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The 10 Biggest Political Debacles of 2012
Townhall.com ^ | January 5, 2013 | John Hawkins

Posted on 01/05/2013 4:34:37 AM PST by Kaslin

10) Richard Mourdock's Campaign:

After defeating Richard Lugar, he should have been able to easily retain the GOP’s Senate seat in a state that Mitt Romney won by 10 points. He PROBABLY would have pulled it off, too -- if, in a display of tone deafness comparable to the Democrats turning Paul Wellstone's memorial into a campaign rally, he hadn't decided to weigh in on abortion and rape after Todd Akin made the issue nuclear.

"I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God. And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."

Barack Obama could spend an entire eulogy talking about himself; so why can't candidates like Richard Mourdock figure out how to artfully dodge a question about a sensitive topic?

9) Gallup and Rasmussen Reports Cause a Conservative Pundit Election Prediction Implosion:

Before the election, most liberal pundits were predicting that Obama would win, while most conservative pundits (Yes, my hand is up) thought Romney would pull it off. While there was no doubt a little wishful thinking involved, what really happened was that there was a major split between Rasmussen, Gallup and the other pollsters. We believed Rasmussen and Gallup's much more pro-Romney numbers which turned out to be the worst mistake since Napoleon decided that Russia was ripe for a winter invasion.

8) The Trayvon Martin Case:

The mainstream media and professional race hustlers on the Left managed to turn an extremely distressing, but very ambiguous fatal shooting of a 17 year old football player into a race controversy by getting almost every key detail of what happened wrong. Afterwards, not only did the media demonize George Zimmerman, it papered over Martin's troubling background and used cutesy childhood pictures of him as opposed to what he really looked like. That doesn't mean Zimmerman is a great guy and Martin is the villain, but it does mean the whole sad case should have been left to a court of law instead of being tried via hearsay in the public eye.

7) The Fiscal Cliff:

This should be called the Cliff of Republican Stupidity because it was the culmination of a number of the GOP's bad decisions that ranged from temporary tax cuts to signing on to a supercommittee that was always likely to lead to heavy defense cuts, to their poor messaging, to their insistence on sticking with the same failed leadership year after year. It got so bad that Barack Obama was even able to successfully portray the REPUBLICAN PARTY as blocking a middle class tax cut. Watching the GOP try to compete with the Democrats is like watching a teetotaler try to drink Lindsay Lohan under the table.

6)Chris Christie's Embrace of Doom:

Mitt Romney considered Chris Christie for his VP slot and gave him a keynote speaking position at the RNC. Chris Christie returned the favor, a week before the election, by embracing Barack Obama and giving him a public tongue bath for the perfunctory help he offered after the storm. It was a completely unnecessary performance designed to boost Christie's numbers in New Jersey, but Christie's "Et tu, Brute?" moment also temporarily tanked Romney with independents. It PROBABLY didn't cost Mitt the election, but it did let Republicans know that Christie’s "jerk act" isn't just an act.

5)The Head of the CIA Getting Caught With His Hand in the Cookie Jar:

David Petraeus decided to "be all he could be" by banging his biographer, Paula Broadwell, on the side. On the one hand, it seems bizarre for the CIA Director to be having a secret affair that could be used by other intelligence agencies to blackmail him, but in an administration where the Treasury Director cheated on his taxes, maybe Petraeus thought he'd fit right in.

4)Obama's Incompetence helps kill 4 Americans in Benghazi:

After helping to get Mexicans and Americans killed via Fast and Furious, the Obama Administration moved on to creating a body count in Libya. Mall security could have done a better job of defending our personnel than the Libyan security that was in place. The attack went on for hours and it's possible that we may have been able to get troops there in time to help, but it's hard to say right now because the Obama Administration took a page out of Nixon's playbook by lying, stonewalling and falsely blaming the entire event on a YouTube video. What's next? Will the Obama Administration be blaming Fast and Furious on Rico Suave?

