Barone finally catching up to what Cruz, and many of us knew, AT THE TIME!
The fiasco of Zerocare was hardly a hidden factor.
Republican voters wanted the shutdown and if they would have stuck to their guns they would have an even bigger win.
Pray America is waking
There’s a third factor in this past election that Townhall seems to have missed.
A black man attacks a white policeman, attempts to disarm the policeman, and is shot dead in the process. Obama and the Democrat party attempt to use this shooting to rally their black base to the polls for the midterm election, but something went wrong along the way. It now appears as if this shooting rallied more whites than blacks to the polls for this midterm election.
The leadership, although temporary, during the shutdown is what paved the way to this victory. Polls always take a temporary toll, but the outcome is what’s important. The owners of NFL teams and the players both chose to strike despite public sentiment, and what comes out of it the best deal possible for both sides and a product those same fans spend billions on to watch games, buy jerseys and travel to games. It’s a necessary evil to have those standoffs.
Just the same, the shutdown cemented in voters’ eyes the Republican opposition to Obamacare. When Obamacare website failed, it was clear who was responsible. When prices went up, when plans were lost and when doctors became unavailable, it was a clear who ‘owned it’.
What was the first thing the left did when the website failed? Started sullying the waters that this was a Republican idea, a Romney idea, something republicans pushed for. All lies, but the public eats up lies. This lie couldn’t stick because most everyone knew that we went to great lengths to prevent this disaster.
I am not sure Barone actually has all of his facts right here. We won some Senate seats with the strong fighters like last cycles. Sasse and Ernst come to mind. We didn’t go to battle with more ‘reasonable’ candidates any more than 2010 and 2012. We won seats back with temperate guys like Dan Coats in Indiana and others in 2010, too. We frankly won almost nothing in 2012 other than Cruz. The myth that candidates were better this time doesn’t hold much water. The Republican incumbents stayed for another election and won primaries. In NC, we were not even expecting Tillis to win a race that should have been a slam dunk. In most cases, I think a sack of potatoes could have won most of these races just by showing up and not talking about ‘legitimate’ rape. I do credit the party for having much improved candidate training this cycle. It seemed to have a good result, as did the improvements in GOTV. If we had some of this in place 2 years earlier, we would have won Florida, possibly Virginia, and probably 4 additional Senate seats (both tea party and establishment candidates who got beat would have benefited. All of the above failed in 2012)
Especially with the magnitude of the ‘pub victory in OH, I contend there was a “Ferguson Effect” across the US. Obama seems to relish the chaos out of control thugs cause there. Real people and real communities want a strong law and order response, not thugs running wild.
Cruz Control 2014, 2015, 2016
Barone got it half wrong, and it was very wrong. He got the Ebola factor right but the other half was complete rubbish.
He seems to be cheerleading the GOPe and slandering Tea Party Conservatives when in fact the Tea Party record has bragging rights. The GOPe’s candidates had margins that were uncomfortably close when in fact they should have routed the democrats handily.
Barone misses the hold-their-nose surge of republican voters because of the specter of AMNESTY. That factor completely escapes him. I am beginning to believe this old man is getting a bit limited in the comprehension department or he’s just been in the Beltway sphere too long.
It was the hold-your-nose factor that carried republicans with the tsunami. For him to write that the GOPe fielded more ‘palatable’ candidates is a hallucination.
And Boehner is not one to praise. Boehner is a danger to American society because he is going to pass amnesty for tens of millions of lawless aliens in order to appease his masters in the US Chamber of Commerce.
And did Barone mention Mississippi or other states where the GOPe stabbed conservatives in the back? Not a word. Oh it was a factor alright. A principled GOP leadership team would have eliminated a good portion of the ‘smell’ that republicans had to hold their noses for.
A tsunami election for the republicans does not mean the GOPe is now loved by its voter base. Just the opposite. As Sarah Palin said to the GOPe, “You Didn’t Build That”.
Firing Eric Cantor encouraged other candidates to eschew amnesty support.
Moral of Michael Barone's story: Elect more RINO's. Conservatives cannot win.
My Question: When are conservatives going to wake up?
If we’re looking for “little known” factors, I would offer up Obama’s heavy-handed actions during the government shutdown.
National Parks were closed, veterans were physically barred from visiting cherished memorials, even the freaking VIEW of Mt. Rushmore had to be obscured, and the media, thinking this might redound to the left’s benefit, reported on it in a big way. Bad move.
I think this revealed a huge character flaw in Obama, as we on the right already knew about, of course, but many in the middle and on the left had to be taking notice. The private sector was not spared pain, but government workers and government dependents took the brunt of the damage. His actions were petty, vindictive, and worse, unnecessary. Innocent people were harmed.
This was a “last straw” type revelation for those who were still on the fence about this guy’s motivations. I think things began to go south for Obama with his overreach during the shutdown.
In Indiana , we have a Congresswoman Susan Brooks. She is a nice smart woman. But she is another GOP persona that still doesn’t get it.
Shewas on local radio show yesterday sayoing we had to have a bill so Obama won’t use an EO for amnesty. She said we could add border security into it and pass a good bill.
What she totally misses is that Obama is already choosing to not enforce any law at all if he doesn’t want to.
The boneheads in Congress can’t really believe that Obama could easily sign a law like this, then choose to ignore it.
If the GOP is dumb enough to fall for this, they will lose all the gains they had and have almost no chance to ever be elected again.
This is what I worry about.
