Posted on 09/16/2010 9:46:36 AM PDT by mnehring
Like many of you, I am very concerned about the rumblings of the Republican power base, specifically Karl Rove. They seem to be sending some very negative messages towards Tea-Party candidates like O'Donnell. In addition what what we've seen, I believe they are floating negative comments to see how people react.
However, I have been thinking- is there a different strategy behind this?
First, about Rove- what do we know?
1. Unlike what he is portraying with O'Donnell, Rove has never had a problem working with candidates with baggage. The financial charges against O'Donnell are minuscule compared to the accusations against Bush.
2. Rove has, in the past, supported the under-dog Conservative over the establishment Republican. A great example of this is his early on support of Rubio even when common sense hinted Crist would walk away with it.
3. Rove is very much a state-by-state strategist, always working messages to how the state trends.
Some other things we know are:
4. Delaware is a very Blue state.
5. O'Donnell has massive grass-roots support, with independents trending towards her.
6. No one can deny the wave of the tea-party candidates recently.
With those thoughts- what if Rove has a completely different strategy.
1. He knows that O'Donnell is running in a blue state, so his strategy is to help position herself as not party of the Republican establishment but as an average person- thus appealing to more than just Republican voters but also disgruntled Dems.
2. He can't deny that a LOT of the tea-party movement is against the establishment. By making her appear to be an anti-establishment with a common opponent of both Establishment Republicans and Democrats- it fires up the tea-party and average Joe base behind her. No one can deny that this opposition to her by the establishment has fired up the base- look at her donations in the past two days.
3. Rove and Rush are close friends. Before this primary, Rush was strongly pushing for O'Donnell and already working the message about her being opposed to the Republican establishment. All of these messages have worked together well.
Rove is a punk!
By the way, Castle hasn't endorsed O'Donnell.
Is Rove upset by that?
DeMint does think she can win.
No. Reid was reported as saying, "Coons is my pet."
Coons is the Democrat running against Christine O'Donnell for the Senate seat.
I believe the WV winner is seated immediately, not Delaware.
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