3)John Roberts' Cutesy-Wootsy Obamacare Decision:

In a bizarre turn of events, John Roberts broke with the conservatives on the Supreme Court to sign on to the biggest expansion of government power since the thirties. His reasoning was nonsensical, contradictory and required him to ignore the Constitution, but many talking heads strangely proclaimed it to be politically wise. The same Justice who once famously compared himself to an umpire, "knowingly called a ball a strike because he was afraid of getting booed by the fans of the team that was going to lose."

2)Mitt Romney's Presidential Campaign:

Mitt Romney is an outstanding businessman and genuinely a decent guy. Unfortunately, he also has all the personality of a mannequin, is about as likable as a summer cold and is about as good at politics as Mark Sanchez is at throwing a football. Also, as we found out from his son Tagg, "He wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life. He had no desire to...run." Maybe he should have thought about that before teaming up with the Republican establishment and his deep pocketed donor buddies to systematically smear and destroy everyone else in the Republican primary to make a path for the least electable Republican candidate since Barry Goldwater.

1)Todd Akin's Campaign:

Claire McCaskill was such a weak candidate that the GOP could have beaten her with a scarecrow wearing a Reagan mask. Unfortunately, we didn't have a candidate as good as a scarecrow wearing a Reagan mask, we had Todd Akin who said this, "It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." To quote the Franklin Center's Erik Telford, "What's the difference between a legitimate rape and an illegitimate rape? One Senate seat."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: chrischristie; clairemccaskill; mittromney; richardmourdock
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1 posted on 01/05/2013 4:34:43 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Romney’s campaign should be #1...


2 posted on 01/05/2013 5:01:06 AM PST by Roccus
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To: Roccus; Kaslin

Correction, the whole GOP should be #1!


3 posted on 01/05/2013 5:02:39 AM PST by Roccus
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To: Kaslin

First off the Mourdock and Aikin loss.When it comes to defending a religious fundamentalist concept the godless ones have been pretty good at attacking an article of faith and reducing it to ridicule. Now the camp followers in the media and their opponents in the GOPE sector including some “conservative” talking heads go piling it on and the stampede is on.
The question becomes how should they handle it ?
Here is a suggested response...

“I happen to believe bla bla bla which will has nothing to do with any legislation that may cross my desk and never will....At least I believe in God ...as a political party God is someone they booed...use the convention clip ...and I don’t believe that an election to office is a license to steal...


4 posted on 01/05/2013 5:23:29 AM PST by mosesdapoet ("A voice crying in the wilderness make streight for the way of the Lord")
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To: Kaslin
[Art.] ...it seems bizarre for the CIA Director to be having a secret affair that could be used by other intelligence agencies to blackmail him, ....

Hey, no sweat, guys. The President was blackmailing him instead, so no foul, no strain -- everything's under control.

5 posted on 01/05/2013 5:27:13 AM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: Kaslin

The biggest liberal on Earth (Romney) should be first. He is the biggest loser ever. Lost to the second biggest loser in history. Good Lord Republicans are so stupid to pick this creep. I knew it from day one...NOBODY believed me though. I was right all along. In 2016, I hope people go with my choice as it will be the right choice. The slobbering “wipe your chin” FREEPER fan club (too many FREEPERS were members) of Romney was the worst part about 2012. Disgusting!!!!!


6 posted on 01/05/2013 5:48:41 AM PST by napscoordinator (GOP Candidate 2020 - "Bloomberg 2020 - We vote for whatever crap the GOP puts in front of us.")
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To: Kaslin
[Art.] Maybe [Romney] should have thought about that before teaming up with the Republican establishment and his deep pocketed donor buddies to ... make a path for the least electable Republican candidate since Barry Goldwater.


Foul ball on the Barry Goldwater analogy.

Barry Goldwater was considered a strong candidate in mid-1963, before Jack Kennedy's assassination. He matched up very interestingly with JFK, offering several strong contrasts with the incumbent that worked for Goldwater. JFK was a New Englander, and the first northeastern President since Roosevelt -- and the first Irish Catholic one ever. JFK was a rich liberal with a Harvard accent, and Goldwater was a down-home Westerner with a leathery, outdoorsy complexion and a plainspoken way that went over well with a country that was a lot less liberal and rich than JFK.

