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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:30 AM | Comments (302)
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After last night's primary, I don't want to discuss whether or not O'Donnell is a good idea or if Castle would be better overall, even with his faults. What I'd like to do here is look ahead and try to make a suggestion of how the Delaware Republican Party could possibly take a step towards healing the rift between the pragmatists and the purists.

My idea? Pull your heads out of your asses and reschedule your convention/primary system.

As a resident of Iowa, I had no idea of how things are done in The First State, other than a vague thought that their political system should be somewhat similar to what our Republican Party uses here in Corn Country. In Iowa, we had our Primary in early June, with the State Convention occuring about three weeks later. Was it perfect? No. Supporters of Bob VanderPlaats (self-described Tea Party candidate who has DEEP ties to the Huckabee camp) went after former Governor Branstad (alleged moderate) HARD in the primary, and then after Branstad won 51-40 (another candidate got 9%), staged somewhat of a minor coup by trying to force Branstad to replace his Lt. Governor nominee with BVP at the convention. This move failed, and as far as I know, members of the BVP camp are grudgingly coming back to the Branstad campaign, mainly because Iowans have one of the dumbest Governors in the Nation, Chet Culver (D). It's easy to come together behind a man who makes Governor LaPetomaine from Blazing Saddles look competent by comparison...but I digress. What I wanted to get across here is that the Iowa Republican Party had a fight in the primary, and then proceeded to start healing the rift at their convention.

The Delaware Republican Party? Not so much. This absolutely floored me. The Delaware Republicans had their convention in May.....and held the primary in September. September of '09? No. September, 2010, about FOUR months after their convention produced Castle as the presumptive nominee. Gee, I wonder why some of the O'Donnell supporters might have seen Castle as the nominee of entrenched insiders?

This shouldn't be rocket science. Have a primary where all the prospective nominees can hash out their differences, ask the voters to pick their poison, and then hold a convention so that the winners can say nice things about the losers and everyone can soap up everyone else's backs and get focused on knocking off the Dem in the general election. That way, no matter who wins the primary, there shouldn't be as many charges of "RiNO nepotism" as there were in this primary. There's plenty of time for the State Party to get their ducks in a row for the 2012 election, especially since this is an issue that Purists & Pragmatists both should be able to agree on.

Get your shit together, Delaware. Don't make us send Chris Christie in to knock some heads together.

Now that I know what happened in Delaware, I think I'm leaning more towards this being a NY-23 sort of situation rather than a suicidal Purity Purge.

Do I think O'Donnell is the best candidate for the Delaware electorate? It doesn't matter: Christine O'Donnell is now the GOP nominee for the Biden Hereditary Senate Seat. Good luck & Godspeed.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 06:11 PM | Comments (497)
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Thanks to very busy days at work and a long dental encounter this afternoon tonight's ONT is going to be even paltrier than the usual half-assery.

Don't Fear The Lord of the Reaper

So here's a live version of BOC's "Don't Fear The Reaper" set to the Lord of the Rings movie. It makes one hell of an awesome video. But there's something missing and I just can't put my finger on it.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:50 PM | Comments (657)
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At Hot Air, it's just a blur of Rubio in the low to mid forties and Crist in the high twenties to 30.

Client Number Nine: Ballot position is important. Crist drew the ninth slot.

He will therefore be down where old Jewish people usually vote for Pat Buchanan.

Thanks to DrewM, via Brian Faughahahauhhhn. Dude, you're name's far too complicated for two syllables, or one and a half.

Posted by: Ace at 04:40 PM | Comments (348)
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That's a big statement. He's basically beating the bloody hell out of them and then, as he leaves them looking for teeth in an alley, whispering You'll thank me for this.

No, but it's true. He's here to tell them there's this new fad called "basic arithmetic" the kids are all into, and this "basic arithmetic" says if they insist on their million dollar pensions reality is going to make them a counteroffer of zero.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:32 PM | Comments (217)
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Hm. Well. He makes the case that what would be called "extremism" in another year -- on fiscal issues -- is no extremism at all this year.

In this environment, purists of the right have a big advantage because nobody doubts the sincerity with which they embrace the goals of limited government, low taxes, and reduced spending. Politicians of all stripes - including most Democrats - vow allegiance to them as does the overwhelming majority of the electorate. In this environment, the distinctions of left and right give way to the difference between sincerity and insincerity, leaving the voters to judge. With candidates like Sharron Angle in Nevada or Christine O'Donnell in Delaware or DioGuardia in New York, voters don't have to guess. They know real conservatives when they see them.

