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July 06, 2009 10:47 PM UTC

Help Scott McInnis Learn Colorado Geography!

  • 38 Comments
  • by: Alan

(We’ve updated this diary to include some press links generated by Pols users uncovering the McInnis mountain problem – promoted by Colorado Pols)

POLS UPDATE TUESDAY: Grand Junction Sentinel:

Schaffer was embarrassed last year when a photo of Denali National Park appeared in a televised ad that was supposed to feature Pikes Peak in his ill-fated campaign.

McInnis took note of the Schaffer misstep at the time, noting that candidates get few such mistakes.

The images file consulted by a “young group of techies” working on the campaign was supposed to be for “Colorado Rockies,” but included the Canadian Rockies photo that was chosen, Hesse said.

That’s now been replaced on www. ScottMcInnisforGovernor.com by the stark, rusty red sandstone Fountain Formation that runs up and down the Front Range, outcropping at various spots such as the Garden of the Gods and Red Rocks Amphitheatre…

Sorry, that last bit from the Sentinel’s Gary Harmon is just too much. Is it really necessary to work that hard just to avoid saying the words “Boulder Flatirons?” Especially since that’s the part of the geologic “Fountain Formation” in the picture? Very odd and defensive wording for a journalist.

POLS UPDATE: Westword’s Michael Roberts chimes in today on McInnis’ geography problem: “When politicians make a gaffe, an army of online smart asses is ready, willing and able to make them feel stupid about it.”

POLS UPDATE #2: The Denver Post adds those three damning words, “newspaper of record.”

Republican strategist Mike Hesse wants to know if anyone is offering a class for campaign types on how to recognize mountain ranges.

If so, “I’d be happy to join,” he said today.

Hesse made the tongue-in-cheek comment after GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis’ debut Web site mistakenly featured a Canadian mountain range.

Last year, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer famously displayed Alaska’s Mount McKinley in a TV ad as he talked about Colorado’s mountains.

The McInnis mountain gaffe gave left-leaning blogs some fireworks to write about over the Fourth of July weekend…

And the blogs last week were quick to note that McInnis chimed in on Schaffer’s mountain mistake.

Such mishaps tended to accumulate, McInnis told the Grand Junction Sentinel. “They can afford this one, but one or two more and that’s all you can absorb,” he said.

TW UPDATE #3: Slow news day? The LA Times Top of the Ticket Blog weighs in:

The Democrats have Vice President Joe Biden for gaffe laughs. Now the Republicans in Colorado have a candidate wrestling with an all-too-familiar PR scandal in his scenic home state: Not being able to recognize his own state’s mountains.

[…]

Now it’s former congressman Scott McInnis, who hopes to become the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee next year. His web page debuted with a striking image of snow-capped peaks. Problem is, the peaks look like none in Colorado. The slip-up was unearthed by the political junkies at ColoradoPols.com (who, like many Coloradans, seem to be a bit mountain-mad as well).

They determined the image is actually of the Canadian Rockies. The McInnis campaign swiftly replaced it with a photo of the Flatirons, iconic peaks that loom over the left-leaning town of Boulder.

Original post follows.

I’ve just learned that former Congressman Scott “McLobbyist” McInnis doesn’t know Colorado geography, and we’re reaching out to our network members to help him.

That’s right, I’m asking you to help us help Scott McInnis learn Colorado geography.

Last week, McInnis rolled out his new campaign website, “McInnis for Colorado.” The headline on the site asks “what do you want for the future of Colorado,” with the text displayed on a lovely backdrop of mountains and an alpine lake.

Unfortunately, within a few hours of launch, it was determined by local bloggers that the picturesque mountain peak in McInnis’ “future of Colorado” photo is actually a mountain in Canada. (Colorado Independent, 7/2/2009).

That’s right, folks, Scott McInnis apparently doesn’t know the difference between Canada and Colorado. Now, some of you might be inclined to burst out in hysterical laughter at this news, but as a geography minor at the Metropolitan State College of Denver, this actually makes me very sad. Nobody, certainly not a college-educated former elected official, should be this clueless about the state they desire to serve. And like a good student, I immediately thought of a way to help.

Can you take just a minute right now to donate $10 towards a Colorado geography textbook for Scott McInnis?

http://progressnowcolorado.org/McInnisMountains

Your donation will help pay for a hardbound copy of Geography of Colorado, an excellent college-level primer on our state’s fascinating physical and cultural features–as well as help fund other ways we plan to educate Scott McInnis in the coming months.

I admit I was surprised to learn that McInnis needs such a basic textbook on a state he’s lived in for so long, especially after all the snarky things he said about GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer’s confusion of Alaska’s Denali for Pikes Peak in a television ad last May (Grand Junction Sentinel, 5/18/2008). But all I, like any good student, want to do is help: every Coloradan entitled to a good education, after all. Thanks for doing your part.

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38 thoughts on “Help Scott McInnis Learn Colorado Geography!”

  1. Ten dollars? I’ll give the schlub a nickel.

    Seriously: this isn’t a minor deal because it betrays a lack of attention to detail.

    Remember how Obama got hammered by the Right about his “wanna-be presidential seal”? He smiled and took his lumps, and moved on. The problem with Schaffer was that he didn’t show the same good grace when he was caught in his own geography gaffe.

    Now McInnis should accept all responsibility, with a smile. “I just naturally assumed that every picture of a stunning, beautiful mountain range is more than likely taken in Colorado.” Something like that.

    If McInnis instead blames The Ad-Makers or the like, he gets the public mad at him for accepting responsibility. Obama’s “I screwed up” should be the model. Not Bush’s blaming the Navy for putting up the “Mission Accomplished” banner.

