Virginia blame game begins

[brooklynite]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by greatauntoftriplets (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Politico

National Republicans agree on this much about the 2013 campaign in Virginia: It wasn’t supposed to go like this.

Well before the last votes are cast in the state’s off-year governor’s race, GOP leaders are already engaged in a spirited debate over why, exactly, a fight against a Democrat as flawed as Terry McAuliffe has turned into such a painful slog of a campaign. Even Republicans who haven’t yet counted out their nominee, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, view the governor’s race as a profile in frustration for the GOP – an election that should have leaned toward the Republicans, but where Democrats have held a persistent lead in polling, money and tactical prowess.

The GOP’s internal discussion about the race mirrors much of the broader national tug of war within the conservative coalition, between officials and strategists who want the party to trim back some of its most confrontational tactics and hard-edged rhetoric, and activists bent on drawing the starkest possible lines of contrast with the Democratic party of President Barack Obama.

The clearest battle lines will emerge after Tuesday; but the Washington community has groused for months about Cuccinelli’s history of incendiary, ultra-ideological stances, while rank-and-file activists have watched with horror as well-tailored GOP donors have defected to McAuliffe. Everyone in the party – establishment and tea party alike – has fumed over the ongoing ethics controversies that have rocked outgoing Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration and undercut Cuccinelli’s anticipated advantage over McAuliffe on personal integrity.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/virginia-gubernatorial-election-2013-republican-ken-cuccinelli-99249.html?hp=l1

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When fingers start pointing in advance, you know that they know they're going to lose.

[ck4829]

1. But they are, once again, in agreement that the problem is not their platform

But that their platform just needs to look prettier.

[judesedit]

3. Good one.

[durablend]

12. "Didn't sell ourselves as conservative enough!"

Watch for that!

[watoos]

14. Shh!

Let them go. One day they will figure out that the country is way further left than they imagined.

[magical thyme]

21. that day will be right after the fall off the right side of earth!

Shhhh! indeed

[hatrack]

16. Yes, it's all about the messaging . . .

[Spitfire of ATJ]

30. Maybe an action movie type commercial called "Turner and Cooch"...

I doubt that you'll get Tom Hanks to appear in a Republican spot.

The drool might be a turn off too.

[vlyons]

18. Maybe they should hire RuPaul

as a consultant to help them dress it up?

[Jackpine Radical]

34. Their positions are so manifestly right and holy

that any failure to concur with them must surely be due either to a failure to fully comprehend them in all their magnificence, or Satanic influences.

[judesedit]

2. I pray enough democratic Virginians care enough to go VOTE! If they do, we can win. If they don't,

not so sure. Hope and pray they do. Crossing fingers, too Can't wait until Tuesday.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

4. Any idea as to whether they use electronic voting machines?

[brooklynite]

8. Just like the electronic voting machines kept Obama from winning Virginia in 2008?

Or Tim Kaine? Or Mark Warner?

[azureblue]

28. or Kerry

for that matter.

[brooklynite]

31. Are you referring to Ohio?

I've asked Party leaders in Ohio; as well as winning and losing candidates. None of them believe electronic vote fraud has occured.

Personally, while I volunteered for Kerry's campaign, I felt he was an uninspiring candidate who failed to frame a clear distinction between him and Bush.

[questionseverything]

33. the other side

New court filing reveals how the 2004 Ohio presidential election was hacked
by Bob Fitrakis
July 20, 2011
A new filing in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case includes a copy of the Ohio Secretary of State election production system configuration that was in use in Ohio's 2004 presidential election when there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush.

The filing also includes the revealing deposition of the late Michael Connell. Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and Karl Rove. Connell ran the private IT firm GovTech that created the controversial system that transferred Ohio's vote count late on election night 2004 to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by SmarTech. That is when the vote shift happened, not predicted by the exit polls, that led to Bush's unexpected victory. Connell died a month and a half after giving this deposition in a suspicious small plane crash.

Additionally, the filing contains the contract signed between then-Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and Connell's company, GovTech Solutions. Also included that contract a graphic architectural map of the Secretary of State's election night server layout system

http://freepress.org/departments/display/19/2011/4239

[questionseverything]

32. seems to be all electronic,,touchscreens and scanners

http://sbe.virginia.gov/Files/Results/Statewide_Turnout_by_Locality_Democratic_Primary_2013.pdf

5,245,777 registered dems

http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/Files/Results/Statewide_Turnout_by_Locality_Republican_Primary_2013.pdf

1,053,327 registered repubs

begs the question,,,how do dems ever lose in virginia?

[Mz Pip]

6. It ain't over til it's over

GOTV Democrats!

