#NCSEN: Mitt Tillis
In 2012, we were told Barack Hussein Obama would be political ‘dead meat’ when he faced the voters in 2012. The economy was terrible. National morale was down. It was shades of Jimmy Carter. We just had to find the right champion to take the man down.
During the GOP presidential primary, we were told Mitt Romney was ‘more electable’ than Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and any other right-of-center contender that year. Mike Huckabee told us so. CBS News told us so. National Journal told us so.
People got sold on the ‘most electable’ spin and gave Romney the GOP nomination. How did that work out?
We’re seeing shades of 2012 in the 2014 GOP primary for US Senate in North Carolina. All of the usual 
establishment suspects are telling us Thom Tillis is the most electable candidate. That spin is being pounded into people’s heads in precincts across the state. The effects of that effort can be seen in an article in this morning’s N&O:
Like many Republican voters, Wayne and Lynn Dahnke are torn when it comes to the U.S. Senate primary.
They align with Greg Brannon’s strong conservative politics. But they consider Thom Tillis the stronger candidate against Democrat Kay Hagan.
“Thom Tillis is a moderate, in my opinion. Brannon is more conservative,” said Wayne Dahnke, a 68-year-old real estate appraiser. Next to him at a GOP event in Sanford near their home, his wife nodded in agreement. But he added, “I’m leaning toward Tillis because he’s more likely to beat Hagan.” […]
But it left questions in Lynn Dahnke’s mind. “I want him to explain to me the broader conversation about Obamacare and state exchanges,” she said.
She didn’t get the chance to talk to him at the GOP event. But like her husband, she said she is leaning in Tillis’ direction because he can win in November.
The latest polls for the primary shows Tillis leading his nearest GOP competitor by 26 points and 18 points. The problem? Move to the general election head-to-head matchups. Greg Brannon beats Kay Hagan. Mark Harris beats Hagan Heather Grant beats Hagan Thom Tillis DOES NOT.
Flash back to 2012. The folks at Reason pointed out that even though the general consensus was Romney was more electable, Newt Gingrich was in a statistical tie with him. Sound familiar, North Carolina?
I don’t think the problem the GOP had in 2012 was a weak candidate at the top of the ticket.
I think the problem was that we have too many people in our party who focus less on governing and more of throwing grenades and not working with other Republicans to advance conservative causes.
If Tillis actually is a paper tiger, then primary voters should weigh that when they make their voting decision. However, Brannon’s decision in 2012 to PUBLICLY endorse a third party candidate and not support the GOP nominee for President should disqualify him from being the GOP nominee for ANYTHING.
The party’s problem isn’t the Tillises of the world….its the Brannons who desert the party when they don’t get everything they want.
Observant(?);give me a break! The GOP’s problem is the old “my way or the highway” approach to its conservative base. There is never room for any other way of doing things other than what is prescribed by “the party” elitists. The world is changing, my friend and if the GOP continues down this road(and with an arrogant attitude) they will end up in the dust bin of history right along with the Wig party.
First of all, Brannon responded to a question in this campaign that he had written in the name of a different Republican for president in 2012. He did NOT make a public endorsement of a third party candidate as you claim.
I have voted for every Republican presidential candidate since Nixon, and every US Senate candidate since Bob Somers, but I sometimes have to wrestle with myself over whether I can hold my nose enough to do so. The stench from Tilli$ is so great that, if he is the nominee, it could well be my first time to do something other than vote for the GOP nominee.
The problem in the Republican party is that we have too many politicians who betray us on major issues, ignore their constituents, and cozy up to the special interests and beltway establishment. Tilli$ is a poster boy for every one of these problems.
When our candidates betray us to the point that Republican voters cannot with a good conscience vote for them, it is not the problem of the voters. It is the problem of the lousy candidates. Republican candidates with an R by their name but not an R in their hearts are phonies and deserve to be treated as such.
I am unaffiliated and if Tillis wins the primary, I will vote for a third party conservative candidate.
As I recall Brannon said that a vote for the Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney would “advance tyranny.”
I think Brannon reiterated this comment recently.
Now Brannon wants Republicans to support him even though he turned his back on the Republican Party Presidential nominee.
Hard to figure.
