Leading into that election, Reid was the most unpopular Senator in the nation. The MOST unpopular. He was considered one of the most vulnerable Senators up for election. The ONLY reason he won is because we nominated Angle. Every political analyst knew Angle was the candidate Reid wanted to win the GOP nomination in 2010 Nevada, just like people who understood the situation knew Akin was the candidate Claire wanted to win the GOP nomination in 2012 Missouri.
Akin was NOT the ‘conservative’ choice
No, he was the socon choice from the Huckabee wing of the party. We'd have won that seat had the Tea Party candidate, Sarah Steelman, won the nomination.
but the people of that district made a judgement call.
Yes, a bad one (and one that can't be blamed on the "establishment"). Which was the point of my comments. Republican primary voters are throwing away too many seats on terrible candidates. I am not finger pointing at any single group, I am saying we need to be nominating the most conservative candidate that CAN actually win.
Well, I seem to remember Obama having lower approval ratings than ANY president who had won re-election before at several points during the campaign. Still eviscerated moderate Romney though, because he got his zombies to the polls. I’m telling you if you don’t understand how Harry Reid wins elections, you don’t understand how Nevada works. Reid is an expert politician. I doubt we’ll beat him next time either.
I can’t disagree on Tod Akin. I would not have voted for him, because his record was not one of fiscal responsibility. BUT, Rove would not have backed the Tea Party or any real conservative. He would have put up a moderate, who would have lost too.
My point about Sanford is that he has not lost yet, so your whining is premature. You say the people of that district made a bad call, and maybe they did, but what would you prefer? Rove coming in and putting his money behind HIS preferred candidate?
Karl Rove’s goal is NOT to nominate the most conservative candidate who can win. His goal is to nominate the most moderate who can lose. It gets pretty damn frustrating when people focus on Akin, Angle, O’Donnell, and Sanford (how conservative is this guy anyway?). What about Allen, Berg, Rehberg, Romney, McCain, McMahon, Thompson, Harrington, an unknown number of House seats? Oh, I guess their moderate-ness had nothing to do with it. ‘Must have been a ‘wave election’ or some other bullshit from the Rovepedia of excuses.