Posted on 11/04/2010 6:38:24 PM PDT by Saije
What the tea party, by which I mean members and sympathizers, has to learn from 2010 is this: Not only the message is important but the messenger.
Even in a perfect political environment, those candidates who were conservative but seemed strange, or unprofessional, or not fully qualified, or like empty bags skittering along the street, did not fare well...
This is the key question the tea party will face in 2012...
Electable doesn't mean not-conservative. Electable means mature, accomplished, stable—and able to persuade.
Conservatives talked a lot about Ronald Reagan this year, but they have to take him more to heart, because his example here is a guide. All this seemed lost last week on Sarah Palin, who called him, on Fox, "an actor." She was defending her form of policical celebrity—reality show, "Dancing With the Stars," etc. This is how she did it: "Wasn't Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn't he in 'Bedtime for Bonzo,' Bozo, something? Ronald Reagan was an actor."
Excuse me, but this was ignorant even for Mrs. Palin. Reagan people quietly flipped their lids, but I'll voice their consternation to make a larger point. Ronald Reagan was an artist who willed himself into leadership as president of a major American labor union (Screen Actors Guild, seven terms, 1947-59.) He led that union successfully through major upheavals (the Hollywood communist wars, labor-management struggles); discovered and honed his ability to speak persuasively by talking to workers on the line at General Electric for eight years; was elected to and completed two full terms as governor of California; challenged and almost unseated an incumbent president of his own party; and went on to popularize modern conservative political philosophy without the help of a conservative infrastructure. Then he was elected president.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Noonan has alot of nerve talking about ‘empty bags’. She is the epitome of an empty bag.....LOL! Sorry, I can’t stand the elitist rino hag.
I haven’t been a Noonan fan lately but this article is right on target.
You go with who the Republicans pick in the Primary an you get behind them. You do not say Oh!! They should have picked so and so. The RINO leadership cost us those elections.
“I haven’t been a Noonan fan lately but this article is right on target.”
I agree. I remember thinking right after Christine O’Donnell won the primary and was immediately 20 points down and getting hammered in the press, why didn’t she run for city council first, build up a resume, etc. Why are we being asked to support someone who hasn’t really done anything yet?
“You go with who the Republicans pick in the Primary an you get behind them. You do not say Oh!! They should have picked so and so. The RINO leadership cost us those elections.”
I can’t really agree with that. I only have so many dollars to donate, only so much time to give. I don’t feel as if I have to line up behind someone I don’t think is qualified just because that person won the primary. Doesn’t mean I work against that person but I don’t feel as if I have to go all in either.
And from what I can tell, all the GOP candidates who lost were well supported with money, etc., many even more money than they should have gotten. Angle raised something like $14 Million. O’Donnell over $2 Million.
I don’t think whining and blaming others are conservative traits. The people who lost have only themselves to blame.
Sez the Obama-supporting Peggy Noonan. Sorry, but the Tea Party train has left the station. And you weren't on it.
You have the right to make your own decision on where to spend your money. The Republican Party leaders do not.
They must support the candidates elected by the Republicans who voted in the primary.
When they do not , they are going against their own people.The people they expect to support them.
When they do that they are saying to those people,”You are not smart enough to vote for who you like”, We will make that decision for you.
When they make that decision for me they can KMA.
Peggy, you’re a putz - and your analysis is sand poundingly stupid.
So tell us oh wise Ms Noonan - who was the great mature established candidate that you and the other wizards of smart found to win Senate seats in Nevada or Delaware over the past 3 decades?
Which of those brilliant candidates made Harry Reid run for his life and spend millions in defense of his long held seat?
Which of those people made the President, VP, and past President campaign repeatedly in Delaware to defend a seat vacated by the sitting Vice President?
- oh but the political Climate was Perfect !
Yes, you idiot - it was perfect because for the first time in our life times there were a slate of candidates that were real and sincere - and might really slay this Governmental Leviathan - or at least put it back into it’s Constitutional cage - where it belongs.
If Peggy Noonan et al had there way, a list of milk toast GOP elite approved “mature” people would have created a big yawn from the voters, and it would’ve been business as usual.
The TEA Party needs to learn only this: Don’t believe what idiots like Peggy Noonan keep telling you.
This was a catty and angry article, and was probably reflective of the Romney consensus in the Capitol.
Palin needs to hit back, somehow.
She scored well, and she needs to knock some heads in the party in a major policy speech that puts her foot down against the compromisers who want to give the store away.
Best,
Chris
Slither away somewhere Peggy, you've made your bed by picking your leftist friends over the Conservatives and over this country, now sleep in it.
Every Peggy Noonan posting should have a BARF alert.
The Pegster’s writings mention ‘serious’ a lot. She seems to feel that being serious is the ne plus ultra for a politian.
Apparently we can now add ‘mature’ to what the Noonan woman sees as essential for our pols.
On Wednesday President Obama gave a news conference to share his thoughts … From my notes five minutes in: "This wet blanket, this occupier of the least interesting corner of the faculty lounge, this joy-free zone, this inert gas." By the end I was certain he will never produce a successful stimulus because he is a human depression.
Actually I thought the worst thing you can say about a president: that he won't even make a good former president.
His detachment is so great, it is even from himself. As he spoke, he seemed to be narrating from a remove. It was like hearing the audiobook of Volume I of his presidential memoirs. "Obama was frustrated. He honestly didn't understand what the country was doing. It was as if they had compulsive hand-washing disorder. In '08 they washed off Bush. Now they're washing off Obama. There he is, swirling down the drain! It's all too dramatic, too polar. The morning after the election it occurred to him: maybe he should take strong action. Maybe he should fire America! They did well in 2008, but since then they've been slipping. They weren't giving him the followership he needed. But that wouldn't work, they'd only complain. He had to keep his cool. His aides kept telling him, 'Show humility.' But they never told him what humility looked like. What was he supposed to do, burst into tears and say hit me? Not knowing how to feel humility or therefore show humility he decided to announce humility: He found the election 'humbling,' he said."
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