August 13, 2009 04:44 PM UTC

McInnis Freaks Out Over "Pledge" on Friendly Talk Show

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• by: Colorado Pols

You really have to listen to this to believe it, folks. Yesterday afternoon, gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis appeared on the Caplis and Silverman show on KHOW talk radio. The subject of the day was, of course, yesterday’s Denver Post story about McInnis’ 2004 promise to donate his leftover federal campaign funds to charity–as you know that didn’t happen, the money was instead used mostly to fund Republican candidates and McInnis’ own “shadow” gubernatorial campaign. Caplis and Silverman tried to ask a few simple questions about it, and here’s what happened:

Can’t see the audio player? Click here.

Before you draw any conclusions, it’s important to remind people who Craig Silverman and Dan Caplis are. Nominally a conservative/liberal debate program, “liberal” Silverman is known locally as the Alan Colmes of Denver talk radio to Caplis’ very lifelike Sean Hannity. Silverman is about as far from a ‘hard-hitting’ liberal host as you can get, a pretty deferential guy overall, and Caplis makes no secret of his indefatigable support for all things GOP.

Remember that when Caplis says to McInnis near the end of the interview, “This is beneath you. And it’s beneath the office you’re running for.” Caplis and Silverman have had many less notable guests on their program, facing much tougher questions. McInnis, by comparison, sounds paranoid, combative, and decidedly–we’ll say it–un-gubernatorial. It’s pretty shocking stuff.

Based on this performance, if it was ever McInnis’ intention to sell himself as a polished statesman who can “stay cool under fire,” he’s going to need to, ah, rethink that strategy.