Posted on 02/16/2013 5:34:24 AM PST by cotton1706
Americans love to watch public figures eviscerated publicly. Progressives love to bash conservatives. And the media will go out of their way to cripple conservative candidates (even if it means missing wildly and making an ass out of themselves, i.e., Wolf Blitzer and Marco Rubio’s water bottle). But progressives, the media and the American public will eventually cease their assault, if for no other reason than the story gets old and the appetite for schadenfreude eventually wanes.
For over two years now, center-right political professionals — from Charles Krauthammer and Karl Rove down to local GOP pols — have trashed Christine O’Donnell without relent. They’ve made her name synonymous with embarrassing failure. The declamations are tossed off casually by TV’s alleged conservatives, usually as a cautionary tale. Among the right’s talking heads, Christine O’Donnell is invoked as a two-word epithet utilized to dismiss unfit and extreme Republican candidates, most often Tea Party upstarts. I object. Partly to correct the historical record, partly to defend Christine, partly to stymie a lingering and erroneous bit of conventional wisdom on the right, but mostly to tell Karl Rove that he can go sit on a volcano, I offer a sadly rare defense of Christine O’Donnell.
First of all, if you like Rand Paul and Marco Rubio and the scores of other conservatives who won competitive races in the 2010 tea party wave, you should thank your lucky stars for Christine O’Donnell. Whatever you think of the candidate herself, she took an unseemly barrage of media arrows that would have otherwise landed on other candidates.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
O’Donnell and Angle were good conservatives, but the Committee turned its back on them and refused to back them in the General Election. We really don’t know how they would have done if the Pragmatics hadn’t screwed them. Maybe still lost, maybe would have won, the GOP never engaged the battles. But there is no denying they were left twisting in the wind by the Roves and Krauthammers.
Today we have Rove doubling down by purging the conservatives. There is a major refusal to learn the right lessons, and we’ll have Speaker Pelosi to deal with inside of two years because of it. I used to fear it, but now I’m sure of it. We have a golden opportunity in the Senate in ‘14, and it’s being blown as we speak. There will be vicious Romney-like attacks on the Tea Partiers in the Primaries, and kid-gloves with the Dems in the Generals Elections. (The strategy that served McCain and Romney so well in the past.)
I swear to God, the GOP, having had to lead Congress and the Senate the decade previous to 2006, simply *does not want to win* in 2014. This is being deliberately thrown to the Dems.
Completely correct.
I recall driving around Christiana Mall and seeing the O’Donnell signs defaced with black witch hats.
I recall what the DEGOP did. Eff them.
That is precisely what I thought at the time.
She could really have had fun with that and eviscerated Coons at the same time.
Tell them the question is so stupid, it's insulting, and the asker should be ashamed. IOW, the proper answer Bill Clinton should have given when asked if he wore boxers or briefs. She did herself great damage with that ad declaring she is not a witch, and I wished at the time she hadn't done it. But there were no other ads because the national committee wasn't making any buys on her behalf.
Once she won the primary, Christine O’Donnell deserved the complete support of the GOP establishment. If the elites in a party, the party’s so-called leaders, feel free to withhold support from the party’s nominee in an election, then what right do they have to demand that ordinary party supporters support the liberal presidential candidates that they help to nominate?
With their support of Illegal Alien Amnesty....Rubio and Paul are actual
Tea Party “mistakes”....not O’Donnell nor Sharron Angle. And Paul...note that Rand got alot of support from the Ron Paul - Alex Jones types.
Only PhonyCon Liberals still whine about ODonnell
There is some confusion about a formal endorsement, but there was no support from Lugar.
Wed, Oct 17, 2012
“”INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Retiring Republican Sen. Richard Lugar is disputing a conservative mailer in Indiana that claims he supports Republican Richard Mourdock and reiterating he will not campaign for the tea-party backed opponent who unseated him in May.
Lugar spokesman Andy Fisher said Wednesday the piece was “clearly unauthorized” and comes from a group that spent $100,000 against Lugar in the primary. Conservative lawyer Jim Bopp’s super PAC sent the mailer to Hoosier voters this week.
Mourdock has continued to try and win Lugar’s mantle in the general election — claiming in Monday’s debate that he had been endorsed by the senator — but Lugar has kept him at arms-length throughout the campaign. Mourdock said Wednesday he’s not responsible for messages sent by outside group’s like Bopp’s.””
I suppose that the “losing is good” argument makes sense if it’s the only argument that you’ve got. I prefer a “winning is better” argument myself.
