Posted on 11/04/2009 9:55:55 PM PST by MadIsh32
Lessons from Virginia for the GOP By Ed Gillespie Thursday, November 5, 2009
After losing Virginia's governorship for the first time in eight years, some Democrats are trying to console themselves that Virginia is at its core a "red" state. This ignores not only that they won back-to-back governorships but also that Democrats defeated a sitting senator in 2006, took control of the state Senate in 2007 and won an open Republican Senate seat and three House seats in 2008 while carrying Virginia's electoral college votes for the first time since 1964.
Some in the White House are trying to deflect blame for the defeat by saying that Sen. Creigh Deeds lost because he didn't embrace the president and his policies. This ignores how much the Obama administration's support for cap-and-trade, organized labor's agenda, government-run health care and rampant spending hurt the Democratic nominee with independent voters.
And some Republicans are concluding that the Virginia governor's race was a referendum on President Obama and that we can make major gains in next year's midterms simply by running against him. This ignores the fact that while Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell benefited from voter concerns over Congress and the White House, he ran on a positive, detailed policy agenda.
There are lessons in the Virginia governor's race for both parties, but Republicans nationally would do well to take a few pages from McDonnell's playbook. Here are five:
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
He is a rock solid conservative on all issues, but focused his campaign on the issues that mattered, which made it that much easier for someone like myself to drum up support in my quite liberal area-even amongst minorities
Bob's campaign MUST be the template for 2010
Lessons from Virginia for the Washington Post:
Gillespie is an idiot. Anyone that cannot distinguish between the INVASION of illegals and the destruction they cause our communities vs. appealing to LEGAL immigrants who have played by the rules is being despicably disingenuous. Only liberals seek to lump BOTH groups together.
I have not been following this race from Iraq, but am I correct by stating that the bottom line here is for CONSERVATIVES to support CONSERVATIVES rather than “moderates”... and when this aappens CONSERVATIVES WIN ?
If this is true we need to make sure this lesson is repeated often
I have not been following this race from Iraq, but am I correct by stating that the bottom line here is for CONSERVATIVES to support CONSERVATIVES rather than “moderates”... and when this aappens CONSERVATIVES WIN ?
If this is true we need to make sure this lesson is repeated often
I have not been following this race from Iraq, but am I correct by stating that the bottom line here is for CONSERVATIVES to support CONSERVATIVES rather than “moderates”... and when this aappens CONSERVATIVES WIN ?
If this is true we need to make sure this lesson is repeated often
You GOT it!
BTTT
This is true if you’re talking about the primary but after that, there is only one goal and that is to make sure we stop every Democrat possible from being elected. A RINO is preferable to a RAT—any day.
It is time to stop thinking emotionally and think logically. This is too important to come to wrong conclusions.
I absolutely do get your point and it is well taken but the same is true of RATS. The truth is it is difficult to get rid of incumbents, regardless of who they are.
Here is the thing
People of those particular communities will FEEL as if EVERYONE is being lumped together, when you attack illegals
I understand your point completely
But this is about winning elections with a solid conservative, not making a point about illegals.
We have plenty of time to do that without pissing off potential voters who WANT to vote for us, but don’t because of loaded language
Excellent post
Once the primary is over, we must make sure that no Dem wins.
However, when we have a guy like McDonnell, we also must allow him room during the campaign to pick up votes from the center and potentially from the left, giving us 18 point wins
Moderates as we have seen over the years can be worse then the extremes. They can allow evil and often meaningless and costly legislation to become the laws of the land.
I think the lesson is that a solid conservative can effectively campaign on more centrist issues such as roads and schools when the base isn't wondering what his core values are (Romney is a classic example). If you know the candidate is a conservative at heart, you know he will approach those issues from the right and won't go all Beltway on you after the election.
Illegals is my #1 concern, I took a neutral view of the situation all the while my neighborhood turned into a border town, and it has had an extremely negative effect on my life. I take the position our party should seek to incite anger by LEGALS that they are being wantonly lumped in with criminal invaders by the Democrats (playing the race card). For those of us not living in wealthy neighborhoods that often exploit the labor of non-citizens, we are fed up to the max. When you hear news stories every day of people being raped (including children), robbed, mowed down (a drunk illegal did that at the corner of my street), and brutally murdered, it tends to make stories of how we ought to be “sensitive” as ringing as bullcrap to me.
One reason I didn’t endorse Christie in NJ is because he, as U.S. Attorney, made the statement that invaders of our country aren’t criminals. Well, it begs the question that if the U.S. Attorney didn’t know what the word “illegal” means, how does he manage to prosecute anyone ? Methinks the Governor-elect doesn’t live in a neighborhood like mine where harrassment by this scum is a daily occurance.
You clearly do not understand how to win elections
There are plenty of things I would LOVE to say during a campaign, but of course I’d win 1 percent of the vote
Fact is, Bob got an 18 percent win and TOOK Fairfax County, which has had a huge influx of immigration in the past 15 years
He did so by not screaming about illegals. Issues like that need to be dealt with, but quietly and with finesse
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