**Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.**
Buzz Cut:
• Gator bait: Landrieu’s gaffe bites Southern Dems
• Power Play: Rough draft of history edition
• ‘Gotcha’ backfires on N.H. reporter
• Last chance to Pick Six!
• Don’t mess with the gnome mafia
GATOR BAIT: LANDRIEU’S GAFFE BITES SOUTHERN DEMS
Asked by NBC News to explain her poor chances for a fourth Senate term, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., opted instead to offer an excuse: Voters in her state are plagued by racism and sexism. “To be very, very honest with you, the South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans,” Landrieu said. “It’s been a difficult time for [President Obama] to present himself in a very positive light as a leader. It’s not always been a good place for women to present ourselves. It’s more of a conservative place, so we’ve had to work a little bit harder on that.” Landrieu is widely expected to lose in the state’s Dec. 6 general election (Louisiana holds its primary Tuesday as most states hold their general elections), so the gaffe would seem likely to only intensify the velocity of her descent. But there will be implications beyond the Pelican State for a stumble such as this.
[Landrieu’s presumptive general election opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La., offered his reaction on Thursday’s “The Kelly File”: “We’re not racist, we just all have common sense.” Watch here.]
Stealth campaigns no more – In an election cycle in which Democratic hopes for holding the Senate have come firmly to rest on exploiting racial animus in Southern states, particularly Georgia and North Carolina, this is a gaffe with big implications beyond Landrieu’s long-shot bid to hold power. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Georgia Democratic Senate nominee Michelle Nunn have both been coy about effort on their behalf to tie the police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., the February 2012 shooting of a black teenager in Florida, claims of Jim Crow-style voter disenfranchisement and even lynchings to their contests. Both candidates will be forced to respond to Landrieu’s allegations, which should effectively end the ability of Nunn and Hagan to wink at black voters without offending white moderates who hold their electoral futures in their hands.
[Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., fueled the racial flames that Democrats have injected into the midterms, charging that some Republicans “believe that slavery isn’t over.” The liberal congressman’s harsh attack came a rally for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., reports Business Insider.]
Trapped – It could well be a turning point in deadlocked races. After all, how can you blame opposition to Obama on racism and then ask Obama opponents for their votes? Icky. Remember that while Nunn and Perdue are hoping black voters will surge to the polls and carry them to victory, their chances would evaporate completely without support from moderate white voters who oppose Obama but are supportive of candidates who emphasize their opposition to his policies. Remember, North Carolina is 70 percent white and Georgia is more than 60 percent white.
[WSJ: “The Democrats’ declining support among white, working-class voters began decades ago. In 1993, for example, Democrats held 36 of the 71 districts that The Wall Street Journal counted as largely white and working-class. Today, Democrats hold just 11 of 70 such districts among the House’s 435 seats.”]
RAZORBACK BLITZ IN GEORGIA
AP: “Two Arkansas politicians will visit Georgia on Friday, with former President Bill Clinton appearing in Atlanta on [Democrat Michelle Nunn’s] behalf, while Fox News host Mike Huckabee will make stops in south Georgia with [Republican David Perdue.]”
[Flashback: Democrat Michelle Nunn’s father, former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., penned a scathing OpEd calling Clinton a bad role model charging he weakened the office of the president, in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Daily Caller has more.]
PRYOR CHANNELS MAYNARD G. KREBS: OBAMA IS A DRAG, MAN “Well you know, he has been a drag. I mean, I am just going to be honest about that.” – Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., in an interview
Senior National Correspondent John Roberts.
[Watch Fox: Senior National Correspondent John Roberts is in Little Rock with the latest on the Arkansas Senate race.]
Cotton: ‘If you like Washington today, I’m not your candidate’ – In his closing ad Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., touts his military experience saying, “to make things right I’m ready to serve.”
[Watch Fox: Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and an all-star team will set the table for Tuesday’s vote with a special America’s Election Headquarters Sunday at 8 p.m. ET]
POWER PLAY: ROUGH DRAFT OF HISTORY EDITION
When the dust settles Wednesday morning, what will the 2014 midterm elections be remembered for? What upsets will we be driving the headlines the day after election? With the threats of Islamists abroad and Ebola at home, Republican Brad Blakeman joins Democrat Joe Trippi to predict how the midterms will be remembered. Find out what they have say to by watching “Power Play with Chris Stirewalt,” here.
