« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

MEMBER DIARY

Picking smart candidates

By: Griffin@griffinelection (Diary)  |  December 14th, 2012 at 06:10 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I recently had the opportunity to hear the Tea-Party anointed candidate for Virginia’s Republican primary race next year for Lieutenant Governor.  This will be the candidate running with Ken Cuccinelli for Governor.  This candidate is one of seven candidates.  She has positioned herself to be the farthest to the right on every issue.  Ask her a question and her answer will meet our litmus test.  For that, I commend her and those supporting her candidacy.

But I wonder, has our knee-jerk reaction against the establishment become one where we only look at a person’s espoused viewpoints?  I think beliefs and worldview is where we have to start.  But my concern arises, when we pluck county supervisors out of obscurity to run for statewide office.  Maybe four years ago, this would have been ok.  But we have lived through the Christine O’Donnell nightmare now.  We know how bad it can get.  We have seen the enemy and it is us.    

Holding a previous office shouldn’t be a pre-requisite for running for higher office.  We don’t necessarily need lifetime politicians running everything.  But in the age of media and fundraising, green candidates face off against a hostile media and seasoned opponents.  If the Virginia primary has six candidates that are unacceptable, then that is fine, we’ll go with the seventh.  But if we have people that are 100% pro-life, for cutting taxes, shrinking government and the protection of land and gun owners, then we need to be careful who we crawl into bed with.

Many of us made the mistake of going all in for a presidential candidate who happened to forget the three government agencies he was campaigning to eliminate on national television.  We need to try to do better if we can from now on.  We need to learn our lessons, not repeat them.  If so many of us hadn’t coalesced around Perry so early, there may have been time for a superior-Romney-alternative to have jumped in.  Instead, we have four more years of Obama.  This means approaching inexperienced candidates gingerly – not lining up and endorsing them six months before the primary.  

We can be conservative and responsible at the same time.

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • plumely

    first of all Mitt Romney was anything but Conservative. And if we keep running squishy Republicans we will never get anywhere in an election. And even if we do win, none of our conservative ideas will ever see the light of day and it will lead to the Democrats putting up an even more radical leftist candidate. So, I say damn the torpedoes and keep running Conservative candidates. Eventually, one will win and get into office and make a difference. That is my hope.

    • commonsenseobserver

      Yes, keep running Conservative candidates.

      That doesn’t necessarily have to be the most unelectable one.

      • mtmnd

        One vote for picking mart candidates, two votes against.

      • plumely

        I agree that we need to vet our candidates much better. Didn’t know much about Christine O’Donnell, but apparently she was a disaster.

  • Jim_Riggs

    I find it difficult to believe the state that elected Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe is going to elect Ken Cuccinelli.

    • revtm

      lets hope they elect Ken Cuccinelli, and not Terry McAuliffe

    • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

      Patrick Henry? The man of “Give me liberty or give me death” fame? That Christian opponent of all forms of tyranny HIMSELF wouldn’t be electable in today’s Virginia or America …

      he’d be tagged as a rabid right-wing Christian teabagger throwback, unsuited for our ‘modern’ age of TSA groping, trillion dollar deficits, affirmative action quotas, political correctness and massive Government taxation and spending. The WashPost would call his ‘give me death!” statement ‘violent rhetoric’ and he’d be blamed for supporting the 2nd amendment and the Bill of Rights anytime there is violence.

      “We need to balance the needs of the children with our so-called Bill or Rights” they’d bleat.

      The liberal answer to “Give me liberty or give me death!” is … “go ahead, and die.”

      • Jim_Riggs

        You’re right that liberals today would scorn him but more than likely so would conservatives. After all, he did oppose the US Constitution. Where would that put him today?

  • http://llphsecondrevolution.wordpress.com/ spoasteph97

    There are quite a few examples of good candidates. One of them that I supported (very fiscally responsible) was Senator-Elect Jeff Flake( one of my favorites although some around here don’t like him that much due to a few disagreements, but I will make my point anyway).

    Sen. Elect Flake was attacked viciously by his Democrat opponent for voting against veteran legislations. If Sen Elect Flake had been like Christine O Donnell or Todd Akin…he would have been going good-bye. But instead, he took action.

    First, he immediately released a statement all over the internet about his record of voting FOR veteran legislations. He also explained in a simple way (not angrily, but politely) that he voted against them because they spent too much money. Then, he held press conferences with veterans supporting him and continued enforcing the point that he supported veterans with CONSERVATIVE LEGISLATION (not big-government-spending ones).

    For his effort, he was elected by campaigning on Conservative principles. Conservatives don’t need to back down, we just need candidates who can explain conservative values in a clear, articulate manner.

  • freemkts

    What you need is people with conservatives values AND a working brain in their head. Too often people see these as being mutually exclusive. I don’t care what your positions are, if all you can do is chirp 9-9-9 and think Uhzbecki-becki-becki-stan is a country we don’t need you. If you’ve got to write crib notes in the palm of your hand we don’t need you. If you confuse Elvis’ birthday with the day he died or John Wayne’s hometown with John Wayne Gacy’s hometown we don’t need you.

    There’s plenty of well qualified, intelligent conservatives out there, of the Paul Ryan variety that we can choose from. We just need to wise up and hold our own people to a higher intellectual standard.