Tea party candidates falling short at polls

[babylonsister]

:nopity::nopity:

Tea party candidates falling short

By ALEX ISENSTADT | 3/7/10 7:21 PM EST


From its loud and highly visible protests at summer congressional town hall meetings to its September march on the streets of Washington, the tea party movement has left a profound mark on the American political landscape since it burst onto the scene a year ago.

But as spirited political movements have shown in the past, translating passion and activist fury into votes can be difficult. And so far, success at the ballot box has been elusive for these grass-roots conservative activists — if not entirely nonexistent.

From Texas to Illinois to upstate New York, a string of lackluster showings for tea party-linked candidates have highlighted a central question about the group’s future: Can an organic and fledgling movement that lacks the institutional grounding and top-down organizational strength of either major political party transfer protest-oriented grass-roots energy into tangible success at the polls?

Some observers raise the question of whether the tea party crowd is cut out to achieve electoral success — or whether it is more influential as a more radical, guerrilla movement. “I think they are tremendously influential as a force in the November election,” said Curt Anderson, a veteran GOP strategist and a top adviser to the Republican National Committee. “Except if you see them as an organized political force — in which case, they have been less relevant.”

The early results from tea party candidates, despite their focus on hot-button issues such as opposition to President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill and concern about budget-busting policies of both parties, have not been pretty.

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34041.html

[onehandle]

1. Keep up the good fight, teabaggers.

You Must have a Tea Party candidate in every 2010 race from coast to coast.

You have the power to take down those Republicans. They do not represent your ideals.

Run, run, run.

[Richardo]

2. The problem is that it's not a grass-roots movement.

It's a Fox News sweeps-week publicity invention.


Idiots.

[KingFlorez]

3. They are not going to appeal to swing voters

Bottom line is, they are too radical and are turning off everyone, except their own kind.

[RKP5637]

4. I think many are realizing (hopefully) how ugly, backward and repulsive many are... n/t

[Walk away]

5. They are firmly on the side of republicans and if their candidates don't win...

they will raise plenty of money against Democrats and continue to loudly slander them at every election. Without them the pukes would never have been able to stop HCR in it's tracks. They are like S.S. Storm Troopers of the republican party.

[zbdent]

6. The SarahPalooza RockStar shows?

[AlinPA]

7. Except Brown in MA who is a teabagger. nt

[Jennicut]

10. Not really, his record in the MA state legislature was of a moderate Repub.

More likely, he took the teabagger support to get elected.

[Javaman]

8. They are suffering from the reality quotient.

If these tools were able to keep the majority of their mouth breathing followers ignorant, they would have been successful, but since last summer, we have seen a few things happen.

They are now splintering, they are show to have been heavily financed by the repukes, they are nothing more than astroturf, they are very very week on any sort of experience, they have no background in anything that actually counts and their political tactic of whining about everything has gotten very very very old.

So with this less than stella profile, they are basically imploding.

I think that by this time next year, the ball licking tea baggers will be a tiny minority with a very whiny presences.

In a nut shell, they shot their load.

[arcadian]

9. Tea Party is a distraction

a circus side show

[BurtWorm]

11. 'Profound impact?' I don't know about that.

The teaparty is just another flavor of know-nothing, wingnut loon. If they can't win at the polls, how profound an impact has this flavor really made?

[Jennicut]

12. The tea party is more conservative so if their candidate won't win they will just side

with the Rethugs they claim to hate.

[butterfly77]

13. I think a lot of these people...

didn't and don't know what in the hell they were protesting. They never paid attention to what has been going on and once they realized that Obama was the President and the economy was f--ked up they started listening to the so called media and Fox and fed into the bull.

Now,they see they are in the same boat as the so called liberals who they claim to hate when they themselves are liberal and don't even know it..