The Democrats won another special election yesterday in a (formerly?) heavily Republican Louisiana district. Seems to me another case of the Democrats having a new, attractive, centrist candidate while the Republicans ran a dinosaur who was last seen losing to Mary Landrieu in 1996.
This was similarly the case in Hastert’s district. The Dems had a quality candidate and the Republicans had somebody who’d lost elections in his most recent two attempts at public office.
So, who’s responsible in the Republican party for scaring up good candidates and why can’t he find any? Does he suck at his job? Does the Republican equivalent of the nutroots hold too much sway in the district level primary process, forcing unelectable candidates on the party (McCain argues against this)? Do the “party elders” have too much sway in discouraging competitive primaries, relying on the “who’s turn is it now” system of choosing candidates while forcing younger, hipper candidates to knock on doors and stuff envelopes? Or is the problem that all the people who would be attractive new Republican candidates are too busy in the private sector making many multiples of the crappy salary they offer Congressmen these days (of course, they make up for that crappy salary by forcing you to live away from your family for most of the year!)?
In an environment where the Republican Brand has about as much appeal as Bear Stearns stock, the coming tsunami of Democrat pickups is going to be even larger if the party can’t even promote top notch new blood to the head of the local tickets. This needs to be discussed and addressed by people like PowerLine or it’s just going to get worse.
Wasn’t the candidate in suburban Chicago who ran for Hastert’s seat, James Oberweis? I believe he was. A McCain clone. That’s why he lost. Why have democrat light when a district can have the real thing?
The GOP is going to get spanked because the party no longer has any message,stands for nothing, and has no leadership. The titular head of the party, McCain, has made his reputation by sticking it to the party at each and every opportunity. He’s still at it.
On the campaign stump, McCain sounds no different than Hillary Clinton. Except on Iraq, where he has no plan, just bromides.
The GOP has devolved from the Party of Reagan to the party of Nelson Rockefeller or worse. McCain is the “new” Rockefeller. Only difference is McCain is all about himself.
Perhaps in part, that’s true. We certainly need a new emphasis in the message, so as to appear to be talking about issues that people actually care about in 2008 rather than issues that Reagan resolved in 1986. But, voters also care about the messenger as well as the message. A young, energetic, successful businessman / military man should appeal to a wide swath of the electorate regardless of his politics, and its the Dems who are finding that type of candidate these days. Anybody can talk a good game, but you need to have confidence that the talk will be backed up by action that is consistent with the message. That speaks to both the competence (Bush’s problem) and the character (Obama’s problem) of the candidate.
At the same time, Steve Scalise (R) won Bobby Jindal’s old seat. That hasn’t gotten the same attention, of course.
Jenkins is not a great candidate. I hope they come up with someone better to run for that seat in November, when the newly elected guy will have to run again.
Even with all that I believe both these special election seats in La and the Hastert ones were low interest, low turnout affairs which could possibly turn around in November.
Wasn’t the candidate in suburban Chicago who ran for Hastert’s seat, James Oberweis? I believe he was. A McCain clone. That’s why he lost. Why have democrat light when a district can have the real thing?
The GOP is going to get spanked because the party no longer has any message,stands for nothing, and has no leadership. The titular head of the party, McCain, has made his reputation by sticking it to the party at each and every opportunity. He’s still at it.
On the campaign stump, McCain sounds no different than Hillary Clinton. Except on Iraq, where he has no plan, just bromides.
The GOP has devolved from the Party of Reagan to the party of Nelson Rockefeller or worse. McCain is the “new” Rockefeller. Only difference is McCain is all about himself.
The Right can no longer deliver the votes. It is a miracle that any Republican can get elected anywhere considering the Non-Stop war against the GOP waged by the Treason Media. Oberweis had no connection to McCain and he lost because the GOP in Illinois is dead killed by the Ryan scandal and the inability of the Party to fight the Treason Media. It has successfully painted the GOP as the Enemy of Mankind while the Party of Treason has a veil thrown over its incompetence, treachery and corruption.
The Reagan phenomenon was as much the result of his ability to control and deflect the media a skill honed over decades before the cameras and microphones. We have no one like that in the GOP. Try as it might it could not demonize Ronnie who had been welcomed in American living rooms since the fifties. He frustrated the hell out of the media.
It should be very obvious that the American people are NOT conservative on the whole. At best 30% could be considered such. This is proved by the continued existence of the Party of Treason.
Even with all that I believe both these special election seats in La and the Hastert ones were low interest, low turnout affairs which could possibly turn around in November.
We will see what happens.
Not picking on you specifically, but this strikes me as whistling past the graveyard. The conservative movement stopped educating people in conservative principles almost as soon as we took power in 1994. In place of reasoned discussion and practical solutions to real problems, we became anti-Democrats. Conservative thinkers like William Buckley who appealed to people’s intellect have been replaced by (self-appointed) conservative screamers like Limbaugh and Levin. The right has given up on persuasive arguement and moved closer and closer to argument for the sake of argument. As such, we in the conservative movement have driven away whole demographic groups and whole generations, a mistake that will take a decade or more to overcome, if that is even possible.
Why are business interests, including all of Wall Street and Silicon Valley—the engines of growth in the US economy—all Democrats? Why isn’t every major economist lining up in favor of private social security accounts, of medical savings accounts?
Why are John, Scott, and Paul posting in relative obscurity on a glorified message board while recycled dinosaurs are running for Congress? Why isn’t somebody out there recruiting all the milbloggers to run in their districts?
Say what you will about Howard Dean, but to me it seems like he’s kicking the Republican Party’s derierre from Seattle to Miami and everywhere in between and I’m tired of it.
Oberweis was a McCain Clone. Soft on immigration, indifferent to property tax increaes in Illinois, basically a liberal. He was also a two time loser running for elective office. And a recent loser.
