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Nails in the GOP coffin: Thoughts on the Iowa straw poll results
The Twin Cities Daily Planet ^ | August 14, 2011 | Professor David Schultz, Hamline University School of Business

Posted on 08/14/2011 11:35:14 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Bachmann wins, Pawlenty is out. What do learn from the Iowa straw poll? Whatever political moderation existed in the Republican Party, it rapidly disappearing as the GOP is being remade in the image of Palin and Bachmann.

Bachmann

The headline clearly is that Bachmann received nearly 29% of the vote. No surprise there. Bachmann has narrative that clearly appeals to a demographic of social conservatives and Tea Party members. For months I argued that mobilizing this vocal and active segment of the part would make Bachmann a major force in Iowa. With a divided field she had captured a large bloc of voters and she used this appeal along with her Iowa connection and strategy to do well in that state. Her challenges of course will now be to move beyond Iowa, reach out to others beyond her base in the party across the country. Moreover, as the field of GOP contenders winnows (Pawlenty exists) and expands, will she pick up supporters or lose them? Bachmann is definitely the headline of the party but challenges persist.

The GOP

Look beyond Bachmann. She received 28.6% of the vote, Paul 27.7%–together they accounted for 56% of the straw poll. These are two candidates who represent perhaps the most extreme agendas among the GOP field. Add to them Santorum who polled at 9.8% and one finds that nearly two-thirds of the straw poll went to what would appear to be non-mainstream candidates. Pawlenty, perhaps the most mainstream and establishment candidate who participated in the field, polled barely 14%. This is a party that has moved dramatically to the right of the one that picked Romney as the Iowa straw poll winner and McCain as their nominee in 08. The GOP had redefined itself. It is–as I have argued for months–no longer the party of Ronald Reagan. Sarah Palin successfully remade the party into one captured more firmly by the Tea party and owing much of its ideological allegiance to a blend of Barry Goldwater, Pat Robertson, and Ayn Rand. Paul and Bachmann represent different wings of this new party, but Bachmann is better poised to run within this new party because her rhetoric and narrative are less pedantic and more appealing that Paul’s cerebral musings about the gold standard.

Romney

Romney is in trouble. In theory the frontrunner, but he is the frontrunner in a GOP party that no longer exists. He is part of the old Reagan Republican Party (along with Pawlenty) now fading. As the Party has shifted look to see it be more difficult for him to maintain his lead. Bachmann represents the new center of the new Republican Party. She and Paul may not be the fringe, Romney and Pawlenty are.

Pawlenty

No surprise he is dropping out. He never had a chance. He never had a narrative and he was a Reagan Republican running in a Palin Party. He tried to fake being more conservative than he was, coming off as inauthentic and phony. He made Iowa make or break and he broke. Bachmann helped seal the deal and yet again unended her Minnesota rival. But Pawlenty was doomed even without her–he just lacked appeal as a candidate and he never created a rationale for he presidency. It also does not help to have a non-existent legacy as governor besides bankrupting it.

Perry

Perry changes the equation for Bachmann. They will fight out for many of the same supporters and the challenge will be to see what happens. Perry is Bachmann but with executive experience. But Perry’s support demonstrates again how far to the right the GOP has moved.

But what does it all mean?

Commentators state the challenge is for Bachmann to capture swing or centrist voters within the party. She may not need to do this. First, her bloc approach may be enough to help her for a long time. Second, the moderate GOP voters may be leaving, going the route of while males who abandoned the Democratic Party in the 1970s and 80s. If the Reagan Revolution redefined the GOP and Democratic Party membership, then the Palin-Bachmann redefinition will do the same. Some will leave the Party, perhaps leaving it a much more conservative one that even before. Within a party of vanishing moderates, Bachmann can win.


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: bachmann; palin; pawlenty; romney
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I wonder what style of goatee Mr. Spock sports at Hamline University?
1 posted on 08/14/2011 11:35:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Oh yeah it’s over alright. We better pick a Democrat to win the Republican primary or else the election will be lost.


2 posted on 08/14/2011 11:42:14 PM PDT by Tempest (Ruining the day of corporate butt kissers everywhere.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Romney and TPaw are examples of “Reagan Republicans”? Good Lord. They are more like Nelson Rockerfeller/John Anderson Republicsns. Reagan would love Palin, Bachmann, and the Tea Party.


