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ORIGINAL: popeye1250

Steven, I think RML could have run against Dirty Harry Reid and won.

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ORIGINAL: truckinslave

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It is naive to believe that these teabagger candidates will change anything.

They've already dragged the GOP waaaaay to the right.
They're going to drag them into a defund/repeal position on 0bama0Care.
And the 0bama0 spending spree is deader than SanFranNans poll numbers.

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

After the disastrous Bush presidency, I asked myself how the GOP would get back in the saddle.  The Bushies had pretty much messed things up across the board, especially economically.  The GOP has since attacked Obama for spending too much and for bailouts, but c'mon - Bush pushed the first bailout and the economy under him was pretty feeble.And he spent like a drunken sailor.  The GOP couldn't really repudiate Bush and he was an albatross. Interesting analogy, comparing Bush with the soul!

Thus the Tea Party.  They have repudiated the spending sprees of BOTH GOP and Dems.  They have a weird existence, where they kind of fit within the GOP but not really.

While they do tend to leave reality occasionally, they have a better grip on economics than the GOP, which has as an unassailable plank that tax cuts are always good and pay for themselves. No, that is the strawman of what supplysiders believe


So far the Tea Party has come up with some unbelievably bad candidates, such as O'Donnell, Dan Maes, Angle, etc.  I'm surprised by that and don't expect them to get such bad candidates again.  Very good chance that Angle will win. How will that change your expectation?


Everyone is focusing on the fact that these weak candidates have turned slam dunk races into competitive ones.  They've stated that this weakens the GOP.  What they're overlooking is that, once elected, Tea Party pols will not automatically vote the GOP party line.  In other words, the Tea Party will weaken the GOP once in office, and to be honest, weaken the Dems as well. The TeaParty will vote the GOP line in the most important areaas.


Expect massive gridlock in the short term.  correct
Hopefully, though, the Tea Party will get strong enough to absorb the GOP, and finally bury the Bush influence on the Republican Party.The tea party will never "absorb" the GOP. They will influence the GOP to adhere to more conservative principles, but not to the extreme right that some TP candidates represent.

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ORIGINAL: DomKen

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ORIGINAL: Moonhead

Myself, I think it'd be nice if the teabaggers split the Repuke vote enough for the Democrats to take a few seats, if only to see how many of the right leaning ideologue zealots on here die of apoplexy as a result of that happening.

Keep an eye on the Alaska Senate vote. That race looks like it could be the biggest one where a GOP/tea party split could give a race to the Democrats.