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Are big three senate races slipping from Dems?
Politico ^ | October 3, 2014 | James Hohmann

Posted on 10/03/2014 10:03:58 AM PDT by right-wing agnostic

It’s been the most remarkably enduring story line of Election 2014: three Democratic senators defying their states’ deep red complexion and their president’s abysmal approval ratings to stay competitive in races that should have, on paper, been lost long ago. The question all along has been, Could it possibly last? Now, a month out from the election, Republicans are seeing subtle but perceptible signs that contests in Alaska, Arkansas and Louisiana — all three pivotal in the battle for the Senate — are finally breaking their way.

In Alaska, the conservative base has rallied behind Republican Dan Sullivan after a contentious August primary, and Democratic Sen. Mark Begich was stung by backlash over an attack ad he later decided to pull. In Louisiana, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu has been hammered over revelations that she improperly charged taxpayers for charter flights. And in Arkansas, Republican Rep. Tom Cotton — who’s been knocked as robotic on the stump, especially compared to his backslapping opponent, incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor — has improved noticeably in that department.

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: 2014midterms; democrats; election2014; ussenate

1 posted on 10/03/2014 10:03:58 AM PDT by right-wing agnostic
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To: right-wing agnostic; All

Louisiana and Arkansas should have never been in play for the rats...the fact they are not yet in the bag for Republicans shows how sad the GOPe is...

Hagan holding on to a lead in North Carolina is more blight on the GOPe strategy...


2 posted on 10/03/2014 10:07:48 AM PDT by God luvs America (63.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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To: God luvs America

the Dems will start their usual game of calling the weak-willed and threatening to tell their neighbors if they don’t get out to vote for the approved party.


3 posted on 10/03/2014 10:12:58 AM PDT by tgusa (gun control: deep breath, sight alignment, squeeze the trigger .......)
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To: right-wing agnostic

Republican, Democrat I can no longer see any difference. Democrats win a majority, we the people lose. Republicans win a majority, we the people lose. The only winners here is the now permanent ruling class.


4 posted on 10/03/2014 10:14:15 AM PDT by Tupelo (I am feeling more like Phillip Nolan by the day.)
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To: God luvs America

have to agree...NC had a great chance to throw the hag out but decided to let the GOPe come in and ruin things.

Thom Tillis has the worse staff/consultants/advisors money can buy.


5 posted on 10/03/2014 10:15:27 AM PDT by rrrod (at home in Medellin Colombia)
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To: right-wing agnostic

Pray to God, Yes.


6 posted on 10/03/2014 10:18:04 AM PDT by Williams
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To: right-wing agnostic

I have said since early this year that the idea of a GOP revolution is far fetched. A party simply can’t trash their base. The funnt thing is, the base will be blamed for the loss and trashed even more. I pedict it’ll be even worse than the Rats holding the senate.


7 posted on 10/03/2014 10:18:16 AM PDT by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: right-wing agnostic

While I agree that recent trends are positive it’s too early to be saying these races are ‘slipping away’. Let me remind folks that Richard Mourdock was only a few weeks away from winning his Indiana race in 2012 when one slipup in a debate cost him the election. Nothing is over until the votes are counted and all the GOP candidates have to believe that the press is waiting for any excuse to pounce.


8 posted on 10/03/2014 10:18:29 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: right-wing agnostic
There is absolutely no reason why Hagan should hold on to lead in NC if the Republicans would use the vastly unpopular Obamacare realities being reported today, and then remind voters of the oft-repeated lies used by Hagan and Obama to promote that government takeover masked as "health care."

Conservative citizens in NC must not allow this almost 100% (96%) committed Obama loyalist, Kay Hagan, to return to Washington to assist him in completely perverting and weakening the U. S. Constitution's limits on government power during his final 2 years of opportunity to do that.

No citizen who loves America would look the other way and take the chance on such an approaching possibility. Ideological purity makes no such demands on citizenship.

9 posted on 10/03/2014 10:21:42 AM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: Tupelo
Agree. Tyranny is here, and the 2014 mid-terms cannot remove it.
10 posted on 10/03/2014 10:30:04 AM PDT by Jacquerie (Article V. If not now, when?)
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To: demshateGod
The funny thing is, the base will be blamed for the loss and trashed even more.

Only if the base turns chicken and shuts up, instead of continuing its spirited opposition and countering that assertion loudly with the TRUE argument that the reason for the Republican (and our nationa's) loss is the GOPe war on conservatives and core American values of liberty, limited government, free markets and Constitutional law.

