Posted on 11/04/2010 4:30:30 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
There is a singular event that shoved the Republican Senate car over the cliff.
That event was the primary victory of Christine O'Donnell. This morning she used a phrase that is right on the money. That description is "Republican Cannibalism."
I personally hold Karl Rove to blame, followed closely by Senator John Cornyn. Rove is an establishment Progressive Republican of the first order.
Following O'Donnell's message of values victory in Delaware, Rove started slinging mud in her direction because he realized she was a woman that couldn't be bought & sold on a D.C. street corner.
It was Rove who almost exclusively undermined an untested Republican. When challenged, he became entrenched, making it a media story.
Coming out of a surprise primary victory, everyone would obviously be questioning O’Donnell’s candidacy.
It's the "Man Bites Dog" story. Rove turned an opportunity to help create an up-and-coming political star into much less.
The bottom feeder Rove chose for his personal aggrandizement to put blood in the water. The sharks had a feeding frenzy.
The result was that yet another "Traditional Values Candidate" was beaten by her own political party, & the momentum of several other races was slowed.
It gave Reid & others the chance to further paint traditional values candidates as kooks. The Republican cannibalism resulted in the Senate leadership failure to get behind Republican nominees.
The cannibalism by a self-professed REPUBLICAN strategist, wrapped up is his own glory led to lost momentum by MIller, Fiorina (albeit her real defeat was the unfortunate infection), Buck, Angle & Rossi.
His poor choices contributed to a decay of no less than 15 percent-point in Delaware. Had Delaware been advocated by Rove, rather than diminished, today we would be looking at a three-seat Senate majority, & a Republican Governor in CA.
(Excerpt) Read more at stgnews.com ...
I personally hold Karl Rove to blame, followed closely by Senator John Cornyn. Rove is an establishment Progressive Republican of the first order.
Following O'Donnell's message of values victory in Delaware, Rove started slinging mud in her direction because he realized she was a woman that couldn't be bought & sold on a D.C. street corner.
Not me. I blame the voters.
Well, why she lost is a number of reasons, really.
So, the real question is: how do we get the best candidates? That’s not an easy question to answer. Rove would say, just nominate moderates or liberals in liberal states. But, that’s a bad idea for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that they usually don’t win anyway, even when they bring money to the table (see: Fiorina, Whitman).
Christine may have been a better candidate if the GOP didn’t fight her tooth-and-nail every step of the way. I don’t know if she would have accepted constructive criticism, but it might have been worth a try...in private. By criticism, I don’t mean “abandon all your positions.” I mean more Frank Luntz-type message control.
Of course she had a chance. Coons was a weak candidate, by design.
Rove was personally offended that the old-boy network deals had been broken up by some woman who actually believed that politics should be about principles, instead of “you run for this, and I’ll run for that this time.”
So, he (and Mike Castle) did everything in his power to ensure she would lose.
Rove is a free agent, as entitled to his opinion as you or I.
Two words: Harriet Miers.
very conservative of her not to look in the mirror and take responsibility for her shitty campaign. She got her clock cleaned
You really want to live in a World where individuals can’t think, analyze and express their opinions?
How often do Conservatives win a Senate seat in a State as blue as Delaware?
How greater the odds when the Conservative candidate has a record of saying some of the dumbest things ever heard and where not just foes but even friends can not stifle laughter at some of those idiotic comments?
Rove is surely overrated but here he was right. And blameless.
Christine may have been a better candidate if the GOP didn’t fight her tooth-and-nail every step of the way. I don’t know if she would have accepted constructive criticism, but it might have been worth a try...in private. By criticism, I don’t mean “abandon all your positions.” I mean more Frank Luntz-type message control.That's a very good point.
I guess this whole thing is so frustrating that I am having a hard time dealing with it and I'm trying hard not to think that Rove actually lost this one for us.
That thought is as frustrating as the thought that Nevada is now a blue state.
And particularly frustrating is that NO ONE on Fox News called him on his behavior, not even Hannity, who pretended to, but kept it as such a "kid glove" level that it wasn't much of a criticism at all.
Rove got away with this completely, in terms of all the other media snarks out there on the so-called "right"... with the exception of talk radio, of course. But who in the "establishment" takes talk radio seriously?
Off topic, but I don't think that's true. Rory Reid got shellacked. It's hard to defeat an incumbent, let alone the Senate Majority Leader. Angle came close, at least.
Four words: Sonia Sotomayer, Elena Kagan.
Please read my post # 8. it’s hard to win when your own don’t come out to vote. Further, the Rats poured Millions into Biden’s old seat, and Biden
and Obozo Hussein where ther almost every day! The Machine had every Dead Person and Illegal vote that day! Maybe we will be surprised and Christine will follow in Renaldo Maximus’s Footsteps as You so rightly point out!
I think the worst thing to happen to the Tea Party is the Tea Party Express.
Check out the results at the statehouse level. Dems held both state senate and state assembly in NV.
Looks pretty blue... and pretty bleak... to me.
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To go where? He doesn't old public office -- he gets paid by FNC as a political analyist, that's all. And his analysis that O'Donnell was a (far) less-than-ideal candidate to run for office in an ultra-lib state was spot on. I've been no fan of the guy ever since he told Tancredo a few years back never to "darken the doors of the WH again," but the guy knows his business.
Silly. O’Connell was a horrible capaigner who let her opponents trick her into humiliating herself. Angle was also a poor campaigner who should have been able to easily dispel silly smears, but somehow could not figure out how. On the other hand, Rand Paul and Ron Johnson proved to be very effective campaigners.
We have a new bunch of potential rising stars coming out of the Tea Party movement. Some like Paul and Johnson proved themselves in the field of battle and should be supported. Others like Angle and O’Connell proved lacking in campainging skills, so better candidates should probable be found to replace them. As simple as that.
I don’t think Rove’s comments singlehandedly cost her the election.
But he did GREAT damage. He handed the Democrats their talking points, a devastating set of soundbites, and in my extimation DELIBERATELY undermined her campaign, in attempt to maintain the illusion that he is a strategical wizard (all for personal gain).
The man is detestable to me. It disgusted me to see his fat, piglike face as Fox commentator on election night.
I know. Telling the truth is hell.
Ask Juan Williams.
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