“Well Hunter sure lit a bunch of fires the last time he ran didn’t he. “
It’s impossible to win when the media and the GOP sideline you! McCain is finding that out right now. What goes around comes around, as they say.
Simple:
MAKE SURE ONLY REPUBLICANS vote in GOP primaries....
“It’s impossible to win when the media and the GOP sideline you!”
I agree that many factors come into play and having the MSM on your side obviously helps. However, ultimately, if a candidate catches fire the MSM covers that candidate even if it is biased coverage. Word gets out.
The skill set for winning political office at the national level includes being articulate and likable. Being right on the issues is important, but it is only part of the whole picture.
Conservative candidates who did not do well in Iowa or New Hampshire could have focused on other primaries. If their message had been compelling enough to generate excitement they could have surged. They did not.
We all have in mind a line in the sand that divides conservative from non-conservative. That line varies from person to person. However, we must draw the line in a place that will allow the inclusion of conservatives who can win and not exclude those with the skill set to do so.
Implicit in the choice between Palin and Hunter is the idea that the most conservative should be the go-to candidate. If that is in fact the point then I disagree with it.
I think the goal is to find the acceptably conservative candidate with the best chance of winning.
Otherwise, ideologically perfect candidates lose to non-conservatives and we end up where we are now.
Regardless of which favorite conservative candidate anyone here wishes had won, the fact remains they did not close the deal in the primaries. Apparently they did not close the deal with backers and contributors before the primaries began to enable them to raise the funds necessary to compete effectively either.
Blaming the media and the GOP (as if a smoke-filled room made the decision) can only go so far. The candidates who lost need to look at themselves as well.
I will say that I think there was another factor which hurt conservatives. It has been the presence in the national consciousness of W as a supposed conservative who has made some bad decisions that tainted the terms “Republican” and “conservative” in the minds of the voters. That has gone a long way toward Obama getting the advantage he currently has. But that is for another day.
In any event circumstances are as they are and candidates either figure out a way to survive despite that or their political hopes perish. It is not easy but it is that straightforward.