On January 20th the day after the Scott Brown Election, commenting on the arrogance of the defeated Democrats for the electorate I wrote this:
If the GOP doesn’t take advantage of this foolishness it’s only because they are not trying.
Well the Massachusetts GOP tried so hard that they didn’t even bother to run a candidate against the vulnerable Coakley. If it hadn’t been for Jim McKenna’s write-in campaign she would be sailing to re-election
Today at National Review ObiWan again used a military metaphor:
Jim: Generally, what should the Republicans be doing?
Obi-Wan: Avoid the saddest mistake that’s made in conflict – McClellan at Antietam, Mead at Gettysburg, or the Falaise Gap in WWII, or not letting Patton go for the Siegfried Line before that terrible winter and most of our casualties in Europe. Experts lack imagination and can’t seize the chance for Cannae-like victory.
Can you imagine with all the ethical vulnerabilities you have been showing about Schumer – not to mention that he’s more a symbol of this Congress than anyone and he’s got pretty unimpressive numbers – the GOP is not even mounting a campaign against him?
That the trick Attack Attack Attack
The Democrats have been under siege (ala Petersburg) defending unpopular policies that republicans have been nailing them on, first slowly then finally breaking through their flanks on both left and right. They are fleeing this president in the same way as the Confederates were fleeing Grant. This Mosque is one issue that the President has decided to stop and fight on as did the Confederates at Sayler’s Creek. Sheridan had the right answer saying: “Go Right through them, they are demoralized as hell.”
And as Stacy points out it’s not just timidness it’s not knowing where the fight actually is:
Nothing illustrates the disconnect between money and brains in the GOP than a fact highlighted by Jimmie Bise: Charlie Crist raised $4.3 million in a single three-month period of 2009.
The more I think about that, the angrier I get. Who were these more-money-than-brains people who wrote those checks for Crist? Did they just take the word of John Cornyn and Jim Greer that Crist was the man to beat in the Florida GOP Senate primary?
A fool and his money are soon parted, and there are times when the Republican Party resembles nothing so much as a scam for separating rich fools from their money.
For $4.3 million, you could have paid 86 bloggers $50,000 a year.
As I have been living off of $27k a year unemployment the number is staggering but more important is that 86 bloggers putting up 6 posts a day could literally write a post about EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE RUNNING FOR CONGRESS EVERY SINGLE DAY.
If even half of said bloggers were on the road covering campaigns you could have fresh stories that come direct from the districts boosting said candidates rather than the MSM stories attacking them coming from Washington. What kind of Stories? Well how about reports from candidate forums Georgia or Profiles of candidates in Maryland or interviews with candidates in NC and California or reports direct from Alaska.
These kind of reports, positive reports coming out on a daily basis keep the opposition demoralized, instead of being able to force us to play on their field.
and the last warning comes from Glenn Reynolds and reader:
But if the GOP establishment fights us to the end, then it will take an actual third-party to engage the public in transforming our political system. That will take much more time, and much more effort. And it will be a bloody mess (hopefully only figuratively! my biggest fear is otherwise) for years as we clean up the pieces of the train wreck they have driven us into.
Indeed. As I’ve warned before, if the GOP retakes Congress and then blows it, we’re likely to see not only a third-party Presidential challenge, but a lot of third-party challengers for Congressional seats.
It’s like Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, you get one shot, don’t blow it.
Update: Yet another Instalanche! Thanks Glenn. Hi folks, since your last visit we have scared John Olver, been Scheduled Saturday for another guest appearance on WCRN from 2-4 p.m. and should have a new Examiner column up before I hit the sack. Update: My examiner article Will the voters buy the One Nation timeshare is now up
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