I agree - hubris would be a great mistake. The GOP is benefiting from the failures of the Dems and the problems with the economy. It is certainly not the time to start crowing.


Well, no - that's incorrect....

The GOP message won a series of elections prior to 2006. The policies worked quite well, but the recent emphasis on neo-con foreign policy combined with high spending and the war in Iraq and a series of self-destructive scandals resulted in a sharp decline in the popularity of the GOP and the Bush administration.

Several of those factors were not present in the 80s and 90s, and it was only in the last three years that the GOP encountered failure.

The Bush administration is now completely gone. Many GOP members of congress are gone, and the Repubicans have an almost clean slate, which is very unusual. If Cheney were running for President in 2012, they would still be dragging around that old administration.

One of the great mistakes made by the Dems is that they assumed that the elections of 2006 and 2008 meant that the US was lurching very far to the left. They were quite wrong in that. If the Republicans try to move left to please the media, they will certainly lose.

The do have to recapture the fiscal probity and pro-business policies that once defined conservativism. The Democrats have proven themselves an unqualified disaster in those areas. The GOP has a wide open door. But they have to take advantage of it.

the smarter rep. candidets will mimmick Mcdonnells campaign, in which he DID attack Obama intiatives and made sense when he did and made a case for not oging that route.

Clear, sensible and as Tim said not chest beating either.

In addtion its worth mentioning that Mcdonnell, when he won the AG spot 4 years ago, he did so over his dem opponent by a mere 1 point.....yesterday the gop AG won by what? 15 points?

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

And don't forget that being a homophobic mysoginist (or so he was portrayed by Deeds) should have driven independents away!

Proof that in states which have been "purple" for the last 4-6 years that an unapologetic social and economic conservative CAN do quite well (even against a moderate democrat) so long as he doesn't get on the soapbox about the social conservatism rather than the economic, smaller government, lower taxes message.

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane

Except, of course, that anyone who thinks conservatives want to shrink things down to 'smaller gov't has been the most reliable of rubes since politicians have been politicians.

Social conservatives are always a dying breed. History proves nothing less.

I never knew that. Thanks

Not at all. Independents generally ignore such attacks as being ridiculously partisan, especially when considering the time span that has occurred since the statements were made. Such accusations often only really work to rile up the base of the people making them (in this case, Democrats).
McDonnell could have been the biggest liberal or conservative in the world and it wouldn't have mattered as long as he wasn't Deeds. I think you're overstating the accomplishments of McDonnell here. He ran against an incredibly weak opponent who ran an incredibly weak campaign. No one really liked either of the people running from my personal experience of talking to others and this is also reflected in the rather minuscule voter turnout yesterday, even in comparison to previous gubernatorial elections in this state.

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“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” - Carl Sagan

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OR, they dismiss the attacks not as "ridiculously partisan", but rather ridiculously WRONG!

An incredibly weak opponent who trounced the other democrats running against him, and who lost to the same republican opponents by the smallest margin in state history the last time he ran against him.

Do you really think that either of the other democrats in the primary would have done better?

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane

The two pretty much go hand in hand as far as I see it. I am, by the way, a registered Independent.
Not at all, the Democrats had an incredibly weak showing across all fronts in this year's election. In addition, the incredibly ludicrous hiking of traffic ticket fines along with the passing of a smoking ban in a tobacco state left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouths. I would have felt dirty voting for Deeds, myself, requiring me to bathe my body in bleach and burn all of my clothing just to get rid of the filth. Both my parents (one a life long Dem and the other a life long Rep) even skipped voting this year for the first time since moving to Virginia back in the 70's. No one was really excited for either candidate.

Congrats to McDonnell for his win, but I don't think this is indicative of a whole lot.

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“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” - Carl Sagan

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You missed the point completely. The point was -- Palin and Limbaugh intervened on his behalf as though that was going to make a difference and that candidate lost the election: the independent voters spoke: they handed him his head; i.e. "when you get it on straight, then come back and talk to us". And don't forget: there were ten elections and the Republicans lost eight of them.

In the realm of politics today, the conservative bent is over and will have its head cut off everytime it comes out of the hole.

Watch what happens as things go along.

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. . . Everything from toy guns that spark, to flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark, it's easy to see without looking too far, that not much is really sacred.

Not really, when you say someone dismisses it for partisan reasons, you are suggesting that there may not be a valid intellectual reason for rejecting the idea on its merits, but because of who has put it forward. That is very different from saying that people have considered the idea reflectively on its own merits and rejected it as ridiculous.

You make my point for me. The result was not merely a factor of a running "against an incredibly weak opponent who ran an incredibly weak campaign", he ran against the same opponent before and just barely won.

A four point loss is hardly being "handed his head". Let's not pretend that it isn't the case that had Hoffman been the GOP establishment's candidate all along that he would likely have won.

And while this may not have worked out as well as the conservative base (or Rush or Palin) would have liked, it certainly turned out better than the other likely outcome had Hoffman NOT run at all, which would have been that the most liberal candidate -- Scozzafava -- would have won and been as reliable if not more so a vote for the democrats in Congress than Owens with the added plus of giving the democrats claim to "bipartisanship" (and that's assuming Dede wouldn't have switched parties outright after winning)

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane

I got your point and I made mine which you didn't address and as far as con values etc. bing submerged based on this? Yes we will see.....

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

obviously and you are trying it appears to separate the candidate from his party and whats seen as their machinations and methods, deeds represented the democrats, he was in fact from a moderate district as well....he got thumped, that’s not just a reaction to abysmal governing thats a reaction to a party platform my friend.

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

I didn't intend to separate the candidate from the party, my apologies. I meant to say that Deeds was a terrible candidate for a party that was already stepping on people's toes.

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“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” - Carl Sagan

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NOVA and Tidewater are nightmares as they are massively overpopulated in relation to their road systems. If you hope to win votes there you make the better case for how you will help them. And you HAVE to get votes there to win the state. The remainder of the state has no appetite to pay for roads there. The main argument is that there are too damn many people there and the rest of the coommonwealth is also open for business and could use the jobs.

Deeds had NO plan as his only schtick is raising taxes. Thats not going to happen.

McDonnell has a plan, not sure how viable it is, certianly better than nothing but enough to rally tackle it and 100% doable ? We'll see.

Go back over anything like recent elections and roads is the blinking neon issue.

Mark Warner got his biggest tax increase i history on the promise it would solve the road issue forever. His increase became a sruplus (as it was unnecessary) and virtually none of it went to roads. His only other victory was getteing the ability for localities to levy their own taxes (for roads) only to have NOVA and Tidewater say 'no damn way' to local bills (and which was ultimately shot down by the Supreme Court). Why this clown remains popular is beyond me.

Try driving around those places and you will see the issue is real.

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Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

Jesus loves you, allah wants you dead

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

It's so refreshing that partisanship is what it's all about. Hell why don't we just dispense with elections and just rely on party membership. So much for that 'big tent.'

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"Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."

-Thomas Jefferson