No more voting for RINOs ever, under any circumstances. Period.

In the past I voted for McCain, and Romney nationally, and for Scott Brown in Massachusetts. But I guess it depends on your belief in how far gone this nation is, and what it will take to restore it, assuming that is even possible at this point.

Personally, I now believe that the only way to save America at this point (assuming such a thing is still possible) is to put conservatives in political offices and enact an agenda based on free markets, limited government and the rule of law. As long as we have a Republican party that actively opposes those ends (and we do, obviously), then I believe our only (slim) hope is drastic action.

As long as the Republican Party establishment believes that it can continue to survive by being Democrat-lite, and that it can continue to maintain power while actively fighting against the core principles of liberty, free markets and Constitutional law, it will never make the necessary change of direction.

Only when the Republican party understands that it must change or die can we hope to turn this country around. Our too-long-serving entrenched establishment politicians can still enjoy their comfy lifestyles, their wealth, power and prestige as members of a minority party. So why should they bother to change direction?

Surely a John Boehner (or an Eric Cantor -- had he not been defeated -- or a Mitch McConnell) would be just as happy to be minority leaders if the election cycle didn't go their way. Yes, they would prefer to be majority leaders, but what good would it do them if a conservative Republican Party won the majority and then threw them out of their cushy positions and all those perks, replacing them with real conservatives?

Ask yourself -- which do you think Mitch McConnell would prefer -- a majority Republican party in which he was stripped of his position by a conservative majority, or a minority Republican party in which he could remain Senate minority leader because the majority of Republican senators were RINOs?

You may argue that we have no time to wait for the Republicans to realize that their only choice is to change or die as a viable party. But if we don't have time for that, then what makes you think we have time to wait for the RINOs and the GOP-e to pursue a "moderately marginal" course of action designed only to maintain their personal fiefdoms at the expense of a free America operating under the rule of Constitutional law?

The GOP had majority power in the House and Senate, and occupied the White House, 10 years ago. What did all that power do to move the agenda of liberty forward? Answer: nothing.

A GOP that cannot even sell liberty, limited governments and free markets to the American people is worse than useless. It is a party of tyranny enablers, and I will have none of it.

Unbelievably, today we once again face the stark choice between liberty and death.

Once again, these are the times that try men's souls. Conservatives need to be waging aggressive war against the totalitarian leftist tyrants on all fronts -- in the branches of government at the federal and state level, in academia, in the media, through public demonstrations, and in the voting booth.

Many argue that we must continue to vote for "the most electable conservative," which means "vote for the RINO if no conservative is running." But I respectfully disagree with that choice. I am done enabling.

If we really are to lose the greatest country in the history of the world, then let's at least be fighting for it when it goes down.

And who knows, maybe -- just maybe, if we show sufficient resolve and conviction -- divine Providence will once again provide the support that gave our founders their unlikely victory in 1776, and grant us once again the "new birth of freedom" that Lincoln called for a century later.

If you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. The RINOs have managed to own the Republican party because they know that conservatives have nowhere else to go.

To continue voting for RINOs is to play right into that strategy. The RINOs have become so certain of your vote that they actually believe they can continue to stay in power by declaring outright war on the conservative base.

And when they do that, they are actually declaring war on core American principles -- war on liberty, war on free market economics, and even war on the Constitution.

The RINO Republicans cannot even make an appeal to the traditional American love of those principles, because they have lost the credibility and historical awareness to articulate them, let alone promote them.

Yes, having Harry Reid continue as majority leader is a horrific scenario. But having RINO Republicans win that office is only a marginally better short-term outcome.

And in some ways it is even worse, because as the RINOs “reach across the aisle" to promote marginally modified Democrat policies, they give the Democrats cover from the well-deserved blame for the horrific damage that they have unleashed on our country in the last five years.

America is out of time now. We cannot continue on the current path. And as things continue to deteriorate, who do you think the voters will blame if the Republicans are in power when the 2016 elections come around?

You think Mitch McConnell's senate will repeal Obamacare? You think it will take the right position on immigration? You think a Republican Senate will vote against Obama’s left wing Supreme Court nominations?

America needs clear, passionate and articulate voices to advocate and defend our founding principles, to secure our borders, to preserve our nation, and to take legislative and administrative steps to turn this country around, assuming it still can be turned around.