The assassination changed all that, and the matchup with LBJ was a disastrously poor one: LBJ was a neighbor from Texas and could match Goldwater's homespun wisdom folksy line for folksy line. Plus, he was a lot more corrupt than the Kennedys and spread money around high and low. LBJ invented "dirty tricks" and "negative advance", and he used the take from FBI bugs everywhere Goldwater went, including aboard his campaign plane, to feed LBJ's "Five O'Clock Group", which was his political skunk-works group.

Barry Goldwater's political career was ruined by a bullet that found another man, is one way to say it. He was one of the best men who was never president, joining Texans John Nance "Cactus Jack" Garner and Sam Rayburn in that distinguished club. And instead of all of them, we got "Landslide Lint'n", giant government, bribe-lubricated anticonstitutionalism, our first lost war, and the capture of the Democratic Party by the Far Left.

7 posted on 01/05/2013 5:49:51 AM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: lentulusgracchus

Fact is, once the assassination occurred, NO Republican was going to win the Presidency in 1964.


8 posted on 01/05/2013 6:59:45 AM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: Kaslin

Those who thought that defeating McCaskill would be a walk in the park also thought that defeating Obama would be the same.


9 posted on 01/05/2013 8:59:34 AM PST by Uncle Chip
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To: fieldmarshaldj
Fact is, once the assassination occurred, NO Republican was going to win the Presidency in 1964.

True that -- the assassination was such a wrenching event, it totally changed the political landscape in just five seconds.

Plus, Lyndon Johnson, as the first thing he did, was to get a vise-grip on the White House for himself. Jack Kennedy's body was still cooling in the Capitol Rotunda when LBJ held his first re-elect meeting in DC.

Ruthless b*stard -- I've suspected him for about 20 years now, him and Hoover.

What clinched it for me was an isolated story about the 1960 convention, when Evelyn Lincoln (Jack's longtime secretary) finally broke her secretarial silence, 30-40 years after the fact, and told some stories about things she eyewitnessed. One of them was that LBJ apparently blackmailed his way onto the 1960 ticket (the Kennedys wanted Stuart Symington of Missouri instead, who had border-state crossover appeal and a rep in foreign affairs and Mafia crimefighting).

Think about that a minute. Blackmailed the Kennedys, extorted the VP nod .... for an office that John Nance Garner, another Texan who held the office, once described (in cleaned-up language) as "not worth a bucket of warm spit". Now think about that for a while, and about LBJ's "emptiness" or whatever it was he suffered under -- Robert Caro just completed another volume of his LBJ bio (he's still working on the last one, the presidency and afterward), and he is all eloquent about how deflated LBJ was without the real power he had wielded in the Senate -- and ask yourself, why would a man not only subject himself to such a political exile from power, and blackmail someone to get it?

Yeah, think about that a while.

10 posted on 01/05/2013 6:30:42 PM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: lentulusgracchus; Impy; BillyBoy; AuH2ORepublican; GOPsterinMA; campaignPete R-CT; Clemenza

Well, it’s been discussed endlessly. Was LBJ ruthless ? Of course. I think he probably remains unmatched as the most effective Majority Leader in the Senate before or since (and Republicans should use him as a model in that regard instead of the Melvin Milquetoasts that have followed. Better to be feared and respected than well-liked and get rolled by the opposition).

Whether he was explicitly behind the assassination, I can’t quite go that far. I know the Kennedys wanted Symington for VP, but as a formality and courtesy, offered it to LBJ with the presumption that he wouldn’t take it. Clearly they were shocked when he did and had no way to dump him (though I believe LBJ was headed for the door in ‘64 of his own accord, and they’d get their man that time).