Get your shellac ready – CBS News: “Republicans continue to hold a lead in the national Congressional ballot test: 47 percent of likely voters say they will support the Republican candidate in their district, while 40 percent support the Democrat.”
[Watch Fox: Can the Dems hold on to their Senate control? Get an inside look at the deciding races and find out which way are key voters leaning on a special edition of “The Kelly File” tonight at 9 p.m. ET]
WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE…
While the nation’s 19th president is mostly forgotten, and when he is recalled it is for winning the presidency in a tense showdown in the House, Rutherford B. Hayes is a hero in Paraguay. NPR explains: “Hayes took office in 1877 in the aftermath of the Triple Alliance War, a conflict that nearly destroyed Paraguay. The country lost huge chunks of territory to victorious Brazil and Argentina. Later, Argentina later tried to claim the Chaco, the vast wilderness region of northern Paraguay. At the time there was no United Nations or World Court. So the two sides asked the United States to settle the dispute — and President Hayes sided with Paraguay. The decision gave Paraguay 60 percent of its present territory and helped guarantee its survival as a nation…There is… a Paraguayan soccer team named after Hayes, while a postage stamp bears his likeness. Hayes is such a big deal that people here find it a little disappointing that most Americans are clueless about him. Ricardo Nuñez, mayor of Villa Hayes, recalls a recent trip to Washington, D.C., and how people responded when he asked them if they knew about his city’s namesake. ‘They say, ‘Who?’ he says, laughing. ‘Hayes? Who is Hayes?”’
Got a TIP from the RIGHT or LEFT? Email [email protected]
POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
Obama Job Approval: Approve – 41.9 percent//Disapprove – 54.7 percent
Direction of Country: Right Direction – 27.5 percent//Wrong Track – 65.8 percent
Generic Congressional Ballot: Democrats – 43.3 percent// Republicans – 45.3 percent
[Poll Watch: The latest Fox News Polls on races in Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina and Ohio, will be released during “Special Report with Bret Baier” in the 6 p.m. ET hour]
‘GOTCHA’ BACKFIRES ON N.H. REPORTER
If you’re a reporter looking to trip up a candidate during a debate, you’d better have your facts straight. WMUR’s James Pindell learned that lesson the hard way as he tried a “gotcha” on Republican Scott Brown in the final New Hampshire Senate debate on Thursday. Concord [N.H.] Monitor: “Pindell…asked Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Scott Brown about [Sullivan] county located along the Vermont border. After Brown listed tourism and ski areas as economic opportunities and said challenges include Obamacare and high electric races, Pindell jumped in. ‘I think you were talking about the North Country,’ Pindell said. ‘We’re talking about any place past Concord, actually, and the challenges of our state,’ Brown responded. ‘Sullivan County is west of Concord, not north of Concord Senator Brown, so what do you see going well there?’ Pindell asked…” You can watch the exchange via Fox News, but the overall tone was quite condescending.
Part of a theme – Pindell’s bosses gave him the opportunity to clean up the mess in a clip posted online with the interesting title “Debate Panelist Reflects on Exchange,” Pindell offered an apology: “[O]n this point, Scott Brown was right. I was wrong, I apologize to Scott Brown and to both campaigns.” But Pindell probably had Brown’s grasp of geography well in mind before the debate began. He premises a piece in in the new edition of Politico’s magazine on a wrong turn Brown that Pindell evidently found quite revealing: “As he left a lunch at the Pink Cadillac Diner in Rochester, the second stop of the day on his ‘meet and greet’ tour, Brown took a right, when he should’ve turned left to make it to his next destination. It was a mistake, but what else to expect from a man who’d only recently swapped out his ‘Spirit of America’ Massachusetts license plates for New Hampshire’s ‘Live Free or Die.’”
[“It’s not a problem [that] [Hillary Clinton] or Scott Brown moved. The question is not where he’s from, the question is what he’s for.”—Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, during a debate Thursday night.]
