Frontrunner? What Frontrunner?

Orange denotes a state won by Mitt Romney.

Purple denotes a state won by Newt Gingrich.

Green denotes a state won by Rick Santorum.

Sorry, Karl.

Karl Rove Attacks Mitt Romney With His White Board

Karl Rove discusses Mitt Romney's vulnerabilities

Karl Rove, Mitt Romney's biggest fanboy, admits that Mitt faces a challenging climb to the GOP nomination. But as usual, he ends his discussion on a positive note:

"Mitt's starting to slip in the polls, but he might be able to hang on to front-runner status if he gets some personality coaching and a spinal transplant."

*Parody Alert*

Update (via The Other McCain):

When the insiders try to dictate our political choices, by anointing some candidates and dismissing others as “not up to the task,” it is directly analogous to economic planners attempting to substitute their own preferences for the free choices of consumers in the marketplace. And just as economic planning destroys the essential vitality of the free market, so too do these interventions by the political elite destroy the essential vitality of the grassroots.

The central-planning model of politics — which dominated the GOP when Karl Rove was at the White House and Ken Mehlman ran the RNC — is deeply implicated in the Republican “brand damage” problem that led to landslide victories for Democrats in 2006-08. It was only with the rise of the Tea Party in 2009-10 that the conservative movement recaptured the momentum it lost during the Bush/Rove/Mehlman era.

Karl Rove's Sparkling Brilliance

William A. Jacobson, our friend over at Legal Insurrection, offers a generous defense of Karl Rove:

Bashing Rove is in fashion these days, but watch this video carefully. In addition to be a prolific fundraiser for American Crossroads, which played a critical role in the 2010 elections, Rove is one of the more articulate spokesmen for taking on the Obama message machine.

Rove's searing intellect always impresses, but Rove's weakness is that he routinely puts acquisition of power ahead of adherence to principle. And he’s an enemy of the Tea Party primarily because of the Tea Party’s anti-establishment bent.

His strategic brilliance notwithstanding, Rove’s grand era of big government “conservatism” backfired and helped to create perfect conditions for the rise of the Democrats in 2006 and 2008. Rove is too cynical, too short-sighted, and he puts cronyism before country.

Ceteris paribus, I’d always choose someone from outside of the Rove network for any position of government influence.

x-posted

Peg Votes for Style, Not Substance

Freedom Fighter dissects Peggy Noonan's latest column. Peggy's piece in the Wall Street Journal started out well enough. In fact, the part featuring an excerpt from Obama's fictional post-midterm memoir (in which BO refers to himself in the third person) was quite clever:

"Obama was frustrated. He honestly didn't understand what the country was doing. It was as if they had compulsive hand-washing disorder. In '08 they washed off Bush. Now they're washing off Obama. There he is, swirling down the drain! It's all too dramatic, too polar. The morning after the election it occurred to him: maybe he should take strong action. Maybe he should fire America! They did well in 2008, but since then they've been slipping...

So Peg made some good points, but then she went into "Karl Rove mode" with her tea party comments. Like many of her friends in the Snobby Clique Class, Peg is more worried about style than substance, and more worried about The Clique's image than the nation's well being.

Peg preaches to the Tea Party:

"Electable means mature, accomplished, stable—and able to persuade."

I suppose, for example, that Joe Miller's biggest obstacle in Alaska is that Joe is unpersuasive and he has achieved nothing. Or maybe the race in Alaska is still not settled because of a petulant member of the Snobby Clique Class and a few of her closest friends. I won't name any names, but people like Lisa Murkowski and her buddy Orrin Hatch come to mind.

Here's a list of Tea Party candidates who did not win their elections in 2010, apparently because they didn't go to the Peggy Noonan School of Messaging. Click on the links to assess their communication skills:

• Anna Little
• Sean Bielat
• John Dennis
• Charles Djou
• Stephen Broden

On second thought, having heard these candidates speak, maybe their only problem in this election was that they were under-demeciated by the Ruling Class.

