty-six seconds is the difference between a leader and a hack.  A person of talent versus a well-connected, well-resourced plodder.

    I’ve had my differences with Jerry Brown, as governor, mayor and AG.  But in this campaign, we would all be well-served by looking at what Brown is doing right rather than what Whitman is doing wrong.  Sure, she’s easy to hate, but there are things we could be learning here.

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