Posted on 11/15/2014 10:40:31 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
LEBANON, N.H. -- Can you discern, deep in the new Republican Party -- amid the conservative warriors and tea-infused crusaders -- a faint moderate heartbeat?
Hardly anyone is asking that question this month, in the wake of the Republican tsunami that swept Democrats out of office and swept a Republican majority into the Senate chamber. But two unrelated events this month make the question worth posing, if only to explore the possibility and to understand the political landscape here in the state that only 15 months from now will hold the first presidential primary.
The first of those events took place in the western of New Hampshire’s two congressional districts, where Marilinda Garcia, a Republican House challenger, failed to topple Democratic Rep. Annie McLane Kuster. Garcia, with such new-age GOP credentials as endorsements by the Club for Growth and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, pulled only 45 percent of the vote, which is actually a higher number than any poll reading she recorded this year.
Garcia’s profile -- a Hispanic surname that the Republicans need so badly, tea party bona fides that strike fear in liberals and a strong anti-abortion position -- was beguiling for a while, but before long word went out from the Granite State to the grandees of the national Republican Party: Don’t devote much money to her. You won’t need her vote in the chamber, and her tea party inclinations will cause you heartache.
The second indicator is in the state’s bookstores, where copies of Richard Norton Smith’s “On His Own Terms,” a magisterial biography of Nelson A. Rockefeller, are being stocked on the shelves. Rockefeller didn’t prevail in two presidential tries in this state, but nonetheless is remembered fondly by Republicans of a certain age....
(Excerpt) Read more at newburyportnews.com ...
NH is a suburb of Boston. Fugetaboutit.
its almost worst!...they think when they move from boston their Volvo headlights are brighter and they dont need the wiper feature any more....Give em 1 winter and the’ll move back to Mommas cellar.....broke....but with a shitload of new wiper blades...lol
pulled only 45 percent of the vote, which is actually a higher number than any poll reading she recorded this year.
Of course the GOPE has been busy making anti-conservative rules
NH has no business determining the Republican Presidential nominee, nor does Iowa. Two states that have voted precisely once for President in the general over the span of three decades.
Let’s see how the national Democrats would react if their nominee was chosen by Wyoming, Oklahoma or West Virginia today.
Giving “moderates” control of the republican party would be like the allied forces in WWII giving control to Japan in their fight against Germany. Makes no sense.
Who are these Republicans of “a certain age” who remember Rockefeller “fondly”? I’m 70 and I remember him for exactly what he was: a northeast liberal (like all the northeast Republicans of his time) who refused to support Goldwater or any other conservative who didn’t suck up to the GOPe. Sort of like today...
Romney does this every 4 years.
Romney, author of ObamaCARE with Gruber, IS the GOP.
Between the voter fraud in the Keene State area and the mindless liberal twits in and around Peterborough, the 2nd District in New Hampshire has become a semi-permanent Woodstock Concert.
N.H. may as well be a Boston suburb. Why do we keep thinking the GOP can win there?
The GOP’s first caucuses and primaries should be in Texas and Utah. The candidates won’t get questions like “what do you plan to do for children’s health care?” and will get questions like, “Should we give Muslims a 3 day warning before we nuke Mecca, or just do it right after your inauguration?”
If the GOP couldn’t win there in a wave year like this, it doesn’t give me great hope for the state’s future voting patterns, that’s for sure.
John Sununu, who brought the Republican Party, David Souter as a Supreme Court Justice (which would be tantamount to the Democrats putting Rush Limbaugh on the Court) sees his life mission as doing all he can to insure a liberal Republican emerges from New Hampshire and secures the Presidential nomination. John McCain and Mitt Romney both had Sununu support. Sununu is poison to conservatives. And the rule changes are all part of the package, along with “open primaries” in early states where a conservative might win a closed primary.
All these things are reasons why we need a new conservative Party. The Republican Party has decided to be the minor leagues for the Democrats. Good conservative elected officials and alumni can make this happen fast. The Repubiican Party will spend the next two years targeting conservatives and collaborating with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Obama. Get used to it.
Marilinda Garcia, a Republican House challenger, failed to topple Democratic Rep. Annie McLane Kuster.IOW, Democrats are racists.
...pulled only 45 percent of the vote, which is actually a higher number than any poll reading she recorded this year.IOW, the polls were systematically underreporting her support in order to suppress turnout.
More from the shills:
GOP House Candidate Marilinda Garcia Plagiarized Parts Of Floor Speech On Same-Sex Marriage
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/marilinda-garcia-plagiarism_n_6035420.html
“We need to focus on creating equality of opportunity for all Americans, instead of trying to mandate equality of outcome.”
http://www.marilindagarcia.com/meet_marilinda
As Romney Endorses Marilinda Garcia For Congress, Kuster Dodges Debate Invitations
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2014/09/25/as-romney-endorses-marilinda-garcia-for-congress-kuster-dodges-debate-invitations-n1896764
Mitt Romney Endorses Marilinda Garcia in the #NH02
http://practicalpoliticking.com/2014/09/23/mitt-romney-endorses-marilinda-garcia-in-the-nh02/
While I agree that no single state, nor duo of states, should permanently enjoyed such an outsized role in determining the GOP presidential nominee, it is simply not correct to say that NH and IA are liberal states outside the mainstream and thus are unrepresentative of the type of Republican that can win the presidency. No Republican ever has been elected president without carrying at least one of NH or IA (or, usually, both) in the general election. In fact, the closest the GOP has come to winning the presidency without carrying either IA or NH was in 2012, when Romney fell a whopping 64 EVs short (and the easiest path to 270 would have been had he carried FL, OH, Va ... and NH); prior presidential elections in which the GOP nominee failed to carry one of NH or IA were Democrat electoral landslides, with the GOP nominee falling short of victory by 97 EVs in 2008, 111 EVs in 1996, 102 EVs in 1992, 218 EVs in 1964,, 258 EVs in 1936, and 258 EVs in 1912.
As for NH and IA today, their performance in presidential general election has been within 2% of the national GOP performance during each of the past 6 presidential elections (the last time in which the states were out of the mainstream, 1988, was when NH voted 9% more Republican than the nation while IA voted 9% less Republican). And the primary electorates in IA and NH are good proxies for two of the three legs of American conservatism’s three-legged tool, with IA Republicans being strong social conservatives and NH Republicans being strong economic conservatives (national-defense conservatives are not well represented in either state’s GOP electorate, but they wield their influence in the SC primary and many subsequent contests).
So I would posit that a Republican presidential candidate’s success in the IA caucuses and NH primary is a good harbinger for his success in the general election. Sure, the states’ primary electorates have their idiosynchrasies, but the GOP could do far worse than with IA and NH as the first two primary contests.
But as I said at the outset, I don’t think that any two states should be entitled to have the first two contests in perpetuity. There are other states that similarly are good proxies for the national electorate—OH, FL, NV, NC, VA, AZ, NM, MO, GA and PA come to mind—that could be good choices for early primary contests. None is perfect, of course, but I think that it’s important to permit candidates to campaign in one state at a time early in the primary season so as to separate the wheat from the chaff and so as to avoid having the guy with the most money overwhelm insurgent candidates in a multistate contest. So maybe those 12 states (the 10 I listed plus IA and NH) could alternate with spots 1-12 in the primary season, leaving enough time between contests to allow for personal campaigning.
I forgot about CO, which would be a 13th state that would be good for early primaries.
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