Posted on 10/15/2010 7:19:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When the election is over, prizes and trophies and hosannas will be issued left and right. But why wait? As a public service, I present an infallibly prescient scorecard of best and worst of 2010.
Most suicidal candidate.
Carl Paladino is running in a deep-blue state with sky-high taxes, yawning deficits, and rampant corruption. The last elected Democratic governor resigned in disgrace and his successor is so tainted that he dare not run for another term. So, what does Kamikaze Carl proceed to do? Get in an angry shouting match with a reporter. Level some odd insinuation about his opponent’s “prowess.” Figuring he hasn’t veered off-message enough, he then expounds on homosexuality — and spends three days having to explain and reaffirm, before the inevitable apology. He’s down by 19 points.
Innocent bystander award.
Down-ballot New York State Republicans (see above).
Luckiest guy on the planet.
Chris Coons, Delaware. He draws the short straw to run against the anointed Republican establishment candidate Mike Castle, who had never lost a statewide election in twelve tries. Good soldier gamely plays sacrificial lamb — then bingo: Castle stunningly loses the primary. Coons is now up by 18 points.
Unluckiest guy on the planet.
Beau Biden (see Delaware, above), groomed for years to inherit his father’s seat. After Castle declared, however, the young Biden decided to forgo the race, citing important unfinished business as attorney general. He must now watch Coons walk off with the family jewel.
Most important socio-demographic trend.
The rise of the conservative woman. Sarah Palin’s influence is the most obvious manifestation of the trend. But the bigger story is the coming of age of a whole generation of smart, aggressive Republican women, from the staunchly conservative Nikki Haley (now leading the South Carolina governor’s race) and the stauncher-still Sharron Angle (neck-and-neck with Harry Reid in Nevada) to the more moderate variety in California, where both Carly Fiorina (for Senate) and Meg Whitman (for governor) are within striking distance in a state highly blue and deeply green. And they are not only a force in themselves; they represent an immense constituency that establishment feminism forgot — or disdained.
Most misrepresented socio-demographic trend.
Conventional wisdom is that the election is being driven by anger and blind anti-incumbent fervor. Nonsense. Overwhelmingly, it is Democratic incumbents, not Republicans, who are under siege. This is a national revolt against the Democratic governance of the last two years. One must understand that “anger” is the explanation du jour when Republicans win big. The last wave election (1994), for example, was dubbed the Year of the Angry White Male — despite the fact that there was not a scintilla of polling evidence supporting that characterization. Of course the electorate is angry this time around. But it is not inchoate, irrational anger — a “temper tantrum” as ABC News anchor Peter Jennings called the 1994 Republican sweep — but a highly pointed, perfectly rational anger at the ideological overreach and incompetence of the governing Democrats.
Rising star.
Marco Rubio, soon-to-be senator from Florida. He has the young Obama ingredients — smart, inspirational, minority (Cuban-American), great life story — for a meteoric rise.
Fastest falling star.
Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida. Facing disaster in the Republican primary against Rubio, he becomes an independent, flip-flops on one issue after another, and is now running about 16 points behind. Just two years ago there was talk of him as a Republican vice-presidential candidate. Today he’s nowhere man.
Most shameless attack campaign (national).
President Obama suggesting that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is secretly using foreign money to fund its campaign ads. There’s not a shred of evidence that this is true. When Bob Schieffer asked David Axelrod for evidence, Axelrod responded, “Well, do you have any evidence that it’s not, Bob?” That’s like some lunatic claiming that Obama secretly says Muslim prayers at night that no one can see and no one can hear. You ask: What’s your evidence? He says: What’s yours that he is not? You say: No one’s ever seen or heard him do that. He says: Aha, that’s exactly my point.
Most shameless campaign ad (local). Category canceled. Too many entries.
Most irresistible political name.
New Hampshire Republican and senatorial primary candidate Ovide Lamontagne. Sounds like a French-Greek poet declaiming in the streets of Nashua. Tragically, he lost.
Ovide, we hardly knew ye.
– Charles Krauthammer is a nationally syndicated columnist.
