#NCSEN: Let’s play The Blame Game. The pizza man, the baby doc, or the web site?

montyhallDuring the recently completed primary, we were told that Thom Tillis is on cruise-control to Capitol Hill. Kay Hagan needs to start packing.  Miss Susan can start measuring for drapes.  

It’s funny how things change.  There is a major hard-sell coming from Raleigh.  The point?  Unity. Unity. Unity.  Get on the Thom bandwagon OR ELSE.  

Running for office is like selling any good or service in a private business.  Can I be blamed if the salesman fails to convince me to buy that new 2015 SUV? Is it MY FAULT that the realtor could not convince me to buy that house?  It’s up to the salesperson (candidate) to close the sale.  The salesperson (candidate) needs to connect with the prospect emotionally and convince them that the product (candidate) is exactly what they need.

Instead of re-working their sales pitch to nail down the 56 percent of GOP voters who DID NOT choose Thom on May 6, Theam Thom is pointing fingers at people they see as threatening Thom’s coronation in DC.  These people just will not throw out their silly ideology and jump on the bandwagon.  Let’s review some of these scapegoats: 

Libertarian nominee Sean Haugh.  Last week, we got a hysterical headline about how “this pizza deliverer” could cost the Republicans the Senate.   The most recent PPP poll has Tillis at 38 percent, Hagan at 36 percent, and Haugh at 11 percent.  (HOW DARE this Libertarian partake of his constitutional right to run for office! )  Haugh has demonstrated that he has a pretty good sense of humor.  Check out this blurb from his campaign’s Facebook page:

SeanHaugh

Oh yeah, almost forgot, under new Common Core rules I’m supposed to tell you Tillis owned slaves and equals 37.

The Libertarian Party has a habit of attracting some, um, different people.  But, for the most part, their platform preaches the concept of limited government — something that has been going over quite well with the American people since 2009.  With the GOP going soft on repealing ObamaCare, amnesty for illegal aliens, taxes, and regulation, among others, the Libertarian Party is an understandable alternative for people who appreciate a serious commitment to limited government.  If Haugh takes votes from Thom Tillis — it is the GOP nominee’s fault. He and his team did not adequately convince the electorate that he will fight for conservative principles.  

Cary OB-GYN Greg Brannon.  Brannon spent the primary campaign talking about the importance of governing in accordance with The Constitution.  Tillis and Harris supporters devoted a lot of energy to attacking Brannon personally and slashing at his integrity. 

gregbrannonThe NCGOP hierarchy wanted to have a big unity confab at the convention this weekend — featuring all of the primary candidates on stage with Tillis singing kum-ba-ya.  Media reports have made a huge deal of Brannon not being there.  (Sources close to Brannon tell me that work demands were keeping him close to home this weekend.) I’ve seen a lot of chatter on Facebook and Twitter — and heard from a lot of Tillis supporters — expressing shock and disappointment that Brannon did not show up to worship Thom in Cherokee.  Brannon is ALL ABOUT The Constitution, liberty, and the future of the state and the country.  Concerns about political parties and individual candidates run a distant second to all of that.  If you really want Brannon on board — sell him on the idea that Thom will fight for limited government and not be a geisha for Karl Rove and K Street.   Brannon has not been badmouthing Tillis.  He’s not on the November ballot.  if Thom Tillis falls short in November, it’s all on Thom.

The Daily Haymaker. You would not believe how many Tillis groupies have hit me with stuff like this:  DUDE! YOU ARE GOING TO COST THOM THE ELECTION! HARRY REID WILL KEEP BEING IN CHARGE THANKS TO YOU! I HOPE YOU A
RE PROUD OF YOUR STUPID SELF!   We are hardly an organ of the Hagan campaign.  We illustrate her –literally — as a sock puppet when we write about her.  bill-cosby-500We’re about telling it like it is.  We’re about preaching the gospel of limited government.  If you do stuff that runs afoul of the things we hold dear, we are going to call you out on it.  Give us a lot less of the Nixonian revenge tactics against Thom’s perceived enemies.  (We *really appreciate* all of the, um, attention we started getting from various state agencies shortly after the Tillis-ites started complaining.) Give us more — SINCERE — action to tame and shrink the bureaucratic leviathan. The last time I checked, we are not on the November ballot.  None of us are being paid by anyone on the ballot for November.  If Thom tells the truth and crusades sincerely for limited government, we’ll have his six.  Judging from his record so far, we’re not going to hold our breath waiting for that.

But don’t buy the spin that the nation’s survival depends on whether we send Thom to Washington.  We survived The War of 1812, The Civil War, FDR, LBJ and Jimmy Carter.  We’ll also survive Obama, Harry Reid and Kay Hagan.

Thom needs to make the sale to the voters.  NOT US.   If a little ol’ web site is truly capable of bringing down Thom’s PAC-fed machine, then there truly is less to him than we originally thought.