Majority leader Mitch McConnell will NEVER provide that voice or leadership. He is not the guy to turn things around for our formerly blessed nation.

But in 2016 a newly terrified Republican party will be forced to court instead of alienate the conservative base, and come 2017 will be in a position to put the party and our nation on the proper path. Such a duly chastised party has a real chance of nominating a Ted Cruz, instead of a Mitt Romney who, according to last night's panel on Fox News, is at this point the likely Republican presidential nominee.

So in November, for those whose only choice in the mid-terms is between a RINO and a Democrat, I urge them to stay home on election day, or vote third-party -- anything to prove the RINOs wrong in thinking that they can stay in power by literally declaring war on conservatism.

Think about it.

Even now the Republican leadership is lowering expectations about what they'll do if they take the Senate in 2014.

And then there’s John McCain saying what will happen if the Republicans win the Senate: “I will work very hard to go back to 60 votes,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who boldly predicts a Republican Senate would process Obama’s nominees “more rapidly than [Democrats] do today.”

And as for the House: John Boehner: ‘Very Few’ Republicans Will Oppose Me

So tell me again how much better off we'll be voting for the RINOs.



11 posted on 10/03/2014 10:35:43 AM PDT by Maceman
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To: right-wing agnostic

Add Iowa to the list.


12 posted on 10/03/2014 10:47:55 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: Maceman

You don’t have to vote for RINOs, but it’s more important to continue to increase the number of conservatives. RINOs will become more conservative as conservatism becomes more popular.

Allowing the left to dictate the rules by refusing to vote for “moderates”, is not, IMHO, the way to make conservatives more popular. Scott Walker in Wisconsin is how to beat the left - and many here won’t vote for him.

Losing the Supreme Court could be fatal.


13 posted on 10/03/2014 11:13:35 AM PDT by JmyBryan
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To: JmyBryan
You don’t have to vote for RINOs, but it’s more important to continue to increase the number of conservatives. RINOs will become more conservative as conservatism becomes more popular.

RINOs will only become more conservative when they and the leadership see their colleagues and preferred candidates losing elections due to angering the base. That's why the boycott of RINOs is so important. Otherwise, it's just Charlie Brown and Lucy's football cycle after cycle.

Losing the Supreme Court could be fatal.

I completely agree with that point. But I think we will lose it anyway even with a Republican Senate majority. Or perhaps you didn't read far enough into my rant to get to the part where John McCain is quoted as saying: “I will work very hard to go back to 60 votes,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who boldly predicts a Republican Senate would process Obama’s nominees “more rapidly than [Democrats] do today.”

14 posted on 10/03/2014 11:29:13 AM PDT by Maceman
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To: right-wing agnostic
GOP(e) tactics in Mississippi this year screwed the pooch worse than they will ever realize.

We conservatives have a great memory.

15 posted on 10/03/2014 11:29:17 AM PDT by catfish1957 (Everything I needed to know about Islam was written on 11 Sep 2001)
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To: Maceman

It’s very difficult to put conservatives in office, when they don’t win their primaries.


16 posted on 10/03/2014 1:20:55 PM PDT by Catsrus (A)
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To: Catsrus
It’s very difficult to put conservatives in office, when they don’t win their primaries.

Well, perhaps they would win more primaries if the RINOcrat GOPe wasn't publicly trashing them, courting Democrats to beat them, and otherwise pulling every trick in the book to defeat them.

The ONLY way to put conservatives in office is to force the GOPe to pay a heavy price in the November elections for fighting against the base. We need to DARE them to battle us, and make sure they understand they will not win without the base, and that if the Dems win the election, the fault will not be that of the conservatives but of the Uniparty RINOcrats.

The way to get more conservatives is elected is for conservatives to make it very clear that we are done supporting RINOcrats.

"Oh No! We can't do that, because we'll lose the election to the Democrats and then we'll be in trouble."

Yeah right. Tell it to George H.W. Bush,, President McCain and President Romney.

17 posted on 10/03/2014 2:08:58 PM PDT by Maceman
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To: Maceman

Scott Walker is the biggest demon of the Left, period. If you think he is not conservative...


18 posted on 10/03/2014 8:40:10 PM PDT by JmyBryan
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To: JmyBryan

I never said Scott walker wasn’t conservative.


19 posted on 10/04/2014 3:53:14 AM PDT by Maceman
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