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Day By Day January 6, 2009 – Rhinoceros Rex
Chris, I would not be so quick to shoot the messenger in RNC Chairman Michael Steele. Political machinations, including the opening of the North Dakota Senate seat are happening quickly and there are not unlimited resources to run campaigns.Political parties are strange organizations in that they are not quick to adapt to change – especially the donors who must be persuaded that your candidate can help them in the future.
If anything the national GOP is looking up as compared to a year ago when all of the Left pundits were saying the Republican Party was irrelevant and a regional only party.
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Day By Day November 29, 2009 – Card Sharks
Day By Day by Chris MuirChris, you make a great precise with your cartoon above for the coming campaign for Congress in November 2010. The Republican Party considered moribund just one year ago will make a comeback.How much of a comeback will depend upon how many good candidates who will make a run at incumbent Democrats.
However, shouild health care reform be rammed through the Congress, the economy remains weak with high unemployment, the Republican candidates will be lining up en masse.
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Day By Day November 4, 2009 – Blockbuster
The GOP had a good night.In winning the Governorships of Virginia and New Jersey the Republican Party has started on its way back from the disasters which began in 2006 when they lost their majorities in Congress.
Although the White House ignored the elections, the message is clear, especially to Blue Dog Democrats from red leaning congressional districts. This message is moderation and go-slow rather than pushing far-left Democrat leadership sponsored legilsation.
An example will be health care reform or Obamacare which will now be postponed until after the first of the year. Another may be Senator Barbara Boxer and Senator John Kerry’s Cap and Trade climate change legislation.
Also, the fiasco of the New York 23 congressional district played out to a standard result. The GOP was split and the Democrat won. The lesson learned: change the election process to allow a primary election vote for the GOP nominee rather than party leaders choosing a candidate.
The Republican Party smells Democrat Party blood in the water for the 2010 midterm Congressional elections.
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Day By Day November 3, 2009 – Newtonian Physics
Day By Day by Chris MuirThe GOP leadership and Newt Gingrich made a mistake in upstate New York in supporting a marginal Republican Dede Scozzafava. But, does this mean purging the GOP of all non-ideologically pure Congressional candidates?No and the Tea Party, Dick Army and Red State based RIGHT had better take pause in aligning themselves with marginal FAR RIGHT parties, Libertarians and Ron Paulites in supporting candidates. If the GOP hopes to regain seats in 2010, each race MUST be locally based and NOT one based on a nationally set ideology on blogs and Twitter.
This is not to say that better candidates should not be chosen. But, ultimately it is the candidate that can marshall the most votes, isn’t it?
Let’s watch the anti-Obama referendum play out in today’s New York, New Jersey and Virginia elections.
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Poll Watch: GOP Gains in Congressional Generic Ballot
Going into 2010, the GOP may be in better shape than anyone would have imagined after the 2006 and 2008 elections that erased Republican majorities and replaced them with Democrat super majorities and a Democrat President.Watch tomorrow’s elections in Virginia and New Jersey. If the GOP sweeps those two governorships by repectable majorities, next year could spell massive gains for the Republicans.
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Day By Day October 29, 2009 – GinGRINCH
Day By Day by Chris Muir
Chris, I just don’t understand the GOP Civil Wars being fought by the national Republican Party and conservatives, including Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty. The entire flap appears to resemble a PURGE with its associated litmus tests, imposed by right-wing interest groups.In the fifty United States, there are regional differences in culture, language inflections and political ideology. Isn’t this evident by our government structure, devised so wisely by the Founding Fathers? Isn’t this what, we as Republicans want – local government, directly responsive to a local electorate.
The point of politics is to win elections and govern.
If the Republican Party reverts to a set of litmus tests imposed by the outside, they will accomplish neither.
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A Good Time to Be a Conservative in the Republican Party
Yes!And next week, in real balloting, conservative Republicans are likely to win in Virginia, a state Obama carried. Meanwhile, a liberal Republican anointed by the GOP establishment for the special congressional election in Upstate New York will probably run third, behind the conservative Republican running on the Conservative Party line, who may in fact win.
The lesson activists around the country will take from this is that a vigorous, even if somewhat irritated, conservative/populist message seems to be more effective in revitalizing the Republican Party than an attempt to accommodate the wishes of liberal media elites.
So the GOP is likely, for the foreseeable future, to be of a conservative mind and in a populist mood. In American politics, there are worse things to be.
Isn’t the populist/conservative mindset how Ronald Reagan brought America back from the disaster of the Jimmy Carter Presidency?
Next week’s elections will start the narrative for 2010 and a challenge to Obama in 2012.
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Day By Day October 27, 2009 – OverDue
Day By Day by Chris MuirI remember the Presidential elections of 1968 with George Wallace and 1992 with Ross Perot. Both were third party candidates that delivered the races to opposition candidates with surprising results. Was the country better for their running?Questionable
America has developed a two party system for a reason – check and balances.
Third party or multi-party candidates and candidacies are usually short-lived with little lasting political impact.
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Day By Day October 26, 2009 – A New Understanding
This is nothing new.The Republican Party as well as the Democrats are often torn between the practicality of winning elections and upholding strict issue driven ideology. At the end of the political day it is the number of votes you can deliver on leadership and on specific bills.
Nothing more and nothing less.
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Barbara Boxer, Carly Fiorina, Chuck DeVore, David Paterson, Democrats, George Pataki, GOP, Kirsten Gillibrand, Rudy Giuliani
Are the United States Senate Democrats With 60 Members At Their High-Water Mark?
The composition of the United States Senate, September 2009
Apparently so, according to Charlie Cook.One of Vice President Joe Biden‘s long-standing and endearing qualities is his gift of hyperbole. The Washington Post recently quoted Biden as saying at a Democratic fundraiser that, of the 54 House seats Democrats have flipped in the last two elections cycles, “If [Republicans] take them back, this is the end of the road for what [President Obama] and I are trying to do.”
While he overstates the case, Biden’s worry applies at least as much in the Senate. The Democrats’ majority status next year is not in doubt, but their 60-seat majority is in grave danger and the odds of their maintaining control after 2012 and 2014 are increasingly remote.
The Senate seats up in next year’s midterm elections are evenly split, with 19 on each side. But in 2012, Democrats have 23 seats at risk (counting Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.) compared to only nine for the GOP. In 2014, it’s 20 Democrats up, to only 13 for Republicans.
Good news for the GOP.
California:
In California, it’s unclear how tough the re-election challenge will be for Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. The biggest question there is whether Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, is ready for prime time politics.
Note: there is NO mention of Carly Fiorina’s GOP challenger Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.
New York:
New York is also very murky. Former Republican Gov. George Pataki might run. Remember that he knocked off Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1994, the last really bad year for Democrats. There are other first-tier Republicans — former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Rep. Rick Lazio — who are looking at the gubernatorial race but might be enticed to take on Gillibrand.
Probably Rudy for Governor against Paterson and Pataki against Gillibrand. Then, a likely dual pick-up for the GOP.
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