Posted on 09/15/2010 8:24:56 AM PDT by ctpsb
By W. James Antle, III on 9.15.10 @ 6:11AM Win, lose or draw, Mike Castle was always heading into the Delaware Republican primary as a member of an endangered species. Conservative big game hunters like to call them "RINOs." The popular acronym for "Republican in Name Only" has emerged as one of the Tea Party movement's leading epithets of choice,....
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
The elites are talking about killing the RINOs as a bad strategy, while belittling the little people who are going after feel good victories.
The truth is that the real long term strategy to win is to not only have a majority in name, but to have a majority in thought.
It is worse than meaningless to have a Republican Party that is neutered with the restriction of never being able to move further to the right on policy than its most liberal members.
Make the Party mean something, and then watch what happens.
You never win if your only strategy is to cut your losses.
The "moderates" in the GOP have all crawled way out on the “She cannot win” limb. Now is the time to saw it off behind them. Do that and we destroy the RINOS credibility so baldly they will not be able to resurrect it for 2012.
Delaware is a small state. Enough money in O'Donnells coffers can do a whole lot of good there. Much more good then the millions being spent elsewhere like CA.
This is starting to look more and more like the late 1970s when Reagan's wingnuts took back the party from the Rockefeller Republicans.
Exactly past time for the “moderate” tail to quit wagging the Conservative base. If the moderates want to come along for the ride, fine. They can start doing it on our terms, not theirs for a change
Great article, thanks.
Here’s the money quote:
“Rank-and-file conservatives no longer trust the Republican establishment. They don’t trust big-spending incumbents. They don’t even trust conservative magazines, websites, and commentators who in their view run down conservative candidates.”
That includes you, Karl Rove.
RINOs are fighting to keep their power. We are fighting to keep our Country.
“Make the Party mean something” . . . Heck, I’d settle for just making the party mean.
Jim Demint for Senate Majority Leader, or even Minority Leader if the GOP falls short in the fall.
McConnell must go!
What is all the more stunning about this is that almost all the RINOs got their clocks cleaned in 2006 and 2008-—DeWine, Shays, etc. They have NO record of success for their position at all.
Two problems with your argument, first, to get ads on broadcast TV into the Northern part of the state, you're going to have to buy air time in the Philadelphia TV market, which is not cheap. Second, the party affiliation is not easily overcome in DE. The state has 621,000 registered voters. Nearly half (292,000) are Democrats. 183,000 are registered Republicans and 146,000 are Independents. In order for O’Donnell to win, Democrat turnout will have to be significantly lower than Republican turnout (aka light turnout in the Wilmington area, heavy in the rest of the state). O’Donnell will also need a 20-30% defection of Coons voters, she’ll need to win Independents by like a 2-1 margin and hold most, if not all, of the Republican vote. I’d rank her chances about the same as McMahon winning in CT and Raese winning in WV. I can see why the pundits are putting it in the leans Democrat column. Don’t get me wrong, O’Donnell can win, she just has a very challenging road ahead. She’ll need a huge Tea Party tidal wave to push her over the top, which hopefully will materialize on Nov. 2.
Two problems with your argument, first, to get ads on broadcast TV into the Northern part of the state, you're going to have to buy air time in the Philadelphia TV market, which is not cheap.
Second, the party affiliation is not easily overcome in DE. The state has 621,000 registered voters. Nearly half (292,000) are Democrats. 183,000 are registered Republicans and 146,000 are Independents.
In order for O’Donnell to win, Democrat turnout will have to be significantly lower than Republican turnout (aka light turnout in the Wilmington area, heavy in the rest of the state). O’Donnell will also need a 20-30% defection of Coons voters, she’ll need to win Independents by like a 2-1 margin and hold most, if not all, of the Republican vote.
I’d rank her chances about the same as McMahon winning in CT and Raese winning in WV. I can see why the pundits are putting it in the leans Democrat column.
Don’t get me wrong, O’Donnell can win, she just has a very challenging road ahead. She’ll need a huge Tea Party tidal wave to push her over the top, which hopefully will materialize on Nov. 2.
DeMint is deMan.
I can't speak about McMahon's chances in Connecticut although I'd like to see her do a serious takedown (pun intended).
I can see Raese winning here in West Virginia. He's running against our current governor (Joe Manchin), and has successfully tied him to Obama. West Virginians have a passionate hate for all things Obama. Joe is on the record as supporting ObamaCare. He's also on record supporting a carbon tax -- which will kill his chances in a state whose primary industry is coal.
The latest numbers I've seen are at 50% - 45% in Manchin's favor, but the more the word gets out about his unpopular positions the more the odds change. Add in a Federal Investigation into some of Manchin's state government purchasing activities and I believe he's in serious trouble.
Momentem - Raese.
With Independents so turned off on the Obama Democrats, this is a winnable race. Seen the latest polls on WV and CT? The tide is steady flowing to the GOP in both races.
Easily? No, Doable? oh very much so.
I hope Raese can pull it off. He’s going to have to almost make the argument that popular Governor Manchin is better off staying in WV while he fights against Obamacare in a state that largely despises Obama and has been trending Republican.
Whatever he’s doing seems to be working. I was shocked when Rasmussen had that poll within five given Manchin’s approval ratings.
McMahon’s gonna be an uphill battle. She’s down between six and nine points. Her one advantage is all that WWE moneys she’s made, she’s been body slamming the NYC market with ad after ad to penetrate the Western CT NYC suburbs. Her opponent (Blumenthal) probably needs to make another misstep to put this seat in play.
Hopefully, all the mudslinging dies down and the damage to O’Donnell is not catastrophic.
Coons seems like a dud of a candidate. Christine at least appears young and energetic and will get out the base, but the base that went to Castle needs to come home to her.
I’m just worried about the sheer party voter disparity in DE. It’s ugly.
>> Finally, few RINOs are as brazen as Castle or Scozzafava. They now have learned to talk like conservatives and check the right boxes on conservative litmus tests even as they expand government once in power. The George Romneys have become Mitt Romneys, the George Bushes George Ws. Will conservatives be as demanding of them? <<
Ask Senators Bob Bennett and Lisa Murkowski.
“They’re coming for us.” — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
“I can see Raese winning here in West Virginia. He’s running against our current governor (Joe Manchin), and has successfully tied him to Obama. West Virginians have a passionate hate for all things Obama. Joe is on the record as supporting ObamaCare. He’s also on record supporting a carbon tax — which will kill his chances in a state whose primary industry is coal.”
I’m _not_ a West Virginian (though I’m on the verge of retirement and sure would like to live there).
But — I predict that within 10 years, West Virginia will become the most conservative state east of the Mississippi and north of the Mason-Dixon line.
The answer is simple, but critical:
Demograhpics.
You're right.....we get more Republican with every obituary that's printed.
Thanks bigbob. It was such a great article I just let it speak for itself!
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