For Land, saying nothing is probably good campaign strategy — but it’s a very bad thing for Michigan voters.
If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land has clearly fallen hook, line and sinker for the Koch brothers, who are pouring big bucks into her campaign.
But what exactly are the Koch brothers buying? A puppet in the Senate.
Land has no personal position on the issues — other than arguing against everything her Democratic opponent, Representative Gary Peters, stands for. Land has refused to say what she really thinks about anything that matters to Michigan voters.
The one time she did have to face reporters, at the Mackinac Policy Conference, she was universally panned for her inability to answer even the simplest of questions.
The contrast between Land and Peters could not have been more striking, as described by Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry:
Peters was smooth, funny, warm, and projected knowledge, ability and strength, though some of his answers were a bit wonkish.Land was absolutely dreadful. She came across like a high school student who had memorized a speech. You had the terrible sensation that if interrupted, she would have had to start all over from the beginning. … Worse, when surrounded by reporters and bombarded with questions afterwards, she clearly panicked. She was a frightened Sarah Palin in sensible shoes, and everybody knew it.
Well, that’s what happens when you don’t actually have a position on the issues.
As the Michigan Democratic Party point out so astutely in a “Seinfeld” parody video released this week, Land’s campaign is a campaign about nothing. Being a show about nothing was a winning strategy for a TV comedy, but as a campaign strategy it’s a losing proposition for Michigan voters, who won’t get to hear directly from Land. It’s how she plans to hide her anti-middle class agenda in an attempt to trick Michiganders into voting for her.
The video, which imagines Land’s first meeting with the Koch Brothers to discuss campaign strategy, says more than Land ever will.
Oh, and if you’re waiting for Land to condemn Michigan Republicans who openly mocked women on the House floor this week, let’s hope you have some magazines to pass the time.
Land claims to be pro-women, but what does she have to say about the sexist behavior of these Republican lawmakers? Absolutely nothing.
