Republicans are Cannibals.
O'Donnell, speaking on CNN on Wednesday morning called her loss a
"symptom of Republican cannibalism." She blamed the commentator Karl
Rove, formerly President George W. Bush's senior strategist, and other
party leaders for not uniting behind her campaign.
Ding, Dong The Wicked Witch is Gone!
Why Christine O'Donnell Lost .... A long time ago
-by David C. Wilson
The pundits who thought Delaware Senate Republican candidate Christine
O'Donnell was ever doing well among the state's electorate were sadly
mistaken from the jump. Not only did she performed less than admirably
in her debate performances, she mishandled her media relations, fought
the state and national Republican Party organizations, and most
importantly, she failed to connect with Delaware voters who hold the
keys to any at-large victory: non-Republican and moderate voters in
the Northern part of the state.
She spent plenty of time with her base--a great primary strategy--but
never really moved beyond that political segment.
Just to put some context to her performance, in Tuesday night's
general election, she received fewer votes (123,025) than the defeated
Republican in the State Treasurer's race, Colin Bonini (146,991), and
fewer votes than the defeated Democrat in the Auditor of Accounts'
race, Richard Korn (147,504). That's not good. Heck, that's not even
competitive.
Admittedly, a lot of what was said about Christine O'Donnell in the
media--although not much of it was from Chris Coons--bordered on
sexist. However, she didn't help her cause by not denouncing some
salacious allegations about Republican Mike Castle's sexual
orientation that came from her camp. So, the game was afoot early, and
the typically Delaware rules of civility and honesty were laid to
rest.
Suffice to say, that all of this is minor stuff compared to the fact
that O'Donnell--and Republican House candidate Glenn Urquhart--didn't
strategically connect their campaigns with the culture of the Delaware
electorate. They both ran "national primaries" using rhetoric about
"Obamacare," "Pelosi regimes," "Harry Reid," and "Big Government" in a
state that still holds the President and Vice President is relatively
high regard. Had they both toned things down and worked on their
command of the issues, they might have had a chance..... I said, "a
chance."
Unfortunately, the numbers were stacked against them from the start.
Here are some basic facts.
Democrats make up most voters in the state. Of the 624,365 registered
voters in Delaware, 47% are Democrats, 29% are Republican, and 23% are
some other party or Independent. In addition, most registered voters
reside in New Castle County (62%), the largest of the state's three
counties; Kent County (17%) and Sussex County (21%) are the others.
Put the two preceding facts together and roughly one-third (31%) of
all registered Delaware voters are Democrats in New Castle County,
which is also the most educated, urban, wealthiest (highest median
income), and racially diverse county in the state (Kent is a close
second, and Sussex is a distant third). Bottom line: to win, you must
make a dent among moderate Democrats and Independents in New Castle
County.
We don't have all the numbers yet, but we know O'Donnell won Sussex
and Kent by 17% and 6% points respectively, but lost by 35% points in
New Castle. O'Donnell's raw losing margin in New Castle (-65,948)
actually washed away her total votes in Sussex (40,345) and Kent
(25,059). No dent, no win.
And things won't get any better for Republicans in the state who
desire a more conservative political world.
Since 2000, the percent of registered Democrats in the state has
increased by 37% (79,361), while the percentage of Republicans has
increased by only 7% (12,177); other party groups and Independents
have increased by 25% (29,213). More telling is the fact that in New
Castle--again, the largest county--Republicans have actually decreased
their numbers by 5% (-5,698) since 2000.
These very basic statistics scream one clear thing for Delaware's
Republican candidates: "MOVE TO THE MIDDLE!!!" Both O'Donnell and
Urquhart failed in this task, and it cost them what could have been a
winnable election. After all, the Republicans did win big in the
President's state, why not in Delaware? (....more to come on that
one..).
This Senate election in Delaware wasn't about Mike Castle, Joe Biden,
President Obama, incumbents, anger, the Tea Party, or a 90% employment
rate, it was about two candidates; one who knew his audience, and one
who thought she could change the minds of the Delaware electorate.
And, as we all now realized, "change" takes longer than 22 months (...
wink).
More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-c-wilson/why-christine-odonnell-lo_b_778370.html
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.
No comments:
Post a Comment