Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

After touching on the WSJ piece they take the exact opposite view of Morning Joe concerning republicans:

Republicans just opened up their widest lead since 1994 on the generic Congressional ballot poll. Obama is in negative double-digits pretty consistently on Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll of political polarity. Only 43% say they’d vote to re-elect Obama. And – perhaps mosting damning of all for the Democrats – for the first time that I can ever remember at least, the GOP leads the Dems in ALL TEN of the “voters trust” issues – including “Democrat friendly” issues like health care, social security, and education. Also note, the GOP has a sizable trust advantage on abortion – so don’t tell me that social issues are a loser for the GOP. I’m not buying it.

If present trends hold, Republicans look set to take back Senate seats in Pennsylvania and Delaware (two bluish Northeastern states), and conservatives look like they’re going to be sweeping the big three races in Virginia handily (showing that conservative Republicans can definitely win in purple states). The Iowa governourship appears set to revert to conservative Republican hands (another purplish state), and in Ohio (another purple state), a relatively unknown Rob Portman has caught up with and is now virtually tied with each of the better-known, statewide Democrat elected officials that he is matched up against for the open Senate seat. How are Democrats faring in red states? Not good at all – if the news that Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas’s incumbent moderate Democrat Senator trails all four of her potential Republican opponents is any indication.

So please, don’t try to feed me this blithering nonsense about how the GOP needs to run to the centre to win, and is currently perceived as too right-wing to be viable. Quite the opposite is in fact true. The GOP is viewed by its own base as being full of squishes, and is viewed by independents as incapable of providing the leadership on the issues that they want. If that were to change, the GOP would win elections solidly, even in purplish and northeastern districts like NY-23. The reasonably conservative Jim Tedisco lost the special election in NY-20 by only a few hundred votes – and that is a district where the Dems had won handily in both the previous elections, and which Obama easily carried. If that special election were being held today, Tedisco would probably win it.

The question becomes what do they actually want? I’ve actually already answered that here:

If your primary interest as a feudal lord is getting back on the gravy train with the king you certainly don’t want to have the peasants revolt against that largess.

If people who actually plan on acting get elected they will try to act, that might spill the gravy train.

Unfortunately for the GOP establishment there is now too much attention to play the game they way they want.

Now we will see who is who and what is what.

Vote Hoffman!

Update: Dan Riehl makes an interesting point

If grassroots conservatives have dropped the ball in some way, especially in the Northeast, it is that we haven’t done the hard work to take back the Republican Party from the ground up. To truly prevail we must do that.

It disappointed me to hear the Club for Growth’s Andy Roth blame RNC Chairman Michael Steele and the D.C. Republicans for giving us a Dede Scozzafava. He knows better than that, and he shouldn’t play that game simply to get his message across. Scozzafava got the nod based upon a state and local decision. It’s important for conservatives to understand how that came about.

It is not the D.C. GOP’s job to stab a state or local organization in the back, no matter what you may think. Money and support flow up and flow back down. A national political organization capable of winning elections can not afford to function any other way. Let’s stop playing games.

His point about getting involved is well made but that doesn’t change the fact the Scozzafava is a lousy candidate and the national party should have been circumspect about offending the grass roots movement that is making the difference in their support nationally.

Oh and note to Charles Johnson (peace be upon him) this is how you respectfully disagree with someone on a subject without offense, particularly if you agree on so many other subjects and in that spirit let me remind you that there is still space of the statement of common principles for anyone who wants to sign.