Tea Party Favorites in U.S. Senate Races

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In Republican primaries for U.S. Senate, two candidates have emerged that are identified with Tea Party principles: Sharron Angle of Nevada and Rand Paul of Kentucky. It will be interesting to read how these how these two debate their Democratic Party opponents.

How do you feel about their chances? What does Tea Party influence say about politics in the United States?

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@wandeljw,

Paul has a better chance of winning then Angle but her chances of beating Reid are still pretty good.

What the influence of the Tea Party Movement says about American politics is that there are a hell of a lot of people in this country who want less government involvement in their lives, fiscally conservative economic policy and don't buy into Obama's post- American world vision. They are far more enraged and engaged than the base of the Democratic Party, and so wield a bigger political stick.

With their influence they are changing (and I would say reforming) the Republican Party.

There are plenty of professional politicians who are attempting to co-opt the movement, but they will all fail. Members of the movement have a razor thin tolerance for politics as usual and are not going to follow in lock-step anyone who attempts to speak for them all.

Sarah Palin is walking a tightrope with the movement. Her endorsements have held power thus far, but as soon as it becomes clear that she is using the power of her influence to pave the way for a run in 2012, it will diminish significantly.

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@wandeljw,

I'm perfectly fine putting a Tea Party candidate on stage to debate a Democrat. I think people will be very interested in this too.

My prediction is that no matter what the Tea Party Candidate says, those who support the Tea Party will be very excited.

For Democrats, it will be mostly watching out of curiosity or entertainment. I don't think any Democrat is really impressed with TP rhetoric.

For moderate Democrats, I think this will move them to the right.

The only real group up for grabs will be the moderate Republicans. Even if they don't want to vote for the Democrat, they may rather stay home than vote for and associate themselves with the Tea Party. I doubt that many moderate Republicans are super eager to defend the kinds of stuff that comes out of Rand Paul's mouth.

I can see Paul winning because of how red the state of Kentucky is. Angle could have a shot, but only because it's Reid. The anti-incumbent attack will probably track well, but if Angle ends up embarrassing herself on the parts of the campaign that involve more than talking angrily and more about having a real plan, Reid will hold his office yet again.

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Quote:

Bill Clinton to stump for Reid in Vegas
(Laura Myers, Las Vegas Review-Journal, June 08, 2010)

Former President Bill Clinton's coming to Las Vegas next week to hold a campaign rally for U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic incumbent who's bringing in the big guns to help him win re-election.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have already traveled to Nevada "" for official events "" to talk up Reid, who's in a tough battle to win a fifth term in the Senate.

On Tuesday, just as Republican primary voters were going to the polls to pick Reid's GOP opponent for the fall, the Reid campaign put out an announcement about the popular Clinton's upcoming visit.

Surely, just a co-incidence in timing.

The announcement sends a clear message that Reid's high powered Democratic friends will be spending plenty of time in Nevada in the next five months ahead of the Nov. 2 general election, helping boost the prospects of Reid, who isn't very popular among Nevada voters these days.

Clinton won Nevada in 1992 and 1996, although former President George W. Bush won the Silver State in 2000 and 2004, marking Nevada as a key swing stage. Obama won Nevada in 2008.

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@failures art,

failures art wrote:

I don't think any Democrat is really impressed with TP rhetoric.

Gee - no kidding?

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@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

failures art wrote:

I don't think any Democrat is really impressed with TP rhetoric.

Gee - no kidding?

Think about what I'm saying here Finn. I'm telling you that Tea Party votes are going to take away from alternative conservative views, not the liberal ones.

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@failures art,

You're also saying they will push moderate Democrats to the right.

I agree by the way.

They are not going to " take away" from "alternative" conservative views unless it is from socially conservative blocs.

I hope and believe they will "take away" from Republican Establishment views.

The number of moderate Republicans they drive to the Democrats will be minimal and base on ignorance. Frankly, any Republican who believes of the Tea Party Movement what folks like you and plainoldme do, belong with Democrats.

More people who voted for Democrats in 2008 are going to switch to Republicans in November than the reverse. Only the most self-deluding Liberal thinks otherwise.

I'm not going to predict how big the Republican victory will be in November, but I'm absolutely certain it will be a victory that changes the landscape, if not the majorities in either house.

In anticipation of it, Democrats are already running to the Right in primaries and special elections, and the one who embraced the Left and millions of dollars from Labor and MoveOne lost to the Left's #1 Democratic target: Blanche Lincoln.

Make no mistake,this was a big defeat for the hard Left. They were counting on a defeat of Lincoln to strike fear in the hearts of wavering Democrats. The amount of money they poured into the campaign proves how serious they thought it was.

The Left has no idea what the Tea Party Movement is about and folks like you have swallowed, hook line and sinker, the nonsense generate by Liberal operatives to impugn it.

Come November you're going to be like Pauline Kael the NY Times critic who after Nixon creamed McGovern said:

"I don't understand it. No one I know voted for Nixon"

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@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

You're also saying they will push moderate Democrats to the right.

No Finn. I'm saying the EXACT opposite. The Tea Party doesn't appeal to moderates. They can only hope to expand their borders to Republicans who do not trust their own party currently.

In other words, a person who is considering voting for a Tea Party Candidate, was probably never considering to vote for a democrat in the first place. Their political dilemma is not left or right, it's which direction do I want to push the GOP?

I sense the Republican voter base is more inflated right now. Any victories that come will be because of the Tea Party winning over Republicans in states with good Republican footing. It will not be because the Tea Party wins over people who vote Democrat.

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I am curious about how long the Tea Party will remain influential. At various times in U.S. history third parties arose out of specific political circumstances but then faded away when circumstances changed.

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@wandeljw,

it would be my observation that populist movements in the USA tend to come and go with seasonal duration. They seem to tend towards self-destructive bickering among themselves rather than uniting into durable socio/politcal dynamics. Most often they are ideologically rigid which prevents the flexibility needed for compromise.

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@wandeljw,

The Tea Party is more a movement, isn't it? Not so much a 'party' in the political sense (Repub, Dem, Ind), at least that's been my impression.

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@Irishk,

You are correct. I should have used the term "populist movement" (like dyslexia did). Populist movements do not have a very long life span.

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@failures art,

failures art wrote:

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

You're also saying they will push moderate Democrats to the right.

No Finn. I'm saying the EXACT opposite.

That's funny. I was sure that I had read this:

failures art wrote:

For moderate Democrats, I think this will move them to the right.

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@Finn dAbuzz,

You're right Finn. I apologize. This was a typo. Thank you for clarifying.

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@failures art,

No need to apologize.

What was the typo?

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@Finn dAbuzz,

It should have read:

failures art wrote:

For moderate Democrats, I think this will move them to the LEFT.

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@failures art,

failures art wrote:

It should have read:

failures art wrote:
For moderate Democrats, I think this will move them to the LEFT.

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A Freudian Slip - I told you you were on your way to The Right.

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@Finn dAbuzz,

HAHAHAHAHA

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Touche'

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@wandeljw,

It's easy in American politics to stake out positions to the far right and the far left. The difficulty is then attracting moderate voters to those positions.

Republicans already have the far-right votes. And they will never attract the far-left votes. They need to attract the slight-left voters, and Democrats need to attract the slight-right voters.

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Quote:

Angle, Reid and a Crowded Ballot

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Tea Party Favorites in U.S. Senate Races

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