http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/11/06/reasons-virginia-tea-party-dead/Nine Reasons Virginia DOESN’T Mean the Tea Party is Dead
by KEITH KOFFLER on NOVEMBER 6, 2013, 6:41 PM
Welcome to White House Dossier!
Yes, the establishment Democrats and Republicans are tut tutting the Tea Party, knowingly proclaiming that the defeat of conservative Ken Cuccinelli means Republicans have to start nominating Rockefeller Republican RINOs or face Death at the Polls.
Virginia is going from purple to blue, and nothing can help unless the Republicans come to their senses.
This is exactly false. The establishment predicted a big victory for McAuliffe that would prove its theory that conservatism is a loser. But that’s not what happened. Now, they want to use the cover of McAuliffe’s squeaker victory to try to prove they knew what they were talking about.
Cuccinelli ALMOST WON. And that points to Tea Party strength, because he should have lost by a lot. He came within two and a half points of McAulliffe, even though . . .
1. McAuliffe raised $15 million more than Cuccinelli, using the money to destroy him via the airwaves.
2. An independent Libertarian, funded in part by one of President Obama’s rainmakers, grabbed 6.5 percent of the vote, much of it presumably from Cuccinelli.
3. Cuccinelli could never match the firepower of the Democratic VIPs that campaigned for McAuliffe, including President Obama, Vice President Biden, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton. Republicans simply don’t have such rock stars to offer up.
4. The RNC spent $6 million less on this year’s Virginia governors race than it did during the last in 2009.
5. Liberal interest groups poured extra money into the race promoting issues favorable to McAuliffe.
6. Cuccinelli is about a charismatic as a salt shaker.
7. Cuccinelli made some dumb remark that seemed to compare families of rats to families of Hispanics, bringing the Latino vote out to sink him.
8. The government shutdown was particularly antagonizing to Northern Virginia voters, since plenty of them work for the federal government. Republicans were blamed more than Obama for the shutdown.
9. Cuccinelli was hampered using his ace in the hole – the sleaze issue – against McAulliffe, since the sitting Republican governor has his own ethics problems, creating a glass houses effect.
The Virginia election actually proved that a conservative can win in Virginia, not the reverse. It’s a big victory for the Tea Party.
