Posted on 02/08/2013 12:15:48 PM PST by Moseley
Republican insiders want to force Republican voters to choose more “electable” nominees than examples like Christine O’Donnell, Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, so Karl Rove launched the American Crossroads super PAC to counteract the tea party.
Undeniably, better candidates are better and worse candidates are worse. Unfortunately, that meaningless platitude illustrates the problem. GOP elites have no idea who is going to win an election, and there are several reasons I say that.
First, the establishment wants fiscal conservatives who downplay social issues. But drunken sailors are more restrained with money than establishment Republicans, the tea party complains. The trouble with fiscal conservatives is they aren’t fiscally conservative. Insiders evade scrutiny of massive over-regulation and soaring debt by scapegoating social issues.
Second, Rove’s type of candidate really isn’t qualified, because trust is the No. 1 qualification. If I trust how a politician will vote, why do I care what he used to do? Congress is not a resume fashion show. Rove’s preferred candidates fail the most important electoral test with Republican voters.
Third, is the Republican establishment any better at identifying “electable” candidates than Republican primary voters? Marco Rubio couldn’t win, the establishment told us. “Some [Florida] insiders whisper that Rubio expects to lose,” Real Clear Politics reported in June 2009, “but is running statewide to establish himself for a future race.”
Rand Paul wasn’t electable, the Karl Roves told us. Rove wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Paul’s 2010 Kentucky race caused “squeamishness” among worried insiders. Now both Rubio and Paul are suggested as possible candidates for president in 2016. In fact, Ronald Reagan was unelectable, according to GOP elites in 1980.
What’s going on here? In 2010, O’Donnell won 40 percent of the vote for Delaware’s U.S. Senate seat. In 2012, Mitt Romney, the most establishment candidate in decades, won the exact same amount of the Delaware vote for president. Romney enjoyed a united party hungry for victory. O’Donnell fought uphill against a harshly divided party. Exit polls show that 16 percent of Republicans voted for O’Donnell’s rival, Democrat Chris Coons, helping him win the election. Yet both Romney and O’Donnell got the same percentage of Delaware’s vote.
So are we focused on the wrong things? Maybe candidates aren’t the biggest problem. Could it be that GOP insiders really stink at running campaigns? Are insiders out of touch with the voters? Insider theories don’t seem to work in real life.
In 2008, GOP moderate, war hero and Senate veteran John McCain got about the same vote in Delaware for president as O’Donnell, who had almost no money. Moderate Delaware GOP Chairman Tom Ross declared O’Donnell unelectable. But Ross lost his own 1998 race by 27.2 percent to 72.8 percent in moderate New Castle County.
The entire establishment enterprise assumes that GOP insiders actually know in advance who is electable and why. That key assumption deserves some closer scrutiny and deeper thought.
In all honesty, had I lived in Indiana I too would have voted for Richard Mourdock. I too was sick of the aging RINO Lugar and his constant brown nosing of Obama. That all said, Mourdock threw the election away with his intemperate comments and Donnelly ran as a conservative Democrat. In Missouri I remain convinced that Dems crossed over into the GOP primary to nominate the weakest GOP candidate possible. Sarah Palin backed Stedman would have easily defeated McCaskill.
“I don’t about the rest of you, but I would like to start winning elections again.” OK but we will not win ANYTHING with Backstabbing Little PRICKS like Rove, Shmidt, McCain, Rommney and the Bushes working to tear down REAL Conservatives.
The Liberal Agenda Media loves nothing more than to demonize debate on viewpoints that are different from theirs.
The maturity level of a Liberal is that of a teenager, Ben Stein calls it “Juvenile.”
Middle-of-the-road guys like me that believe that there should be NO Federal borrowing, “selling” of US Bonds, or anything else that causes the damned Federal Government to live beyond its means, are wasting our time reasoning with Liberals.
While the Liberals couch all of our reasoned discussions as “wedge” issues that will splinter the GOP, we need to continue to focus on where WE as the GOP has gone onto the wrong track.
Let us consider that the GOP is a football team. One of the Assistant Coaches is Karl Rove. Karl’s strong suit is the Buckley Rule: “Support your team mates if : 1) They are athletes that you like, and 2.) If you think they can win the next game.”
[Note: the real Buckley Rule is: “ Support the most Conservative candidate, that can win the election. In the last election the GOP followed the Buckley Rule to the letter and chose Socialist, Father of Romney”care,” never-attack-your-opponent, wussy, Mitter-or-Mutter Romney.]
Back to GOP Football. Ass. Coach Rove picks out his choices for the O-Line, and to a man they agree that there is no sense playing any game this season because there is no way that they can win the Football Game. The Opposition has just to many bad things to say and print in their news shows and newspapers, well -— - - - it is just to hard!
The sponsors, (you and me), of this GOP Team are tired of the self-defeating Buckley Rule, and want the rule and Ass. Coach Rove sent back to the locker room where the trainers can work some sense in Rove.