Peg knows exactly what the Tea party needs to do in 2012:

"...in the future the tea party is going to have to ask itself: Is this candidate electable?"

OMG! Why didn't any of the millions of Tea Party activists think of that in 2010? That's such a smart idea!

Let's not forget that you go to war with the army you have. I'm sure the overwhelming majority of tea party activists would LOVE to run a Ronald Reagan or a Jack Kemp or a Margaret Thatcher in every local, state and federal election, but we can't sit around waiting for perfect candidates. We have urgent work to do.

Discussion: Memeorandum

Cross-posted at Left Coast Rebel

Send Rover to the Dog House... Permanently

Karl Rove thinks the Tea Party is "not sophisticated."

SPIEGEL: Is the Tea Party movement a repeat of the Reagan Revolution?

Rove: It's a little bit different because the Reagan Revolution was driven a lot by the persona of one man, Ronald Reagan, who had an optimistic and sunny view of what the nation could be. It was also a well-organized, coherent, ideologically motivated and conservative revolution. If you look underneath the surface of the Tea Party movement, on the other hand, you will find that it is not sophisticated. It's not like these people have read the economist Friedrich August von Hayek. Rather, these are people who are deeply concerned about what they see happening to their country, particularly when it comes to spending, deficits, debt and health care.

I shouldn't have to point out how unhelpful this attitude is. I assume Rover wants to help the Republican Party, but I don't understand how he hopes to accomplish his goals by alienating legions of Tea Party conservatives with insulting generalizations.

Moreover, it's quite perplexing to hear a professional political analyst talk smack about millions of "unsophisticated" political amateurs when he himself is incapable of understanding how unwise it is to attack members of his own party during the time between the primaries and the general election.

When and if Rover tries to backpedal away from his "unsophisticated" statement, I won't be inclined to believe whatever he says. Ordinarily I might try to give the benefit of the doubt with a more charitable assessment, but Karl Rove has a brilliant mind and he knows well power of his words. He meant what he said, belittling connotations included.

Unfortunately, this deeply ingrained, destructive establishment attitude is all too pervasive in the GOP. Consequently, a great number of Republicans, "conservatives" and libertarians apparently would prefer to lose elections to statist Democrats than to be embarrassed by unsightly Tea Party rabble.

Rush is right. The ingredients for a third party revolt are already brewing and the GOP is adding fuel to the fire.

Cross-posted at Left Coast Rebel

Update: The unenthusiastically anticipated walk-back/non-appology from Rover:

They are unsophisticated in the ways of DC, and they demand 100 percent of what they want and now.”

He continued: “Most of them are generally proud they are not from Washington — or wise in its ways...

Rover clearly thinks tea partiers are petulant rubes who are too stupid to take his sage, progressive Republican advice, but Rover has put his own immaturity on display. I think he's still sore about Tea Partiers in Delaware ignoring his pleas. Rover stooped to grace Delaware Tea Partiers with his glorious presence in a private meeting, but the Tea Partiers stubbornly refused to get behind his liberal Republican buddy, Cap-n-Trade Castle.

Has Rover's ego been bruised beyond all recognition? Let this video tell the story:

"NO ONE is going to tell us how to take care of business."

Update II: Rush provides his opinion on the matter:

I got a note today from a friend, "Why would Karl be saying this, Rush? You know Karl. Why would he be saying this? Why doesn't Karl learn to keep his mouth shut?"

I said, "Karl means to say this. Mike Murphy, all these guys, they think this."

It's not easy for me to say here, folks, it really isn't. But it's what ought to be a euphoric period still indicates that on the Republican side there are divisions and jealousies and egos and competition. And the simplest explanation is that the Tea Party cannot be claimed as credit by anybody. Nobody can say, "I am the Tea Party." Nobody can say, "I started the Tea Party." Nobody can say, "I saw the Tea Party coming, and I steered it." Nobody who makes a living generating political support, generating political donations, nobody in that business can point to the Tea Party and say, "I did it." So it's a threat.

It's a genuine effervescent, grassroots effort. Nobody has any control over it, nobody can honestly claim any credit for it, and therefore it's a threat.

