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Mississippi Mauling: The Republican Strategy for Congressional Self-Destruction
North Star Writers Group ^ | May 15, 2008 | Dan Calabrese

Posted on 05/15/2008 4:56:36 AM PDT by Invisigoth

I am not an expert on campaign strategy, but I know a losing game plan when I see one. The Republican Party’s strategy in a series of special House elections this year has been to tie Democratic candidates to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.

How’s that working? Three straight losses, all in congressional districts President Bush carried easily in 2004.

Some strategy.

John McCain may well win the presidential election, but at the congressional and grassroots level, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the GOP in a more severe state of disarray. The worst result yet has come from the northern Mississippi district that was voting to fill the seat of newly appointed Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, who had won handily in all seven of his own House races in the same district.

But Democrat Travis Childers took the seat, defeating Republican Greg Davis 54 percent to 46 percent. This follows similarly embarrassing losses in Louisiana and Illinois. The Republican strategy, if you can call it that, is to use the poor job performance rating of the Democratic Congress, as well as Obama’s more troublesome associations (Rev. Wright, William Ayers, flag pins, the “bitter” comment, etc.) to provide a rationale for GOP candidates.

(Excerpt) Read more at northstarwriters.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: 110th; 7thcavalry; congress; cthulthu08; donquixote; elections; gregdavis; mississippi; ms2008; republicans; rinos; travischilders

1 posted on 05/15/2008 4:56:37 AM PDT by Invisigoth
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To: Invisigoth

IMHO, would’nt matter. In my mind, I keep coming back to what happened to Tom Delay.....

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1802383/posts

Washington is so jammed with parasites looking for a teat...that ANY organized opposition-IOW any Conservatives-will be run out of town . Period. This, folks, is a far BIGGER problem than just one with the Republican leadership.


2 posted on 05/15/2008 4:57:58 AM PDT by mo
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To: Invisigoth

And now I see that the House Republican leadership thinks that McCain will be their savior come this November due to the independent voters they think McCain will bring in.

They are clueless as to how p.owed the base is.


3 posted on 05/15/2008 5:01:02 AM PDT by happydogx2 (Let Freedom Reign!!)
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To: happydogx2

No, it’s a brilliant strategy.

Move left until you can run against Obama for being a conservative evangelical. /s


4 posted on 05/15/2008 5:04:23 AM PDT by A Balrog of Morgoth (QMC(SW) USN........ CG21 DD988 FFG34 PC6 ARS53)
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To: mo
I keep coming back to what happened to Tom Delay.....

Great point. Good people get elected, then find DC so full of the get-along/go-along mentality, they succumb to it. Not a good portent.

5 posted on 05/15/2008 5:05:33 AM PDT by Migraine (Diversity is great...(until it happens to YOU).)
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To: Invisigoth

I think we need to let people tie the democrats to their failures on their own.

We need to have a positive message of how we learned our lesson and are going to do right by the American people.

1994. We won by providing a positive vision for the future.

Meanwhile, the Democrats, because they already have the generic advantage since people are upset at Republicans, merely have to lie about the Republican candidate, and pretend they are the real conservatives.

That’s how they are winning these elections — by saying they are the common-sense conservatives in the race, while the Republican is just some evil right-wing hack.

They learned it from the 2006 George Allen race — they can throw almost any charge against Republicans, and it will stick. In the Davis race, they just told everybody he was a racist who wanted to honor the founder of the KKK.


6 posted on 05/15/2008 5:10:13 AM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: CharlesWayneCT

Republicans will have to “go away” for a while before being able to come back to saying the lesson has been learned.


7 posted on 05/15/2008 5:19:24 AM PDT by Diverdogz
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To: mo
The house RINOs brought it on themselves they threw the Republican tradition under the bus and became left-wing pig faced brothers of the Democrats.
8 posted on 05/15/2008 5:21:10 AM PDT by YOUGOTIT (The Greatest Threat to our Security is the Royal 100 Club)
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To: CharlesWayneCT
The DCCC and Childers also promised pork to just about anyone that had their hand out. In the Eastern portion of the district, most Democrat voters were salivating at the chance that Childers would bring government money to keep temporary funded programs going and more farmer government subsidies. That is what I heard from here most of all by the voters...and that Davis wouldn't help those of us in the Eastern section of the district.
9 posted on 05/15/2008 5:27:42 AM PDT by vetvetdoug
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To: Invisigoth
The Republican Party’s strategy in a series of special House elections this year has been to tie Democratic candidates to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.

How’s that working? Three straight losses, all in congressional districts President Bush carried easily in 2004.

Won't work for Juan McCain against Obama either, come November.

Conservatives aren't falling for the ooooh-but-the-other-guy's-a-liberal scare tactics, any longer. That only works -- ONLY works! -- when the Republicans are smart enough (or desperate enough) to run a genuine conservative, in contrast.

