Brown Won -- and Whitman Lost Big

Townhall.com ^ | November 4, 2010 | Debra J. Saunders

[Candor7]

True, they one the battle for the scramble to the center. But if Whtman and Fiorina had run as conservatives, at least they would be ready to reap the benifits of their future opponents failures which are sure to come.O’donell will do that. Wh\itman and Fiorina cannot. They are history.

This fight cannot be one in just one election cycle, it is a long battle.Ronald eagan showed us this, and now it must be done again, just as he did in California.

[depressed in 06]

It doesn’t matter how much Jerry listens, he will just make matters worse.

[fifedom]

No, you don't get it. Where conservative principles are actually preached, they are embraced.

Sorry, YOU don't get it. Tom McClintock ran for statewide office twice and lost and there is no more principled and articulate conservative.

People do crazy things. The Germans voted in Hitler. The voters in Muslim countries like Algeria and Turkey vote in sharia law.

Another thing, most voters sat on their a*ss and did not vote. The turnout here was 40%!!

The laws of physics and mathematics will bring this place down and the rest of us here will be brought down by these morons.

[misterrob]

Your own experience???

Ever campaign in the ‘hood?

Ever campaign at a union hall?

Ever campaign at an anti-war march?

Probably not. When you can prove that you did that and managed to convince a bunch of people why voting conservative is better than liberal then please feel free to chime in.

[B Knotts]

When voters are given the choice between a Democrat and a Democrat, they’ll pick the Democrat every time.

[OldPossum]

So, who do we have to go up against Feinstein in 2012 and Brown in 2014? We had better come up with some “wow” candidates by then.

Haven't the last few elections convinced you that it is a waste of resources running against California RATS? The electorate there is not in tune with Republican values? Leave them be.

And yes, I realize that Arnold won but do you really think of him as a Republican? I don't.

[BillyBoy]

>> In states where the democrats/leftists outnumber the conservatives you are not going to win elections with Tea Party types. Wanna argue that? <<

I would be happy to.

Paul LePage, Governor-Elect of Maine

Pat Toomey, U.S. Senator-Elect from Pennsyvania

Don Carcieri, Governor of Rhode Island

All solid conservatives, backed by tea-party groups in the primary. Want some more examples?

>> Try running liberals in deep Red states and see what happens. <<

"Deep red state" means communist to me, but I assume you're using mainstream-media speak for a liberal running in heavily Republican state. The Democrats do that all the time, they don't shoot themselves in the foot like the GOP and run a bunch of DINOs who sound like Jesse Helms in those states. That's how they got a majority in 2006 and 2008, by electing commies in states like Indiana. Need some examples?

Kathleen Selibus, ultra-liberal Governor of Kansas

Kent Conrad, ultra-liberal U.S. Senator from North Dakota

Jay Rockefeller, ultra-liberal U.S. Senator from West Virgina

Have I made my point? There is ZERO evidence that RINOs are "more electable" in majority-RAT states. Those who agree with the RATs agenda will just vote for the real RAT, not the RAT-lite candidate. You can look at states like Illinois or California over the last 20 years and you'll notice the conservative nominees did as good, or more often, BETTER than the RINO candidates when they ran for the same office. Most voters don't even base their vote around where the candidates stand on the issues. They should, and I research my candidates and vote based on the issues, but many voters just choose whoever sounds the nicest on TV.

The usual spinmeisters are blaming Bill Brady's loss for Governor here in Illinois around the idea that he was "too conservative", instead of the fact there will thousands of illegally cast ballots for Pat Quinn in Crook County. Look at the numbers. The "scary conservative" Bill Brady got 1,702,000 votes for Governor. The nice tolerant moderate, Mark Kirk, who "appealed to suburban women" got 1,653,000 votes for the U.S. Senate. The scary conservative got about 200,000 MORE votes in Illinois than the RINO got. He would have won if it weren't for vote fraud.

Plenty of socialists have won in lopsided GOP states, plenty of conservatives have won in overwhemingly Dem states. Facts are facts.

[nutmeg]

California and Massachusetts and Maryland = “The Land of The Hopelessly Lost”.

You forgot my state of Connecticut... :-(

[misterrob]

You have not proven anything. Toomey was elected by a very slim margin and turnout in Philly was low. That’s not to say that PA is deep Blue state though. Liberal Lincoln Chafee is Gov. Elect of RI.

In 2006 the Dems ran candidates who sold themselves as more conservative in Red districts and won. If they ran as leftists then they likely don’t take those seats. If anything that shows that you have to tun candidates that reflect the composition of the voters that are likely to vote.

[calcowgirl]

Sorry, YOU don't get it. Tom McClintock ran for statewide office twice and lost and there is no more principled and articulate conservative

Sorry, but that is just wrong. You are blaming McClintock's loss on conservatism instead of where the blame lied -- with the State GOP who gave him exactly ZERO support. Let's take the State Controller race. I will steal from a prior analysis and post from Carry_Okie:

CONTROLLER
                                   Votes Pct.  Spent ($MM)
Steve Westly     Moderate Dem         45.4 	$10.6
Tom McClintock   Conservative Rep     45.1 	 $2.0
 
Result? 
The conservative got NO support from the GOP, 
was outspent 5:1 by a moderate Democrat,
and nearly won anyway.

SECRETARY OF STATE 
                                   Votes Pct.  Spent ($MM)
Cruz M. Bustamante    Leftist Dem    49.5 	$4.6
Bruce Mc Pherson      Moderate Rep   41.8 	$2.8
 
Result? 
The “moderate” Republican darling of the GOP got lots of support,
was outspent only 1.6:1 by an extreme leftist with no credibility, 
and the "electable" GOP "moderate" LOST by a margin NINE TIMES larger 
than the unsupported conservative in the same election. 

Imagine what could happen if we got rid of the SOBs in the State Party that only recruit and back liberals(R).

[calcowgirl]

BUMP!

One day, they’ll get it. Or, maybe not. ;-)

[calcowgirl]

If anything that shows that you have to tun candidates that reflect the composition of the voters that are likely to vote.

The composition of voters is not static but dependent on the candidate. Meg Whitman types cause volatility in that factor because having two liberals to choose from does not motivate conservatives to vote. When 40% of registered voters stay home, what does that tell you? Conservatives want someone to vote FOR.

[misterrob]

Meg is a seriously rich lady that held some appeal to the country clubbers but for average folks that wasn’t going to get it done.