The reason conservatives aren’t running for political office is because they have better things to do with their lives. Democrats are represented by ideologues and they represent people who are envious and unhappy.
Conservatives want to enjoy their lives and the fruits of their labors.
Thus, the GOP is represented by the likes of John McCain, Lindsey Graham and George W. Bush. None of them conservatives.
People like Jeff Sesssions are very rare. People like McCain and Chuck Shumer are a dime a dozen.
Oberweis was a McCain Clone. Soft on immigration, indifferent to property tax increaes in Illinois, basically a liberal. He was also a two time loser running for elective office. And a recent loser. Oberweis ran his first campaign as an anti-Illegal and lost. He is not indifferent to property taxes or a liberal. He is, however, a loser.
The reason conservatives aren’t running for political office is because they have better things to do with their lives. Democrats are represented by ideologues and they represent people who are envious and unhappy. Oberweis is a multimillionaire businessman not a politician. Republicans in Illinois generally feel that they can run rich guys for office against professional politicians. It rarely works. Then you get a “winner” like Peter Fitzgerald who does win and he gets bored and gives up his seat. This allowed the Obamanation to win and plague us yet.
Conservatives want to enjoy their lives and the fruits of their labors.
Thus, the GOP is represented by the likes of John McCain, Lindsey Graham and George W. Bush. None of them conservatives. No conservative can win a statewide race outside of a few states. George Bush is as conservative as can be elected today. No point in whining about it.
People like Jeff Sesssions are very rare. People like McCain and Chuck Shumer are a dime a dozen.
Jeff Sessions would not win office in most states. Hyperbolic absurdities also don’t make a case for what you want either.
Even with all that I believe both these special election seats in La and the Hastert ones were low interest, low turnout affairs which could possibly turn around in November.
We will see what happens.
Not picking on you specifically, but this strikes me as whistling past the graveyard. The conservative movement stopped educating people in conservative principles almost as soon as we took power in 1994. In place of reasoned discussion and practical solutions to real problems, we became anti-Democrats. Conservative thinkers like William Buckley who appealed to people’s intellect have been replaced by (self-appointed) conservative screamers like Limbaugh and Levin. The right has given up on persuasive arguement and moved closer and closer to argument for the sake of argument. As such, we in the conservative movement have driven away whole demographic groups and whole generations, a mistake that will take a decade or more to overcome, if that is even possible.
Utter nonsense. Buckley was incapable of reaching anywhere near as many people as L&L. National Review appealed only to those willing or able to read a 20 article and that is very few people. His TV program was also limited in appeal. While he was doing his work the Democrats had almost total control of Congress. Conservatism had little appeal or power and Reagan’s victory did not change that being reflective as much of his ability to control/thwart the media as his principles. And the far Right in his day was very ctitical of him.
And your attempt to paint Rush as a racist is just leftist crap. You also ignore the fact that the complaints Buckley had were against a party still pretending to be patriotic not the absurd nutballs who plague us today. Outrage is sometimes justified.
Why are business interests, including all of Wall Street and Silicon Valley—the engines of growth in the US economy—all Democrats? Exaggeration. Why isn’t every major economist lining up in favor of private social security accounts, of medical savings accounts?
Why are John, Scott, and Paul posting in relative obscurity on a glorified message board while recycled dinosaurs are running for Congress? Why isn’t somebody out there recruiting all the milbloggers to run in their districts? One of the strengths of conservatism is it doesn’t change quickly. One of the weaknesses of conservatism is it doesn’t change quickly.
Say what you will about Howard Dean, but to me it seems like he’s kicking the Republican Party’s derierre from Seattle to Miami and everywhere in between and I’m tired of it.
The Right has painted government as evil. How then can it ask the voter to put it in power when the voter wants government?
It certainly isn’t something that came upon the party suddenly. What Pres. Reagan started was almost immediately changed by the “political old-guard” within the GOP. They had a different “vision” for the GOP and that was political power over ideals.
They succeeded in building a GOP majority out of paper mache and chicken wire. It looked big and impressive but was really fragile and weak to the core. When the conservative base of the party began to finally see the truth, the party began to collapse.
Unfortunately, the same republican politicians that contributed to this mess are still in positions of power within the GOP. Sen. McCain is a perfect example of this and I suspect we will see him limp away (finally) from his presidential aspirations after his loss in November. Hopefully this coming debacle will shake up the party and create new leadership.
The GOP never needed to be the majority party in the 80s and 90s if it meant compromising the conservative values that Ronald Reagan tried to instill within the GOP during his presidency. Look at all of the legislation that the minority GOP was able to accomplish with the help of conservative democrats. The GOP then rewarded those same conservative democrats by calling them liberals and working to replace them in congress. It was more important for the GOP to gain positions of power than it was to promote ideals that would benefit their country.
If you look carefully, you can see the democrats doing the same thing today. They aren’t running “Daily Kos” liberals, they are finding and running moderates that sooner or later will enrage the base of their party. Republicans (conservatives) will have the chance to work with these moderates to continue to enact legislation that will promote conservative values if they don’t surrender completely. And (hopefully) some of the “old, tired horses” of the Republican Party will move aside and make room for the next generation.
What we should not do is allow these same power hungry politicians to convince us to continue to compromise our values because “the world will come to an end” if a democrat is elected president. This is only their lame attempt to hang on to their positions of power for as long as they can. After watching McCain on “The Factor”, I realized that there isn’t very much difference between him and his democratic opponents on key issues that I feel are important.
Finally, we desperately need to promote conservative values to the next generations and understand that the radical left is already hard at work in an effort to destroy conservative, traditional values within our younger generations.
Sometimes things seem very bleak right before the change that brings much needed reforms.
