Here is how it is going to play out. And I am “deeply saddened” to have to post this.
First Manchin will run and will win.
There is no way any GOP candidate can beat him. Least of all the only GOP officeholder in the state Shelly Moore Capito, who is smart enough to know she has the Congresseat for life if she plays nice with the Dems in Charleston.
Now, the GOP will have a primary. And several people will jump in from all the same old factions within the GOP who hate each other more than they hate the Dems and are the main reason why the state is 85% Dem. These 5 or so folks, will be 3 very good conservative nobodies who will play king-wannabee for a day or so, raise and spend little money and all lose with less than 25% of the vote combined. The race then may draw out 1 or 2 TOP candidates who each have deep pockets and will spend a million tilting at the windmill while savaging the others and all the factions down ticket ruining the chances of any lower seat pick ups in an otherwise good GOP year.
If that isn’t enough, at least one or both of the factions will attack the party Executive committee and or chairman and put on a full coup which will end with this chairman like everyone before him, failing to complete a term and retiring normally.
Now, all this could be avoided if Capito DID run. Because if she did, NO ONE else would run and she would determine the party power structure for the duration and provide huge coattails for the down ticket candidates.
But, it would be political suicide. She is pro abortion and a member of all 3 pro abort groups in congress and nationally. She a Whitman, Snowe, Collins RINO and prides herself on her progressive “independent” stature.
Joe Manchin is 100% Pro Life, Pro Gun, Pro Family and HATES Obama and as others have said, is hated by Obama in kind.
A Conservative Dem vs a Liberal GOP in WV? That is a 70 30 crushing that Capito will NOT even consider.
But, that is not at all the bad news.
The bad news is, as SOON as the election is over and Manchin is sworn in, he is there for LIFE. And he will vote 100% against everything his entire life has been about for that DC power. And the idiots in them thar hills will never be the wiser and he will be another Byrd/Rockefeller clone.
Now, give up on WV, and go fight some winning battles. It’s dead Jim.
I agree with your assessment of the race in general, but I do not agree that Manchin will be a Dem go-along on the national scene. There is no way he would support any carbon tax or other legislation that would harm the coal industry. He is unabashedly pro-life and pro-Second Amendment. I live in Manchin country, and all the Manchins I know are firm in their convictions.
I think I’ll do that (give up on WV) and move on. Thanks.
If a RINO is good for the dems, he sounds like a DINO and would be good for us.