Gillespie Ran a JEB! Campaign in a Trump World

PJ Media ^ | 11/7/17 | Christian Adams

[beejaa]

Four years ago, Virginia conservatives were told you couldn’t win with a candidate who excited the Republican base. Conservatives were told that candidates like Ken Cuccinelli spelled certain doom, that the answer was a moderate establishment candidate. Tonight we now know that that candidate Ed Gillespie did worse than Ken Cuccinelli did. And Cuccinelli performed better without the support of the Virginia GOP establishment.

Ed Gillespie is certainly a good fellow. But his campaign used messages from 2004 and tactics from 1996. It seemed to exist outside of the ferocious upheavals of the modern polarized political world.

Let’s take a look at a few pieces of mail I received. Put aside the woeful electronic media campaign, and the nearly non-existent social media effort. Let’s just look at the mail.

The messaging was almost nostalgic, longing for a political world pre-Trump, pre-Obama, pre-polarization. It's as if President Bush was running for reelection in 2004, and it was no accident we seemed to get the same campaign. To the mail pieces.

You know when a Republican cites MSNBC there’s trouble. When I received this, I assumed it was a mailing from a Democrat: “MSNBC – The Tone of Negative Politics Has to Change.”

Great Scott, MSNBC?! A Republican? When MSNBC says the “tone of negative politics has to change,” I know exactly who and what they are talking about: Trump, conservatives, anyone with a principle, anyone who believes in the Constitution. What was it doing in my mailbox?

But it got worse.

Other material in support of Gillespie cited the loathsome Richmond Times and the even more loathsome DNC public relations firm known as the Washington Post.

“Many who have known him for years regard Mr. Gillespie as a centrist and a pragmatist,” announced the Washington Post. “Gillespie Urges Compassion,” hailed the Richmond Times.

Pinch me. Am I awake? Am I dreaming I am back in Philadelphia in the summer of 2000? Is this the GOP convention? The “torn newspaper” clip art was from the age of Motorola flip-phones. Is the mailing a spoof, a well-targeted Northam effort to depress turnout among conservatives?

But it wasn’t. It was real.

Let’s be clear. Unlike plenty of other candidates, Gillespie is a good fellow. But Gillespie ran a Jeb campaign in a Trump world. In fact, he avoided the president and the president’s supporters noticed.

Equally gracious is Gillespie’s wife Cathy. But when I got a campaign letter from her in support of her husband, I could only think – some consultant needs to lose their job for writing this and sending it to me. Let’s do the time warp, back to 1996 and the Dole campaign:

“Ed and I first met playing in a Congressional softball league….” Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with this. But this is a political season where the electorate isn’t enamored by lifelong College Republicans, or even worse, TARs, otherwise known as Teenage Republicans.

But it gets worse: “we were young staffers just starting out.” Oh. My. Most Virginians rank congressional staffers right up there with swindlers and telemarketers, rightly or wrongly. In this political climate, highlighting a long life in politics seems like a colossal blunder.

But it gets even worse. “Ed and I have devoted most of our lives to service – working for and helping elected officials…” Again, there is nothing wrong with working for an elected official, but in this political climate?

And in case there was any ambiguity, the letter continued, “Ed started his career on Capitol Hill in college, parking cars in the Senate Parking Lot.” At this point I wondered if this, too, was a well thought out Northam mailer, but alas it was not. It was real.

Some will read this and ask, well what’s wrong with any of that? In fairness, nothing — and everything.

There’s nothing wrong with honest work parking cars at the Senate. But it betrays a complete and unrecoverable disconnect with what is happening in the country. Either you get that, or you don’t.

Trump won the presidency because he got it. Trump defeated plenty of candidates who didn’t, who thought the messages and tactics from decades ago still worked. They don’t, and Republicans need to adapt to this new rough environment of smashmouth ideological politics, at least if they want to win.

[beejaa]

Ken Cuccinelli said this morning that Republicans lost because 1. Democrats were motivated by Trump; 2. Republicans were not motivated by Republicans (in the swamp); and 3. NOVA (Northern Virginia) is inhabited by those same swamp dwelling creatures. I would add Charlottesville and the City of Richmond to the list.

[ptsal]

The GOP leadership (sic & "sick") has lost touch with the voters.

[kempster]

The establishment better wake up because we are on to their game.