Quarterback Boehner does not like some players, and has already sent 3 of them to warm up the bench. Q. Boehner is driven to tears fearing that Middle Line Backer Reid knows all of Boehner’s passing routes. Reid’s team does not play fair! Boo-hoo!
Earlier this year in the Sequester Bowl, Q. Boehner clutched up and called to many time outs that his team had negative yardage due to delay of game penalties.
Quarterback Boehner is still convinced that the upcoming Debt Ceiling Superbowl cannot be won due to statements of smug victory in the Puppet Liberal Agenda Media by Coach Obama and Middle Line Backer Reid.
Quarterback Boehner is considering polling the solid RINOs on his team to find out whether or not they can beat Reid and Obama.
Right now it looks like the RINO team members are leaning toward postponing the Debt Ceiling Superbowl until Reid and Obama start to say nice things about them.
Coach Obama’s outgoing Waterboy Timmy Geihtner, has assured his replacement that RINOs on a team make it easy to manipulate them.
Geihtner claims that all you have to do is hold a Puppet Press Conference and just say “NO!”
Tokyo Rove is living in a 30 year old time capsule.
“In all honesty, had I lived in Indiana” you have been on this site since last Aug and we don’t know WHERE you are from. I HATE ANANOMOUS POSTERS!
Well who do you think among the GOP candidates could have done better than Romney? Ron Paul? Michelle Bachmann who barely hung onto her congressional seat, Rick Perry after those dismal debate performances? Rick Santorum who lost his own senate seat by 18 points then hightailed it out of PA to become a DC lobbyist? Newt Gingrich carrying enough baggage to sink the Titanic? Herman Cain with all of those women coming out of the woodwork? Gary Johnson? Who???????
Most people are missing the whole point about Rove. Forget politics. This is about MONEY. Rove raises millions on the strength of his reputation and inside-the-beltway knowledge and then some upstart comes along and threatens to ruin everything. As Rush says “trust me on this”...this is all 100% about enabling Rove to continue to rake in millions of dollars for Crossroads GPS, not about which candidate has which stand on which issue. That’s just the means to an end.
Always “follow the money”.
Neither the voting numbers or the money is on the far right any longer. This may be what Carl Rove is up to right now. People need to think some about what is going on.
RomneyCare was the absolute worst nominee...and after the first debate, he went super soft vs the marxist.
Rubio, another Romney-RINO, continues pushing amnesty for 30 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIEN CRIMINALS to give the ‘rats a permanent voting majority.
He may have bought into the Romney theory that you win elections by going after undecided voters in the middle.
That hasn't happened ~ EVER! It's as silly a theory as the one the Federalists had that men of standing would elect good people to office. jefferson took the bloom off that rose with his idea of getting more than half the votes!
We are tired of the merde.
I just read that (according to a reagan biographer) Rove never even worked for the Reagan campaign in Texas (as he claims) he actually worked for Reagan’s his republican opponent. I think Karl has some things to clear up before he speaks for any of us.
The GOP treats conservatives the same way the Democrat Party treats black people, with utter contempt! The difference is conservatives are not going to vote for Republicans “just because”.
All the other major Republican factions showed up in numbers as good as they had in the election McCain lost.
you might have missed my little analysis the other day that shows there are about 6 million voting aged black Democrats who may be ripe for the plucking. They didn’t vote for obama!
Electability is less important than preventing conservatives from winning. The GOPe would actively work to insure a Democrat win to stop genuine conservatives from winning.
Dear Karl Rove,
SENATE RACES
Lets do this by the numbers shall we?
Aiken: Kristol was right, Aiken WAS NOT supported by the TP. He was the WEAKEST of the three GOP primary candidates (and got over 1 million in support from McCaskill supporters). Even then, he had a 10 pt lead before his “verbal diarrhea” comment on rape. If he had a little “Breitbart media savvy” he would of avoided the pitfalls and won comfortably against a flailing McCaskill who was just ripe for the picking.
Mourdock: Agreed, he too needed a class in “Breitbart media savvy” but what the pundits don’t tell you was that crybaby Lugar badmouthed Mourdock and told his supporters not to help in the general (sore loser alert).
ND: Berg: Simply saying “I’m the GOP candidate, vote for me” isn’t enough against an inspired (and highly organized/motivated DNC candidate). Berg lost by less than 3,000 votes. Berg’s campaign was described by local insiders as sloppy, undisciplined, and reeking of GOPe (aka: taking the base for granted). This race was begging for an upset and the DNC brought in the big guns/money to pull it off. Heitkamp struck with perfect timing to squeeze out a few extra votes in the end to win.
ME: GOP in disarray and against a popular former governor.
MA: Brown flipped the bird to the TP, went all RINO and was up against a powerful candidate. Burned bridges. GOPe
VA: George Allen, three time loser, mr. “ma-ca-ca”, uninspired campaigner, slow, methodical, dull. GOPe.
FL: Connie Mack, three-time-loser, uninspired race. GOPe. “lost in space”
OH: Josh Mandel. Deer in the headlights against the hunter. In the big leagues Josh, they play for keeps NOT for Chuck-E-Cheese tokens. OUT OF HIS LEAGUE.