    1. At this point, I find it highly unlikely that Scooter will win the nomination next August. At this point, aren’t groups like Progress Now wasting their time with him? Shouldn’t they be going after Penry?

      It seems like McInnis is doing a pretty damn good job tanking his own campaign.

      Maybe they’re basing it all off of polling that shows McInnis as more of a threat than Penry to Ritter (campaign gaffes notwithstanding.)

      1. Highly unlikely Scooter will win the primary? Not so fast. He knows how to raise money and campaign away from the warm embrace of his own base. Penry, if he in fact gets into the race, would step out of his class by leaving the friendly confines of Mesa County.

        Campaign stuff this early is inside baseball.

        Of course ProgressNow is basing it on the polls. McInnis is not a wingnut and would be a much stronger challenger to Ritter.

        1. I guess I didn’t say it as clearly as I’d hoped. Let me try again:

          I agree that McInnis would be the stronger general election opponent against Ritter. The polls show that, and logic would dictate that he would do better in the general than Penry.

          However, to win the general, McInnis would have to first win the primary. Even though Penry is young, inexperienced, and a career politician, he’s hard right enough to do well enough in the GOP gubernatorial primary to beat McInnis IMO.

          What it comes down to, I suppose, is whether or not the Republicans in this state have learned from the recent Democratic victories. If they stop being blinded by ideology, and go for the candidate with the bets chance to win, then maybe McInnis stands a chance in the primary. However, if the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary follows the precedents from the statewide Republican primaries of the last few years, then they will go for the more right wing of the two–and that is unquestionably Penry.

          Not only that, but Penry has set himself up in a very smart way for the run. As Pols has pointed out a few times in recent months, his speeches have been making allusions to Scott McInnis being part of the “old guard” Republicans who lost their way and started to become corrupt overspenders. He’s making himself out to be a vanguard who’s going to harken back to the days of Reagan and Goldwater–which is a message that the GOP activists who vote in the primary races will eat with a fork and knife.

          Just my two cents. You’re completely right that this is early, and inside baseball, but that’s just where I see the race going over rhte next year or so.

          2. He’s tarnished by the BUsh years, he’s been out of the political spotlight, and he represents the “old guard” of the Republican Party, something that Colorado Voters have now thoroughly rejected.  I wish he would win the primary, it’d make it easier for our flailing Guv, but I think Penry can create the “young reformer” image and be a threat in the general.

      2. Why? Like Bill Ritter, they’d much rather Penry be the opponent next November. So they’re taking McInnis down a notch every chance they get.

        2. This election will be fought first in paid TV and second on the web. McInnis has no idea how to use the web while Penry does. (McInnis may have people working on the web but I don’t thinkhe or his campaign understand it at all.)

    1. I’m glad I’m not the only one. I kind of found myself thinking, “a day late and a dollar short but thanks for playing, Progress Now.”

      1. I doubt they would have sent this out on the holiday weekend, so this was probably the first day they could.

        I think it’s funny to offer, but I’m surer than hell not going to help buy McInnis a geography book. If he doesn’t know a Colorado mountain from someplace else (hint: look for timberline), that’s his electability problem not educational.

        1. and juvenile, to be honest with you. You have a good point about the timing but I still think it’s a day late and a dollar short. Sorry but yesterday’s news doesn’t hold much appeal for me. On the other hand, in defense of your point, the masses don’t frequent blogs so this probably is new to them.

    2. But Blue’s right, this is an attempt to keep McInnis’ slip-up from disappearing down the holiday weekend news hole. Honestly, the mountain mixup was funny enough.

      1. Mission accomplished.

        McInnis campaign has its own mountain misstep

        http://www.denverpost.com/news…

        Republican strategist Mike Hesse wants to know if anyone is offering a class for campaign types on how to recognize mountain ranges.

        If so, “I’d be happy to join,” he said today…

        Funny enough for the peanut gallery yet? Because I am now busting a gut.

        1. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I really do think McInnis would benefit from a high quality survey course level geography textbook? This is what’s wrong with America, your assumption of partisan ill will. Really, shame on you.

          Agreed though, excellent Denver Post story. (big smile)

  5. 14,000 Feet: A Celebration of Colorado’s Highest Mountains by Walter R. Borneman and Todd Caudle

    It’s not a textbook but the pictures are great, this will hold Scooter’s attention longer anyway.

  6. Sentinel follows Colorado Pols closely.  They have ignored the story for five days.  If they do nothing it will speak volumes over who Herzog supports.  Or it will be just another spin in the death spiral.

        1. The Sentinel normally doesn’t get involved in Republican politics, particularly when Republicans are embarrassing themselves.

          After 30 years of reading the Sentinel, you kind of get used to it.

    2. do a story that intentionally embarrasses a Republican when pigs fly out of Gary Harmons’ butt. Give them a chance to take a shot at a Democrat and they will fight to be first in line.

      And the men who hold high places, must be the ones to start, to mold a new reality, closer to the heart..Geddy Lee, 1979

      1. Saccone would have had some fun with this in his Daily Sentinel blog. It’s a shame he’s toiling away at the AG’s office these days, though both he and John Suthers are no doubt enjoying the fruits of his labor.

  7. Same quote from Hess.  Calls himself a volunteer campaign coordinator.  Seems to be very expensive no matter how you look at it.

    Also, Sentinel has a story that Penry is to announce Saturday at 9:00, in Mesa County.

  8. that the Sentinel guy goes through to avoid saying “Flatirons.” I wanted to leave a comment about that but they don’t have comments available. I might email the author just to see what he says…

  10. What pre-pubescent, pizza-faced punk is advising this hydrocephalic’s campaign? Bad enough Ritter’s own hubris has weakened him, but we have Moe and Curly here tripping over one another trying to figure out how to launch any kind of adult retaliation.Pathetic.

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