Kraut hammers with a ball peen.
you can quote me on that
Wrong, Krauthammer. You Beltway types just don't get it - the fight of the Tea Party is against those who do not believe in limits on government powers, not matter what party they are in - just ask Mike Castle, Lisa Murkowski, Charlie Christ and other such former GOP officeholders.
Actually it's a revolt against Peolsi-Reid suicide pact of the last four years.
But who's counting. Otherwise, great article.
Most resistible political name:
I’m not sure this is true but I believe a fellow named Richard Whitney is running for election in Chicago. Through a “printing error” his name will be mis-spelled on some ballots. Oddly enough, these ballots are to be used in the black sections of Chicago. There, his name on the ballot will be “Rich Whitey”.
Sounds obscene, but isn’t...
krauthammer, rove, and dana perino
badmouthed o’donnell
from the get go,
lowering her chances.
I love Mr. Krauthammer.
Sheer brilliance.
And we all know that “Rich Whitey” is the reason that black people have any problems in this country.
Just ask Jeremiah Wright.
This man is a GOP-establishment hack. He’s incredibly smart, but incredibly arrogant too. And I’m tired of his whining about O’Donnell and Paladino. His whole tone smacks of “If you stupid people just would have done what I TOLD you to do...”.
It couldn't possibly be that Christine O'Donnell herself is the problem.
I mean, just because she's already run unsuccessfully for Senate twice in the last 4 years, and yet somehow remains an unknown (at best) in Delaware.... It just has to be somebody else's fault, doesn't it?
Maybe Ms. O'Donnell can ultimately serve a useful purpose, however. She's a poster-child of what can happen when a party organization doesn't expend the time and effort to recruit, train, and support qualified candidates.
Maybe the Delaware GOP (and the Colorado GOP, too, which is of more interest to me) will figure it out this time.
Most of the time, but see Post 7.
Getting lazy Charles? Have you NOT seen Alan Grayson's "Taliban Dan" ad? Sometimes the K man is just too damn smart for his own good.
More beltway BS by one of the worst offenders. The biggest losers are New York State and Delaware for listening to jacka—es like Krauthammer. More-of-the-same is not the answer, and being truthful while temporarily losing is the first step toward eventually winning.
“I’m You.”
Well, now ... he's absolutely right about Paladino. Ol' Carl ran his own self right off the rails by picking stupid fights. He had a winning set of issues, and he simply gave them away.
As for O'Donnell -- Krauthammer's take on her is that she's unelectable in Delaware (which is correct); and that by nominating her instead of Castle the Delaware GOP took itself out of the "likely win" column -- also correct. Nominating O'Donnell has national implications, as it makes it that much easier for the Democrats to maintain control of the Senate.
Krauthammer is correct: the damage is already done in both races -- they're both going to lose; and they're object lessons for the GOP organizations of NY and DE, and indeed all state GOP organizations.
The lesson is pretty simple: "Hey, guys: it's time to start getting serious about finding good candidates."
And it's a lesson for the Tea Party, too. It's all very nice to use all that energy to elect a Christine O'Donnell in the party primary ... but the party primary is not the general election.
If the real goal is to send Tea Party candidates to the capital, then it's best to come up with candidates who have a chance of actually making it there.
She was the only alternative to the rino..even if she loses the message is clear. She has served a useful purpose and the RNC will think twice before supporting these rino incumbents! Sometimes it becomes necessary to lose a battle to win the war!
“She’s a poster-child of what can happen when a party organization doesn’t expend the time and effort to recruit, train, and support qualified candidates. “
No, she’s the result of the party, picking a Rino like Castle. I’d rather vote for her and lose, then vote for Castle and win.
Krouthammer is pretty right here. I am disappointed in O’Donnell allowing her to be smeared and letting it stick early on. Angle had the same problem but she had alot more time to turn it around and is only recently pulling away.
She should of used the establishment dislike of her as a way to sell herself to a blue state. Say “Hey look, the inside the beltway folks hate me because I am for you.” The witch ad was ill advised.
Palidino was doing great until he brought up gays in an environment of “It’s the Economy Stupid”. NY is unwinable for the GOP without a little help in NYC. Why alienate voters when it wasn’t necessary?
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