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FRUM: How tea party could drive GOP to disaster
CNN ^ | October 31, 2011 | David Frum

Posted on 11/03/2011 11:31:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

A new CNN poll finds that about half of Republicans sympathize with the tea party movement. The other half either remain aloof or (5%) even express hostility.

That second group of Republicans has received remarkably little media attention this cycle. Yet their man -- Mitt Romney -- has held steady in first or second place for the past three years. Meanwhile tea party Republicans have bounced from Sarah Palin to Donald Trump to Michele Bachmann to Rick Perry to (now) Herman Cain, transfixing the media every time they lose faith in one messiah and search for another.

Yet sooner or later, the tea party Republicans must converge on a single choice. When they do, they will present the non-tea party Republicans with a troubling menu of possibilities.

Possibility 1: Romney is nominated, Romney is elected.

From the point of view of non-tea party Republicans, this is the ideal outcome of the 2012 election. Yet it is also an outcome that looks worryingly out of reach. As we enter the final 12 months of the election countdown, Romney still cannot rise above 30% support in his own party. Worse, while it's easy to imagine (say) Herman Cain's voters shifting to Rick Perry or vice versa, it is very hard to imagine where Mitt Romney will find the additional Republican votes he needs.

Possibility 2: Romney is nominated, Romney loses.

For non-tea party Republicans, this second outcome opens all kinds of ugly, ominous possibilities. If candidate Romney loses, tea party Republicans will claim that the GOP lost because it failed to nominate a "true conservative." That claim may fly in the face of political math (how would a more extreme candidate win more votes?), but it will pack a lot of emotional punch....

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


TOPICS: Campaign News; Issues; Parties
KEYWORDS: backstabberfrum; cain; democratfrum; frum; frum4backstabber; frum4dnc; obama; palin; perry; rinos; romney; teaparty
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I don't know who I hate worse, the Leftists or people like Frum, Schmidt and that crew.
1 posted on 11/03/2011 11:31:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Direct from the country club newsletter.


2 posted on 11/03/2011 11:33:20 PM PDT by Darkwolf377 (Obama: The stupid person`s idea of a smart person.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Sorry but Mitt is not even a contender. It really is, anybody but him.


3 posted on 11/03/2011 11:34:12 PM PDT by babygene (Figures don't lie, but liars can figure...)
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To: babygene

Frum is a tool. Take that from a Perry guy. He’s a tool of the establishment and rarely writes anything interesting.


4 posted on 11/03/2011 11:36:13 PM PDT by bullypulpit (Developer of http://rickperryreport.com/)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A CNN “poll” interviewing “republicans” again. (They all “served as a SEAL sniper in Iraq, voted for Bush twice, listen to Rush everyday...” Doo Dah, Doo Dah). LOL!!! You know the type.


5 posted on 11/03/2011 11:36:27 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Stop Government Greed Now!!!!)
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To: FlingWingFlyer
They all “served as a SEAL sniper in Iraq, voted for Bush twice, listen to Rush everyday...”

"...but even *I* want COMMON-SENSE HEALTHCARE REFORM, and sensible, TARGETTED tax-cuts for WORKING FAMILIES, and we need to make THE 1% PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE..."

6 posted on 11/03/2011 11:39:07 PM PDT by Darkwolf377 (Obama: The stupid person`s idea of a smart person.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If the Republicans nominate Romney despite all the evidence that he is about as likable as herpes, they deserve to lose.


7 posted on 11/03/2011 11:40:02 PM PDT by Ronin (If we were serious about using the death penalty as a deterrent, we would bring back public hangings)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Who are these non-Tea-Party Repubics?


8 posted on 11/03/2011 11:41:19 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: cynwoody
Who are these non-Tea-Party Repubics?

The ones presenting we tea party Republicans with a troubling menu of possibilities.