JimRob said it best, several months back: "You kicked the conservatives to the curb and nominated your RINO, now all you gotta do is get him elected."

10 posted on 05/15/2008 5:28:38 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle (If McCain really CAN "win without conservatives," then why do you care if I vote for him or not?)
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To: Invisigoth

The Republocrats ran three rinos.....
The Demopublicans ran three conservative, anti-tax guys and if course they won.

RNC RINO’s coming home to roost.


11 posted on 05/15/2008 5:34:34 AM PDT by stockpirate (Purge the RNC and GOP of ALL SOCIALISTS . Starting with Juan McCain.)
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To: mo

I disagree, the problem is the low life Republocrats aka as RINO’s in the party.


12 posted on 05/15/2008 5:38:13 AM PDT by stockpirate (Purge the RNC and GOP of ALL SOCIALISTS . Starting with Juan McCain.)
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To: Invisigoth

House Republicans did not get the message, or got the wrong message in 2006. Now it appears they are starting to get the message (better late than never), but will it be the right message? I have my doubts.


13 posted on 05/15/2008 5:38:31 AM PDT by CharacterCounts (When you discover rats in your house, you only have two options - fumigate or tolerate.)
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To: stockpirate
Greg Davis is no RINO! People in N.J. have NO clue as to what goes on in Mississippi!

You’re just vomiting out what you have heard somewhere!

14 posted on 05/15/2008 5:39:49 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek
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To: Migraine

DeLay didn’t succumb to anything. The charges were/are baseless. It was just to get him to resign.


15 posted on 05/15/2008 5:42:06 AM PDT by stockpirate (Purge the RNC and GOP of ALL SOCIALISTS . Starting with Juan McCain.)
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To: Migraine

“..they succumb to it”

I’ll go ya one further...I expect a politician who does’nt learn to go along to get along will be “physically replaced” by someone who will.


16 posted on 05/15/2008 5:42:59 AM PDT by mo
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Won't work for Juan McCain against Obama either, come November.

McCain will not win the election in November, but he may not lose it either. There is a strong possibility that Obama will beat himself. He postured himself as a uniter and a messiah. Once people discover he is neither the fall from grace will be massive. I think we have seen only the tip of the iceberg with Obama, and look forward to future revelations.

A likely scenario is a McCain win, with huge losses in the Senate and House.

17 posted on 05/15/2008 5:47:23 AM PDT by CharacterCounts (When you discover rats in your house, you only have two options - fumigate or tolerate.)
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To: stockpirate
The Republocrats ran three rinos..... The Demopublicans ran three conservative, anti-tax guys and if course they won.

How are Greg Davis or Woody Jenkins RINO's?

18 posted on 05/15/2008 5:49:13 AM PDT by NeoCaveman (El Conservo Tribe, tribal name "Avoids Fort Marcy Park" Watching the Rat Fight. typical white person)
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To: Invisigoth

IMO, Republicans are losing all over the place because when they were in charge, they stunk up the Congress so badly that the smell still lingers. Frankly, the ‘Pubbies fouled their own nest and wrecked the conservative name such that they may never recover.

Despite the fact that the Democrat-led Congress has been inept and useless (even worse than the ‘Pubbies), the memory of Republican budget-busting pork and pandering is impossible to overcome. And those ‘Pubbies still remaining in Congress have done nothing noteworthy to reverse the impression most Americans have of them or to try to regain their trust.

They deserve to have their heads handed to them, but America deserves better than what it will get as a result.


19 posted on 05/15/2008 5:49:45 AM PDT by DustyMoment (FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
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To: Invisigoth
The loss in Miss. is more a testimony to the abject stupidity of the voters there then anything else. The “Democrat” won by running as a pro life and pro gun candidate. Since when are these Democrat beliefs? It amazes me that the morons there cannot see thru this nonsense.
20 posted on 05/15/2008 5:51:14 AM PDT by lexusppd
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To: CharacterCounts

If McCain pulls off a small miracle and wins, how much can he accomplish with a congress that is 60-40 Democrat? He will have to ‘accommodate’ them even more than he does now. A lot of people say the federal judge issue is one reason to vote for McCain and I tend to agree. But how is he going to get any nominee through? We’ll see just how much good will he still has with Kennedy, Feingold, etc when they try to shoot down his judicial nominees.

As far as the MS race goes, what else were Republicans supposed to do? They tried linking the Dem to Obama, Pelosi, and even Mr Wright and they still failed. It is omens like this that make me think Obama will win, and that the American people are stupid enough to give the socialists a big enough majority that it will last for years.


21 posted on 05/15/2008 5:52:54 AM PDT by TNCMAXQ
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To: Coldwater Creek

From what I understand the dems ran people that at least sounded more conservative.