[WinstonSmith4740]

7. Exactly.

The Democrats better not get complacent on this one. They need to work their asses off to get the vote out. Every Virginia Democrat needs to remember what happened in 2010 when too many Dems stayed home and didn't vote because everything wasn't perfect.

[JHB]

13. Or, even moreso, making sure the voters who only bother to vote in presidential elections...

...feel motivated to turn out for this one too.

If an atheist can be forgiven for using a church analogy, we need to get the people who only show up for services on Christmas and Easter, and are rarely seen on Sundays for the rest of the year. That was where the drop-off was in 2010.

[RBInMaine]

36. They're on it, from what I've heard. Massive ground operation in full swing.

[Nay]

5. First, the GOP didn't allow the regular rank and file to vote on whom to nominate

as candidates -- they were deliberately shut out, and the teabag bunch did the choosing. Highhandedness, I suppose. That must have backfired. Plus, Cooch is being brought up on ethics charges over accepting expensive gifts. Third, Jackson as Lt Gov is laughable -- the guy may be black, but he is an over-the-top crackpot whom black people will not vote for just because he's black, and white Republicans won't vote for because he's black. I live in Richmond, and what I see in Rep yards are two signs, one for Cooch and one for Obenshain (AG). Most yards omit a Jackson sign. The one rabid republican asshole who ALWAYS has large Pub signs in every election has 2 large signs for Cooch and Obenshain, but a tiny Jackson sign set over to the side and in back.

McAuliffe is a weak-kneed asshole who's ethically challenged, but he's nothing like the 3 Pubs.

What is astounding about this race is that the GOP leaders locked in their candidates without input from the base, which they obviously expect to vote for the hand-picked candidates anyway. Most of the base will, but moderate pubs (like a friend of mine) are angry and upset, especially over the nominating convention, and hope the GOP loses this one. That doesn't mean they'll vote Dem, though.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. "a Democrat as flawed as Terry McAuliffe"

!

[demwing]

23. Flawed, but still drinking Cuccinelli's milkshake

[Orsino]

10. Stop running corrupt fools who claim to believe in elves and chastity belts.

Because this? This is how it's supposed to go when your candidates all emerge from the same hateful clown car.

Just shows that many Virginia voters are awake.

[Snarkoleptic]

11. This may finally bring an end to the "insufficiently conservative"

meme they trot out after suffering a loss.

Kidding...they lack sufficient introspection as well as the requisite grasp on reality to connect the dots.

[JHB]

17. You may be kidding, but it may make (or widen) a splintering along that line

People can write off things if it looks like a one-shot event, but if it becomes a regular thing that the "wingnut approval factor" no longer provides the margin of victory but has become the margin of loss, the Republicans who were happy to have the teabaggers are going to start recaluclating. And ones who haven't started yet will start.

[magical thyme]

22. they've memorized that line. they can't unlearn it now it bouncing around in the echo chamber

that is supposed to hold a brain. And that's a good thing, lol.

[AlbertCat]

25. People can write off things if it looks like a one-shot event, but if it becomes a regular thing

Y'know, like repealing the ACA.

They aren't gonna learn anything any time soon.

[demwing]

20. An elephant may never forget

but teabaggers can't ever seem to learn. Insufficient introspection, compounded by complete incuriosity and a tendency toward hubris makes for a consistently losing recipe.

[cosmicone]

15. They don't disagree about the pig

they only quarrel over which lipstick to put on the pig.

[DFW]

19. Nominate a fundamentalist nut case for Governor

And then nominate an even worse whack job for Lt. Governor.

And THEN wonder what went wrong?

If it ain't clear by now, I'm afraid it never will be.

[Iliyah]

24. I do not TRUST the gopers at all.

They will do their best to steal it count on that!

[Botany]

26. Well if you are against blow jobs but support unneeded invasive medical tests designed to ...

... humiliate women, and your party just shut down the government which cost millions of
dollars and a lot of just being a "pain in the ass" to the people of VA and the out going
Governor with whom you worked is a crook you should not expect to win.

[azureblue]

27. The GOP mindset

It has, since Nixon, never been about doing what is best for the American people. You know, of the people, by the people, for the people. For the GOP it is about winning by any means, and making more money for the rich and big business. They will never change. If they tried to change, they would have to recognize their failings, and start coming up with solid plans to heal this country from the carnage the have wrought on America. But they will never do that. They simply do not think that way.

[AAO]

29. Could it have anything to do with the antics in Washington lately?

[RBInMaine]

35. They know they are in for a SPANKING on Tuesday.

[rdharma]

37. I predict Ken Cuccinelli will lose because the NRA endorsed him.

[Tarheel_Dem]

38. I'm always skeptical about chicken counting. GOTV Virginia!!!!

[greatauntoftriplets]

39. Sorry, but this is analysis/background and so we are locking it.

Please re-post it in General Discussion. Thanks.