Can Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity Get Doug Hoffman Elected?

Here’s the key exchange between Hoffman and Beck:

HOFFMAN: I have good mentors here.
BECK: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Are they mentors that will show…
HOFFMAN: I’m talking about you, Glenn.
BECK: Oh, okay. I was going to say, ‘all right, as long as they are standing out from the shadows, and saying Doug as long as you sign away your soul I’ll make you king of the universe.’
HOFFMAN: No. Yeah, well, I’m going to keep in touch with people like you so I don’t get infected with that disease.

Glenn Beck is a “mentor” for Doug Hoffman, because Hoffman is the first national candidate to come out of the tea party movement. Hoffman has appeared several times on Hannity’s show, and on Beck’s TV and radio show. But that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones who have a horse in this race. Obviously there are the politicians – Sarah Palin being the key name thrown around – and there is the conservative blogosphere that was way ahead of even Beck and the bigger stars about this race.

But this is about the power of tea parties – and that means it’s about the power of Fox News as an entire news entity. Their coverage of town halls and the 9/12 protest – again, from the news side, was far more vast than any other cable news outlet, sometimes drifting into what could only be described as ‘getting too close to the story.’

And they didn’t hold back on stating their opinion that they believed the news judgment of the other networks was wrong in not covering this movement more: “Generally speaking, it’s fair to say that from the tea party movement … to Acorn … to the march on 9/12, the networks either ignored the story, marginalized it or misrepresented the significance of it altogether.”

Hoffman, who is unpolished at best and embarrassingly unprepared at worst, is the first candidate to come out of this movement, and if he can win, it means Fox News and their tea party coverage has won as well. And who knows – if they can field a candidate, have their opinion hosts boost him to victory in a small congressional race, what’s next? A 9/12er Senate candidate? A Tea Party President?

At the end of the interview, Hannity said, “I think this is a referendum on a lot of what’s been going on in the country which is moving radically to the left. This election will be watched. I hope I’m on the air this time tomorrow night and I’ll be able to declare you the winner.”

If he’s on the air and has to declare Hoffman the loser, then that means Hannity lost as well – and it will be a referendum on his power, Beck’s power and others. We’ll see just how fair of a fight this White House vs. Fox News feud really is.

Here’s the Hannity interview last night:

Here’s the “mentor” comment:


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