Folks, I could give you the greatest analogy I ever could, but I would probably end my career doing so in talking about this program in its early days. None of the experts -- and they were all very nice people -- none told me it would work. They all told me it wouldn't work. Therefore when it did, none of them can say they had anything to do with it. So there was ambivalence about it while people were happy about it at the same time.

Same thing with the Tea Party movement. Any time people that are considered unprofessional or outside the professional realm enter somebody else's professional realm and shake it up, you have a bit of a threat there. And I think it's partially what's going on here.

Discussion: Memeorandum

Chris Coons: Deeply Flawed Candidate

Image shamelessly borrowed from Kilroy's Delaware.

The National GOP establishment can get off its high horse in Delaware and focus its attacks on the Democrat in the race for the U.S. Senate seat that was recently vacated by Joe Biden (plagiarist, gaffe-machine, potty mouth, etc).

Karl Rove, I'm thinking about YOU as I write this.

You establishment guys can probably Google just as well as I can, but I'm sure you're very busy, so I've done a little work to help give you a head start. Here's some interesting stuff for your perusal...

This one was written by a Delaware liberal. There's quite a bit information about Chris Coons' checkered past as it relates to the details of his shady campaign finance history. I don't know how much of this information could be used effectively against Chris Coons, but the phrases "class G felony" and "class A misdemeanor" grab my attention! Take a look:

No Wonder Chris Coons' County Finances Are In Such A Mess

Another one from our liberal friends in Delaware, this one focused on Chris Coons's problems with truth in advertising. Key words: "disingenuous," "false," "incompetent" and "ineffective..."

Coons' Intentional Distortion Of His Record

Addendum:

Here's one from our team:

Lies: "In 2004, when Coons first ran for the job, he promised not to raise taxes. Since then he has raised taxes not once, not twice, but three times... Now, on his campaign Web site, Coons expresses deep concern about the federal government's 'runaway debt.' A number of his proposals to cut the deficit involve collecting more taxes." (Byron York, Washington Examiner)

h/t: Da Tech Guy via The Other McCain

Addendum II:

Chris Coons turned an inherited surplus and a firm no-tax pledge into multiple violations of said pledge and now Delaware’s most populous county is headed towards bankruptcy (by his own admission). (RedState)

Addendum III:

Chris Coons: A Rich Little Tax Raising Democrat

Addendum IV:

Chris Coons: Volunteer for Liberation Theology

Addendum V:

Leftist Activist in Delaware: Chris Coons Harassed Me Due to My Political Activism

Addendum VI:

More harassment by Coons

Cool quotes:

"Coons’ real problem in 2010 is that everyone knows him in the Democratic Caucus, and taxing and spending are his thing – and more so when the economy’s down, and the people are taking big hits in their own lives."

~ J.E. Dyer

“Chris Coons squandered the largest budget surplus in New Castle County history and then left county taxpayers with the bill. In fact, after promising not to raise taxes, Coons was responsible for the largest property tax hike New Castle County residents had ever seen.”

~ Tom Ross

“Through massive taxes and spending, Chris Coons nearly led the families of New Castle County off a financial cliff. Now Coons wants to bring his tax-and-spend record to Washington so he can rubberstamp the Democrats’ failed economic agenda. Delaware families deserve an independent-minded Senator who will fight for checks and balances in Washington, and there’s no doubt that voters will hold Coons accountable for his reckless fiscal record this November."

~ Amber Marchand

More:

• Seriously: O'Donnell Can't Beat the “Bearded Marxist”?
• CNBC did an analysis of America's top states for doing business in 2010. Delaware was ranked 42nd in the nation. Delaware Democrats Blame Chris Coons.
• How Chris Coons Slowly Screwed New Castle County
• Chris Coons, Millionaire. Unemployed Delawareans are so impressed (not).
• Not One Single Year With A Balanced Budget Yet Chris Coons Wants To Lead In DC?

Hey, Rove, take a break from the canibalism; chew on Chris Coons!