The conservative group American Crossroads is using Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s words against him — out of their key context, but still a serious gaffe in that it set Reid up for this sort of thing — when he said that the loss of 36,000 jobs was “really good.”
The group, headed up by former Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan, is using video of that gaffe in a new attack ad in the Nevada Senate race, with a statewide buy of $120,000.
Video of Reid on the Senate floor is shown: “Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good.”
“Really, Harry?” the announcer says. “No wonder Nevada now has the highest unemployment in the nation.”
Of course, the key context of Reid’s remarks was that the rate of job loss was going down significantly — a key step on the way to outright recovery. But quite predictably, here comes an attack ad ready to make it look like Reid celebrates unemployment itself.
The TPM Poll Average gives Republican former state Rep. Sharron Angle a lead over Reid of 46.0%-40.8%.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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