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For G.O.P., Tea Party Wields a Double-Edged Sword

Chappy

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Excerpted from “For G.O.P., Tea Party Wields a Double-Edged Sword” By KATE ZERNIKE, The New York Times, Published: September 5, 2010
… [[SIZE="+2"]A[/SIZE]]s much as the Tea Party fervor is expected to help Republicans in November, it may also create problems for them — and opportunities for the Democrats.

So far this election season, the Tea Party has brought a huge amount of unexpected energy into the campaign, and it could drive sufficient Republican turnout to become a major and perhaps decisive factor in many races. But the movement has also forced Republicans to spend precious time and money on primary races they should have won easily and has produced some inexperienced candidates who have stumbled in the early going.

In some House races, Republicans have all but given up hope of winning after local Tea Party groups helped conservative candidates win primaries in districts that historically prefer moderates. And in some districts, Tea Party candidates are mounting third-party challenges that could allow the Democrats to maintain or even win some seats. …

The Tea Party movement brings motivation and purpose to a Republican party lately lacking both. But with those infusions come distractions; many, many distractions.

 
Wow, the GOP platform has fallen apart.

Pretty much all that is left is "smaller government at whatever cost".

Even if they do win big in November, they have little to build a coalition on.
 
The left seems more concerned about the harm the Tea Party may cause to the right than the right is. How thoughtful of them.
We're getting closer and closer to Nov. Can't wait!
 
The left seems more concerned about the harm the Tea Party may cause to the right than the right is. How thoughtful of them.
We're getting closer and closer to Nov. Can't wait!

Why? What are you expecting to change? The only policies Republicans are really running on is keep the Bush tax cuts and repeal health care reform. At this point, the former is likely to happen whether Republicans win or not and the latter is unlikely to happen because Republicans can't take enough seats in November to actually repeal heatlh care reform.

In essence, it just means that things will continue be stalled on the hill.
 
I am more concerned about the harm the Republican Tea Party could do to the country than any harm it could do to the right. The reality is that Tea Party initiatives are political non-starters with the net effect that the country will lose two precious years while Congress is deadlocked.
 
Why? What are you expecting to change? The only policies Republicans are really running on is keep the Bush tax cuts and repeal health care reform. At this point, the former is likely to happen whether Republicans win or not and the latter is unlikely to happen because Republicans can't take enough seats in November to actually repeal heatlh care reform.

In essence, it just means that things will continue be stalled on the hill.

Don't expect HCR to get repealed. That is going to have to shake out or fail on it's own.

But what we would see if the GOP could take back one of the two houses......is a curtailment to the enormous spending that has been occurring for the last 18 months.

A little gridlock can be a good thing. There really is a point when this nation's out of control deficit spending is going to actually collapse our economy.


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