Posted on 05/08/2013 7:16:34 AM PDT by cotton1706
If you’re a South Carolina Republican who doesn’t like Sen. Lindsey Graham, you’ve got a problem. Graham is popular. Really popular. His approval rating among the state’s Republicans hovers in the 60-70 percent range. Those aren’t the kinds of numbers that typically foretell successful primary challenges.
But as The National Review’s Betsy Woodruff reports, “the people that don’t like him really, really, really don’t like him. There are typically a lot of those people at the state convention.” And those people came up with a great idea: What if the South Carolina Republican Party chose its nominees at the state convention rather than in primary elections?
What makes this such a great idea is that it can be implemented by the hardcore Republican Party activists who attend the state convention with no input from the broader pool of South Carolina Republicans who vote in the primary election. And, in advance of Saturday’s South Carolina Republican Convention, a small band of Graham-haters tried to do just that.
There are two ways to view the conservatives who tried to change the rules to oust Graham. One school of thought holds that they’re what makes the Republican Party such a disciplined, fearsome force in contemporary American politics. “The most brilliant and effective tactical innovation of the American right is the use of the primary,” writes MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. (By the way, are you watching Hayes’s new 8 p.m. show on MSNBC? You should be. It’s excellent.)
But it’s also led to Republicans being out of power more — and facing larger Democratic majorities — than they would have been otherwise. And that gets to the second way of seeing the GOP’s reliance on primaries: It’s been a tactical success, but a strategic disaster.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ping!
Ezra, do you do a Sunday matinee? You're killing me here.
Really.
/johnny
Sounds like ol' Ezra is sucking up, angling for a fill-in gig for when Hayes is on vacation.
Ezra Klein again, huh? Pffft...
Hayes is just another fast talking pseudo intellectual dumbass...perfect for Ezra Klein and MSNBC.
As long as he's useful to the democrats, he will never be "outed".
It’s way past time that SC wakes up and ends the ridiculous practice of an open primary where Democrats can pick the Republican candidates. Who in the world thinks that’s sensible....except for the Washington Post, of course.
Ohhhh Scarry boys and girls. Count Floyd has a really scarry one for you to night. The 3D House of Plots to Dump Graham.
AOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! ha ha hah.
Pimping for MSNBC???? LOL, that tells you all you need to know.
If conservative darlings hadn’t beaten more electable Republicans in the 2010 and 2012 primaries, Democrats would almost certainly have lost the Senate in 2010, and they wouldn’t have increased their majority in 2012. And if the Republican primaries hadn’t forced Mitt Romney so far to the right, he would have stood a better chance in the general election.
In other words ...if the conservatives would just keep sending liberals to Washington they would be just peachy keen. Don't forget Arlen Spectre singlehandedly defeated Robert Bork!!! Ridding the party of liberals is a good thing....there will be negative aspects but the results will pay off in the long run!!! And by the way if rino Romney had got the same percent of conservative vote as even rino McCain he would be in the Whitehouse now.
There are two ways to view the conservatives who tried to change the rules to oust Graham. One school of thought holds that they’re what makes the Republican Party such a disciplined, fearsome force in contemporary American politics. “The most brilliant and effective tactical innovation of the American right is the use of the primary,” writes MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. (By the way, are you watching Hayes’s new 8 p.m. show on MSNBC? You should be. It’s excellent.)
Never mind the not-too-subtle promotion of their dead/dying news competitors on TV!
Bump. If there were a +1 feature here, you’d get it.
“The plot to oust Lindsey Graham . . . is LONG overdue.”
Amen to that!
“Plot” suggests something surreptitious. Those who want to get rid of Grahmesty are very open about the fact.
“And if the Republican primaries hadn’t forced Mitt Romney so far to the right, he would have stood a better chance in the general election.”
Klein is so delusional. Moderation does not increase votes, it depletes them. Ford, Bush Sr., Dole, McCain were as moderate as could be and all lost. And Bush Jr. barely squeaked by in ‘00 and ‘04.
And what is the missing elephant in the room so to speak?? The three landslide elections of the 80’s, Reagan’s 44 state win in 1980, his 49 state win in 1984 and Bush’s 40 state win in 1988 (essentially, Reagan’s third term). But Ezra Klein and the republican establishment that push such men as Dole and the Bushes and McCain and Romney don’t want to talk about conservative victories. They look only to Goldwater’s defeat and Nixon’s strategy to run to the right in the primaries, then back to the center/left in the general. Reagan paid absolutely no attention to that and won big!
As to the senate in 2012, exactly which were the seats the republicans lost?? Maine and Massachusetts (Indiana and Nebraska were a wash, with the more conservative Deb Fisher essentially replacing the moderate Dick Lugar), two seats held by moderate-liberal republicans. Brown won as a conservative here in MA in 2010 then lost as a moderate in 2012. And Olympia Snowe would have lost her primary if she didn’t retire.
So much for the moderates!!
Agreed! Come on SC, you can do better!
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