9 posted on 11/03/2011 11:48:39 PM PDT by kevao
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

good post... thanks chief


10 posted on 11/03/2011 11:52:35 PM PDT by Java4Jay
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

why a more extreme candidate win? Because without the more principal person, who frum called extreme, the conservative will not vote for him


11 posted on 11/04/2011 12:25:12 AM PDT by 4rcane
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
So, what Frum is saying in a nutshell is:

Option 1: Romney gets nominated, and Romney gets elected (which he considers the best option - belch)

Option 2: Romney gets nominated, and Romney loses (which, according to Frum, would lead to an 'ultra-conservative' candidate after the losses of McCain and Romney - I guess his views of 'ultra-conservative' is different, and that he also doesn't realize that RINOs like McCain and Romney are like day-old porridge to voters)

Option 3: A Tea Party Republican is nominated and loses. (According to Frum this is the worst waste. However, he feels it may be worth it because it will break the Tea Party's obsessions with 'fringe characters like Sarah Palin and Herman Cain.' He then goes ahead to insinuate that Tea Party folk are fools with a certain Benjamin Franklin quote - "Experience is a hard teacher, but fools will have no other.")

Option 4: A Tea Party Republican is nominated and wins. (He claims that this is very unlikely, but if it were to happen it would only occur if the economy remained weak, and if Tea Party folk select Rick Perry and not an 'utterly unelectable' person like Cain. He feels Perry would be weaker than Romney, but that among the Tea Party candidates he is the best)

So basically what Frum is saying is that Republicans and Conservatives (there is a difference between the two), or as he says 'non Tea Party Republicans and Tea Party Republicans' should vote for Romney otherwise it is a lost election, and if it is not Romney then it should be Rick Perry. There you have it. Frum's playbook.

12 posted on 11/04/2011 12:48:46 AM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A win for Romney would be a disaster for the GOP, it would signal that the GOP has merged with the democrat party.


13 posted on 11/04/2011 1:21:07 AM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not a Matter of Opinion)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If there is a single person whose opinion I care less about than David Frum, I can’t imagine who it would be.

Maybe Keith Olbermann or Debbie Wasserman Schultz?


14 posted on 11/04/2011 1:43:47 AM PDT by John Valentine
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

David Frum - another Trotskyite communist RINO.


15 posted on 11/04/2011 1:55:34 AM PDT by meadsjn
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Actually in a way he is right....The Tea Party could be the end of this years election hope for the GOP if Romney ends up being the candidate.

If that happens then there will be a strong enough 3rd conservative party run and if he is pro-life then it will pull enough votes away from the republicans that they lose.

This thing is really for the republicans to lose and it will only take putting a rino up as a front runner with their base sick of them. GOP wants to keep a strong party and win then for once they should get their collective heads out of the sand and actually look at their voters...give them someone strongly conservative and watch their base explode in excitement like they did for Palin....it was not McCain people went to see or vote for last election...it was the conservative.

16 posted on 11/04/2011 2:41:06 AM PDT by Lady Heron
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I guess we already knew Frum was in the fringe 5% of “Republicans”.


17 posted on 11/04/2011 2:43:18 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frum

Frum

“Frum” can be used in a negative sense for: “hypocritically pious”, “holier-than-thou”, “sanctimonious”; or in a positive sense for: “pious”, “devout”, “God-fearing” and “upright”. A combination is sometimes used to describe someone as “frum and ehrlich”, which captures all the positive attributes of these words and would roughly mean “upright” or “righteous” (tzadik).


18 posted on 11/04/2011 2:44:54 AM PDT by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

It won’t be a signal the stupid party has merged with the evil party....they are different sides of the same coin

A mittens win is simply politics as usual


19 posted on 11/04/2011 3:32:51 AM PDT by Popman (Obama is God's curse upon the land....)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The GOP drove past disaster long ago...while flicking a cigarette out the window and hitting the gas.


20 posted on 11/04/2011 3:35:54 AM PDT by PBRSTREETGANG
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