You’ve got a liberal with a “D” or a liberal with a “R.”
The politicians are playing “Heads I win, Tails you lose.” Are you one of the suckers lined up, rent money in hand, hoping to make your fortune? Either way, with these two parties, we lose every time.
If the Republicans become the Chicago Cubs (they seem to already be) of politics, then the country is doomed.
For the last two decades, we’ve been putting forward squishy, lefty, moderates.
You’re right, we need to stop “swinging away” and run some conservatives. What the hell, GOP hasn’t done it in a long time and it seems to have worked the last time it was tried.
What is mystifying about O’Donnell’s loss as a novice candidate for Senator Biden’s seat becoming the media and GOPe’s ultimate national embarrassment of politics, is that Senator Santorum lost by a LARGER margin, and he was the incumbent!
Santorum made history in his rejection by his constituents, and Romney was forced to drop plans for reelection and left office with 34% approval, yet O’Donnell who has never held office, has been morphed into the symbol of political losers by Rove and the media.
As I understand it, the show was supposed to be funny. The discussion was what you would expect to be taken “tongue in cheek.”
Recently, on FOX’s “The Five,” they were talking about smoking. Beckel said he smoked cigars, another member smoked cigarettes and someone said that Dana Perino smoked Crack Cocaine. She laughed and said “yes, I’m a crack head.”
The “Witch” issue was the same as the crack cocaine segment. Unfortunately, our own party turns on it’s own.
Lugar “supported” Mourdock, but did not campaign for him...
http://www.humanevents.com/2012/09/23/indianas-lugar-backs-tea-party-mourdock-in-senate-run/
She was a bad candidate and lost badly.
You are right, of course.
I am among the group that blames the media and I think the idea of taking the battle to that (those) front(s) is very important.
But we do also have to continue to unseat RINOs where ever and when ever possible.
Now there’s a plan. Instead of putting forward candidates who cannot win, let’s form an entire party that cannot win.
Tell me again about the stunning victories of John McCain and Mitt Romney.
I’m so glad someone has defended Christine O’Donnell. Very good analysis.
You have assumed that since I am criticizing losing conservative candidates within the Republican Party, that I must have supported losing leftie candidates within the Republican Party. You are not paying attention, I don't like losing candidates, period. It bring us to the state of affairs we face now. I did vote for McCain and Romney simply because I do not vote for either Democrats or third party wackos, but I certainly did not support them and their political philosophies.
I think that a major contributing factor to the Republican loss record is that a faction of the conservative movement has decided that they will only support a "true conservative" candidate, probability of election be damned. This has given us some very bad candidates, especially at the state and national level where you have to appeal to a broader electoral base.
I think it is the opposite, the conservatives gave republicans a history making sweep in 2010 and in 2012 the establishment candidates took a bath in Senate races and the top of the ticket, losing about 10 or 12 Senate races and losing the presidency to jimmy Carter.
The only strength of the left wing of the GOP is to instantly change the conversation to the fact that the conservative wing is not infallible, concealing the massive incompetence of the rinos.
Akin wasn't the tea party candidate, but Cruz was.
How many establishment Senate candidates lost in 2012, does anyone know, or have the rinos managed to hide that? Do you know?
Oh, I certainly know, but the question is not quite so straight forward. The Tea Party endorsed candidates who are clearly "establishment" Reuplicans, and more importantly, establishment Republicans lost races where a Tea Party candidate would have not stood a chance. But, let's look at the record.
Jeff Flake won in Arizona. Tea Party or establishment? Only the shadow knows.
Richard Mourdock lost in Indiana. Not establishment
Charles Summers lost in Maine. Establishment guy, Tea Party supported
Scott Brown lost in Massachusetts. Care to guess how a conservative wing guy would do?
Todd Akin lost in Missouri. He was the McCaskill conservative candidate and we all know how that worked out.
Denny Rehberg lost in Montana. Establishment guy. Got anyone in mind who could have beaten Tester?
Heather Wilson lost in New Mexico. This RINO is way too conservative for NM
Josh Mandel lost in Ohio. Just a bad candidate period, not establishment
Tom Smith lost in Pennsylvania. Tea Party guy who is a former Democrat.
George Allen lost in Virginia. Establishment. Think someone else could have done better?
John Raese lost in West Virginia. Establishment guy. Manchin won by 60%, next question
Tommy Thompson lost in Wisconsin. establishment guy who couldn't beat Tammy Baldwin.
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