Posted on 09/14/2010 5:32:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
In all the noise coming out of Delaware, we shouldn't overlook the prime directive: Stop Obama and repeal the damage he's done.
I have to say, I’ve resisted weighing in on the Delaware Republican primary since resuming life in the blogosphere, both because I’ve been busy writing about other things about which I know a whole lot more, and because it’s become so divisive that it’s gone off the charts.
So the first thing I’d like to say about this particular primary is that I have no dog in the fight. Both the candidates have things in their records to recommend them, and both have things in their records that are sure to become problems for them. O’Donnell is evidently the more conservative of the two, but Castle at this point at least appears to be the more electable. Both are factors that are very much worth taking into account. Both. Seriously.
I will say, as a former state party hack though never one in Delaware, it’s more than a bit surprising to see the state GOP taking such a prominent role in trying to take out a candidate running in its own primary. That’s likely to do a whole lot more harm than good, and can damage the party’s own credibility in the long run — whether their preferred candidate wins or loses. Having been inside a state party hothouse and experienced its unique stresses first hand, I know all too well that there are things you want to do, but that ultimately you ought not do. I’d have inveighed against the DE GOP taking such a hard shot at O’Donnell if they’d asked me. To no one’s surprise, they didn’t.
Now, I’m a staunch conservative, and I’ll support the conservative over the moderate every time, all other things being equal. But on occasion I’ve supported a moderate or two for strategic reasons. I wasn’t blogging at the time but I supported Scott Brown in Massachusetts, because it was obvious that he was the best we could hope for. I supported Doug Hoffman over whatshername in NY-23 because he was a solid conservative, whatshername clearly wasn’t, and Hoffman carried no obvious baggage. Likewise Joe Miller in Alaska. In righty states, it’s worth putting more righty candidates up as nominees. But in the bluer states, the calculations change a bit. Electability is a serious factor, and even in the righty states, the candidate who casts themselves as the most solid conservative isn’t always that, and isn’t always the most electable. Most times they are, but sometimes they aren’t.
The Delaware primary strikes me as unique, in that both candidates are mixed bags. I’d take either one over the Democrat, though, because the prime directive right now is stopping Obama and repealing what he’s done, and we need to have GOP majorities in both houses to do that. Both O’Donnell and Castle are on the same side on stopping Obamacare, though Castle is off the ranch on cap n tax. That’s a big deal. But the thing is, in a Republican-led Congress, that may not matter much. Cap & tax won’t get a second look after November, if the Republicans take over the House and possibly the Senate.
So I guess what I’m saying is, folks need to chill out a bit about this race. Its outcome will not determine the direction of the soul of the Republican Party from here to eternity. Local dynamics and the candidates themselves are what’s going to determine who wins, and all the noise and vitriol coming from bloggers outside the state won’t do much to change that. They may do some lasting damage to the rightosphere, though, and it would be nice to avoid that. There are such things as pyrrhic victories.
Castle has voted for all things Obama. He has said he would not vote to repeal Obamacare, so whats the point of electing Castle. This is directed to the writer of the article.
This article is not accurate.
Mike Castle voted FOR S-Chip.
Mike Castle voted FOR Cap-and-Trade.
Mike Castle voted FOR the $700 billion TARP bill.
Mike Castle voted AGAINST the surge in Iraq.
Mike Castle voted to ban incandescent light bulbs.
Mike Castle voted to investigate George W Bush for impeachment for “lying” about Iraq.
After ObamaCare was passed into law, Mike Castle refused to support its Repeal.
This article is not accurate.
Mike Castle voted FOR S-Chip.
Mike Castle voted FOR Cap-and-Trade.
Mike Castle voted FOR the $700 billion TARP bill.
Mike Castle voted AGAINST the surge in Iraq.
Mike Castle voted to ban incandescent light bulbs.
Mike Castle voted to investigate George W Bush for impeachment for “lying” about Iraq.
After ObamaCare was passed into law, Mike Castle refused to support its Repeal.
