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The Spectacle Blog
Andrew Pavelyev advances a novel argument: “While a lot has already been said about throwing away winnable Senate seats in Delaware,Colorado and Nevada, the blame for that failure lies not only with the losing anti-establishment candidates but also with the victorious ones — such as Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.” If Republicans had instead nominated safer candidates, he maintains, the party could have spent massively on candidates like Carly Fiorina in California.
Umm, Marco Rubio ran nearly 20 points ahead of Charlie Crist. Rand Paul won 56 percent of the vote. Carly Fiorina got perhaps 43 percent, not as close as Sharron Angle, nowhere near as close as Ken Buck, and only three points better than Christine O’Donnell. Maybe all the money spent on the Florida and Kentucky Senate races would have made a difference if spent in California. But the evidence since 1992 suggests it is more likely that any money spent there would have just been thrown down a rathole.
Most Republican primary voters want a majority that will actually do something, not simply a collection of people with the letter “R” next to their names. That may strike Pavelyev as “no good reason” to vote overwhelmingly against establishment-backed candidates in certain primaries. But it strikes most other people as no good reason to take seriously so-called reformist conservatives whose political analysis is often spectacularly wrong and generally vacilates between wetting the bed over any Republican electoral setback and condescension toward actual conservatives.
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More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
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CalMark| 11.5.10 @ 12:37PM
Great post! Bravo!
bobmontgomery| 11.5.10 @ 12:47PM
And so, while it may be the Winter of the Democrats' Discontent, it would seem the ones REALLY in denial, REALY delusional, may be card-carrying 'conservatives'.
Sheila| 11.5.10 @ 1:50PM
The GOP DID spend massively on Fiorina and Whitman in California. It poured millions in there and starved Ken Buck and Sharon Angle and Renee Elmers and others who could better have used that cash to win close elections. Even now, the NRSC is refusing to help Joe Miller fight off Murkowski and has told Elmers she's on her own in the recount Etheridge has demanded. The GOP establishment is still marginalizing conservative candidates and already has big plans to co-opt those who won. Decline and fall.
Willey| 11.6.10 @ 1:46AM
You're right, Sheila; the author is out to lunch. Angle didn't have the money for a ground game and that cost her the election.
Dixie Pixie| 11.5.10 @ 1:53PM
The Pavelyev post is simply the delusional cry of the Ruling Class that without the guidance of the Ruling Class the election was in jeopardy. This is after running Conservatives as Conservatives produced the biggest electoral upset in living history.
The Ruling Class is spewing delusions as a squid spews ink and for the same reasons. The TEA Party was aimed at changing the nations course by changing the leadership. This was a dagger to the heart of the Ruling Class. The response was predicable in that the Ruling Class would try to wish the election results away though misleading rhetoric.
Bo| 11.5.10 @ 1:55PM
It doesn't matter if the candidate is moderate, conservative, or a mentally challenged TPer. If they're a good candidate that people like they're going to win or come close. A moderate goofball or a TPer goofball is always going to lose. You have to be almost perfect to win in some states because they're so liberal, to boot.
jkr| 11.5.10 @ 1:57PM
Well, yeah, because they beat them in the primary. That is how it works.
JP| 11.5.10 @ 2:08PM
I'm surprised no one mentioned the fact that during the final 5 days of the campaign the RNC put the last of its $8 million into Fiorina's campaign. Angle might have squeeked out a victory if that money went to Nevada.
Also, the Dems crushed the GOP as far as fundraising went. Steele, whose main job was to fundraise, totally screwed up. Most of the House and Senate races relied on thier own funds as well as 501.c funding, and thankfully realized that the RNC would be no help. Both the House and Senate campaign committees backed either RINOS or outright Liberals. What a strange campaign season it was.
MacAoidh | 11.5.10 @ 3:16PM
Seems to me that just as many "establishment" Republicans lost Senate races as Tea Party types did. You say Angle, O'Donnell and Buck and I'll say Fiorina, Raese and Rossi.
All this is an extension of the "Tea Party cost us a majority" meme, which is BS. (http://thehayride.com/2010/11/post-mortem-analysis-in-defense-of-the-tea-party)
PattyMor| 11.5.10 @ 3:29PM
The Reps. are engaging in finger pointing. If the leadership had not put the last $8M in Fioria's campaign, they could have funded a ground game in Colorado & Nevada and saved those seats.
