Posted on 11/03/2010 11:31:04 AM PDT by Qbert
(CNN) – The thing about Delaware is: it's no Kentucky. The Tea Party's first Senate loss of the night may be no big surprise - the only question heading into tonight's been how big a victory margin Chris Coons would capture over Christine O'Donnell. But the exit polls lay out the political and demographic roadblocks facing any Tea Party favorite here.
[Snip]
If GOP voters are feeling any buyer's remorse, they may take some solace in one surprising stat: despite pre-election polls that showed longtime Republican Rep. Mike Castle handily beating Coons in a hypothetical matchup, the voters who turned out today said they would still probably have sent Coons to Washington over Castle, backing him 44-43 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
Please let’s deal in reality, one point in a poll indeed of those who turned out to elect Coons by a wide margin in a race in which Castle didn’t run. Shows how popular Castle is there. Whatever, we can’t win them all.
Interesting and probably true.
There are some states we just have to write off.
California and Delaware are two of them. Hopeless cases.
It’s probably not worth millions of dollars to try to change people who don’t want change.
A couple of FReepers posted last night, in all seriousness, that she is ready to run for President in 2012.
Her followers seem to have ingested a FlavorAid almost as strong as that of the Ron Paulestinians.
Agree. I was really worried about the O’Donnell effect here in PA.
I think if DE had had a more viable conservative candidate, Toomey would have won by a much bigger margin.
But I thank God that Pat won anyway.
O’Donnell lost by about the same percentage as Urquart did.
There are fifty percent more Dems than Repubs. Had they run a pro-abortion Repub would he have won? Maybe. What have you won?
We tried that in California, running “moderate” Repubs against rather unlikeable Dems, and they were still trashed, just like O’Donnell and they still lost. They came closer than she did but they lost.
I say, vote your conscience and let the chips fall. Who ever you pick, they are going to trash your candidate and make them out to be crazy or evil. If you are going to go by what the press says about your candidate, you may as well join the Dems, its the only way you are going to get good press. If you are a Repub you presumably don’t care what they say about you or your candidate.
Mike Castle believed that the O'Donnell campaign was responsible for the viral rumor that he had had a homosexual extramarital affair.
The individual who was responsible for posting the rumor on YouTube was an O'Donnell campaign employee who had suddenly resigned a couple of days before the rumor was planted.
If I were Castle and I believed that O'Donnell was responsible for the rumor, I would not feel I had any duty to support her whatsoever. In that circumstance I would consider it a favor to her not to endorse her opponent.
The people of Del are better off for her candidacy. Hopefully they're a little wiser concerning certain provisions in the constitution as well as motives and nature of liberals and RINOs.
That's true but it's not a valid excuse for running a terrible campaign, that's something almost every Republican has to deal with. Bush didn't have a friendly media to beat Gore and Kerry but he appealed to people and won. Coons was a slouch candidate and Castle would've had a better than even chance against him but he got a free pass getting to face a complete spanner.
4. No endorsement from Castle
5. Came across to anyone with any sense that she had the psersona of someone who was kooky, (even though she wasn’t)
6. Came across also as a whiner.
What I don’t understand, and no one is mentioning this - not even Rush - in regard to the Rove comment about O’Donnell not being vetted.
For crying out loud, the Republican Party used her in 2008.
Had her as the sacrificial lamb running against Biden.
She garnered 35% of the vote and the pubs left her with a $23,000 debt. Did you know that Haley Barbour and Buzz Aldrin endorsed her in 2008?
How come she was vetted and good enough to run in 2008
( no Bill Maher tapes )but Rove jumps all over her in 2010 ?
Why yes, and after her trouncing in the Republican primary for Senate in 2006, O'Donnell promptly refused to endorse or support the rightful winner and ran as a write in 3rd party candidate. It's been kind of amusing hearing Christine and her cheerleaders moaning about how horrible it was that Castle didn't support her considering she not only didn't support the Republican nominee in 2006 - she actually ran against him. Oh, Castle and the establishment certainly should have backed her, but the hypocrisy from COD and her supporters, considering her past actions on this front, is simply amazing.
I am not saying we should roll over for RINOs like Castle, but maybe it would be better to nominate somebody who isn’t a consistent loser.
Determining whether a candidate can actually win is sort of important in the primary process. Apparently the Tea Party and a majority of Delaware primary voters did not stop to consider this at all.
“O’Donnell lost by about the same percentage as Urquart did.
There are fifty percent more Dems than Repubs. Had they run a pro-abortion Repub would he have won? Maybe. What have you won?
We tried that in California, running “moderate” Repubs against rather unlikeable Dems, and they were still trashed, just like O’Donnell and they still lost. They came closer than she did but they lost.”
Great points.
“I don’t get why a lot of conservatives seemed to push her as the face of the Tea Party.”
Because she was “cute as a button’, a “junior size Sarah Palin”, “the new Mary Tyler Moore”, an evangelical “virgin”, etc. (all quotes from FR threads).
Blame it on the fact that many Tea Partiers are emotional rather than analytical; older and whiter; naive and easily impressed by a pretty face.
I can’t believe that O’Donnell even fooled Michelle Malkin.
The Tea Party needs to get real.
Rove is scum.... another elitist...
maybe she wasnt the most perfect person... but Koons?? yeah he was awesome/s
most important we made them come back to the center, they had to fight on our terms... not theirs...
the GOP establishment didnt do JS to help her... same with Miller...
Reagan was also the successful two-term governor of the most populous state in the nation.
Republican casting couch?
Now the truth comes out.
But I don’t want to see more Mike Castle’s to replace the Christine O’Donnell’s!!! I want to see more Pat Toomey’s and Chris Christie’s. We can win blue states with real conservatives but only if they are on the ball.
Despite the fact that he was not the favorite of the conservative base, he ran a very close campaign in the primary.
His track record includes 14 successful general election victories in DE to O'Donnell's three failed ones.
Everyone knows that the most conservative voters turn out for GOP state primaries.
He had 3 million and the Delaware Republican Party in his pocket and couldn't beat "a flawed candidate".
He had 3.5 million - most of which he had budgeted to spend after the primary.
O'Donnell actually raised $5 million, after all was said and done over the cycle.
The ridiculous lengths people go to to avoid placing this loss in the lap of the Delaware Republican Party is beyond absurd.
Who is avoiding it? It is absolutely the fault of the Delaware GOP: they picked a candidate who could not win a general election in their state.
It's not necessarily O'Donnell's fault taht she ran a bad campaign. For all we know, that was the best she was capable of.
“Get a little more experience under her belt.”
Experience? Do tea party conservatives still believe in that anymore?
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