Junior, Dr. Brannon’s statement reflects the opinion of many in the conservative base including a lot of young people. The average age of the GOP in NC is past 60. You had better wise up fast or you will not exist at all within the next 10 years. The sad thing is that many of the base will not vote at all as they see no point in it. What has the GOP done to inspire?
If I recall correctly Mitt Romney carried North Carolina against Obama so obviously many North Carolina voters did not feel a vote for Romney would “advance tyranny.”
Brannon turned his back on the North Carolina Republican Party but now he wants us to embrace him.
Us old Republicans have a long memory of betrayal.
Betrayal should be Thom Tilli$’ middle name. Tilli$ first slithered into GOP politics as the recruit of Richard Morgan to represent the renegade Morgan faction which was allied with corrupt Democrat Jim Black, against GOP loyalist and solid conservative John Rhodes. Morgan was later kicked out of the Repubilcan Party by overwhelming vote of the state GOP executive committee for party disloyalty for his shananigans with Jim Black. Jim Black went to federal prison for corruption.
Thom Tilli$ has also chosen as his consultant for his Senate race the very same consultant who negotiated Richard Morgan’s betrayal of the House Republican caucus and alliance with Jim Black’s Democrats instead.
Writing in a different Republican than the official party nominee in an election is far less of a betrayal of the party than Thom Tilli$’ association with renegade RIchard Morgan and Paul Shumaker has been.
Who is Richard Morgan and Paul Shumaker?
I remember a Shumaker who was a world-class jockey in the Kentucky Derby. And wan’t Richard Morgan the drummer for the Gin Blossoms?
More people probably know who Mitt Romney is more that they recognize these two names. Who are these guys again?
When the Republicans had a 50/50 split with the Democrats in the NC House, Morgan led a small band of defectors to ally with the Democrats to give the Democrats real control and Morgan’s defectors a little window dressing. It was the biggest act of betrayal in the history of the NC Republican Party.
Ten years is not that long ago in politics, you didn’t know about just about the biggest controversy we’ve ever had in the NC Republican Party, involving the State Party censure of the Republican House Speaker and him getting kicked off the ExComm in 2004; and you really want to play the “who is the real Republican” game?
Well I did tell Stevie LaRoque that he was playing a dangerous game by throwing in with Morgan. But Stevie did get to sit up front and got a key to the executive bathrooms.
But getting back to Brannon saying that Mitt would “advance tyranny.” I just don’t see Mitt as a tyrant. He always seemed to me to be a fine family man. And he is a Republican. So Brannon turns his back on the Republican Presidential candidate but then turns himself to Republicans and says, “Vote for me.”
I imagine many of the loyal Republicans find it confusing.
If you don’t remember who Morgan / Black and Rhodes are, you are NOT an old NC conservative, or you are very ignorant. This is one of the most heinous betrayals in NC political history, and VERY well remembered.
You have hit the nail on the head, Brant. The ”electability” and ”inevitablitiy” myths are regularly spouted by the establishment and their media allies to try to push their candidates, but they are nothing but outright lies. The polling shows that to be the case. November matchup polls have pretty consistently shown Tillis to be one of the weakest GOP candidates in the primary field when matched against Hagan, but the establishment party bosses, in a very Orwellian argument tell us he is the ..most electable”. Horsehockey!
And it is not just North Carolina. This same pattern is showing in many states this year. In the highly watched Kentucky Senate primary, establishment kingpin Mitch McConnell is only tied with Democrat Allison Grimes, but conservative primary challenger Matt Bevin has a healthy lead over her in the November matchup. Yet the establishment claims McConnell is more ”electable”. Even in liberal Oregon, polls show that the conservative running in the GOP primary runs better against the Democrat incumbent than the establishment’s champion.
When you drill down into the issues that drive campaigns, your Romney / Tillis analogy becomes even stronger. Romney lost partly largely because he could not get traction on issues that created a contrast with Obama. The issue with the most potential in 2012, as it had been in 2010 and will be in 2014 was Obamacare. Romney was neutered on that issue and could not use it due to his own murky record in that area, particularly Romneycare. Similarly Tillis has a murky record on this issue, having pushed legislation to establish a state Obamacare exchange through the NC House, called Obamacare ”a great idea”, and waffled on the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. Nominating Romney forfeited our best issue against Obama, and similarly nominating Tilli$ would forfeit our best issue against Hagan. It was insanity to nominate Romney and it would be similar insanity to nominate Tillis if Republicans want to win.