MT: Three way race and the Libertarian candidate spoils the show Tester 236,123-—Rehberg 218,051-—Cox 31,892. DNC plowed a lot of money for their favorite goon Tester. GOPe Loser who left the TP ranks and joined the establishment.
WI: Tommy Thomson. Uninspired campaign. Thought that by simply announcing he would win by default. Believed his past terms as governor was all the PR he ever needed. Burned a lot of bridges in the primary. GOPe
HI: Lingle......Liberal RINO, LOST
CT: McMahon....Liberal RINO, LOST
NM: Wilson....RINO, LOST.....zzzzzzzzz
DE: Wade....RINO, Boring, Loser, RINO......this guy made COD look good.
MI: Hoekstra....RINO, Boring, Loser, GOPe
CA: Emken...WHO??? WHO??? Cannon fodder.
WV: Raese...hey WV, how’s it feeling now that Manchin is stabbing you in the back? Remember, the first cut is always the deepest. Raese????? Don’t bring a pig-sticker to a gun fight and Manchin is armed to the teeth.
RI: Hinckley? Welcome to hell Hinckley where Republicans are a rare species....and you’re next the menu.
NJ: Kyrillos. Good point, friend of Gov. Crispy Creme (aka: one trick pony). Bad point, friend of Crispy Creme. I was hoping for a fight, perhaps a few haymakers and kicks, but all I got was whimpering and bitch-slapped cries of angst. EPIC FAIL.
VT: Vermont is not a state but an extension of the Bermuda Triangle. My advice to the GOP, wall off the state and let Thunderdome commence!!!
WA: Baumgartner.....BORING!!! He was the poster boy for “phoning it in”.
MN: Bills. C’mon, “Weekend at Bernies” had a better shot. Bills is like the Buffalo Bills....maybe next year but next year never comes.
PA: Smith. This Mr. Smith won’t be going to Washington. Out of all the RINO flame outs, he made it closest but hey close only counts for horseshoes and grenades. KABOOM!!! His problem....he believed his press clippings and took that “magical surge” for granted. If he wanted a “surge” get some Viagra, it’s cheaper and more discrete.
NY: Wendy Long. Anyone? Anyone? Good person, but the GOP in this state has more important problems like who gets the first tee time at Pound Ridge or the best table at Spagos. Sacrificial lamb to the lions and o make matters worse, Gillibrand is an airhead that makes Donna Summers look good.
MD: Bongino. Another good man who lives in Maryland, known by archeologists as “Land of the Lost”. If there was a state worthy of sinking into the 9th circle of hell this is it. Unfortunately, Bongino was the last saint left behind.
NE Deb Fischer, CONSERVATIVE....Endorsed by Palin and a great ground game. Defeated the GOPe back candidate in the primary. WINNER
AZ Jeff Flake, CONSERVATIVE....Endorsed by Palin and a great ground game. Did not run away from conservatism. WINNER
TX Ted Cruz, CONSERVATIVE....Endorsed by Palin and a great ground game. Defeated the GOPe candidate in the primary. WINNER
The Senate was ripe for the picking for the GOP. If the candidates played it smart, practiced “Media 101” skills (may I suggest the Breitbart school of journalism) and just learned to avoid the traps (Akin, Mourdock), we could of picked up 4-7 seats.
I don’t know if 2014 will get us to 50+ and it might take a few cycles to get the Senate back....but only if the GOP learns its lessons and stops pointing its fingers at the base. Future conservative/TP candidates will have to realize that it’s a BLOOD SPORT. Mistakes that might of been survivable in the bush-leagues are game killers in the big leagues.
It’s not just about politics for Rove, IT’S ABOUT THE MONNEY. His little scam on advising candidates and ad buys gives him a nice commission.
It’s a nice little racket which would make Al Capone envious.
If asked, they need to have an answer - one that doesn't involve ill-informed theories about uteruses magically 'shutting down.'
Nor theologizing about God's gifts and intentions.
Then the simple truth is that there are a lot more votes to gain by moving further to the left than loosing those centrist votes and moving strongly to the right. The God vote will never elect another president. Way to many people in the center will not side with that faction. This is not a right or wrong judgment just pure numbers. If what you say is true then it proves that the numbers are not there on the right to elect a president without the substantial support of many more moderates. There are simply many more voters who are someplace in the middle than either far right or far left. I believe that the far right caused Romney to loose. They were so busy trying to nail him to a cross because he didn't sit behind them in their church and say their own version of God words that they tore him up publicly and then sat this election out. They were the spoiler. No doubt they can do that as the party sits now. It looks like Rove is trying to change that to me and I believe he will get it done.
I stated that the far right would cost Romney the election way before last Nov. I stated clearly and repeatedly, on this board, that those on the right who refused to support Romney were insuring the reelection of Obama. I said it to the point of being threatened with being kicked off of this board and I was totally and completely correct.
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