Posted on 11/07/2013 6:46:41 AM PST by rhema
"You know what makes a good loser?" Ernest Hemingway once wrote. "Practice." And if you know anything about Virginia's gubernatorial race, then you understand that the real loser wasn't conservative Ken Cuccinelli. It was the Republican Party. Late last night, politicos clacked away at their computers, performing their own postmortems on a race that proved to be more unpredictable than anyone expected. Double-digit leads, the ObamaCare effect, gender gaps -- they all managed to turn the media's foregone conclusions about Democrats' invincibility on their head.
Despite his deadbeat party, lackluster fundraising, a third-party candidate (funded, it turns out, by Obama loyalists!), and a constant barrage of lies, Ken Cuccinelli finished last night's race only three points behind liberal Terry McAuliffe. He won over Independents (47-38%), outperformed expectations on women (41-52%, while handily winning among married women 51-42%), and swept the 53% of voters opposed to ObamaCare (by a whopping 81%).
By late Tuesday night, the candidate who enjoyed a double-digit lead heading into the election -- McAuliffe -- didn't even win a majority of the vote. That's not, as the media would have you believe, the result of a flawed candidate in Cuccinelli -- but a flawed campaign. Unfortunately for Virginia conservatives, Ken's biggest opponent was never Terry McAuliffe. It was his own party. While the Democrat watched millions stream in from outside groups, the state's biggest GOP donors walked away from Cuccinelli -- and took their money with them.
Outspent an estimated 10:1, Ken had neither the cash flow nor the infrastructure to beat back the Left's constant drubbing (Democrats ran more than 5,600 spots on the abortion issue alone!). Even when McAuliffe hitched his campaign to a reviled law like ObamaCare (which even the President refused to mention on the stump), Democrats rallied around their own. And what did the Republican Establishment do? It starved their candidate, who happened to be one of the most prominent leaders in the legal fight against ObamaCare. That kind of reckless abandonment is inexcusable for a party that claims its first priority is repealing the policy that Ken Cuccinelli took to the Supreme Court.
Like us,RedState's Erick Erickson knows where the finger-pointing will lead. "The GOP will take the lesson from Virginia that if they aren't suddenly socially liberal, they're going to lose nationwide. Instead, they should pay attention to how quickly the polling gap closed once Cuccinelli turned the race into a referendum on ObamaCare. And they should also note that being pro-life in Virginia was not what did in Ken Cuccinelli. McAuliffe tried to mobilize his whole base with a 'war on women' strategy and nearly lost once Cuccinelli attacked ObamaCare head on. The war on women got trumped at the end by ObamaCare."
The Republican National Committee (the same RNC that spent triple on the Governor's race in 2009) insists that it did what it could in Virginia. But when push comes to shove, NRO's Jonah Goldberg explains, it's the grassroots who come out on the losing end. "For all the talk about how the base needs to cooperate with the Establishment more, it's worth remembering that the base almost always does its part on Election Day. It's the Establishment that is less reliable in returning the favor."
Does the Republican Party resent pro-family conservatives so much that it will desert them to fit their own faulty narrative -- that social issues are losing ones? If the GOP would rather concede races to corrupt liberals than go to the mat on values that a majority of Virginians support, then it's clear who the real extremists are.
Republican Party is not an opposition party. It is rather, a party organized so as to make democrats look good.
Hmmmmm....maybe the Republican Establishment WANTED Cuccinelli to lose.
What really is shocking is that I do believe the republican establishment would rather lose than elect conservatives. What’s worse...commies wanting to take over America, or the people trying to empower them?
Support specific candidates and abandon the Republican leadership. They are disorganized and corrupt.
I’m an RNC Life Member and usually inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. NO MORE! From here on out conservative and Tea Party groups are all that will get my contributions. I’m waiting for the next RNC fundraising call to tell them what I’m going to do and why. I urge every other FReeper to do the same and go on a contribution strike against them and RINOs in general. Being from TN, I intend to do my best to defeat Alexander in the primary and elect Bob Carr. People from SC should do the same and flush Lindsey Graham.
Good take.
That says it all, and it is time we stop doing our part. These clowns seem to think it is their position to tell us who will run for office, and I for one, am sick and tired of candidates who talk conservative, but get into office and tell me I am too stupid to know what is good for me. That they have to "work together," which means democrats bring communism to the table and the Republicans give them socialism, and call it bipartisan. I know we can't get everything we want from every candidate, but when the party undermines its candidates because they don't meet the litmus test of spineless, it is time to fight. There is another post this morning in which Hatch blames the shut down on Cruz, and Lee. I mean, these guys are using the same talking points as the Democrats, and lying to us just as much.
Been doing that for at least 5 years now.
The Republican Party has too many principles in a nation where those can be bent or broken and the average voter is OK with that... The Democrats constantly break the rules, morals even cheat and lie. The voter shrugs their shoulders. The Republicans try and take the high road and get low blows from the opposition routinely with no defense.Losing these many battles on points..
May I also add the perfect storm for an opposing team is an opponent with fractures and divisions with that opposing team. A united Democrat Party vs the Divided in two GOP + the Libertarians is a formula the Democrats will slap around fo years to come.. Not until a united Republican Party can an election on a national scale be won.
But they aren’t taking the high road. they only want you to think that.
They are in the dirt rolling around with snakes, because they are also snakes.
Hmmmmm....maybe the Republican Establishment WANTED Cuccinelli to lose.
They “blue” it????? Although that does seem rather descriptive of the GOPe.
Maybe I’m an old fogey who is lost in the past, but I was raised on Joel Broyhill, an Alexandria that was a nice conservative place to live. But now....Gov. MacRat and the child beater congressman of my hometown. Virginia is circling the drain. One or two more elections like this, and we’ll be Maryland.
Maybe a new hashtag needs to get started: Potemkin Republicans, or Potemkin GOP. A GOPe which is closer to the leftist Rats than conservatives and would rather the Rats win than a conservative who they can’t control.
The Bull [sh*t] Moose Party is very happy. Teddy Roosevelt has finally accomplished the progressive, patrician takeover of the Republican Party he masterminded almost a hundred years ago.
Some nuggets from the Bull Moose Platform (1912):
NATIONAL HEALTH CARE
SOCIAL SECURITY
FEDERAL INCOME TAX
DIRECT ELECTION OF SENATORS
INHERITANCE TAX
Teddy and Obama would get along famously—at the “Hah-vudd Klub”. Think about this the next time an Establishment Republican disses the Tea Party.
The Dems and the GOP are just two wings of the same party.
“I’m waiting for the next RNC fundraising call to tell them what I’m going to do and why.”
Someone mentioned on another thread last night that the next time they receive a request in the mail from the RNC for a donation, they’re going to enclose tea bag and mail it back to them. I thought that was a great idea - - if enough people do it, maybe they’ll get the message.
Another FReeper said it would be a waste of a good tea bag. I say, use the tea bag, let it dry out and then mail it - -double duty for 1 tea bag :-)
Like it or not, single women, with or without children, of all races; are the most powerful demographic. Not because of number but because the are the swing vote that can be swayed.
This is what you get with delayed, or deferred marriage. The government becomes the “man”, and completes the household.
Either marriage rate increases again or Republicans adopt.
Defund the RNC.
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