● RIP The Tea Party: The Tea Party continues its march toward political oblivion. For some time now, I’ve told you that the GOP has learned to fight back and now intends to shut out the Tea Party crazies. The Tea Party recognized this and whined and whined and whined, especially about loyalty... hypocrites. Ted Cruz actually whined about the GOP leadership “carpet-bombing” the Tea Party.
Anyways, when the GOP first started fighting back, the Tea Party decide to put all of their eggs in one basket as a determined show of force. If they could execute Mitch McConnell, then the GOP would learn not to resist them. That was the plan.
Thus, Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, every other Tea Party luminary, the Senate Conservative Fund and every other Tea Party group endorsed and donated to McConnell’s opponent Bevins. For months, Rush and Hannity and the other Talk Radio nut jobs smeared McConnell with any lie and distortion they could think of. They made it very plain: You could not be a reel ‘merikan and not see McConnell as worse that Pelosi.
I told you, however, that McConnell would win easily because the GOP had learned to beat the crazies. And that is exactly what has happened. McConnell crushed Bevins by a mile on Tuesday.
Naturally, the Tea Party is now trying to back away from this. This has taken several phases. First, they started saying about two months ago that winning wasn’t their intent. Instead, they claimed it was enough to raise awareness. That’s called “managing expectations” and that’s horseship. Secondly, many are now disclaiming Bevins as a real Tea Party candidate because (1) he lied about supporting the bailout, (2) he lied about his education, (3) he suggested that gay marriage would allow parents to marry their children, and (4) he gave a campaign speech at a cockfighting rally. In reality, however, he’s no different than the other crazies they’ve been backing all over the place. The only reason they want to disavow him now is because his was the race they couldn’t win... so they want to pretend they weren’t involved in the race. Drudge actually described Bevins as McConnell’s “ ‘Tea Party’ Challenger,” in quotes, to suggest that he wasn’t really Tea Party. Presumably, the establishment falsely labeled Bevins as Tea Party.
One article tonight laughingly claimed that the true Tea Party victory in this election cycle was in Nebraska, where the winner (Sasse) is an insider if ever there was one, is a friend of Mitch McConnell, and was originally framed by the Tea Party as the evil establishment guy until they switched sides and turned on the Tea Party candidate, re-framing him as the evil establishment guy. Apparently, this “victory” shows that the Tea Party is still strong.
In the end, the Tea Party isn’t going away anymore than Sarah Palin is going away, but they are finished. Tonight was the last nail the coffin needed. The money and the voters have jumped ship back to the GOP. It’s over.
● RIP The Democrats: This does my heart good. The Democrats are freaking out about the midterms. They are freaking out because they have no message as their push to raise the minimum wage (their only idea) hasn’t caught on with the middle class, and no one likes the things they’ve done. Heck, despite its faked success, Obamacare remains about as popular as herpes, as does Obama himself. Anyway, check out this quote about the Democrats’ feelings about Obama from Politico
Anxious Democrats point to Obama’s low-40s approval ratings as the kind of anchor-round-the-neck numbers that could cost the party real ground in the House, and enough Senate races to lose the majority. His failure so far to present a broad, compelling message on the economy — beyond an emphasis on raising the minimum wage that’s fallen flat with middle-class voters — has, according to internal Democratic polling and focus groups, left that group without a clear sense of what he or the party stands for beyond helping the poor.Aww. I feel so bad for them! LOL! Actually, no I don’t. This is a party who has been relying on the GOP imploding going into the election. The GOP ended that danger by executing its turds. Now the Democrats have nothing they can run on and so much they need to run away from... Obamacare, record unemployment, falling incomes, 10 million under-water home loans, still too big(ger) to fail, not a promise kept, international humiliations, insults and injuries galore. Good luck with that. Couldn’t happen to nicer people.
● RIP Inevitability: Finally, Hillary’s campaign is suddenly in serious trouble. Ha ha. It all started when Karl Rove noted that Hillary’s medical record might be relevant because it sure looked to him like she had suffered head trauma when she fell.
