Posted on 11/23/2012 1:08:09 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
DES MOINES, Iowa - In the days since Republicans lost an election many in the party thought was theirs, chatter has been bubbling about what the GOP should do to recover.
For Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, it starts with the smallest of actions: abandoning the state's now-infamous straw poll.
Once a festive checkpoint on the road to the leadoff Iowa caucuses, the poll has devolved into a full-blown sideshow, Branstad and other critics contend. They say it's an unfair and false test that has felled good candidates and kept others from competing in the state.
"It's just something that's gotten totally out of control," said veteran GOP presidential campaign consultant Charlie Black. "It's been bad for years, but no one has had the guts to say it until now."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
From the Iowa Republican:
“The Ames Straw Poll has always faced a long list of detractors from outside the state of Iowa. More recently, political operatives and pundits within the state say the event needs a retooling, primarily to help preserve the Iowa Caucus. Governor Terry Branstad is more blunt. He believes the Ames Straw Poll should be discontinued altogether.
“I think the straw poll has outlived its usefulness,” Branstad told the Wall Street Journal. “It has been a great fundraiser for the party but I think its days are over.”
His remarks drew a swift rebuke from Republican Party of Iowa Chairman A.J. Spiker, who the Journal described as being “peeved” over Branstad’s comments.
“Governor Branstad is wrong, and this is not a decision he will make anyway,” Spiker said. “It is a decision the party and the candidates will make.”
Actually, it ‘s probably not a decision Spiker will make either. He would have to be reelected twice as RPI chairman to be involved in the decision-making process in 2015, when the next Ames Straw Poll would be held.
“Frankly, now our time is better spent redesigning our organization, recruiting and training candidates and raising money for 2014, which is the actual responsibility of the current State Central Committee, rather than waste a lot of time pontificating over what a future SCC or chairman may or may not decide to do with an event that, if held, won’t happen for another three years,” SCC member Wes Enos told TheIowaRepublican.
Enos was also a staffer for Michele Bachmann, who won the 2011 Straw Poll. That victory was the highlight of Bachmann’s campaign. She quickly sunk back into single digits in the polls, finished sixth in the Iowa Caucus and ended her campaign the next day. Bachmann’s quick fade is part of the reason Branstad believes the quadrennial festival will end.
“You saw what happened the last time,” Branstad said. “I don’t think candidates will spend the time or money to participate in a straw poll if they don’t see any real benefit coming out of it.”.....................................
http://theiowarepublican.com/2012/branstad-calls-for-end-to-ames-straw-poll-spiker-disagrees/
This is interesting nuts and bolts stuff. It has people of various stripes in Iowa - who had supported various candidates in the last two elections or occupy various positions within the state - attacking one another over the straw poll’s future.
The larger picture is more important, though. The fact is that across the board there is simmering-to-boiling dissatisfaction with the process, which is to say, roiling from having lost to Obama and having lost several senate races that should have been won.
As flawed as the process is, IF the GOP had WON the White House and done even fairly well in senate races, you wouldn’t be seeing this roiling.
This is what election losers do.
But when you actually read the whole article you see where issues are behind some of the sour grapes and struggles. Sure Bachmann won the straw poll only to crash and burn and Paul won second though never having a chance to be nominated. But look at what a Romney operative said about Romney and the Iowa caucuses - forget the straw poll which Romney passed on. That Romney had to be tough as nails against illegal immigration to be competitive in early Iowa because of that state’s GOP politics, only to have it hurt him in the general election.
Like the straw poll controversy, the caucus sour grapes and this time on an actual issue, are all because the GOP lost. Winners don’t do this, even when they have valid complaints.
The Democrats have become a monolithic machine. They really don’t care that they are a party of Leftist extremists who manage to be that while cloaking that just enough to fool enough people into hating/fearing Republicans. That’s just fine with them. They have no qualms, no concience, no serious public disagreements. The LSM is fully on board to help them fool the public.
Meanwhile you have conservatives saying they will never vote Republican again because of their dissatisfaction with everything, especially Boehner and his House Machine, not just the candidacy of Mitt Romney.
Just as the steamroller Democrats gear up for four more years of destroying America, their opposition is fracturing and scattering.
Somebody, please find me a silver lining in this dark cloud...
In the last couple of days I've been listening to the LSM resigned to the FACT that Obama will raise taxes on the people he said he wouldn't during the campaign (no surprise really to ANYONE) -- MSM reporting that since Obama WON he is free to do whatever he wants.
JUAN WILLIAMS looked into the camera (without flinching) and admitted that Obama's policies will hurt a lot of people. Thanks Juan, that isn't the tune you were singing leading up to the election. You -- as a long time liberal -- knew (and parroted) the economic lies coming from the Democratic party to fool the voters and smear the GOP candidates.
The GOP cannibalism must stop. Tea Party conservatives must unite -- keep building strength in local and state elections. Keep showing up at town hall meetings!
Support the growing number of state legislatures fighting Obama Care!
Vote!!
Iowa needs to be dropped altogether as the first primary state.
It’s not a Republican state and their caucuses suck, big time.
