Scott Brown fumbles New Hampshire geography and economy in debate

[UCmeNdc]

Man does not know what he is talking about!

How well does Scott Brown know the ten counties of New Hampshire? The former Massachusetts senator is defending his knowledge after appearing not to know what the hell he was talking about when asked about Sullivan County, at the western edge of the state, in a Senate debate Thursday night.

Scott Brown does not even know where the different regions or cities in NH are located.

How can they even take him serious? Scott Brown just wants to be a Senator.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/31/1340548/-Scott-Brown-fumbles-New-Hampshire-geography-and-economy-in-debate

[unblock]

1. these days, sadly, it often doesn't matter and many people don't care

plenty of people simply want a republican in office; plenty of people simply want a democrat in office.

people with specific interests in the state will find the senator and win favor if they can cough up money.

hillary got tagged as a carpetbagger but she became a senator from new york anyway. now that's a big state and smart as she is, i'd bet she could have been tripped up had she been asked about one of its 62 counties.

having said that, scott brown is a far cry from hillary clinton and she handled the carpetbagger charge quite capably whereas brown keeps walking into it.

[karynnj]

2. Even if would have happened with Clinton, it would not have the same effect

Two reasons:
1) Hillary made no effort to contrive a history of living in NY. No claims that when she studied in nearby New Haven, she spent many hours in NY - which is very likely true. Brown has claimed he ran in NH instead of MA, because he lived there. This ignores that he moved right before declaring a run. He also makes a huge point of having been born there - even though for years he listed his birthplace as Kittery Maine -- likely the city on his birth certificate. Clinton simply said that they had bought a home in Chappaqua where they would live when they left the WH.

2) (and I think more important) Brown has the reputation of being an empty suit and not working hard to understand issues. Hillary had the reputation of being as sharp as they come AND of very diligently doing her homework. Someone once said if Bill Clinton had misspelled "potato", there would have been no story -- it didn't fit the meme on Clinton. Here, Brown saying something stupid reinforces that he really is pretty lazy and really is NOT from NH. I assume that Shaheen could freehand draw a map of the state's counties and do a pretty good job.

I do agree that there are a number of people who would vote for him just because he is Republican. That is just as true as knowing that I had no intention of voting against the corrupt Torrecelli in 2002 in the general election - because it could give the Republicans a seat needed to take the Senate (which happened anyway, but NJ was saved by Lautenberg taking over as nominee.)

Where it could help is it might be one thing for someone independent on the fence. Here there is reason to think there are such people as Shaheen has over a 50 percent favorability score. This means that some of those people are still undecided or actually saying they will vote for Brown. Anything that makes Brown less acceptable helps here.

[Retrograde]

3. Clinton also made a point of visiting all the counties in New York

and listening to the people in the oft-neglected upstate ones.