Did Christine O'Donnell plan to walk off 'Piers Morgan'? (VIDEO)
Former Delaware Senate hopeful Christine O鈥橠onnell fled the taping of an interview for the "Piers Morgan Tonight" show on Wednesday. Ms. O鈥橠onnell, who is perhaps most famous for being the only candidate in the 2010 election cycle to publicly declare that she was not a witch, felt that Mr. Morgan was 鈥渂orderline being a little bit rude.鈥�
Was he really being rude? In our experience the suave former British news presenter and current CNN host could charm the wrinkles off an elephant. So here鈥檚 our theory: The whole thing was a set-up; not in the sense that they鈥檇 agreed to disagree beforehand, but in the sense that O鈥橠onnell and her publicists had discussed what might happen, and agreed she might bolt if the talk reached a certain point.
Remember, O鈥橠onnell was on the show to promote her new book, 鈥淭rouble Maker: Let鈥檚 Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again.鈥� Being on "Piers Morgan" is great for that, but walking off "Piers Morgan" in a huff and thus rising to the top of the Google Trends hot topics on Thursday morning is even better.
So Morgan pressed her on the topic of gay marriage, and O鈥橠onnell took umbrage (not Dolores Umbridge 鈥� 10 points for Gryffindor if you get that reference) and left. The result: No divisive quotes from her about gay unions, and the whole flap got lots of press. Mischief managed!
We鈥檇 rather have seen Morgan follow up the not-a-witch thing. To recap, if you鈥檝e forgotten (or the Ministry of Magic has wiped your memory): During her campaign last year for Delaware鈥檚 open Senate seat, comedian Bill Maher dredged up old clips of O鈥橠onnell from his show in which she talked about dabbling in witchcraft as a youth.
鈥淚 never joined a coven,鈥� she said at the time.
In her new book, excerpts of which have been published online by ABC, she says the whole thing was a 鈥渘othing鈥� remark about a minor incident far back in time, and that she鈥檚 hurt and surprised Maher did what he did.
(Hurt and surprised? Maybe she never watched the show except when she was on.)
She details the process whereby her campaign put up the famous ad, which began with her saying, 鈥淚鈥檓 not a witch.鈥�
Her first choice was to , but the firm was not available, she said. So she went with a suggestion from national Republicans in Washington, and chose a group headed by veteran campaigner Fred Davis.
It was Mr. Davis鈥檚 idea to do the witch thing, and he began his pitch to her by saying she was going to hate it. Yes, yes, she did. But she did it anyway.
To which we say, if your first choice in this matter was a firm called Screaming Dime, something exciting was probably going to happen in any case.