Jeb Bush endorsement of Thom Tillis: “It is critically important that Republicans win a majority in the United States Senate, and I am confident that the road to a majority runs through Thom Tillis in North Carolina.”Brannon has less than 20% support in NC and that speaks for itself.
The most important thing is not sending Kay Hagan home, the most important thing is changing DC. That will not happen with a Kay Hagan lite in Thom Tillis. We can afford to lose NC to Hagan and let other well qualified conservatives in other states carry a conservative majority in the Senate. As Tillis himself said, we can afford to lose a few seats and still keep a majority. If Tillis is the nominee, conservatives will stay home and leave him on the field alone to be buried by Hagan. No big deal there are other states with good conservatives running. Anyone But Tillis.
Jeb Bush? Don’t make me laugh? The idiot who says illegal aliens come here out of ”love”? Yeah, love of the free stuff they can mooch off of the American taxpayer! An endorsement by this Big Government moron should be the kiss of death for any candidate with conservative voters.
But then again, I guess big Amnesty Amigo Jeb Bush fits sort of naturally with Tilli$ who supports ”a pathway to citizenship” (amnesty) for illegal aliens.Yeah, Tilli$ is indeed in the Bush Leagues.
I guess they will trot out Marco Rubio next? Or will it be Chuck Schumer or maybe La Raza?
Oh, and don’t forget that Tilli$ has already been endorsed by Liindsay Graham, a.k.a. ”Grahamnesty”.
It wasn’t the establishment part of the GOP who started this thread regarding electability or the discussion of Mitt Romney…it was the webmaster. My response was to the OP.
But if we are going to talk about people being suitable for elected office, Brannon is an anti-Catholic bigot who posted on his own website that the Vatican was part of the new world order.
As a Catholic, I was highly offended and if some of you so-called tea partiers think that someone with such views should be nominated to be the GOP party representative then you really have NO credibility in my eyes regarding whether someone is going to be electable or not.
Just sayin’.
ODW,
The fact that the Dr. acknowledged the NWO is worth serious consideration for a vote.
I absolutely love the New World Order conspiracy theories. Especially the one about the Alien Reptilians taking over the world. My second most favorite is the Fourth Reich. I do not put much faith in the one about the Freemasons taking over. Just about all the Masons I know are pretty old and can hardly be counted on to make it to the meetings much less run the whole world.
You’re playing checkers while the elitist are playing chess, my friend.
When they take over are they gonna outlaw checkers?
Chess takes too long and you have to think a lot. It is a game for the illuminati and not underlings.
What so many Republicans fail to realize is that they are being swayed by the MSM that Tillis is more “electable”. The left wants Tillis to be the candidate so that they can make the election about NC and the Republican house instead of about Hagan and the disastrous federal policies that she has voted for. Vote for Brannon. He will represent conservatives well.
You are spot on. Any time a conservative voter hears the word ”electable” from the liberal media or the GOP establishment, their bullshit detector should start sounding loudly. It is extremely likely that the term is being used in an Orwellian sense and a rational analysis of the race in question would reveal that in fact their ”electable” candidate was in fact the least electable. The bullshit detector should go off also when they hear either of these sources using their other favorite and misleading term ”inevitable”.
We have seen how their ”electable” and ”inevitable” candidates actually fare in elections. How many more McCains and Romneys are we going to allow them to foist off on us? Are we going to keep being like Charlie Brown, in his episodes with Lucy, and the football?
And you are right about the Democrats and liberals wanting to play the ”Blueprint” card. They have invested a lot in that smear campaign, and due to GOP incompetence in dealing with it at the time it reared its dishonest head, it has gotten too much traction. Democrats were chortling with glee in the media months ago about a massive TV campaign against Tilli$ based on Blueprint. Are we stupid enough to give them the nominee who would be the perfect foil for that? Indeed, a Blueprint based campaign would not even work with any of the others in the GOP primary. Given what has been done with Blueprint, Republicans would have to be insane to nominate any legislator for a statewide office this year.
One can easily see how Rove has managed to lose 10 of the 12 Senate races he has gotten involved in. Lets hope he loses this one in the primary, because otherwise he will surely lose it in the general election.
We need a national party like so many European countries! Nothing will change until conservative American’s stop voting Republican.