There's something about Tiffany Smiley... Washington state's GOP Senate candidate has a certain je-ne-said-quoi and the kind of moxie that people find very appealing in a candidate and a spouse. She has an IT factor that even Democrats can see -and fear.

  

There's something about Tiffany Smiley... Washington state's GOP Senate candidate has a certain je-ne-said-quoi and the kind of moxie that people find very appealing in a candidate and a spouse. She has an IT factor that even Democrats can see -and fear.

Well, it would indeed be an understatement for me to say this afternoon that I will, literally, have a FLOOD of very interesting, compelling and worthwhile pieces for you to read and ponder here on the blog over the next four weeks before the 2022 General Election finally arrives. Not only issues and races here in South Florida, the Sunshine State, but emerging ones or under-the-radar developing trends or personalities across the USA that you should be keeping your eyes on.

Today I'm sharing a few words about Tiffany Smiley, the GOP Senate candidate from Washington state. She is a remarkable woman whom I had only heard positive words about this summer. She upped that estimation by making a VERY positive first impression on me when I finally heard her LIVE. Apparently, judging by the polls coming out of distant Washington, with Seattle being a nice 3,300-plus miles drive from Miami, many other people across the country over the past week are NOW thinking about her prospects a LOT more seriously. People I know and respect and who are, themselves, about as devout and informed a news junkie and political addict as myself.

That sort of positive reaction makes me think my intuition about Smiley is correct and that the dynamic of the race is changing in her favor.

If you follow me regularly on my popular Twitter platform, @hbbtruth, you know that I've shared dozens of tweets and articles about interesting political personalities around the country I have "discovered" over the past year or so. Mostly novice candidates who have interesting or original backstories, and not the usual career politician or political family's latest legacy project, which I am no fan of for either Democrats or Republicans.

That said, in my opinion, Tiffany Smiley has made what I believe is by far the best candidate media appearance I've seen or heard in 2022, via the nationally-syndicated Clay Travis and Buck Sexton radio show this past Wednesday.

(Keep in mind that I have not watched C-SPAN in many months, which is something I thought I'd never say back when I used to watch 10-15 hours of it a week, so...)
 
Tiffany Smiley Is Winning Her Battle with Woke Seattle Corporations
Transcript of her October 5th appearance and links to some selected campaign videos therein.
https://www.clayandbuck.com/tiffany-smiley-is-winning-her-battle-with-woke-seattle-corporations/

In my informed opinion, Tiffany Smiley was, by turns, articulate, friendly and engaging, reasonable, calm and is genuinely interested in solving problems, not having problems that she can use to raise money from, a common trap among new GOP members who want to fit in.

She definitely did NOT sound like a jaded DC GOP political consultant captured by one of the usual interest groups that have long dominated the Republican Party at the national level, to the dismay of the GOP voters across the nation who believe in solutions, not endless policy debates about ten-point plans that take... five years. Yes, she sounds like an old-fashioned problem-solver.

(Keep in mind you newcomers to the blog that when I first moved to Washington, D.C. in the Winter of 1988, driving up on Super Tuesday in March after voting in the Florida primary, my first home there was just 5 blocks due east of the Capitol Building itself, and less than 200 feet from the sweet house of New York Senator Pat Moynihan.

I lived and worked in the Washington, D.C. area for almost 15 years, spending LOTS and LOTS of time every week on Capitol Hill. So much that I knew many of the most veteran Capitol Police officers by name AND face, knew all the Hill building/walking shortcuts, and sort of had a working mini-directory in my head for members and committees and staffers. I could tell you which House cafeteria was best at certain times of the day -too crowded versus too empty- and which Library of Congress copier machine in each of the three LOC buildings east and south of the capitol were dependable, and which ones were a lot like slot machines that would just cause you to lose your money with no chance of a payoff.)

I first met then Washington state Senator Patty Murray in 1992 while she was the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate for Washington state running against GOP House member Rod Chandler, a largely-unknown member outside of the Pacific Northwest, in the year after Incumbent Democratic Senator  Brock Adams chose not to run for re-election because of a very ugly sexual assault scandal.

Back in 1992, among other things, I was doing some work at Roll Call Newspaper, the twice-weekly tabloid-sized newspaper owned at the time by the former Chairman of the SEC. It covered Capitol Hill alone until The Hill came along years later. One afternoon it somehow fell to me to keep Patty Murray, the so-called "Mom in Tennis Shoes" amused and entertained for a bit while she waited for her important interview with Charlie Cook for The Cook Political Report.

This was back when he and his team of political campaign experts used to also be located in the same suite of offices as Roll Call, near Union Station, off of NE 1st Avenue, just a few blocks from the three Senate Office buildings: Russell, Dirksen and Hart.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, long story short, for decades Charlie Cook's analysis of a candidate's responses to his questions and their strategy/race tactics could literally change the popular perception to the national and state news media of what that candidate had been doing and saying for months, OVERNIGHT, if he was positively persuaded by what they had to say.

