GOP moderation hobbles Portman's Ohio run (Palin endorsement)

Despite a favorable electoral climate for Republicans and former Rep. Rob Portman's huge funding advantage over his Democratic opponent in the contest for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat, polls show the race in a dead heat.

Conservatives and "tea party" activists say Mr. Portman's record as a moderate Republican has failed to fire up not only core GOP voters but also what may prove just as important to victory - the "tea party" movement. Complicating the picture is the failure of that movement to meet expectations in some of the May 4 Ohio GOP primary elections.

Mr. Portman's resume, though extensive, has elements that raise red flags for conservatives - his service in the White House of President George H.W. Bush, who raised taxes and enlarged government; his election to six terms in the U.S. House, where he voted for the kind of spending that tea party supporters oppose; and his service as U.S. trade representative and then budget director in the big-spending George W. Bush administration.

"The tea party sees Portman as the establishment's guy, so the GOP establishment now is saying, 'Don't dismiss him just because he's a party guy,' " Ralph King, a coordinator for the Ohio Tea Party Patriots, told The Washington Times. "But that's asking us to look past his record - giving money to the United Nations and opposing [Colorado Republican] Tom Tancredo's try for a border measure in Congress."

The “tea party” is not a tea party in the formal sense and it is made up of Republicans, Democrats and Independents....

I know that. That's why I said "TEA Parties. But don't think the Republicans automatically deserve their support, because that just isn't going to happen.

we are not a third party nation, every election with third party candidates has pretty much favored the dems, certainly not conservatism..

No. Every election where Republicans can be accused of not holding the Conservative line favors the dems - be it by the advent of a third party (due to Republican excesses), or because of the "my turn" mentality of leadership good ol' boys. When liberals can run to the right of the so-called "conservative" candidate, the supposed"conservative" loses. and that is now exponentially increased.

The Republican party is just a vehicle for Conservative principles. If the vehicle is no loner operable, don't be surprised at the fact that another vehicle will be sought.

And it IS about Conservatism. The Republican "UP the middle" crap has brought the current condition. Conservatives far outweigh any other faction.

the tea party has a roll to play in primaries[...]

No. The TEA parties are the point. They are the grassroots vehicle which has been organically chosen to represent true Conservatism - and it is *no* surprise that they look an awful lot like Reagan Conservatism, to INCLUDE civil-libertarianism, and every_other conservative faction.

but we are talking general election here and a Republican vs a liberal democrat... I’ll go with the Republican every time.

There's your problem, right there. Statistically, 60% of this country claims conservatism, while only 22% are now Republican faithful. Roughly to 60% of political Conservatives now stand OUTSIDE of the Republican party. Those numbers are truly stunning, and should be instructive.

Preach Conservatism. Preach sovereignty. Preach law & order. But don't preach to me about how Republicans are better than Democrats. They aren't. They are just the other leg of the same globalist machine.

Running unopposed in the GOP primary, Mr. Portman reported raising $2.35 million during the first three months of this year, with $7.7 million in cash on hand. He said more than 5,600 individuals gave to the campaign in the first quarter of 2010, for a reported total 13,000 individual contributors, more than 80 percent of whom are Ohioans.

Ohio's tea party movement has shown some strength, winning 20 of the 51 contested seats on the state GOP central committee in the May 4 vote. But in two GOP primary contests for statewide offices, the tea party candidates garnered only about a third of the vote.

Well, Portman is running unopposed. Had the Tea Party been capable of fielding a strong candidate, I'm sure he/she would've been running by now. However, Portman is getting more Ohioans to contribute to his campaign than to his Democrat opponent, which lets me to believe more people will be voting for him than for the Dem in the general election.

I have the feeling that the media is doing its very best to depress the conservative/Republican electorate this November. They know the Democrats are going to get spanked big time.

“The most mindless of the Palinistas automatically accuse anyone who hasn’t joined their cult of being a Ron Paul supporter.”

Well, I don’t think it is a cult, and there are obviously a lot of Paul trolls on here lately.

But, yeah your right and I’m turning a new leaf, I’m not going to accuse somebody unless I know for certain.

On that, you have a good point.

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