#ncsen: GOP hitting Kay & The Dems from the, um, LEFT.
GOP partisans all over the Twitter-verse are yukking it up over DREAM activists heckling Kay Hagan at a weekend event. But, wait. Aren’t DREAMers the amnesty crowd? If so, why is it bad that she is being heckled by that bunch?
At the national level, Democrats are hitting Republicans for allegedly cutting funding for ebola vaccine research. Republicans countered by pointing out they spent a whole lot more on ebola vaccines than Obama even asked for.
At the state level, Democrats are attacking Republican state legislators for allegedly cutting $500 million from public education. Republicans have responded that falsehood by pointing out correctly that they actually increased spending on education by ONE BILLION. On one hand, I can understand the desire to correct false statements being disseminated to the public. But on the other hand, WHY are Republicans defending themselves by pointing to the fact that they spent MORE of our money? Aren’t they accepting the left’s premise that throwing taxpayer dollars at problems is the way to go? That 50-year long “War on Poverty” is the best piece of evidence that doesn’t work.
Republicans at the state and national level have decided that they want to maintain their position as the official protest vote. When voter patience wears thin with Democrat shenanigans, Republicans want to be able to say Yoo Hoo! We’re over here, and we’re NOT those guys!
At some point, voters are going to get tired of the crowd they voted in as a protest — especially if that crowd doesn’t really stand for anything and doesn’t do a whole lot to differentiate themselves from those other guys.
The DC GOP has established a national strategy of badmouthing the other guys while not saying much about what THEY will do.
In our Senate race, Theam Tillis is betting it all on that national strategy. They’ve forsaken bolstering their standing with the base — the folks they should already have — for this issue-less, principle-barren strategy. The Hagan camp appears to be aiming their strategy at the Democrat base. In an era where turnout is appallingly low and the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) operation is becoming ever more critical, your hardcore supporters become even more crucial.
I cannot speak for anyone else except myself. But the protest interruption of Hagan’s speech made me laugh for a couple reasons.
1. She is being bitten by the very kind of transactional politics that Democrats traffic in. Promising constituencies the moon then failing to deliver. I laugh because she’s hoisted with her own petard.
2. The sheer awkwardness with which she handled the encounter. It shows exactly how uncomfortable she is when challenged. It makes me wonder how often she’s actually called upon to debate her ideas. In essence, she could’ve turned this into a winning moment for herself. She failed. Bumbling through her comments and completely discombobulated as she flailed around trying to end the event.
3. The News & Observer – in a blatant disregard for journalist ethics – edited out the protest footage. There is no other reason to do so, but to spare Hagan the embarrassment and help cover over the obvious rift inside the Democratic Party. Remember: It’s only a civil war when it’s inside the GOP.
My laughter has nothing to do with the Dreamers’ arguments.
“… why is it bad that she is being heckled by that bunch?”
Because she’s trying to have it both ways – promising them amnesty while trying to dodge responsibility for it before the election (so as to avoid any backlash). The Dreamers are calling her out on it in a way that the GOP can’t do.
“In our Senate race, Theam Tillis is betting it all on that national strategy. They’ve forsaken bolstering their standing with the base — the folks they should already have — for this issue-less, principle-barren strategy. The Hagan camp appears to be aiming their strategy at the Democrat base. In an era where turnout is appallingly low and the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) operation is becoming ever more critical, your hardcore supporters become even more crucial.”
Agreed.
The problem is that Tillis is also trying to have it both ways on many issues, including illegal immigration. He tells the special interests that favor amnesty that he supports ”a pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens (which is amnesty to most of us) but then claims he is ”against blanket amnesty” in the debate. Is there some Orwellian meaning in that last statement. Will he claim later ”well the bill being voted on did NOT, NOT I say, give amnesty to blankets!”.
With Obamacare, it is the same. They both support the Democrat position.
We have two extremely sleazy politicians running who are both falling all over themselves paying attention to the left of center vote. We conservatives are left with no one to vote for, at least among the candidates printed on the ballot.
Why does Thom Tillis lack the party loyalty to support the principles of the Republican Party such as those set out in the Republican platform? He sounds like he is more comfortable with the Democrat platform.
“Because she’s trying to have it both ways – promising them amnesty while trying to dodge responsibility for it before the election (so as to avoid any backlash). The Dreamers are calling her out on it in a way that the GOP can’t do.”
+1, Pete. It’s also a good idea to point out that Hispanics aren’t as “in the bag” for Hagan as her campaign and surrogates like to point out. Noting the difficulties Hagan is having in keeping her base motivated is very much worth pointing out. Over and over again. 🙂
Agreed with all above. This is why it is so sad that the GOP has refused to run an election based on policy, issues and principles. They would have engaged their base and had they done so I truly believe this tied contest we have now, would have been a run away train with the GOP in the lead car. Hagan has no policy she can run on – she was an easy target. Most of the uninformed voters I speak with are disgusted with both candidates and their TV Ad Campaigns stating that neither of them is the other. Ad the debates only solidified that.
In my County, voter turnout is very high. At a debate held for all candidates from US House down to School Board last week – the majority of the audience were Democrats, and this is in what is a very Republican County. Visiting the polls, there are two to three times more Democrats than Republicans electioneering.
Where is the GOP? Hello, is anybody home?
If we had a good solid candidate running a competent campaign, we would be well ahead of Hagan at this point. Instead, we have a bad candidate running one of the most inept campaigns I have ever seen, and socialist Obamacrat Hagan is likely to go back as a direct result of us being stuck with Tillis thanks to Karl Rove and the NRSC.
If ONLY we had Dr. Greg Brannon mopping up right about now…
Brannon would be doing better than Tillis since he would be running on issues, not blather. But the candidates who really have been crushing Hagan would have been Dan Forest or Jim Cain.