I know why Karl Rove has been in FULL PANIC MODE for the last few weeks. You may not have noticed, but Rove has been trying his best to be the voice of reason over at Fox, though in that crowd he has his work cut out for him. Rove has been jumping up and down with his hair on fire trying to get Republicans to tone it down, because he knows that in order to win in the general election it has always served Republicans best to appear like a moderate candidate and then go far to the right once elected (see, Compassionate Conservative), but Rove doesn't realize that the inmates run the asylum in his camp, and the preferred candidate of the GOP financial establishment (Romney) is starting to look like he is going to get blown out by the preferred candidate of the foaming at the mouth teabagger wing of the party. In other words, Frankenstein's monster is loose in the village and Dr. Frankenstein has no idea how to reel him in.
But the shorter point is . . . .
REALITY: Mitt Romney is Mike Castle and Rick Perry is Christine O'Donnell.
In poll after poll, Romney does better in a head to head poll against President Obama then Rick Perry does. You would think that, logically, this is the best reason for Republicans to support Romney's candidacy, but if you think that you will have forgotten that logical thinking has nothing to do with voting Republican.
So I had to laugh when I saw Greg Sargent's post today, which illustrates once again that the far right of the GOP base is divorced from reality.
But this finding, buried in the CNN poll’s internals, really does seem significant:
Which Republican candidate do you think has the best chance of beating Barack Obama in the general election next November?
Perry 42%
Romney 26%
Palin 7%
Bachmann 5%
Gingrich 5%
Instead of getting behind the candidate most likely to win over moderate and independent voters (Romney), Republican primary voters seem HELL BENT on nominating a candidate who performs significantly worse against President Obama in the general election. We should be grateful that we have idiots for enemies, idiots who oppose jobs, idiots who attack the immensely popular Social Security program, and idiots who support the overwhelmingly unpopular tea party.
I'm sure that Karl Rove realizes that running a Texas Governor who sounds like Bush against Obama is going to make winning the Presidency a lot harder for Republicans, especially when most of the public still blames Bush for the bad economy more than they blame Obama, and even more so when Perry has made it clear that he is willing to attack Social Security, a program that is immensely popular across all spectrums of American voters. Rove knows that, but Fox Viewers and Rush listeners don't. The teabaggers seem to have one simple criteria for their POTUS candidate, someone who is as angry and hateful of the Government as they are, someone who speaks fluent teabonics, and someone who is as religiously extreme as they are. Good luck selling THAT to moderates and independents!
More below the fold
The reality is, as stated above, Rick Perry is the Christine O'Donnell to Mitt Romney's Mike Castle. For those who don't recall, Mike Castle was the establishment Republican running for US Senate who was knocked out by teabagger darling Christine O'Donnell, and at the time Karl Rove called O'Donnell a "seriously flawed candidate", but that didn't stop Teabaggers in Delaware from nominating her to run for the Senate seat over Castle. According to all the polls, Castle would have beat his Democratic opponent Chris Coons easily, but O'Donnell, who was too crazy for the general public but just right for her teabagger fan base got trounced by Coons in an election that should have certainly gone to the GOP, especially in a year where Democrats nationally got "Shellacked".
Appealing to anyone outside of the Teabagger base is a total nonstarter in today's GOP, it is more important to be conservative than popular with moderates or independents, and by conservative I mean the right kind of conservative, the kind that hates who they hate, fears what they fear, and above all the kind of conservative that Rush Limbaugh can support.
But Rick Perry has more in common with Sarah Palin than the Financial Establishment wing of the GOP, he is not a polished national candidate. The more Perry gets a chance to talk the more damage he will do to himself with anyone who isn't already a dedicated Fox Viewer. That will play out great for him in an all GOP primary election, in a general election, not so much.
So thank the God(s) of your preference that we have idiots for enemies.
Peace and love to all
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