Sununu won the GOP nomination, not because he had accomplished anything in life or had any kind of steller record in office, but because of his perceived "electablity" against Shaheen. I have no doubt Sununu would gotten crushed in the 2002 primary if "the polls" had shown him losing to Shaheen worse than Smith was.
Now the situtation is reversed and Sununu is the incumbant who refuses to step down despite mounting evidence that the seat will go RAT with him as the nominee. In fact, in some studies, he's polling worse against Shaheen than Smith ever was! Why isn't he taking his OWN advice from five years ago? There's no reason for Sununu to stay in the race except that he's a hypocrite and he's incredibly vain.
It's still possible for a Republican to win statewide in NH, but not one who's main qualification for office is "my daddy was Governor" and who Shaheen can beat over the head and tie to Bush & Iraq (and ironically, Sununu is now voting with the RATs on Iraq to try and distance himself) We simply need a likeable rising star in NH with no ties to the discredited GOP establishment in Washington. In other words, the antithetis of Sununu.
Do guys honestly believe that NH has become so incredibly RAT-leaning in just four years (it was 100% GOP controlled in 2003), that "no" Republican can win there? If so, explain why guys like Romney and Giuliani are "electable" there. And I hope it's only the "only RINOs can win" arguement, since conservatives have won scores of races there in the past.
If not, then the problem lies with Sununu, and the NHGOP old guard. And we need to correct that.
The polls showing Sununu losing badly were bull$hit, Billy. There’s only about a 5% difference between them, and over a year to work on it. Sununu is the only one who can keep that seat in the GOP column. He already beat Shaheen before, and retread candidacies don’t always work (take a look at MN when everyone thought the massively unpopular Wellstone would get flogged by Rudy Boschwitz coming back — didn’t happen).
I have no idea why you keep humping the likes of Bruce Keough, who couldn’t even win the Gubernatorial primary (nor bothered to run for it last year when he’d have had a clear shot), and is about as untested as they come. If he wants to prove himself, let him take out Hodes or Shea-Porter. He’ll make his bones that way.