Plus they can’t just bash the other guy they need to have leadership, which McCain can’t provide.

The Republocrats plan to embrace the dems issues and make our party’s own is BS.


22 posted on 05/15/2008 5:53:13 AM PDT by stockpirate (Purge the RNC and GOP of ALL SOCIALISTS . Starting with Juan McCain.)
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To: Invisigoth
The candidates are running against Obama instead of running for a set of principles. That's a recepe for disaster every time.
23 posted on 05/15/2008 5:53:32 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

The problem with the Conservative base is that it is shrinking.


24 posted on 05/15/2008 5:57:38 AM PDT by lexusppd
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To: Invisigoth
Either Republicans are idiots or they mostly run into constituents who want them to compromise with Democrats. The former local congresscritter told my husband she “works well with Democrats” thinking he was a Democrat. I've never heard a Democrat boast they “work well with Republicans”. Lukewarm politicians engender nobody's respect. She's running again but I think she'll lose.
25 posted on 05/15/2008 5:59:19 AM PDT by Varda (Let's Go Pens!)
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To: Non-Sequitur
I don't see McCain strictly running against Hussein without illuminating plans of his own. He has outlined his positions on taxes, the war, the military, immigration, tax reform and more. You may not agree with him but nonetheless he has done this.
26 posted on 05/15/2008 5:59:36 AM PDT by lexusppd
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To: lexusppd

Oh sure it is. I mean, times are good so people forget what it was like when times were TRULY bad and vote for the party that promises the most free stuff. Just wait for it, it will turn around after Jimmah Carter II gives us lines at the gas pump, double digit inflation, double digit unemployment and a foreign policy that is basically to lay prostrate at the foot of the UN.

Sometimes to know where you are going you have to be reminded of where you have been.


27 posted on 05/15/2008 6:00:27 AM PDT by FlipWilson
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To: Invisigoth

Just stopping by to announce that Fred T. will be on Fox & Friends tomorrow morning at 7:45. ;)


28 posted on 05/15/2008 6:24:27 AM PDT by Miss Didi ("Good heavens, woman, this is a war not a garden party!" Dr. Meade, Gone with the Wind)
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To: lexusppd
The loss in Miss. is more a testimony to the abject stupidity of the voters there then anything else. The “Democrat” won by running as a pro life and pro gun candidate. Since when are these Democrat beliefs? It amazes me that the morons there cannot see thru this nonsense.

People choose what political party to belong to. It is not assigned to them and they are not born into it. Anyone who looks at the available parties and chooses to be a Democrat is a f-ing loser in my book.

29 posted on 05/15/2008 6:28:23 AM PDT by Niteranger68 (If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.)
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To: Invisigoth
I suppose they have nothing to tout about the demise of their own party. It is hard to sell a product that has become inferior.

So.....they used Obama instead of standing up for....uh...gee..no one in the GOP has a definition of what the party is standing for these days....they still cannot accept the fact that their insistence on going left is a deal killer.

30 posted on 05/15/2008 6:34:48 AM PDT by indylindy (I had almost forgotten that McCain is the nominee. Too bad I was reminded.)
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To: Niteranger68

Loser. Indeed, you have picked the perfect word to describe them.


31 posted on 05/15/2008 6:37:47 AM PDT by lexusppd
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To: stockpirate
You have to understand Dems in the South are much different that Dems anywhere else in the country. You just got a small taste of this race.

We get the real ads. The whole mess would just take up too much time to go into.

This was also the third round of voting. Lots of voter apathy. Maybe eyes will be opened before Nov. when the same guys will tee off once more.

Sorry if I sounded short with you! I actually live just over the boarder in Tenn., but what goes on in North Mississippi affects us, as well.

32 posted on 05/15/2008 6:46:16 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek
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To: FlipWilson

I agree and you put it well.


33 posted on 05/15/2008 6:48:10 AM PDT by lexusppd
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To: stockpirate
DeLay didn’t succumb to anything. The charges were/are baseless. It was just to get him to resign.

I didn't make myself clear. Delay did it right -- and paid the price. Other good people, since, have taken Delay's experience to heart and have learned to make as few waves as possible -- which is a shame.

34 posted on 05/15/2008 6:51:17 AM PDT by Migraine (Diversity is great...(until it happens to YOU).)
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To: Migraine

The problem is that the republicans never removed the stupid rule they created for just them that if any republican was charged with a crime he had to resign from office.


35 posted on 05/15/2008 7:03:37 AM PDT by stockpirate (Purge the RNC and GOP of ALL SOCIALISTS . Starting with Juan McCain.)
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To: Niteranger68

Democrats voted in higher percent in general election because they had a message they believed in and they had a goal — to win.

Who really wanted to win more?


36 posted on 05/15/2008 7:24:18 AM PDT by hst
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