Look in the mirror boys!!
Oldefarte| 11.5.10 @ 4:08PM
If, as Dandy Don Meredith once sang on MNF, IF IFS AND BUTS WERE CHERRY AND NUTS, WE'D ALL HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS! Well the 'nuts' were obviously the California voters who, with a $20 billion defecit, chose Brown over the corporate executive and financial capable Whitman!!!!!!!!!!
JmsA| 11.6.10 @ 2:03AM
Hear! Hear!
Alice Moore| 11.6.10 @ 8:10AM
I would say the GOP and conservatives have a better chance in North Korea than California. Californians are voting themselves an East Germany. The ExSoviets really must be gnashing their teeth; all that effort to keep the boot on the neck of a land locked Middle European piece of real estate. Californians would have voted them in gulags and all.
Penny| 11.5.10 @ 4:28PM
The impudence of the old guard is simply astounding. Not one of them would have a platform to air their delusions without the advent of the Tea Party, for which they along with the rest of America, should thank God. Every day. Until 2012 and 2014 or as long as it takes to get rid of them and the socialists.
Dai Alanye | 11.5.10 @ 10:35PM
Neither Fiorina nor Whitman were particularly good candidates. Fiorina came across as catty and sneering, plus her reputation at Hewlett-Packard was hardly a plus. A more sympathetic candidate would surely have defeated Boxer.
As for Whitman, it takes more than business experience to make a good politician. Better had she once run for school board or town council rather than starting at the top.
Willey| 11.6.10 @ 1:48AM
Carly was a better candidate than Whitman, but both were weak.
dadfly| 11.6.10 @ 2:44AM
"weak" is being kind. two people who have never run a campaign at any level. two people who carried extreme personal baggage in ca and the silicon valley. two people who were hand picked by mccain. enough said.
Christopher Holland| 11.6.10 @ 12:01AM
You can not win with these RINOs, they are a waste of space. They tell conservatives to shut up and sit at the back of the bus - they can not win so don't scare the horses. When the conservatives win the primaries, the RINOs bolt and run as independents - after claiming that the conservatives are a threat to party unity. When conservatives win the election the RINOs now say that they could have won more if there had been more of the big tent, Charlie Crist mob. Jesus, give me a break!
These people are a waste of space - there has to be a house cleaning, nothing will ever be achieved with these losers. The Tea Party can't give up now, only part of the job has been done, they have to keep going until they are the Republican Party.
Voter Fraud| 11.6.10 @ 1:29AM
Ground Game...my a**!
Angle led by 4 and lost by 5 - 9 points...And we have reports of registration fraud, machines repeatedly flipping the votes, power failures-
Reid is nothing more than a pond scum fraud.
Yes, we need good conservative candidates... but we need to stop fraud.
Willey| 11.6.10 @ 1:50AM
Angle didn't have the money for a ground game because the money went to Fiorina--it's possible Angle could have won with more support. You're right about election fraud, though--no one is dirtier than Dingy Harry.
dadfly| 11.6.10 @ 2:32AM
the problem with this argument is that i've now heard reliable reports that the NRSC apparently took a foolish gamble (we tea partiers knew that ca was likely a lost cause once fiorina and whitman were installed by the republican machine here, and in hind sight we were all right--i.e., the went for the failed mccain strategy again) and flushed away several million dollars on fiorina in california in the last 2 weeks of the campaign that could have easily clinched the elections of tea party candidates who are/were still fighting to win in co, ak, and even nevada. the argument presented is incoherent.
Solomon Kleinsmith | 11.7.10 @ 11:55PM
Y'all are missing the point, and I love it.
I really do hope you keep running extremists like that... and I hope the dems do too. Its going to make sure that neither of you have a majority.
Swing voters like me are fed up with both of your parties. Polls are crystal clear on that. Best thing going for you is the dems are too liberal... best thing going for them is you're too conservative. Leaves the 60+% of the rest of the country with split government as the best option.
Keep it up righties!
Solomon Kleinsmith
Rise of the Center