I’m a big supporter of Elizabeth, and have volunteered and made phone calls at her campaign headquarters on several occasions already. I plan to continue supporting and volunteering for her, but I have to say, I think the way she's going about handling the Cherokee ancestry controversy has not done her campaign any favors.
Don’t get me wrong - I think the controversy is a complete distraction and has been exploited by a Scott Brown campaign eager/desperate to turn the conversation away from his voting record. The Brown campaign has successfully made a mountain out of a molehill here, and the media, ever eager to sniff out anything with the slightest whiff of controversy, is enthusiastically going along for the ride. The Boston Herald, a right wing rag that pollutes Boston newstands, has been especially prolific with stories pertaining to the controversy.
All that being said, I think this issue runs the risk of derailing her entire candidacy. At this stage of the game, with the controversy in its 4th or 5th week, I think the best thing for her to do is to address it at length in a speech or press conference. Yes, in an ideal world, such a step would not be necessary, but this is not an ideal world, and the Koch-funded Scott Brown, along with a complicit media, are all too eager to keep stoking the fires of this controversy for as long as possible.
If she were to address this issue in a heartfelt speech, and admit that she was relying on family lore (which can be unreliable – because human memory is sometimes faulty /unreliable) and perhaps unintentionally stretched the truth by claiming Cherokee ancestry, I think she could put this tempest in a teapot controversy behind her. And once it’s behind her, she can return to discussing issues, where she has a HUGE advantage over Scott Brown.
Think of it this way: if Scott Brown and the media keep the focus of this contest on the issue of Cherokee ancestry, Brown will most likely win. But if, on the other hand, the issue is put to rest and the discussion returns to actual issues, like economic fairness, equality of opportunity for all Americans, protections for consumers, and Scott Brown’s support for the Blunt amendment, then Elizabeth wins.
(Apologies if I've done something incorrectly here - this is my first ever diary. Long time lurker, first time diarist)