The reason for that is that important and well-heeled donors in both parties subscribed and paid real money to The Cook Political Report, and had learned to implicitly trust his judgment in 1,001 ways that they did NOT trust regular newspaper reporters or columnists, no matter how well-regarded.

His opinion could change the perception of a race from uncompetitive blowout to lean R or lean D to toss-up.

Well, long story short, Murray won her 1992 election and has been in the U.S. Senate for 30 years, 5 terms already.
Which is quite a lot for a female senator, though few will say that aloud, and of course, that brings on all sorts of questions about her energy levels and her ability to do the job as well as she once did, just as would be true with male senators who have been around as long as Murray.

Are they going thru the motions and cutting corners and tuning different POVs out?

But not every 30-year Senator has someone running against them with the kind of positive qualities, natural appeal and charism as Tiffany Smiley, while Murray is saddled with a a president of her own party polling in the mid-thirties range even in a Democratic-run state like Washington.

For months, even the Democratic-leaning Seattle Times' poll showed that more than twice as many Washington voters said they strongly disapprove of Biden’s job performance than said they strongly approve of him.

If you were to ask me who my super-strong political intuition feels is the most-likely Republican Senate candidate to wage an amazing upset over a longtime Democratic Party incumbent, I would say Tiffany Smiley.
IF she gets the kind of money she needs right now to make the moves that are necessary to win.

I really DO hope that is the case.

I strongly encourage you to not only listen to her interview above, but also read these two pieces from the past month.

Yahoo! News
Tiffany Smiley Would Be the GOP’s New Star, but She’s in the Wrong State
By Eleanor Clift
September 17, 2022

https://news.yahoo.com/tiffany-smiley-gop-star-she-000346765.html

Wall Street Journal
Corporate dirty pool in Seattle
How the Seattle Times, Starbucks, and Seattle Seahawks are going after Tiffany Smiley... to the benefit of Patty Murray.
Potomac Watch column
by Kimberly Strassel
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=134925755951584&set=ecnf.100063465825750

Campaign Website: https://www.smileyforwashington.com/

Campaign Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmileyForWashington

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SmileyForWA/with_replies

Latest tweets about Tiffany: https://twitter.com/search?q=%22Tiffany%20Smiley%22&src=typed_query&f=live

Dave 

David B. Smith  

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/ 

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DavidSmith0215

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

Travel Massive: https://travelmassive.com/dbsmith 

That's why he's Michael Barone and you're not: When Liberal Leaders Confront a Centrist Nation

I've been reading and following columnist and pundit
Michael Barone since even before I moved to D.C.
in 1988, or even before he was a regular on the original
McLaughlin Group, when that was the only
syndicated political chat show, and everyone I knew
watched it religiously.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Barone_%28pundit%29

It's still a LOT more popular in the Beltway area
than in the uninformed burbs of South Florida, plus,
now that I think about it, I rarely see a promo for it
on WPBT-Channel 2 -why is that anyhow?-
where it runs on Fridays at 8:30 p.m.
http://mclaughlin.com

(At various times while I lived in the greater D.C. area,
especially the Clinton years of the go-go Nineties,
I used to bank at the Riggs Bank, specifically, the
branch on 17th Street, N.W. & Eye St., three blocks
north of The White House and the OEOB.

This was the sort of place where on payday, Fridays,
you'd regularly see very well-heeled K Street D.C.
defense lawyer or lobbyists doing their weekly
transactions, like transferring money into their college
daughter's checking account so she can continue
living the McLean or Potomac lifestyle while they
were away from the financial Mother Ship.
No doubt while their daughter's roommate has to do
a 'Work Study' job like I did at IU.

Almost like it was a game, one of the persons who
always seemed to just beat me into the bank was
a highly-visible someone who always seemed to be
just 2-3 customers ahead of me in line: McLaughlin
Group regular Eleanor Clift of Newsweek magazine.)

In D.C, McLaughlin aired on the NBC affiliate,
WRC, and was part of my regular routine on
Saturday night before heading out for the night.

This essay was part of my daily email this from
Rasmussen Reports this morning.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com

The big news this morning there was that American
voters now give the GOP first-time lead on health
care.
That comes as no surprise to me given what we've
all seen the past few weeks, with so many uninformed
members of Congress unable to explain what
Obamacare would and would not entail, to voters
who have actually read the bill, or, explain away the
logic of so much secretiveness surrounding 1/6th
of the American economy.

For all the MSM talk in January and February of
David Axelrod's folks being so oh-so smart and
Chicago street-savvy, it's as if they never learned
the fundamental lessons of President Bush's failed
(irresponsible) immigration amnesty plan of two years
ago, which also featured no congressional hearings
that voters (and members of Congress and the
media) could watch or follow to become better
acquainted with the actual facts and provisions.

But when you insist on NOT having congressional
hearings where representatives of The White House
have to make their case publicly, and then have groups
opposed speaking against those policy ideas but for
others, you're asking for trouble.

