Is Ken Buck TRYING to Lose?

UPDATE #2: The League of Conservation Voters turned this funny retort right around:

UPDATE: That didn’t take long. This story has now gone national, with Politico and The Hill, among others, recounting Buck’s week of bad press.

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We know that headline sounds absurd, but we don’t know what else to say after Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck’s latest misstep. As the Fort Collins Coloradoan reports:

After his meeting with supporters, Buck headed to a Loveland fundraiser that featured Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

“Sen. Inhofe was the first person to stand up and say this global warming is the greatest hoax that has been perpetrated. The evidence just keeps supporting his view, and more and more people’s view, of what’s going on,” Buck said.

Coming off of Sunday’s comments during a “Meet the Press” debate in which Buck compared homosexuality to alcoholism and essentially said that being gay was a “choice,” you’d think he would be a little more careful about what he said out loud. But nope, there’s Buck again last night, talking about global warming as a “hoax.”

Given that a vast majority of Americans believe that global warming is a serious issue, and considering that the vast majority of Unaffiliated voters in Colorado have yet to cast their ballot, these type of absolutely foolish comments may very well cost Buck the election. Think about how Colorado voters may now view Buck compared to this time a week ago — you know, before he started publicly calling homosexuality a “choice” and global warming a “hoax.”

Not good, Ken. Not good.

126 Community Comments, Facebook Comments

  1. Middle of the Road says:

    as though he’s still in the primary. As though all he has to do is keep throwing red meat to the Tea Party base.

    I may as well state the obvious–he really is this extreme. There’s no other way to interpret his views. He’s just about as far right as you’ll get in this election cycle. I don’t see much difference, at this point, between him and Angle or O’Donnell.  

  2. Ellie says:

    the man never saw a drilling rig he didn’t love. One day in a meeting he sighted the daily rig count for the past week as an example of what type of businesses we should put into a new office business park.    

  3. ProgressiveCowgirl says:

    There once was a teabagger named Buck

    Who won his primary purely by luck;

    Thinking he could never be beat

    He opened his mouth, inserted both feet,

    Proving he’s really just a dumb… duck.  

  4. MADCO says:

    He has been losing the enthusiasm of the tea party.  He has disappointed the R in general for running a “flawed” or “poor” campaign.

    Maybe this shakes up R’s and tp’s.

    Anyway – it doesn’t anywhere near as much as his support of Ref A.

  5. ryadare says:

    Come on Coloradopols, clearly you are taking Buck’s comments out of context.  Clearly he meant to say “hot” and not “hoax.”  As in, global warming is “hot.”  This is no different than when you took Buck’s abortion stance out of context or his privatization of social security and veteran’s hospitals out of context or his “buyer’s remorse” out of context or his “cloud of suspicion” out of context.  

  6. divergent_tdog says:

    This is clearly playing to the tea party base – according to the article, only 14% of tea baggers think that climate change is actually an environmental problem, while 49% of the public does (and I’ll bet it’s higher in Colorado). However, remember that all the money for those groups come from Big Oil.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10

  7. Aaron says:

    just doesn’t want to be Senator.

    That’s the best excuse I can think of for all this self-sabotage.

  8. Rainidog says:

    when he’s in front of his base.  He can’t help but let lose with even more of his seriously extreme views.  But he doesn’t have a good “governor” on his speech in any case.  No ability to read an audience, to access whatever intellect he has when he’s in front of cameras, and speak appropriate to the venue.  Nor to talk to a rape victim in a way that won’t come back to bite him in the ass.

    Arrogance/hubris plays a big part as well.

  9. TellerJon says:

    Buck has thoroughly discredited himself and this independent voter will be voting for his opponent.

    That said I have one tiny issue with the comment that the “vast majority of Americans believe global warming is a serious issue.”  The cited poll states, “Most voters (59%) continue to regard global warming as a serious issue.”

    That is a majority, but not a vast majority.  I would contend a vast majority would be more than 80%.

  10. 20th Maine says:

    Despite most delirious opinions to the contrary posted here, saying “global warming is a hoax” isn’t going to hurt outside of ColoradoPols.  Fewer people are believing it and most don’t put it in their top 10 things they care about.

    Here’s just one example, from this spring.  I’m sure they would be even less favorable now.  