Too much time and money is spent in Iowa catering to locals, only to have those preachers decide on the winning candidate.
There is far and away too much time devoted to the GOP presidential primary.
There are too many “debates” set up by the RNC (for DNC operatives to exploit)!!
“...Romney had to be tough as nails against illegal immigration to be competitive in early Iowa because of that state’s GOP politics, only to have it hurt him in the general election.”
The vast majority of Republicans will not support a candidate who rewards illegal activity.
If rewarding scofflaws is the future of the Republican Party, screw ‘em.
The scofflaws [the majority voting in 2012 - legal parasites feeding off a conservative host] just got 4 more years.
They're "rewarding" themselves.
What's next?
Fighting each other isn't a winning strategy.
Here’s a thought... Why don’t we make all Republican primaries CLOSED primaries?
It's time to disengage from the whole Presidential Primary process, a dubious entanglement of a private institution's expenses and private interests with the machinery of the States. It's a broken, perhaps even illegal method for choosing delegates and, ultimately, the presidential nominee.
It's tack and blinders the Party elites use to control the Base.
A Voting Rights federal case could be made that several distinctive groups of Republicans are having their voting rights "submerged" solely based on where they live.
BTW That's illegal, and it's a part of the Voting Rights Act that won't get tossed should Section V ultimately (and rightly) be declared unconstitutional.
Liberals and Democrats in New England and in other areas with early, so-called. "open primaries" have (much) more say in who ultimately wins the nomination than Republicans in North Carolina, for example.
The latter and other states, including California if I'm not mistaken, have primaries on dates selected by party mugwumps, for all kinds of ancillary reasons unrelated to selecting a winning ticket, fundraising, national party publicity interests, etc.
Regardless, the nomination battle ends before these latter primaries take place. Republicans in North Carolina have had ZERO say in who wins the presidential nominations for decades, and perhaps longer.
Want people to show up at precinct meetings? I'd take the "smoke-filled rooms" over this present crap system (mostly a product of Democrat "reforms" following 1968 and 1972) any day, and would gladly lose the media circus.
Why should the taxpayers pay for party plebiscites?
The Presidential Primary tournament needs to be scrapped.
Whaa..?! And screw up the GOPeee's annointment process??!!
The primaries ought to be held in the order of percentage of Republican votes cast in the previous presidential election. States that have the highest percent of their voters voting GOP get to go first. That certainly would not be Iowa and NH. Why should Democrat states and voters choose the Republican nominee? The present system is obviously a failure.
Primaries should be held on the same day.
And drop NH as the second while we’re at it for similar reasons.
Many of those commenting seem unfamiliar with the Ames Straw Poll.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_Straw_Poll
The LSM will continue in lockstep with the Democrats just as soon as the Dems blame the GOP for everything that will go wrong, going forward. Right now they can afford to let a thing or two slip out to the contrary.
Rush predicts that Obama will let the Bush tax rates expire and everyone’s taxes will go up. Then he says Obama will ask for legislation that will roll back those increases for everyone except “the rich”. Putting the House in the crosshairs. While people are screaming for relief from the taxes coming out of their pay, the House will be made to look like they are punishing everyone in order to protect “the rich” from their tax hikes.
At that time, or anything approaching that situation, the LSM won’t have a bad word to say about Obama and the Dems. It will be all bad GOP, all the time, until the GOP gives up.
Bad stuff is coming.
Our side will not do what we want them to do, which would be to refuse to raise the debt ceiling and refuse to fund Obamacare as well as refuse all tax increases.
If our answer is to splinter and scatter in all directions to third parties or to sit home and pout, that is the wrong answer.
We need a holding action. That was GOING to be Mitt Romney and some more senators. Now that hope is lost.
The holding action now should be, get involved as a conservative, do not splinter and run away, push your states to nullify Obamacare, continue to contact your congresscritters to do the right things, and VOTE every time.
The other thing is to attack VOTE FRAUD.
I don’t trust our elections any more in the key states.
“The scofflaws [the majority voting in 2012 - legal parasites feeding off a conservative host] just got 4 more years...They’re “rewarding” themselves.”
Ah, come on! We fight the enemy and not each other. Giving up and caving in to the communists is no way to stay free.
Individual states have more power to deal with illegals than is said publicly.
The problem in all states is entrenched business interests who exploit cheap illegal workers and contribute political donations to compliant politicians. These people are Republicans.
Democrats just want illegal aliens because they will vote Democrat in exchange for free shit.
So what are the solutions?
Arrest those who hire illegal aliens AND stop state welfare to illegal aliens.
No jobs + no welfare = return trip home.
Yep, it’s a beautiful thing and quite simple.
Iowa “Governer” “Terry” Branstad would plant his lips on ANY BIG Business’ ASS and start SUCKING. He is the very Definition of an “Establishment” “Republican” and GOP-e. He is the “wonder-boy” who “gave(inflicted)” a State Lottery AND Casino Gambling(again “for the children” and “for schools”) on this state. The “Republican” “Party” in Iowa is 110% RINO and Controlled by GOP-e.
I like that idea !
LLS
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