Of course, Congressman Mike Castle had a big advantage in the Delaware Senate contest because of his name recognition and voter support after having run successfully statewide more than a dozen times (Congressmen in Delaware serve at large). But don't count O'Donnell out. She is the real thing - a conservative small government devotee whose advocacy of low taxes is sincere and heartfelt. The national Republican establishment was stupid and short sighted in the negatives they threw at her during the primary. Now they will have to eat their words at great financial and political cost.

But, in a way, their obduracy gives O'Donnell a great opportunity to run as the anti-establishment candidate, putting a plague on the houses of both parties and calling attention to the corruption of each.

That's a good point. So, Delaware doesn't like Republicans. Well, as the last two weeks have made clear, Christine O'Donnell isn't really a Republican, at least not one that the establishment likes. So: A possible way to sell herself to a skeptical blue state.

To some extent, I sorta think that Dick Morris is doing a little pandering -- wishcasting -- but okay. I can dig some pandering.

He goes on to say that Kirsten Gillibrand may be taken down by New York's new Republican Senate candidate, Joseph DioGuardi.

Posted by: Ace at 02:14 PM | Comments (109)
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Really?

Really.

"I'm going to be very honest with you — Chris Coons, everybody knows him in the Democratic caucus. He's my pet. He's my favorite candidate," Reid said.

Just a slip of the tongue, I guess. Surely he wouldn't beta male-ize a candidate for Senate. Must have meant something else. Right?

"Let me tell you about him: A graduate of Yale Divinity School. Yale Law School. A two-time national debate champion. He represents two-thirds of the state now, in an elected capacity. I don't know if you've ever seen him or heard him speak, but he is a dynamic speaker. I don't mean loud or long; he's a communicator. So that's how I feel about Delaware. I've always thought Chris Coons is going to win. I told him that and I tried to get him to run. I'm glad he's running. I just think the world of him. He's my pet."

Every once in a while Harry Reid tells the truth, and it's just magnificent.

Posted by: Ace at 01:58 PM | Comments (157)
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Hey, I was just thinking there hasnÂ’t been enough written about the DE Senate race in DE and that I should fix that. Really, thereÂ’s no need to thank me.

Let me start by saying, IÂ’m not interested in relitigating the primary. ItÂ’s over, the voters have spoken and Christine OÂ’Donnell has won. I honestly congratulate her and her supporters.

Now what do we do?

My answerÂ….not much.

I was listening to Rush this afternoon and he echoed what I heard here quite a bit last night, if control of the Senate is so important that we needed to accept Mike “RINO” Castle, then we should put as much effort into winning the seat (and the Senate) with O’Donnell.

In the name of party unity, IÂ’m happy to say, I agree entirely.

HereÂ’s the catchÂ…if Mike Castle had won, IÂ’d have suggested we spend exactly no resources in helping him win. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 01:24 PM | Comments (168)
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Which is a podcast by SnarkandBoobs and Caleb Howe. I was on there just a little while ago, from 1:15 to 2:15, and it's posted now. So here is the blogging I would have been doing between 1:15 and 2:15.

Here's the thing: You can barely hear me. I'm on the phone and I sound like a Charlie Brown adult. Waa-waa-waa-waaah.

The topics are Delaware stuff, BlogCon, masturbation, my first "DC Dinner Party" with special guest Michael Barone, DC closing down at 10:00, the hot chick in the Jets' locker room, people who Tweet stuff to each other at parties while actually present with the person they're tweeting to, and Justice Breyer's odd claim that the First Amendment might not cover the burning of the Koran. Mostly nonsense, then.

In case you were wondering, I never blog about this stuff just because I don't think it's appropriate. I know other bloggers mention "I was here, I was there" and stuff, I just always think: Who cares. But if you do care there is some stuff about that in the podcast.

Posted by: Ace at 12:44 PM | Comments (156)
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And he's not doing this to embarrass the Republicans either, like, you know, "Oh, you want to do that? Here, I dare you."

No, he seems to be running on this plank.

Update: A reader says he's a true Blue Dog, a genuinely conservative Democrat (well, mostly... for a Democrat), so this isn't really changing the position of a scared liberal or anything.

Posted by: Ace at 12:29 PM | Comments (110)
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