Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

John McCain headlines boisterous rally for Sharron Angle in Las Vegas

Angle McCain Campaign Rally

Sam Morris

Sharron Angle speaks at a campaign rally Oct. 29, 2010, at the Orleans during her Senate run.

Angle-McCain Campaign Rally

Sharron Angle introduces Sen. John McCain at a campaign rally for Angle on Friday at the Orleans. Launch slideshow »

Sun Coverage

2010 General Election

Zip Code
Party Affilliation
Democrat — 60.9%
Republican — 19.1%
Independent — 15.2%
Other — 2.3%
Tea Party of Nevada — 0.8%
Green — 0.7%
Libertarian — 0.7%
Independent American Party — 0.3%
Who are you voting for in the U.S. Senate race?
Harry Reid — 70.7%
Sharron Angle — 26.9%
Scott Ashjian — 1.1%
Wil Stand — 0.5%
Tim Fasano — 0.3%
Jesse Holland — 0.3%
Jeffrey C. Reeves — 0.3%
Michael L. Haines — 0%
Who are you voting for in the Nevada gubernatorial race?
Rory Reid — 61.6%
Brian Sandoval — 32.3%
David Scott Curtis — 2.9%
Eugene "Gino" Disimone — 1.1%
Aaron Y. Honig — 0.8%
Floyd Fitzgibbons — 0.7%
Arthur Forest Lampitt Jr. — 0.6%
Who are you voting for in the U.S. House District 3 race?
Dina Titus — 66.2%
Joe Heck — 29.4%
Barry Michaels — 2.1%
Joseph P. Silvestri — 1.9%
Scott David Narter — 0.5%

This poll is closed, see Full Results »

Note: This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

About 1,000 supporters crowded into a ballroom at the Orleans on Friday night to watch Sharron Angle be feted by the biggest Republican booster yet to visit Nevada on her behalf — former presidential candidate and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

McCain had no kind words for the man he’s referred to on the Senate floor as his “friend and colleague from Nevada” for much of the last 10 years, but his message didn’t stop at telling the assembled crowd how important it was to defeat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Calling Angle “the 51st vote to give Republicans the majority,” he told the exuberant crowd that “this election will change America” and “the world will be watching.”

McCain was at ease on stage, leaning against the podium and cracking jokes about his age and failed presidential bid in between hammering home some central points of the Republican message — repeal “Obamacare” and secure the border.

He added to that list a few items that have been focal points of incendiary debates in recent weeks but continue to be red meat to Tea Party supporters — no Miranda rights for terrorists and no mosque at Ground Zero.

McCain made a direct plea to those assembled to vote and get out the vote. When asked, about two-thirds of the crowd indicated they had already voted.

Reid, meanwhile, was at a rally at William E. Orr Middle School with boxing champion Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao. After the event, buses shuttled voters across the street to cast ballots at the Boulevard Mall as early voting came to a close.

At the Orleans, McCain, the keynote speaker, followed Angle, who spoke for about five minutes in a soft, insistent tone.

Her comments were largely a loose amalgam of phrases recycled from her commercials and one debate appearance. She repeated her signature “man up” phrase no fewer than four times, each time to cheers.

Angle told her supporters that there would be “shock and awe” in Washington on Nov. 3, presumably a reference hearkening back to the invasion operation into Iraq.

Angle has repeatedly said that Reid should apologize to Gen. David Petraeus for saying the surge was a failure and that the war in Iraq was lost.

Angle called the election a potential “teachable moment” for Democrats to use the lame-duck period that begins Nov. 15 to “repeal Obamacare” and “make the tax cuts permanent.”

While Congress is expected to take up an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts in November, it isn’t yet clear if it will push a full extension or one targeted toward the middle class, as Democrats and President Barack Obama want.

It is highly unlikely that the Democratic-controlled Congress that returns for the lame duck session after the election will go about trying to take apart its own health care bill, though there are some relevant tax provisions — such as 1099 reporting requirements — that may come up for review.

Friday night’s program also included patriotic songs and videos picking at Democrat leaders — though interestingly enough, the videos barely featured Harry Reid.

They focused more on Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, stimulus architect and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts and others whom the crowd didn’t seem to recognize, judging by the sudden drop-off in boos, including former Energy and Commerce Committee chair and longest-ever-serving House member John Dingell of Michigan and Alcee Hastings of Florida.

But the crowd had nothing but cheers for the two warm-up speakers: Michael Reagan, the progeny of the late president Ronald Reagan, who has been all but deified by the Tea Party movement — “he was the original Tea Party!” Reagan said of his father, to cheers — and conservative actor Jon Voight.

Voight cast the national divide in terms that some polls have reflected but few Republicans have ever actually boasted of — a war between young and old.

“Obama deluded our young people with lies,” Voight said. “Our young people support an idea that doesn’t exist. We, as mature and intelligent adults, know what freedom and prosperity means.”

To be sure, there were not many young people in the crowd, which cheered loudly as Voight asked what Obama had ever done for Nevada as he appealed to locals to vote against “all those corrupt politicans” on Nov. 2.

“Obama is not a Democrat; he is a radical socialist more sympathetic to our enemies than our allies,” he said, stressing that the country needs to “get back to capitalism...then we can be as generous as each one feels to support their charities at will.”

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