#NCSEN: Let’s play The Blame Game. The pizza man, the baby doc, or the web site?
During 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:
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.
The 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 ARE 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. 
We’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.
RIght on, It’s up to Team Tillis to “Catch Fire” and to convince US what he’d do conservatively while in Washington! What programs would he cut/reform, what conservative legislation would be his priorities? How would he fight bigger-government? I am sick of technocratic Mitt Romney-Elizabeth Dole type campaigns. Get rid of the people advising Thom, and go back to good ‘ole campaigning in the grassroots, meet with real people, and party activists (and local/county Republican officials). I haven’t met Mr. Tillis once, and I live in Wilmington. Hey Mr. Tillis if you’re reading this: Are you ignoring Wilmington, and the Southeast??
Well said. *tips cap*
They’ve always felt they could ram through a bad “team player” candidate and all the voters have to fall in line because “can’t let the other team win!!”.
They think this because often it works. For many people, the GOP owns their vote – it honestly doesnt matter what Tillis says or does, he doesnt have a (D) next to his name.
However, all voters end up with is more of the same. If the GOP wants more support, perhaps they should run better candidates.
And yeah, I’ve enjoyed seeing Haugh’s sense of humor – very refreshing, and he seems like a pretty nice guy.
This piece is dead on!
The Rovites want us to all shut up and go along with the program.
Are there any NC Republicans that the Tea Party does support?
I sure do read a lot of trash talking about Burr, Elmers and Thom.
Are there any good guys in the Republican Party?
Larry Pittman
Michael Speciale
Bill Cook
Walter Jones
Glen Bradley
Mark Meadows
Any other questions?
And we hope to add another good Republican to the list: Mattie Lawson.
Of course, Mattie Lawson, too. That was an oversight on my part.
Walter is my Congressman.
But who are the others. I don’t get out much so I am not familiar with these names. Do they hold statewide office? Are they in Congress.
Help me out here.
Thanks
Mark Meadows is a member of the U.S. House representing the 11th District. The rest are current or former members of the General Assembly.
Look in the New American’s Freedom Index. That says it all. Right now Walter Jones is the only one consistently supporting the push for limited government. Pretty evident that none of the others are. The real limited government crowd, whether they identify as tea party or otherwise will support anyone – democrat, republican, or libertarian who truly believes and works for limited government. Toll-rhode Thom hasn’t demonstrated any small government tendencies or any proclivity to act independent of the GOP puppet-masters . All one need do is simply check his record. What he’s done in the past is exactly what he’ll do in the future. No need to bang one’s head against the wall expecting some miraculous different outcome.
A superbly written article, and, as Wilkow says, perfectly executed political analysis”! Thanks for the great job you do at the Haymaker!
Unity is a two way street, and real unity comes only when both sides come together. The establishment seems to only want a facade of unity. The real problem in achieving unity has been Tillis’ attitude, like his telling a radio interview just after the primary they he did not intend to try to mend fences with conservatives. He thinks he is the king and all should bow down to him.
The real problem conservatives have with TIllis is over policy and issues, and what TIllis needs to do is take some meaningful steps to earn conservatives trust on major issues.
As to the LIbertarian pizza man, he also presents a very major policy problem for conservative voters, as he is an open borders advocate. Tillis dodged a bullet when Tim D’Annunzio, who would have more appeal to conservative voters in a general election lost the Libertarian primary to the pizza man.
Brannon’s current behavior is a key reason why I couldn’t consider supporting him. Same “its my way or the byway” attitude he exhibited in the past such as not supporting Romney against Obama.
The truth is that many tea party activists are really just frustrated people who think they are not listened to by GOP elected officials and therefore withhold their support because they don’t get their rears kissed enough.
Brannon just comes across nutty. You know, it IS possible to love and defend the Constitution without looking like a blooming idiot doing it. Just because someone can insert the words “the Constitution” into every phrase of every sentence doesn’t make someone a stronger candidate or better public servant. It just makes them look like a fool, especially when it looks like they have had about 3 pots too much of coffee that day.
Speaking of nutty, how great are progressive, establishment Republicans at defending the Constitution?
What is really nutty is someone with a record on the left of the party like Tillis, after winning a primary with less than half the vote, stating that he does not intend to try to mend fences with conservatives. That is nothing but self-defeating. Conservatives voters carry more about policies and issues, and less about candidate personalities, and even less about whether someone merely has a R by their name.
Please explain his “current” behavior…
I too attended the debates but didn’t find Brannon nutty at all. It’s typical that people without an understanding of individual liberty and limited government often demonstrate that response. I’ve been called crazy, nutty, kooky, etc. plenty of times over the 10 years I’ve done a local TV show. It’s always by the progressives or those with no concept of limited government and individual liberty. Most often they have no concept of what Jefferson was enumerating in the Declaration of Independence, usually thinking it’s simply a declaration of breaking off politically from Britain. I find candidates who advocate foreign interventionism, undeclared wars, bigger government, and more bureaucracy to be the nutty ones along with anyone who blindly supports their brand of party lunacy.
The NCGOP leadership is all pissed off that Brannon didn’t trek to Cherokee to publicly kiss Tillis’ ring over the weekend. I know because Marcus Kindley tried to yell at me about it over Facebook yesterday. I guess Brannon should have just told his patients to hold the babies in ’til he got back.
As he should not have. Thankfully Brannon’s integrity is strongly in tact. The others, not so much now. Its a good thing that the GOP is all a flutter.
Brannon will not sell out. He is a man of integrity and honor.
A Republican for Hagan for now, it’s that bad, unless another choice presents itself.
Right on, Sam!
If they want to win, they really ought to be pissed off with Tillis for saying he did not intend to try to mend fences with conservatives. This is the attitude that fosters disunity, not whether losing candidates travel hours for a little charade that matters little. Conservative voters are more driven by what they perceive TIllis’ stance on issues to be rather than who a former candidate endorses or does not endorse.
@ observant debate watcher…just an FYI,Greg Brannon doesn’t drink any coffee.
To ODW; I need a good reason to vote for Tillis other then he is not Kay. The law needs to be changed to require that the percentage of state wide votes for getting the nomination is 50% plus 1 as it is in many states. That way you know you have the consensus of the GOP voters. This way unless you make an effort to “mend fences” the GOP has a problem. Heaven forbid that we expect our nominee to actually live up to the stated principles of the Republican Party.