BANG!! Faster than a speeding bullet, things blew up on Hillary. Experts appeared who commented on her appearance, the medical glasses she wore, and everything else that indicated she’s just too old and perhaps too concussed. The media tried to defend her, but once this genie got out, it spread. Soon even Democrats like Obama-clone Deval Patrick were saying that “inevitability” (the word associated with Hillary) is an ugly thing. There is now a very real chance that Hillary will ultimately fail before she even reaches the starting point in the primary race. If that happens, then the Democrats have no one with a name they can run... the cupboard is bare.
Interesting times.
20 comments:
Andrew,
I agree with pretty much everything you wrote aside from the third point. I don't think Hillary's health is going to be an issue in 2016 unless something else happens. The conservative media has taken that ball and run with it, but I remember when the conservative media was convinced that Hillary's fall was faked to avoid a Benghazi hearing.
*Shrugs* But the liberal media managed to turn Romney's 'Binders full of women' quote into a thing (I still can't see what is objectionable about that statement), so I've been wrong before.
I think Clinton's problems are her lack of charisma and the fact that she was a member of Obama's cabinet who ran her office with all of the competence we have come to expect from the administration.
With all due (dis)respect to Biden, some Democrat coming out nowhere who could credibly claim no connection to Obama would probably be the best the Democrats could hope for if Hillary failed to run.
Clearly, the term tea party was co-opted by the far right wing of the party. This does remind me how each side tends to think of the "opposition" as all being represented by the extreme wings since they tend to be the most vocal, and today's media caters to them. It is also useful since both sides (R's & D's) tend to find it useful to make the more moderate aspects of their party fearful of the other side. Obaama has actually tried to govern further to the left. Clinton, when president and presented with a Republican congress, tended to try and work with them. I won't be satisfied until Hillary is officially done though. This notion that she deserves to be the first female remains strong with many of the faithful
Anthony, Right now, the health thing seems to have legs. I suspect what is going on is that leftists are using to try to unseat Hillary before the primary in the hopes of getting someone more aligned to their ideology. Whether that pans out or not, I can't be sure. But right now she sure looks like a dear caught in the headlights, who doesn't have a clue how to defend herself.
That said, the primaries are a long way away and there is no credible alternative, so it's hard to rule her out. But if she doesn't step up her game, it's possible that we are looking at the beginning of the end.
Ultimately, I agree with you that her real problem is a lack of charisma combined with a record of incompetence... what has she ever done that didn't end up in disaster? I think she also suffers from lack of enthusiasm and from having no real idea why she wants this. That will make borderline supporters very nervous.
I had no doubt that the Tea Party is desperately trying to hold on. But they have no one to tether them to their original cause. When the TP started fielding/endorsing their own candidates, that was the first sign of the end of times for them. Really, they are so bad at it. Though I have to say that I really do like Ted Cruz. I may not agree with what he does all the time, but I think once he frees himself from the shackles of the TP, he might be a good legislator. I liken him to Al Franken. He has dialed down his rhetoric in the last few years.
Yeah, they aren't going to hit Hillary about her health, but they should hit her about her the age. Then she can't hit back with "sexism" because that is what they used against Reagan and Dole. She is running at the same age as Reagan was. And it should be brought up that with Bill in the wings, she may not be safe either.
And now with the VA issue (which as we all know is not new at all), Obama can't just be "outraged" anymore. He has overplayed that hand on just about every new issue that has come along. The Dems are really screwed if they think they can do that with the VA and our veterans. More on that tomorrow.
Couple that with huge mistake Obama made with unilaterally delaying the employer health insurance mandate. He has no one to blame but himself and his arrogance. It is beginning to hit now and will roll through the summer and right up into November. And if my increase is any indication, the Dems who voted for Obamacare will be lucky if any of them are left standing in Congress.
Jed, The Tea Party was definitely co-opted by the crazies. I would actually bet that few of them ever called themselves "conservatives" before they became "genuine conservatives." And with them launching a war against the GOP, this is all good news.
You're right about the media. I think it's easier for them to treat the parties as being identical through and through rather than trying to explain the variances throughout. That adds a lot of detail they probably don't want to bother explaining.
