Morrissey points to one congressional district where gloom and doom was predicted:
We heard a great deal about how MN-03 was a transitional district, and that Eric Paulsen was too conservative to win with its voters. Instead, Paulsen cruised to an easy victory despite his unapologetic embrace of conservative principles, especially on fiscal policy.
Captain Ed also points to what I am beginning to see as the double-fraud of the 2008 election. McCain desired to be seen as moderate republican.
Obviously, that didn’t help much in 2008, but part of the answer for that may be in the candidates fielded by the Republicans. John McCain did not identify with the conservative wing of the party at all until he needed them in 2008, for instance, although McCain has been a fiscal conservative during his Senate career. The GOP for the most part moved away from conservative principles in order to seem more moderate to voters, and got rewarded with a shellacking
This obviously failed. Interestingly, moderate GOP candidates – like Charlie Crist for the Florida senate – are finding some striking competition from more conservative candidates like Marco Rubio. Rubio has scored some impressive endorsements such as Mike Kuckabee and Jeb Bush, Jr. Its unlikely that the younger Bush would have taken such as stand without Dad’s blessing.
Still, the Rubio-Minnesota examples are providing ammo against GOP types who are saying the party needs to be more moderate and reach out to more groups. To use an Obamaism, this is a false choice. Witness the McCain defeat and the surge of true conservative candidates.
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This post was written by bobsikes on May 30, 2009