I find it interesting now to realize LBJ, despite having been in DC almost a quarter-century by 1961, was only 52 (and by DC standards, that’s fairly young now, as so many don’t even land in DC in Congress until roughly that age). He looked so much older and tired. Whatever methods by which he may have used to get power, it certainly took its toll on him. He was still only 59 when he announced he wouldn’t run in 1968 and died at just 64 (the same age Bush, Sr. was when he was running for his first term for President in 1988, and a year younger than Willard running in this past election).

Still, I have little sympathy for him. The agenda he supported and passed in DC has had a horrific effect on the country (from the drastic expansion of big government, entitlements, so-called immigration “reform”, and the reenslavement of the Black community to the Democrat party), and we’ve never recovered from it. The big question remains if Nixon had been recognized as the legitimate victor in 1960, would he have resisted such efforts or would the GOP have saddled the country with that “Great Society” agenda ?


11 posted on 01/06/2013 7:25:11 AM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: fieldmarshaldj; sickoflibs; Impy; BillyBoy; nutmeg; DarthVader; campaignPete R-CT; Clemenza; ...

“Better to be feared and respected than well-liked and get rolled by the opposition.”

Right DJ! I’ve been saying this for years. But, unfortunately, the “Lawrence Welk Crowd” CANNOT understand that this is a war we’re in, and SURPRISE, we’re losing/lost it. IMHO, the “Lawrence Welk Crowd” should go to Old Country Buffet and choke.

I’ve reached the conclusion that the barbarians have pretty won; the only thing the non-barbarians can do is to hunker down and survive.

Since there is no opposition party in this country anymore (the GOP? please...), survival is the only option. There is no General Pinochet to set things right.


12 posted on 01/06/2013 9:15:36 AM PST by GOPsterinMA (Time to musk up.)
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To: GOPsterinMA

General Sarah


13 posted on 01/06/2013 9:55:45 AM PST by campaignPete R-CT (we're the Beatniks now)
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To: campaignPete R-CT

Are you serious?

You or I have a better chance at being elected POTUS than her.


14 posted on 01/06/2013 10:00:19 AM PST by GOPsterinMA (Time to musk up.)
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To: GOPsterinMA

This is the man who is going to lead the new revived United States of America:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2975437/posts


15 posted on 01/06/2013 10:08:50 AM PST by DarthVader (Politicians govern out of self interest, Statesmen govern for a Vision greater than themselves)
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To: DarthVader

Yeas, but a rivived USA needs ~15-20 less states in it. Who’s going to do that?


16 posted on 01/06/2013 12:39:37 PM PST by GOPsterinMA (Time to musk up.)
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To: GOPsterinMA

nfl boredom
home team dominance


17 posted on 01/06/2013 12:55:56 PM PST by campaignPete R-CT (we're the Beatniks now)
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To: campaignPete R-CT

This SEA-WAS game is good!


18 posted on 01/06/2013 3:42:45 PM PST by GOPsterinMA (Time to musk up.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj; lentulusgracchus; Impy; BillyBoy; AuH2ORepublican; GOPsterinMA; ...
RE :”Was LBJ ruthless ? Of course. I think he probably remains unmatched as the most effective Majority Leader in the Senate before or since (and Republicans should use him as a model in that regard instead of the Melvin Milquetoasts that have followed. Better to be feared and respected than well-liked and get rolled by the opposition).”

Always the party-pooper I don't see where LBJ helps us here except .....

LBJ got re-elected POTUS, that means some voters liked him. Obama got re-elected POTUS contrary to certain predictions by Rush, Rove and Morris and many here. That means many voters liked him.

Now after the election we know that Obama was really running, we know that Obama really wanted to win, and we know that the polls were all not rigged (all contrary to what Rush told his listeners for two years), so now that we know that maybe Republicans could try getting more voters on their side, (not p,,,ing them off) .
You would be surpised what an effect that would have in DC.

19 posted on 01/06/2013 7:38:08 PM PST by sickoflibs (Fight like Dems, fight to win !)
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To: GOPsterinMA

The process of natural selection CIRD induced.


20 posted on 01/06/2013 8:00:22 PM PST by DarthVader (Politicians govern out of self interest, Statesmen govern for a Vision greater than themselves)
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