10/17/14, "#ncsen: A “rebellion against the ultra-conservatives”? (SERIOUSLY?)," Daily Haymaker, Brant Clifton
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| EJ Dionne Jr. |
Let me explain something to ol’ E.J. and the rest of the chattering class who think they have this all figured out. Tillis has a number of problems — none of which include raging conservatism. He’s a technocrat who is more impressed with process than principle. When he first ran for the state House, he bashed his GOP opponent for not bringing a sufficient amount of government money back to the district.
The Tillis campaign’s biggest problem is that a lot of the things they COULD attack Hagan on could easily be turned around onto their guy. It’ shard to establish credibility on fighting ObamaCare when your guy actually fought to establish a state health exchange. He tried to push through a massive pork-laden piece of legislation near the end of the legislative session.
When his own Republicans balked at this largesse,
he unsuccessfully
tried to cut a deal with the Democrat minority. [A la John Boehner].Stuff like that takes away any credibility on claims of fiscal conservatism.
You could make a case on corporate cronyism against Hagan. But stuff like this and this takes the wind out of those sails. You could bash Hagan for embracing big government environmentalist crap. But then, Thom has too.
A big factor is likeability. Here in Moore County, we used to be part of the Sixth District and were represented by Howard Coble. A lot of us gave Coble a pass on his moderate voting record because he was likeable and responsive. Talk to people who KNOW Thom Tillis. Talk to people who have interacted with Kay Hagan. I hear plenty of stories from Republican-leaners about her responsiveness and likeability. I hear a lot of stories about Tillis threatening / intimidating people (or even primarying them) if they don’t see things his way.
Many of us on the right KNOW that we’re going to take a hit at the end of the election. If Tillis is unsuccessful, the Tea Party will be blamed. Never mind that Tillis has refused to approach or try to mend fences with Tea Party folks. Upon a Tillis loss, the media will blame “right-wing extremism.” Never mind that Tillis fought hard against most of the actual conservative legislation that passed the General Assembly. The GOP establishment will argue that we on the right need to be thrown overboard. We’re weighing the GOP down. Never mind that conservatism and its believers are responsible for nearly all the modern-day success of the GOP.
Another factor: Too much defense. Theam Tillis has spent way too much time responding to Hagan. In football, keeping your defense on the field more than your offense is a good indicator that things will not end well.
Many of us are looking for a reason to line up behind Tillis. But a campaign talking about committee attendance, paper routes, autism, birth control, and “replacing” ObamaCare makes it hard. A principled conservative campaign can produce positive results in North Carolina. Just ask Dan Forest."
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Among comments at Daily Haymaker:
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"Raphael"
"Calling Big Government Republican Tillis an ultra conservative is beyond laughable. Tillis has no ideology beyond a lust for power and money. He is a rent boy for the special interests and would not know a political principle if one jumped up and bit him.
How a prospective GOP nominee is positioned on the issues, especially those on which the Democrat is vulnerable should be a key component of vetting our candidates. The establishment does not care about issues. They did not do this with Romney, and we lost as a result. They did not do it with Tillis and we are likely to lose that one for the same reason. For example, when Democrats are vulnerable on the highly unpopular Obamacare, it is really really dumb to run a candidate who has championed the very similar Romneycare or has called Obamacare ”a great idea” and pushed legislation creating a state Obamacare exchange through the NC House."...
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[Ed. note: I added a link to a 1962 JFK speech to Raphael's comment. The speech is shocking in that its spirit and enthusiasm would be considered embarrassing today.]
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2009-2010 Scott Brown :30 tv ad starting with JFK and ending with Brown:
"Uploaded on Dec 29, 2009
Republican U.S. Senate candidate
Scott Brown and President Kennedy are two different people, from
different parties and different eras, but they agree that broad-based
tax cuts will create jobs and stimulate the economy. In this creative
campaign ad, Brown and Kennedy take turns reading from the same 1962
Kennedy speech calling for tax cuts."
.
In the legislature, Tillis was always a wet blanket on conservative issues, and often sought to destroy conservative legislators. As a candidate for Senate, he runs away from conservative issues instead of running on them, and that is largely because his own record in too close to that of Hagan on many of them....
Indeed there was a great TV ad that Scott Brown put out in the special Senate election in Massachusetts [in late 2009, early 2010]. He took a clip of a specch by JFK that covered a range of issues. The ad started out with JFK speaking and then morphed into Brown finishing the speech. All of the issues covered by JFK were right on the money for GOP positions today, and now the Obama Democrats are far far to the left of that....