NC-SEN 2020: Tar Heel Tillis

[Ogre Mage]

It is highly questionable if voters will care about Cal Sextingham's problems in the era of Trump, Stormy Daniels, et al.  But he has shown very poor judgment.  And as a result this CRUCIAL Senate race now looks more uncertain.

But look at it this way -- at least we saw Sextingham was a John Edwards type BEFORE we put him on a national ticket.  I certainly will not support any higher ambitions he may have now.

[Ogre Mage]

It is highly questionable if voters will care about Cal Sextingham's problems in the era of Trump, Stormy Daniels, et al.  But he has shown very poor judgment.  And as a result this CRUCIAL Senate race now looks more uncertain.

But look at it this way -- at least we saw Sextingham was a John Edwards type BEFORE we put him on a national ticket.  I certainly will not support any higher ambitions he may have now.

Seriously? That's the epithet you're going with? Leaving aside the fact that Cunningham's texts are too tame to deserve it in the first place, the obvious choice for a childish taunt is 'Cal Cummingham'.

Yeah, that nickname is probably better.  I went with Sextingham because that was how he got caught.  He's a real "mental genius" to leave an electronic paper trail.  I can almost hear Sade singing "Smooth Operator" in the background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS7Va0sBYAM

[Ogre Mage]

Apparently when one of Thom Tillis' constituents, a cancer patient, contacted his office to relay her concerns about affording healthcare, she was literally told, "If you can't afford it then you don't deserve it."

Thom Tillis Staffer Tells a Cancer Survivor to Not Get Health Coverage if She Can’t Afford It

During a recent call with the staffer, which was recorded and is now circulating widely, a frustrated Bev Veals, who has survived cancer three times, asked several variations of that question and was met with nonchalance.

“You’re saying that, if you can’t afford it, you don’t get to have it—and that includes health care?” said Veals, a three-time cancer survivor.

“Yeah, just like if I want to go to the store and buy a new dress shirt. If I can’t afford that dress shirt, I don’t get to get it,” said the staffer.

“But health care is something that people need—especially if they have cancer.”

“Well, you got to find a way to get it.”

This may be an illustration of why Sen. Tillis has terrible job approval ratings, with multiple polls showing him in the 30s.  Tillis has a fair chance to win.  But those horrible ratings are why I think he is still more likely to lose.  And Tillis's ability to capitalize on Cummingham's unforced error is further limited by the fact that Tillis caught COVID-19 while attending the superspreader party for The Contagious ACB.  That also showed poor judgment and took him off the trail for awhile.  

Hopefully Cummingham will pull this one out in spite of himself.  Though as I said before we should keep him far away from a future national ticket.

[Ogre Mage]

Lest we forget, some of our best Presidents have been unfaithful. FDR and JFK sure were, and I would be surprised if LBJ never cheated. We don't have to like our politicians personally for them to be good leaders.

Cummingham is no Jack Kennedy, lol.

[Ogre Mage]

https://twitter.com/DHBerman/status/1316463959533330433

This is a race to the bottom, lol.  Fortunately for Democrats, Tillis is even more foolish than Cal.

[Ogre Mage]

I mean technically we don’t even know if Cal was cheating here. Never did any article say he planned on getting remarried or eliminating his current wife. Maybe he was just really good friends with his staffer, and was really bad at joking via text. Just because a guy is married doesn’t mean he can be good friends with a another girl. The more I think about it, the more I think all this criticism of Cal is purely speculative, and isn’t based on actual fact.

Wrong.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham was asked repeatedly Friday whether he's had other extramarital affairs aside from one confirmed this week, but he declined to answer the questions.

Cunningham's campaign scheduled a virtual news conference to discuss the need for a better response from Congress to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but every question he was asked was related to his affair with Arlene Guzman Todd, a public relations strategist from California and the wife of an Army veteran.

