Posted on 11/06/2013 7:00:47 AM PST by cotton1706
While off-year elections suffer from a surfeit of interpretation, it’s hard not to see the victories of Christie and McAuliffe as sending a similar message: Republicans must be moderate to win.
Mr. McAuliffe was a cipher of a candidate who was saved in the end by Mr. Cuccinelli’s reactionary social views. And Mr. Christie’s victory simply confirmed what we have known about Republicans in New Jersey since Clifford Case: Republicans must be moderates to win statewide. (See another governor named Christie Todd Whitman.)
But while the lessons of the 2013 gubernatorial elections may seem obvious to many, Republican zealots are unlikely to be among them. Waiting in the wings in Virginia as well as many other states are a new generation of extremely conservative activists are ready to put their ideals ahead of any loyalty to party. And, while Chris Christie may be checking leases tonight on charter flights to Iowa and New Hampshire, his plain-speaking moderation will likely sound dissonant to those who still control the party’s energy and direction for the foreseeable future. They see themselves as revolutionaries and don’t sweat losing a battle here and there. They are focused on the war.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
So we might as well nominate REAL conservatives and then do battle with people who like to fight, not milquetoast types.
This article could have been published in 1976 and mentioned the name Reagan a dozen times.
And who makes candidates “likable”? The foaming-at-the-mouth Leftist Democrat media. How convenient! They reviled Ronald Reagan, for God’s sake, as an out of the mainstream right-wing war-monger, and they kept up the drumbeat of how “dumb” he was throughout his brilliant presidency.
They are hateful, anti-American rabble who won’t change their minds until they get what they pray for, America on her knees, paying for all their Leftist wet-dreams of power.
Christie is pro-life and has vacillated on gay marriage but definitely is on record against. Why is Cuccinelli extreme when his views reflect most every Republican and (on marriage) most Democrats until 18 months ago)?
Getting painted as extreme for sharing views of 50% of the country is ridiculous and this must be challenged.
In 2012 Romney dropped the idea of asking Christie to run as his VP when vetting showed several disturbing skeletons that Christie would not explain.
If you don't the believe the democrats have that information then you also believe Obamacare is a success.
Seriously?
Yes.
They say exactly the same thing: moderates win; most conservative electable candidate etc...
They learned nothing from 2008, 2010 and 2012.
Or they know but don’t care.
Just ask anyone making this argument if President Romney agrees.
Es-spew did not write this column. McAuliffe dictated it word for word and told him what to say.
There, fixed it.
h words from the Washington Pukes is always whatever the Democrats want them to say.
When the revolution starts this paper and the New York Slimes should be it’s Fort Sumter.
Message to republicans:
**** you.
I think it was a strong showing.
5.56mm
Squishy moderate Republicans win...
...like the Cubs....
...at bingo games...
...jobs as talking heads on Fox...
...for democrats.
Boy is this hooey. Christie had no conservative challenger of note, and McAuliffe was sponsored with millions of out of state Democrat donor dollars, *as well as* millions to fund the Libertarian spoiler.
That was the most expensive 30,000 or so votes that the Democrats have bought, perhaps ever. And had the election been a week later, Cuccinelli probably would have won.
Seriously, with a few weeks out, McAuliffe had a 16 point lead, and even continuing to spend money like it was water barely managed to eke out a win.
The big lesson to both the Republican leadership and the Democrats is that they will have to commit massive resources even for small wins against real conservatives.
This does not bode well for *them* in the congressional mid-terms next year.
This wonderful piece of advice from the enemedia. Would have to be a willful idiot or Democrat (but I repeat myself) to believe it.
Let's suppose the GOP-e manufactures a Chris Christie nomination. I for one refuse to vote for any GOP-e candidate, but nonetheless, does anyone -- ANYONE -- in their right mind think that Chris Christie would attack the Clintons or any Democrat?
Oh sure, Christie will viciously crucify every Republican primary opponent during the Primary, but then, just like Dole. Just like McCain, and just like Romney, Christie will be meek as a tender kitten against Hillary, and Christie will go on to lose.
Eight days before the election in 2008 John McCain stood up and told Americans that they had nothing to fear from an Obama presidency -- eight days before the election!
Pffft....
Once again the Democrats will pick the Republican candidate, who will be easy pickings in the general election, just like McCain and Romney.
How far to the left does one have to be to think KC’s views are “reactionary”?
"Posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it." - John Adams, Letter to Abigail Adams, 1777
Republicans, you are having what may be the last chance to preserve "freedom" for future generations! Moderation in the face of arrogant, determined men and women who believe that "fundamentally changing" America from its foundations in freedom into a model based on the Old World ideas from which it separated and distinguished itself--that kind of "moderation" is just cowardice disguised.
That Virginians, living in the land of the Author of the Declaration of Independence and "father" of the Constitution, would choose a political hack tied to the unprincipled agents of such "fundamental change," is shameful and illustrative of the degree of constitutional illiteracy which "progressive" education brought about.
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