3 posted on 08/14/2011 11:43:34 PM PDT by Hugin ("A man'll usually tell you his bad intentions if you listen and let yourself hear it"--- Open Range)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Whatever political moderation existed in the Republican Party, it rapidly disappearing as the GOP is being remade in the image of Palin and Bachmann.

Hey, dipwad, I assume it will be no challenge for you to show us all the articles you've penned decrying extremism in DEMOCRATIC candidates, right?.........[crickets]...I bet you were one of those who thought his Marxiness had "won" and should therefore be able to do whatever he wanted, right? So--it's only REPUBLICANS that concern you if they have strong beliefs and the corresponding agendas. Thanks for so cheerfully documenting your own irrelevance and intellectual dishonesty.

4 posted on 08/14/2011 11:43:44 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

So the professor wants two entities on the political playing field: Collectivist Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Yeah, that’s balanced.


5 posted on 08/14/2011 11:44:19 PM PDT by lurk
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To: Hugin

Don’t forget Gerry Ford.


6 posted on 08/14/2011 11:44:44 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
This is a party that has moved dramatically to the right of the one that picked Romney as the Iowa straw poll winner and McCain as their nominee in 08.

And that worked out so well you urge them to do it again, right? Well, I guess from your point of view, it did, actually.

7 posted on 08/14/2011 11:46:14 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Hugin

Yup. I had to read the author again and coulda sworn it was Ed Schultz who wrote this nonsense. He did however correctly and miraculously point out that Romney is in trouble.


8 posted on 08/14/2011 11:46:46 PM PDT by max americana (FUBO NATION 2012 FK BARAK)
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To: Still Thinking
Don’t forget Gerry Ford.

Or George Romeny for that matter.

9 posted on 08/14/2011 11:47:15 PM PDT by Hugin ("A man'll usually tell you his bad intentions if you listen and let yourself hear it"--- Open Range)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
It is no longer the party of Ronald Reagan. Sarah Palin successfully remade the party into one captured more firmly by the Tea party and owing much of its ideological allegiance to a blend of Barry Goldwater

Hey, stupid guy, Reagan was a AuH2O protege. He owed a lot of his political philosophy to Barry.

10 posted on 08/14/2011 11:48:09 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Hugin

Excellent point. The [rotten] apple falls not far from the tree.


11 posted on 08/14/2011 11:48:50 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: lurk

“So the professor wants two entities on the political playing field: Collectivist Democrats and moderate Republicans.”

###

Communists are very astute at recongizeng threats to their cozy positions.

Constitutional conservatives will mean that he, and many of his ilk, will be out of an extremely comfortable and undemanding, government-coerced job.


12 posted on 08/14/2011 11:50:16 PM PDT by EyeGuy (2012: When the Levee Breaks)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Good guess but no, he has less facial hair than desire to actually help Republicans.


13 posted on 08/14/2011 11:50:33 PM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
On Romney-He is part of the old Reagan Republican Party (along with Pawlenty) now fading.

What a total misunderstanding of Reagan and the fraud Mittens. Romney disliked Reagan and is nothing like him.

Romney on Reagan

Professor David Schultz is a horses ass.

No goatee, just stupidity.

14 posted on 08/14/2011 11:50:55 PM PDT by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: Lazlo in PA

Gay.


15 posted on 08/14/2011 11:54:28 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Amber Lamps !"~~)
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To: Hugin; 2ndDivisionVet
Goldwater / Reagan would love Palin, Bachmann, and the Tea Party.

Reagan gave a fantastic speech for Goldwater in '64....


16 posted on 08/14/2011 11:56:13 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (Who can take tomorrow, Spend it all today? Who can take your income And tax it all away? Obama Man :)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“I wonder what style of goatee Mr. Spock sports at Hamline University?”

The type that doesn’t get in the way of butt munching.


17 posted on 08/14/2011 11:56:24 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
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To: Lazlo in PA
Ed O'Neill's a professor now? Well, I guess you don't have to be smart, as this article demonstrates.


18 posted on 08/14/2011 11:57:01 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

He also wrote “The Myth of Voter Fraud” at http://www.minnpost.com/community_voices/2009/02/09/6398/the_myth_of_voter_fraud

He likes his DNC stamped blinders.


19 posted on 08/15/2011 12:03:36 AM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: Tempest

The DA don’t know they pay people to show up and vote...It is all about who can turn out the most paid vote!!!


20 posted on 08/15/2011 12:11:08 AM PDT by tallyhoe
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