But then you compound that fatal flaw by also insisting
on doing everything behind-the-scenes, even to the
point of refusing to publicly release the names of health
care leaders meeting with West Wing types, just as
was the case with Hillarycare in 1993, or groups
like La Raza working on the Kennedy bill at the
Bush White House, it's perfectly logical that people
would be very suspicious, especially middle-class
people who are usually apathetic -and proud of it-
about most aspects of American public policy.

People who find it easy to tune out discussions of the
legal ramifications of McCain-Feingold or redistricting
-see www.FairDistrictsFlorida.org- while they eagerly
wax philosophic, blog and Tweet about the particular
merits of one singer over another on a TV show I never
watch like American Idol.

(I used to see the last two minutes when they bleed
over to HOUSE's time-slot.)

Given that predicate, what's really surprising is that
The White House, DNC and Beltway press are so
surprised at the reaction of the American people.
It was entirely predictable.

Here's what I wrote on the Herald's webpage last
Thursday to the dreadful -what else is new?- Beth
Reinhard column about the town meetings on health
care.

Tempers flare in South Florida over healthcare overhaul

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1173602.html

To me, this town hall/Obamacare issue has really
pinpointed the Herald's central identity problem,
in that they are now so short-staffed and so very
poorly edited -but still more smug and arrogant
than reality ought to allow- that they now cover
local South Florida stories like they're parachuted
out-of-town reporters who arrive with their misplaced
preconceptions, false stereotypes and condescending
know-it-all persona, who want to treat everything
down here in South Florida as either precious,
eccentric or unique, even if it isn't.
It's the Iowa Caucus Syndrome.

Like our crime and corruption isn't really crime and
corruption, with an emotional and physical toll on
victims, like other cities and regions, but rather just
a local lifestyle choice.

That's the same attitude and response I run into when
I try to explain just some of the many unethical and
shady things are going on at Hallandale Beach City Hall,
and they turn to me and say,
"That's just Hallandale Beach."

In the Herald's case, that has been made all the worse by
their increasingly wasting half their column space by writing
about how other reporters elsewhere have characterized
similar events, contaminating the local perspective, rather
than accurately reporting and illuminating what happened
right in front of them -HERE!

This is both insulting AND infuriating, besides being bad
journalism that doesn't serve local readers, that no matter
how much I want to give Herald Executive Editor
Anders Gyllenhaal the benefit of the doubt, at some point,
you can't help but wonder when is the bad dream going
to end?

When is the Herald finally going to shape-up?
Would it be better for the long-term if the Miami Herald
went kaput and something else emerged from the ashes
that was actually interested and able to cover local
stories properly? Or, to use a particularly apt sports
metaphor, addition-by-subtraction?

Just recruit some smart, savvy and enthusiastic grads
from Medill and Ernie Pyle and elsewhere and let 'em
loose on all the unsuspecting pols and crooks hereabouts.
People with smarts and skills who don't care who
lobbyists Ron Book is or who he knows or whom he
and his daughter bankroll with campaign contributions,
or even who rides home to South Florida on his plane
from Tallahassee.

I used to think no, but as I stated a few months ago
here on the blog, and even said in an email to Gyllenhaal
last year, that he responded to, the question of the
Herald's future is increasingly not a rooting matter for me,
but more an academic or sporting proposition.
When does it all fall apart for good?

HallandaleBeachBlog wrote on 08/07/2009 04:54:25 AM:

What do these Obamacare stories and the tea-bag stories have in common? The Herald being VERY late to the party in covering them, and reporting on something in their own area like they were tourists, sporting cliches we've all heard on TV for days already.

Not surprising given that the Herald NEVER wrote a single thing about the 4,000-plus turnout at the Orlando "tea party" on March 21st. No articles, no photos, no nothing.

That's really surprising since any time you get that many people in an apathetic FL city to do anything at one time, it's newsworthy.

Just NOT to the editors of the Miami Herald, apparently, a paper that never used the phrase until March 21st, weeks AFTER the topic had gained national currency.

What do the candidates seeking to succeed Meek think about Obamacare or 'cap and trade'?

Can't say, the Herald's reporters and the rest of SoFL media won't ask them.

Maybe I should just call them and put their answers on my blog, so people in SoFL will know their views, huh?

And now, the feature presentation...
-------

When Liberal Leaders Confront a Centrist Nation

A Commentary
By Michael Barone

Augusts 13, 2009,

There are more conservatives than Republicans and more Democrats than liberals. That's one of the asymmetries between the parties that helps to explain the particular political spot we're in. The numbers are fairly clear. In the 2008 exit poll, 34 percent of voters described themselves as conservatives and 32 percent as Republicans; 39 percent described themselves as Democrats but only 22 percent as liberals.

Read the rest of the essay at: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_michael_barone/when_liberal_leaders_confront_a_centrist_nation

Michael Barone archives are at:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_michael_barone