Question 1:
Complete the following Sequence
Jim Jeffords, Arlen Specter, ...
A. Bob Smith
B. Mike Castle
C. Pat Buchanan
D. Lowell Weicker
Reagan always said never say bad things about another Republican. Well look where we ended up. He was wrong here. No I am not voting for any Collaborators. It is time for total counter revolution.
“Reagan always said never say bad things about another Republican.”
He didn’t include RINOs in that!
I only hope that if O’Donnell wins, that the GOP Party in Delaware gets 100% behind her and does everything it can to help her win in the November election. Otherwise they are total fools, and if they cause her downfall, then the GOP Establishment in Delaware deserves everything they will get by having helped to elect a Dem Senator for a six-year term. Their state will suffer, and the nation will suffer if they have a hand in O’Donnell’s defeat due to half-hearted support.
Reagan's 11th Commandment was more directed at the McCain type “Moderates” who routinely trash their own side for the Media. Reagan knew a political foe was a foe no matter what party they belonged to.
Maybe O’Donnell cannot win the general election. So be it. For those who think getting a Republican majority back in the Senate is the solution to our problems, you miss the naked reality that we had a sizable majority and it was liberal pukes like Castle, and the supposed conservatives who empowered them, who drove the Party and the nation into a ditch, handing the reins to nutjob leftists in the process.
It is not enough to have “less bad” policies or merely to improve what Obama and company have given us. We need a wholesale reversal and re-structuring, and we need it now. That will only come with a Republican Party with backbone - and Mike Castle ain’t backbone.
I’m not for Castle, but I don’t know why we should expect his supporters to do that when many of O’Donnell supporters explicitly said they will not do the same for him.
Just electing a GOP majority, if it is going to be Obama lite, is worse then leaving the GOP with a 49 seat minority so they can block as much as possible while the Dems get the blame for the failure of their policies.
Conservatives purpose must never be to only win the semi-finals. In the end, NOTHING matters more than winning in November and denying the Ds another member of their Caucus.
All there inter-cause battled are important, but when the election counting is over tonight, so are these battles.
Both candidates have flaws. We have about 14 hours to get over it.
Remember, at least 10% of the people posting on FR are “disruptors,” hidden libs trying to get us angry at each other and decrease our effectiveness. FR was exceptionally important in getting the word out and more importantly, discovering the truth about some Dem claims. We cannot let ourselves forget, or ignore, or be distracted from that role.
Reagan was right. Whoever wins tonight; get behind them and defeat the Dem
I prefer slimy democrats have a (D) after their name! We should start insisting on conservatives and be willing to lose to stand for that principle. When we convince the power mongers that liberalism is futile they will quit running these rhinos!
That odd, I am an O'Donnell supporter and I have hear no one say this.
What we have seen, in the case of RINO politicians from Crist to Specter to Murkowski is a habitual disloyalty from Liberal Republicans when the party rejects them.
For too long the Liberal wing of the GOP has wagged the Conservative base. That needs to stop.
If you want to be part of the GOP you need to be one board for much more then 50.1% of the platform, like Castle is, otherwise there is no reason for the party to waste so much time and energy electing you.
I’m from Delaware and I’m voting for O’Donnell. If she looses, I’ll write someone else in for the general election. Castle does more harm than good pinning a R to his name and taking up that senate post.
Ok, how many are tired of always hearing that the more moderate candidate is more electable?? How many years have we heard this? For every possible office, in every possible state.
And yet we see that Rand Paul (who could not possibly win a general election) is now about 15 points ahead. Rubio (who could not possibly win) will slaughter Crist and the other guy, whoever he is. I’m predicting Angle too will win big over Reid. And Buck in Colorado.
I hope O’Donnell wins today, and my bet is, within weeks, she will be well ahead of the democrat in the polls. And this November will shatter forever, the notion that “only moderates can win” in the general and that conservatives are just too divisive.
The fact is that conservatives are unafraid to go after democrats and that’s why the powers that be never want them to be nominated. They upset the apple cart.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.