CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Hayworth says he will challenge McCain � - Blogs from CNN.com
Discuss: Is this the legacy of the Tea Party for Reps? Will it energize a new wave of participation or fracture the party at a time it could be poised for rebirth? Given the AZ Rep party, what are the chances he can beat McCain in the primary?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I do not believe that the Tea Party movement is dividing or fracturing the Republican Party as it seemingly begins a climb back towards national influence. The movement is exciting people like Mr. Hayworth out of the private sector where they hope to reverse policies they see as unfavorable in Washington and around the nation. One could also say the same for conservatives like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who may run for elected office again.
ReplyDeleteThe Tea Party movement has also excited unknown members to the point where they themselves are running to counter Leftist policies in Washington and around the nation. Again, many of these people aren't career politicians, and don't even have a recognizable name emerging as candidates on the Republican ticket. For example, Ben Collins, a candidate for Wisconsin Lt. Gov. is an energetic, engaging speaker who decided to run because he was just fed up with the direction of the nation. His speech at a fundraiser of which I was particularly impressed with can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGvFnbNiI5c&feature=player_embedded.
I do not necessary think that this movement will push every young, unknown, charismatic candidate to the front. I think that McCain will still be elected. Nevertheless, the movement seems to have excited conservative voters who before were maybe more quiet than your typical political junkie. Just like the Obama campaign was able to rally traditionally more politically apathetic voter, the Tea Party movement is, in my opinion, doing the same.
First off, I would like to state that it is my opinion that Senator McCain will win the Republican nomination. He may in the end owe that to Sarah Palin however.(http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2010/01/620007624/1) Which in some way is funny, because while he may not have personally threw her under the bus his camp did.
ReplyDeleteThe Tea party movement is obviously for real and candidates who would usually not have a chance are now running and seem to be making huge inroads. In a recent poll Marco Rubio had a small lead over Charlie Crist, which seemed impossible a year ago. (http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1297.xml?ReleaseID=1417) It is my view that strong primaries are good for the parties and make for stronger candidates in the long run. The Democrats seemed to go through this after 2004 when they decided to start running candidates that were more liberal and fired up the base, which in looking at results from 2006 and 2008 look successful. We still need more time to see if the Tea Party movement is the reason for GOP success or if it is just a year in which most incumbents are feeling the "we want change" affect.
With Chris Dodd running in Connecticut, he was close or running behind most of the republican candidates for Senate. (http://www.pollster.com/polls/ct/10-ct-sen-ge-svd.php) Now with Mr. Blumenthal running for the Democratic nomination and with Senator Dodd dropping out he has a huge lead on all of the republican candidates. (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/18/13840/8458) While Harry Reid will probably not step down and will run, we too can see similar things in his race. He his running behind by about (9-11 pts) all of the republican candidates but when another Dem candidate is polled in the same race and against the same Rep candidates the races are much closer. (http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2010/1/20/NV/432)
The point I am trying to make is that obviously this is a election cycle where the incumbent is in for a tough campaign and the party may not matter as much as the individual candidate.