Posted on 09/17/2010 4:18:33 AM PDT by ejdrapes
By Charles Krauthammer Tuesday in Delaware was a bad day not only for Republicans but also for conservatives. Tea Partyer Christine O'Donnell scored a stunning victory over establishment Republican Mike Castle. Stunning but pyrrhic. The very people who have most alerted the country to the perils of President Obama's social democratic agenda may have just made it impossible for Republicans to retake the Senate and definitively stop that agenda Bill Buckley -- no Mike Castle he -- had a rule: Support the most conservative candidate who is electable. A timeless rule of sober politics, and particularly timely now. This is no ordinary time. And this is no ordinary Democratic administration. It is highly ideological and ambitious. It is determined to use whatever historical window it is granted to change the country structurally, irreversibly. It has already done so with Obamacare and has equally lofty ambitions for energy, education, immigration, taxation, industrial policy and the composition of the Supreme Court. That's what makes the eleventh-hour endorsements of O'Donnell by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sarah Palin so reckless and irresponsible. Of course Mike Castle is a liberal Republican. What do you expect from Delaware? A DeMint? Castle voted against Obamacare and the stimulus. Yes, he voted for cap-and-trade. That's batting .667. You'd rather have a Democrat who bats .000 and who might give the Democrats the 50th vote to control the Senate? Castle wasn't only electable. He was unbeatable. Why do you think Beau Biden, long groomed to inherit his father's seat, flinched from running? Because Castle, who had already won statewide races a dozen times, scared him off. Democrats had already given up on the race.The Buckley rule
Friday, September 17, 2010
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Despite the malcontents who inhabit this as with other online forums, I continue to value FreeRepublic as a source of information, less so as a source of informed opinion.
I have never been a fan of Krauthammer or any of the other Weekly Standard and New Republic types, as neoconservativism is just not my cup of tea.
It does seem have quite a number of adherents here--at least until observant FReepers discover that its political rudder is missing, or rather stuck in the port direction.
The Washington elites can only rationalize America out of its most important principles for so long until the people notice and take action. We're near the end of that process.
And the subject of this piece is stuck in the past, still using his intellect as a tool to try and convince the American people that the poisoned cup is the only one the people care to drink.
Gets to be a tough sell after enough victims fall to the ground and everyone else figures out what's in the cup.
Um, Chuck... a "nobody" just kicked his *ss! Unbeatable? Really!
This is not totally accurate. Chuck is so smart that he becomes an idiot from time to time. Nice guy, though.
Maybe he was formidable. Maybe he was a heavy favorite. But calling a guy who didn't win his own party's nomination 'unbeatable' in the eneral election is so overstated that it's absurd.
Oh, stop your sniveling. Nobody is requiring you to blindly agree with Krauthammer.
The thing about Krauthammer, though, is that writes like an adult, and he almost always provides the rationale for his opinions.
By comparison, the responses on this thread -- yours included -- are childish and emotional.
Our country needs adults who act and argue like adults. There are a lot of FReepers who just need to grow up.
r9etb: “By comparison, the responses on this thread — yours included — are childish and emotional.”
Well, I obviously don’t agree. I’m not the one who wrote the article. Krauthammer did. If anything comes across as childish and emotional, it’s Krauthammer’s call for Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint to “should go to Delaware now and get her elected to the Senate.” Why? Because THEY endorsed her.
I liken Krauthammer to the kid who takes HIS ball home the instant the neighborhood game doesn’t go how HE wants.
As for giving an opinion without providing a rationale, you should reread my posts. My first post on this thread explained that #1 I don’t agree that O’Donnell is unelectable (she did, in fact, beat the so-called more electable candidate), and #2 Even if she fails, a Republican win with a liberal like Castle has historically resulted in failure, i.e. we get a Republican majority but fail to enact the conservative agenda.
With all due respect, wake up and smell the roses. Conservatives are fed up for good cause, and we aren’t inclined to listen to the same old pundits who tell us to repeat the failures of the past. Let’s try nominating conservatives for a change and see what happens. OK?
Well, obviously you don't. But there's still that little matter of your rather unhinged reply to me, which simply proves the point.
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