[TakebackGOP]

Trump didn’t win the state either.

[dfwgator]

Amen. Get on the Trump Train or perish.

[Mouton]

To those who have not had the “pleasure” of having been through the swamp recently, let me point out my last pass through that pit: Driving to a funeral up in the North East, I went around the DC Beltway in 2008. While the rest of the country was mired in a virtual depression, the freeway was jammed with new mostly upscale foreign autos of the Lexis, BMW, Mercedes (most of the all) and Volvos. It was like a different country. Restaurants jammed, people well dressed seemingly without a care in the world. It was like the Eloi world.

[TexasGurl24]

We can’t just brush this aside. We need to use this as a rallying cry for 2018. The fight must begin NOW. The left is energized. We need to be energized.

The media is going to continue to lie, connive, cheat, smear and fight.

We need to get into the trenches and NEVER surrender.

This is a fight for our nation. Let’s rally and win.

[Vaquero]

Low energy candidate. Dizzy, that Gillespie.

[rawcatslyentist]

So most people would rather have a grandslam breakfast vs a bowl of gruel.

Way to go DNCII

[Nifster]

And once again Ken is correct

[exit82]

Dizzy, that Gillespie.

Well played.

[G Larry]

its a bigger problem than the VA race.

Dems ran the table in Colorado School Board and Bond issues for all kinds of nonsense.

GOP had weak message, weak candidates.

Douglas County School Board loss means the case we have before the U.S. Supreme Court will be pulled. Regarding vouchers for private schools.
National implications!

[The Sons of Liberty]

Gillespie Ran a JEB! Campaign in a Trump World

Gillespie is a fully entrenched long time swamp creature of the RINO species, who didn't want The President's help until it was too late.

I expect to see a number of his type become extinct in the elections next year, along with corker and flake.

[AppyPappy]

Not true. Gillespie went for the jugular and Northam was boring. But neither candidate was exciting and the Democrats had big numbers at their disposal. We’ll probably never see another Republican governor.

Our Delegate got beaten by someone whose sole political experience was that he was someone’s former boyfriend. But he knocked on every door (including mine) and talked to us. He had a huge number of volunteers, mostly driven by their hatred of Trump.

My prediction is that the Roanoke Times will fold over this election. The paper is doing very poorly financially. My paper arrives after I am at work (we canceled it a month ago)

[Salvavida]

Forget Gillespie, we elected a transsexual over a pro-life Christian, and got clobbered all over the state.

Conservatives and Christians didn't show up. So they shouldn't bitch when restrictive gun laws go into effect, their taxes fund lazy grifters, there is abortion on demand, and their kids are taught how to perform sex acts in grade school.

Shameful not seeing the bigger issues in play and not showing up.

[txrefugee]

And the sizable Democrat felon voter base.

[InterceptPoint]

According to the MSM, Trump popularity is in the 30’s.

Gillespie believed the MSM.

FATAL ERROR!

[Governor Dinwiddie]

For years Virginia politics has been marred by an entrenched establishment, chamber of commerce, good ol' boy network. Every time a conservative candidate wins a nomination, the good ol' boy GOP network works to sabotage him.

Oliver North is a good example of a conservative campaign sabotaged by the GOP. Holier than thou sheisskopf former senator John Warner (Mr. Elizabeth Taylor) and his minions put forth a ringer third party candidate who destroyed Oliver North's chances in the general election.

It was pure vindictiveness on Warner's part. If their guy couldn't win the nomination, then they were hell bent on destroying the chances of anyone else. Cucinelli is an even more recent example.

It's the same problem as Mississippi where the entrenched chamber of commerce good ol' boy RINOs led by Haley Barbour and his fellow Thadites actively work to undermine the true conservatives.

I am looking forward to the day when the Roves, Barbours, Warners, and Gillespies move on to their reward.

The current talk among the RINOs in Virginia is to have Ed "The Patsy" Gillespie run for Senate.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Its not new that Ed Gillespie is a total establishment RINO. He was polling 2 pts behind the Democrat. In VA you have to take that as a sign the Republican will lose.

Only the delusional thought Ed Gillespie had a prayer. Why vote for Democrat lite when you can have the real thing?

[wiseprince]

Just like immigration someone else can pick it up... that’s the. That’s standard isn’t it?