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Lets focus on down ticket races

By: dragan (Diary)  |  March 16th, 2012 at 01:18 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

As an ardent Tea Partier in CA, it pains me to write this diary. In the presidential race, I will do my part voting for our nominee (holding my nose) but would play a more active role in the down ticket races to increase Conservative not RINO members in Congress. As each day passes, I am feeling more and more that we would have a bruised Romney or Santorum against a well oiled Obama machinery. Here are my reasons for the decision:

1. Romney will have NO credible and differentiating platform of issues to run against Obama. (HealthCare, Religion, Reaching out to the common voter are off the table).  All we are left with are the economy and Gas prices. Economy now seems to be a weaker argument to run on and campaigning on gas prices is the riskiest if not a Hail Mary strategy.

2. Santorum would be an awesome Social conservative candidate but may not be able to build a national organization in a short span of time post June if not September. In addition, his policy on manufacturing flies against our core principle of not wanting Government to pick winners and losers. Remember, if he is the nominee, he would not only have to fight the Obama machine but also the establishment. It would be tough for him pre and post elections and we would only set him up for failure.

3. Gingrich is a very good fiscal conservative with all the experience and successful record to showcase. He has a far tougher task against the establishment than Santorum has. Remember, most in the establishment dont want to deal with him. In addition, his main plank of $2.5/gallon gas is fundamentally flawed, populist and flies in the face of rational intelligence. I am not even going into his personal baggage which, in my opinion, is a sideshow that can definitely not help him.

I would suggest that we let the establishment have its candidate this presidential election cycle. Since the odds of failure are getting higher, let them take the hit. In the meantime, let us fortify Congress with conservative members so that we dont get let down by the likes of Boehner and McConnell. This would ensure that Obama would not ram down his liberal agenda.  I may sound like I am giving up but I am being practical here. As I said earlier, it pains me to write this diary

COMMENTS

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  • Scope

    I can’t remember her name right now, but yesterday on Fox she said that she talks to many of the big dollar donors regularly, and that they are suffering from donor fatigue. She said that many of them are now turning their focus onto down ticket races.

    Romney has been outspending his opponents by large margins, and that means he has to keep going back to tap the dollar sources again and again. His super PAC spent $2 million in TV ads in Miss and AL, compared to Santorums super PAC spending just $221,000 in those states. We know who won those races. Now I read that the Romney super PAC is spending $3.4 million in ads in ILL, and Santorum’s super PAC has spent about $340,000 in Ill. I am absolutely thankful for every state, and every voter that is not allowing themselves to be bought by Romney. If Romney wasn’t spending as much, his opponents wouldn’t be forced to spend as much. Hopefully the fatigued donors cut off the Romney spigot, as he hasn’t yet successfully bought the nomination.

    • dragan

      I personally hate donating to super pacs. I prefer donating directly to the candidate as I, may be mistakenly, believe that money to campaigns would help in knowing the candidate better and money to super pacs encourages through mud on others. I plan to donate to the down ticket races and no more to presidential races. I know donating in CA to conservative candidates is not a great proposition but hey, I am doing my part. Someday, CA may atleast turn purple

      • bankalyst

        Ironic is that the “smart money” is actually overwhelmingly betting on Romney. His donor list is literally an all-star list of the smartest money. For example, Dan Loeb, investing icon and lifelong Democrat, big 2008 Obama supporter/donor, now disillusioned with Dems and Obama and big Romney supporter/donor. Julian Rombertson, John Paulson, Ken Griffin, Paul Singer, Robert Mercer, John Griffin, and the list goes on. These guys are all billionaires, large Romney donors and are in no way ”fatigued”. In fact, I would bet that many of these donors are not focusing on down ticket campaigns at all.

        • garfieldjl

          They think Romney has their liberal views and is the most like Obama in that regard, but they think Romney is more competitent than Obama.

          Other possibility is that they’ll start supporting Obama again in the general election, and they just wanted to have Obama face the opponent he would have the easiest time beating.

  • avagreen

    Yesterday my husband accidentally answered one of their copious phone calls and told them to go fish r/t their stonewalling his “candidate” and told them “you know who”. And, then he hung up.

    Felt good.