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Karl Rove: History Favors Republicans in 2010
NRO ^ | November 13, 2008 | Greg Pollowitz

Posted on 11/14/2008 10:20:53 AM PST by RobinMasters

Karl Rove has a rosy assessment of the GOP's chances in 2010 in today's WSJ. An excerpt:

History will favor Republicans in 2010. Since World War II, the out-party has gained an average of 23 seats in the U.S. House and two in the U.S. Senate in a new president's first midterm election. Other than FDR and George W. Bush, no president has gained seats in his first midterm election in both chambers.

Since 1966, the incumbent party has lost an average of 63 state senate and 262 state house seats, and six governorships, in a president's first midterm election. That 2010 is likely to see Republicans begin rebounding just before redistricting is one silver lining in an otherwise dismal year for the GOP.

In politics, good years follow bad years. Republicans and Democrats have experienced both during the past 15 years. A GOP comeback, while certainly possible, won't be self-executing and automatic. It will require Republicans to be skillful at both defense (opposing Mr. Obama on some issues) and offense (creating a compelling agenda that resonates with voters). And it will require leaders to emerge who give the rig

(Excerpt) Read more at media.nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
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To: Ranjit
For example, in North Carolina Richard Burr(R) US senator can win by being more conservative and start building the ground game for the next 2 years. Same thing in Indiana, we can win it in 2010. Atlease we can win in the conservative states(pre obama) like North Carolina and Indiana.

I'm not quite sure what you mean here. Are you saying Lugar needs to be more conservative in order for us to be in better shape in 2012 in IN? Or are you suggesting that we can somehow defeat Bayh in 2010? I don't think either is likely to happen. Lugar has never been much of a movement conservative. He's not quite a RINO, but close. Evan Bayh isn't going to get beat. The Bayh family is too strong here and I don't think Evan has ever lost a race. He won statewide races here when the Republican party was much stronger than it is now.

I think Mitch Daniels may go for Lugar's seat once he retires.
41 posted on 11/14/2008 10:56:26 AM PST by jackinbox
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To: kabar
Rove is going to be wrong on this one.

Listen to what strategy Rove and his fellow GOP appartchiki are advocating: Fresh, new packaging for the same Bushonomics we've had for the last eight years and doing a better job at getting the message out.

Here's a news flash, Karl: When what the GOP is offering is just democrat party lite, voters will default to the real thing every time. If you really want to win, get back to your conservative roots. It works every time.

42 posted on 11/14/2008 10:56:44 AM PST by E. Cartman (Will Bush, Bernanke or Paulson let Uncle Sam handle their personal wealth?)
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To: sickoflibs
Let’s not blow it. Remember 1993-1994, we had a party to be proud of.

Which is because Karl Rove hadn't yet burst on the scene and Bush was still locked up in rehab somewhere.

43 posted on 11/14/2008 10:58:08 AM PST by E. Cartman (Will Bush, Bernanke or Paulson let Uncle Sam handle their personal wealth?)
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To: RobinMasters

Anybody know whether there’s a log being kept right from the start as to what campaign promises the president has broken/will break? Not assumptions or b.s. on “what he’s gonna do”, but hard data on what he said and how he broke each promise?


44 posted on 11/14/2008 11:14:41 AM PST by jagusafr ("Bugs, Mr. Rico! Zillions of 'em!" - Robert Heinlein)
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To: RobinMasters

Rove has jumped the shark in my book. He’s just trading on his past success in a quirky environment — trying to build up the ‘stash’ when the SHTF.


45 posted on 11/14/2008 11:16:32 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: 1Old Pro

Because they were in the majority, for the last two elections Republicans had more senators at risk, like 22 vs 12 Dems in this election. In the coming elections in 2010, 2012, 2014, it will be more Democrats up for re-election, plus the Obama regime will strip 3-5 current entrenched Democrat senators from the ranks (Obama, Biden, and Hillary, and maybe a couple more).

As Reagan said, our job isn’t to run toward the middle or the ethnic groups - it’s to bring them over to your side. There are no “moderates” in the middle that the Republicans have to shift left toward. These “moderates” are for the most part those not engaged in or observant of political activities. They are the mindless “Jay-walkers” that Jay Leno plays up regulary, who couldn’t even tell you who’s running unless it’s on MTV or YouTube. They are easily persuadable with a good message. Republicans lately just haven’t been good at messages. Paris Hilton did a better commercial along these lines than the McCain geniuses did.

Following Rove and these other clowns who say that the path to victory is in the middle have a record of defeat. Ronald Reagan who said we should emphasize our differences in “bold colors”, not “faint pastels” won every time.


46 posted on 11/14/2008 11:19:38 AM PST by oldbill
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To: oldbill

I definately agree, run as principled conservatives, not RINO’s.


47 posted on 11/14/2008 11:23:22 AM PST by 1Old Pro (Obamarx wants Redistributive Reparations)
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To: RobinMasters

Karl, we want Conservatives, not RINOS.


48 posted on 11/14/2008 11:25:01 AM PST by mass55th (Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway...John Wayne)
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To: E. Cartman

Rove is a legend in his own mind. He lost Congress and he split the party with his strategy of trying to co-opt Dem issues such as amnesty, precription drugs, education, etc.


49 posted on 11/14/2008 12:09:02 PM PST by kabar
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To: E. Cartman

LOL

E Cartman?? Eric is my favorite Character on SP. Inside us we all have an Eric that wants to be completely self centered and fool people to get what we want, but we can’t for many reasons. So we watch SP.


50 posted on 11/14/2008 12:15:37 PM PST by sickoflibs ( Have we had enough pain and humiliation? To revival and another 1993.)
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To: EagleUSA

If these were normal times, he would be right. Unfortunately these are not normal times because there will be a firmy entrenched democrat dictatorship in two years.


51 posted on 11/14/2008 2:30:04 PM PST by jesseam (Been there and done that!)
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To: SENTINEL
My friend, I am afraid that you, like many freepers, completely underestimate the marketing genius of Rove, the charismatic Norwegian-American mastermind of many an interesting campaign.

He is a man who can spend hundreds of millions of contributed dollars to no perceptible effect. Many depend upon his psychic, nay clairvoyantly accurate, prediction that "Latinos are the Republicans of the Future." Who, I ask you, can forget his memorable handling of GW's election against Gore, in which he turned a potentially boring landslide for Bush into an intensely fought, thrilling cliff-hanger that wound up in court? All of this on a tight, $1/2 Billion budget. And those GW commercials? Who else could have chosen a Democrat ad agency to make them?

Wadda guy!

52 posted on 11/14/2008 7:10:29 PM PST by Kenny Bunk (Marxist Muslim Cousin Odinga burned Christians in their churches. Obama bought him the gas.)
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To: RobinMasters

So which 33 or so Senators are up in O ten?


53 posted on 11/14/2008 7:18:31 PM PST by csmusaret (Mortgage meltdown, $4.00 gas, stockmarket meltdown. Welcome to the Pelosi/Reid economy.)
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To: SENTINEL

It’d be nice if Rove would stop saying that Bush won 44% of the Hispanic vote in 2004. He did not. That figure was not only later corrected by the exit polling company that provided it on election day, it was also thoroughly debunked from analysts on both the Left and Right.

Bush most likely won 38-40% of the latino vote in 2004; good for a Republican, but at the same time a standard double-digit blow out.


54 posted on 11/17/2008 4:01:54 PM PST by Aetius
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