Denver Direct: Money Can’t Buy You Love

I love the Huffington Post, and its creator, Arianna Huffington. She is whip-crack smart, extremely articulate, innovative to the extreme, and runs an outstanding news operation. Although I rely on my own aggregator (Yahoo) to pull together news from the many sources I choose, I always check the Huffington Post for fast breaking news and important opinion, as they have a large stable of great writers.

When Ethan Axelrod rode into town last year with the Denver version of the Huffington Post (DHP) I wondered if it would be of the same caliber. I had heard that Mr. Axelrod contacted many of the local bloggers and news sources and made arrangements with them to feed their stories to him for re-posting. I also noticed that Mr. Axelrod wrote a number of the items at DHP himself. And of course, with a name like Axelrod, it was hard not to notice that Ethan is the son of David Axelrod, a top adviser to President Obama.

When it comes to our local race between appointee Senator Michael Bennet and former Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff, we all pretty much know the score – “Big Money” Bennet v. “Man of the People” Romanoff, headed to a primary to see who shall represent us. Although local Democrats were told not to endorse their favorite before the primary, apparently President Obama did not get the message, as his endorsement of Bennet came out the day after Bennet announced, and his benefit for Michael at the Fillmore was very early in the game and very well attended. This has created a contentious situation for Democratic locals, some of whom are still trying to follow the Party lead by remaining uncommitted until after the primary, but with growing resentment.

When Denver Direct got the exclusive footage of Romanoff blasting the Tea Party last Saturday at the District 8 Spaghetti Dinner, we figured it was very newsworthy and hurried to post it on Sunday, April 18. Thinking it would be a story of some import, we even emailed Ethan a link that day, (after all, he has used our material in the past) but got no response. Maybe it wasn’t that important after all.

Imagine our surprise yesterday (Thursday) when we saw the pathetic piece that the Denver Huffington Post published of Senator Bennet “slamming” the Tea Party. Difficult to understand audio, recorded by sources unnamed, and posted to YouTube by “whosaidyousaidtv” (but with a somewhat different slant at their website). A day late and a dollar short, Bennet once again proved that his money can’t buy him love.

With even more proof in his recent TV ads, Senator Bennet may have the worst media team ever assembled. Even his faithful are choking on the disingenuous ads. And as for Senator Bennet himself, he just doesn’t have “it”. Lacking affect, and often seeming to slur his words, he always seems to be playing catch-up to Romanoff. Now saddled with the colossal financial blunder from his days as DPS Superintendent (costing us $90 million?), I have to ask, Why is this guy Bennet even being considered for this position when we have the stellar Mr. Romanoff who could really represent us?

Compare and contrast for yourself:
Romanoff (posted 4/18/10)

Bennet (posted 4/21/10)