He acknowledged a week ago sending Guzman Todd inappropriate text messages, but she confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday that they had two in-person encounters: one in March in Los Angeles that she said did not include intimate contact and a second in July in North Carolina, where she said they were intimate.

https://www.wral.com/asked-four-times-whether-there-are-more-affairs-not-yet-known-cunningham-declined-to-say-yes-or-no/19328515/

This is a hot mess.  Fortunately, Democrats chances in NC-SEN are probably still above 50% because for obvious reasons Republicans look like massive hypocrites attacking Cummingham and we have the political wind at our backs.  The polling suggests this is true.

I made a small donation to Cummingham's campaign back in April.  I will not do that again.

[Ogre Mage]

I mean technically we don’t even know if Cal was cheating here. Never did any article say he planned on getting remarried or eliminating his current wife. Maybe he was just really good friends with his staffer, and was really bad at joking via text. Just because a guy is married doesn’t mean he can be good friends with a another girl. The more I think about it, the more I think all this criticism of Cal is purely speculative, and isn’t based on actual fact.

Wrong.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham was asked repeatedly Friday whether he's had other extramarital affairs aside from one confirmed this week, but he declined to answer the questions.

Cunningham's campaign scheduled a virtual news conference to discuss the need for a better response from Congress to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but every question he was asked was related to his affair with Arlene Guzman Todd, a public relations strategist from California and the wife of an Army veteran.

He acknowledged a week ago sending Guzman Todd inappropriate text messages, but she confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday that they had two in-person encounters: one in March in Los Angeles that she said did not include intimate contact and a second in July in North Carolina, where she said they were intimate.

https://www.wral.com/asked-four-times-whether-there-are-more-affairs-not-yet-known-cunningham-declined-to-say-yes-or-no/19328515/

This is a hot mess.  Fortunately, Democrats chances in NC-SEN are probably still above 50% because for obvious reasons Republicans look like massive hypocrites attacking Cummingham and we have the political wind at our backs.  The polling suggests this is true.

I made a small donation to Cummingham's campaign back in April.  I will not do that again.

Is Todd pregnant? No. At worst they had fake intercourse through the phone or something, since people need to be social distancing anyways because of COVID-19, and Cunningham doesn’t seem like the type of person who would go out of his way to disobey social distancing.

Read the story again.   She said they met in-person. 

[Ogre Mage]

I mean technically we don’t even know if Cal was cheating here. Never did any article say he planned on getting remarried or eliminating his current wife. Maybe he was just really good friends with his staffer, and was really bad at joking via text. Just because a guy is married doesn’t mean he can be good friends with a another girl. The more I think about it, the more I think all this criticism of Cal is purely speculative, and isn’t based on actual fact.

Wrong.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham was asked repeatedly Friday whether he's had other extramarital affairs aside from one confirmed this week, but he declined to answer the questions.

Cunningham's campaign scheduled a virtual news conference to discuss the need for a better response from Congress to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but every question he was asked was related to his affair with Arlene Guzman Todd, a public relations strategist from California and the wife of an Army veteran.

He acknowledged a week ago sending Guzman Todd inappropriate text messages, but she confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday that they had two in-person encounters: one in March in Los Angeles that she said did not include intimate contact and a second in July in North Carolina, where she said they were intimate.

https://www.wral.com/asked-four-times-whether-there-are-more-affairs-not-yet-known-cunningham-declined-to-say-yes-or-no/19328515/

This is a hot mess.  Fortunately, Democrats chances in NC-SEN are probably still above 50% because for obvious reasons Republicans look like massive hypocrites attacking Cummingham and we have the political wind at our backs.  The polling suggests this is true.

I made a small donation to Cummingham's campaign back in April.  I will not do that again.

Is Todd pregnant? No. At worst they had fake intercourse through the phone or something, since people need to be social distancing anyways because of COVID-19, and Cunningham doesn’t seem like the type of person who would go out of his way to disobey social distancing.

Read the story again.   She said they met in-person. 

Well duh. She worked for his campaign.

Are you suggesting they met in person and just talked? 

We need to win this seat but we should not be in denial.