XDA

I like the Tea Partiers and the 9/12 people and I am very grateful to them that they allied with the Republicans rather than go the sure, quick way to defeat with a real third party effort. Their enthusiasm helped a lot, a whole lot; and they picked (or backed) nationwide a few good candidates (Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Wisconsin's new Senator Johnson and a handful of the new mid-west American Congresspeople). But on the whole the candidates the Tea Party picked sucked. Angle, O'Donnell, McMahon and Raese punched way below their purported weight class. Mr. Wilson, up in Alaska, is losing big to a write-in candidate whose name I can't spell without looking her up. Perhaps a complete lack of success in either politics or business is not a real plus for a serious candidate after all.

Here in Colorado, it was worse than elsewhere, with the exceptions of California and New York, whose citizens seem to have chosen not to eject but to ride the smoke trail all the way down to the deck. Our candidate for Governor, Dan Maes, was so awful that, in a nationwide Republican tsunami much better than the fabled 1994 midterm, he garnered just over 11%. The other Republican in the race, Tom Tancredo, did poorly too. I for one, welcome our new Democratic Governor/overlord, Hickensomething.

The Tea Party also seemed to have picked the one person in Colorado who couldn't beat the near empty suit, Senator Bennet (h/t D)

We might have failed also to take back either both or one of the two division of the state legislature. (I'm pretty sure the State Senate will not have a Republican majority come January).

Congrats to the conservative candidates down ticket who worked hard and did well. I hope that I don't have to remind you that, particularly here in Colorado, there was no mandate. Even nationwide, we Republicans at best were merely the lesser of the evils.

Labels: Colorado Politics; 2010 election results; Tea Party