    Sometimes you guys make it too easy to mock you…

    Americans’ Global Warming Concerns Continue to Drop

    Multiple indicators show less concern, more feelings that global warming is exaggerated

    PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup’s annual update on Americans’ attitudes toward the environment shows a public that over the last two years has become less worried about the threat of global warming, less convinced that its effects are already happening, and more likely to believe that scientists themselves are uncertain about its occurrence. In response to one key question, 48% of Americans now believe that the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated, up from 41% in 2009 and 31% in 1997, when Gallup first asked the question.  http://www.gallup.com/poll/126

     

  11. Half Glass Full says:

    Global warming? No: Ken Buck as anything other than an O’Donnell/Angle extremist.

  12. bjwilson83 says:

    That wasn’t a gaffe. Most people understand global warming is a hoax and oppose cap and trade. It’s funny that the things Pols thinks are campaign killers are actually the things that will win the election for Ken.

    • droll says:

      Source please.  No, a picture of your ass will not do.

    • Even Rasmussen says 59% of voters think global warming is a serious threat.

      The NSF poll on the subject this year shows 74% of respondents believe global warming is happening, and (odd result warning) 75% believe human behavior is to blame.

    • Voyageur says:

      Uh, well, maybe not so much.

      Cheating the taxpayers 100 times a day with political posts from his government-paid job.  bjwilson83

    • Cordelia Chase says:

      MOST people understand global warming is a hoax?  Unless by “most” you mean you and your three friends you sit around in your basement with.  Then you would be right.

      Here’s a link to a poll showing 75% of Americans believe in Global Warming, done just a few months ago.

      http://www.dailytech.com/Stanf

    • H-man says:

      Politics is about belief, not science.  It  needs to be analyzed as part of the art of sales.  

      People buy based on emotions and then justify the purchase based on reasoning.  It is not the other way around.

      The best ad in the campaign is Buck’s they heard us but they ignored us ad.  It doesn’t mention Bennet or any position Buck takes.  But it is the ad that makes the sale in the race.

      Meanwhile the polsters are all thrilled about how Buck is wrong on the science of things. Buck is a trial lawyer.  He is trained in persuading people.  He is focused on what people believe and how they think. It doesn’t matter what the science is. Polsters would rather be right on the science and lose the election. It may well turn out that way, which will be just fine by Buck.

      • droll says:

        Brilliant!

        Anyway, the source that bj was unable to produced was produced by others.  It’s not the science people are disagreeing with, it’s that the majority of people believe that there is a problem here.  Who’s argument are you trying to make?

        And if this is Buck at his lawyering best, he should stay well away from court rooms.

        • ajb says:

          Jeez H-man, play to the Republican stereotype much?

          How do you think the meme that facts have a liberal bias was born? Chalk that one up to Colbert’s critique of the Bushies and the 2000-2006 Congress.

          What’s the old saw about repeating history?

  13. Rainidog says:

    CSU is becoming home to one of eight U.S. Department of the Interior Climate Science Centers, announced today by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

    Colorado State University will lead and host a consortium of nine universities and other affiliated national laboratories, to be up and running by early next year. The center is designed to put science to work to help federal, state, local, private and non-profit natural resource managers understand current and future impacts of climate change on critical natural, cultural, wildlife and agricultural resources, CSU and Interior officials said.

    The North Central consortium includes the University of Colorado, Colorado School of Mines, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Wyoming, Montana State University, University of Montana, Kansas State University and Iowa State University. In addition, other federal partners in the consortium include the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, National Center for Atmospheric Research and others.

    Yeah — I’m really sure all these people from all these universities, the CDC, the NOAA, Dept. of Ag., NCAR — every damn one of them is perpetuating a HOAX!  They’re all, all I say, getting paid off by Soros and the Bohemian Foundation lady and Jared POlis.  It’s all a horrible liberal conspiracy!  Where’s Glenda Beck when we need him?!!!!

  14. UglyAmerican says:

    Using the criteria of hoaxes that dramatically affect public policy, my mind turns to the following choices:

    1) WMD in Iraq hoax

    2) The USSR is a credible military threat hoax

    3) Democrats can’t balance budgets hoax

    My fav is #2. All the AGW hoax has done so far is pollute a lot of scientific inquiry and create a lot of global drama. With the Cold War we built craploads of nukes and created a nation of sheep.

  15. MADCO says:

    but Buck and AGW was on Olberman tonight.

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