On Hillary, I hear you! Until she's gone, she's a danger. But I do get the sense that she's not nearly as popular as the Democrats think -- either in her party or outside of it.
Bev, I'm not ignoring you. I need to run for a bit. Back soon.
Bev, My first thought upon hearing Obama say that he was "outraged" by the VA thing was, "Forget it, the whole 'I'm outraged' at myself stuff has run dry." I don't think he'll be able to pull that one off this time.
Hillary's age definitely will be an issue. She has reached a point where she looks infirm, and that's her real problem in that regard. Reagan only looked that way at the very end.
The Tea Party, unfortunately, has kept drifting further and further away from what they started as. These days, they're little more than a gathering of kooks who are upset about the strangest conspiracy theories. It's sad, but it shows what can happen when you don't have a firmer leadership to define you.
Andrew - I still think that the death of Andrew Breitbart is one of the reasons that the TP (and the "Bigs") went off the rails. I have said that before, but he kept the TP focused. When he died it left a vacuum for people like Matt Kibbe/FreedomWorks et al. to jockey for "Leader".
Bev, I think there is a good deal of truth to that. Ultimately though, I think the real problem was that the lack of a specific platform allowed the crazies to drift in, sound sympathetic, and then hijack the movement for their own causes. Suddenly, the Tea Party stops being about fiscal sanity and became about fighting common core or abortion or the brown menace or the Bureau of Land Management or whatever.
OT: There's a movie called "Big Ass Spider" on Sci-Fi tonight. It's actually pretty good if you're into that sort of thing.
On B.A.S., Andrew, I just checked the Wiki page. Hm...giant monster, government cover-ups, hot chicks (hey, I'm single!), wisecracking heroes. Sounds like quality entertainment- and the arachnid version of 'Sharknado'- to me!
BTW, how can a movie about a giant spider with the goals of bringing down the glories of Western civilization while filling the ruins with its unholy offspring and an article featuring the Hildebeast not be related topics?
Different point of focus: I believe the reason why raising the minimum wage doesn't play with the middle class, beyond completely ignoring actual middle class interests, is that few have bought into the idea this administration, along with the media, have been pushing that one ought to be able to run a household and raise a family on a single minimum wage job. I've had several conversations to the effect that "they can have $15/hr. when they can make my burger right." Plus, it's only the biggest idiots (much to my delight to find) who don't understand what raising the base wage does to the price of goods. The best illustration I've heard is that the price of a value meal tracks roughly to the minimum wage, a very astute and easy to grasp obsession.
Rustbelt, I do believe Hillary's face is painted on the spider's butt! :D
tryanmax, I think that's something the Democrats don't understand. Their rhetoric doesn't match reality because middle class people see minimum wage jobs as starter jobs for students and housewives who are getting back into the workforce. They expect you to move up fast and never look back. So there is a huge disconnect with the rhetoric where the Democrats are saying "you can't live on this" and the middle class is saying "you're not supposed to."
Also, I think that as you point out, there is a very obvious connection between minimum wage salaries and the cost of things middle class people buy every day -- like fast food. So saying, "I'm going to raise the minimum wage" comes across as "I'm going to pay newbies way more than they deserve and it's going to cost you by making all the stuff you buy every day really expensive." Good luck selling that!
Oh, darn, I missed "Arachnado".. I am so bummed...;-) And hey, "hildebeast" is sexist...or animalist. Well, it's something that will get you in trouble.
Andrew and Tryanmax - It's because the whole minimum wage issue sells to the minimum wage Obama voters. We all know that to get paid better you must make yourself more valuable by learning new and better skills. Not by just demanding more money.
Oh, wait, I didn't miss it. And there's a shark in it and oooh, pharmaceutical executives too!!! Sharks and pharmaceutical executives working together can never end up well. That's a fact! But where are the "big ass spiders"??
Bev, What you are watching right now is Deep Blue Sea, a horrible yet entertaining film about a sharkenstein who wants revenge.
Big Ass Spider was the one before this.
Agreed on the minimum wage thing, it only works for people with no ambition... natural leftists.
No ambition, which goes right along with no basic economic sense. "Why can't the just pay me more? All they have to do is give me more money."
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