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Sign of how bad the campaign has gotten for McCain-Palin

Submitted by Snowden on Fri, 10/31/2008 - 12:10
in

This is just breaking on the Colorado Springs Gazette's website, but there are hour long lines for early voting Colorado Springs. Considering the Springs is supposed to be considered the heart of Colorado GOP action (as well as its conservative core), this isn't good news.

Why? The specifics poll sites that are overcrowded are located near the lower-income and more minority-populated neighborhoods. (I wish there was a better way to put that, it makes it sound like a ghetto, which it isn't.) In other words, the area of heavy voting today is most definitely not the region of El Paso County that is GOP-friendly and heavily evangelical.

I never thought I'd see the day that the Springs, my hometown, would become battleground territory. But evidence shows otherwise. Here's a story about Obama raising more money than McCain in the Springs. Here's Michelle Obama drawing an overflow crowd to the City Auditorium. Here's Joe Biden drawing 1,500 to a high school gym.

Sure, McCain draws people, and sure, Palin is wildly popular in evangelical circles, especially north and east of the Springs, but these Dem numbers are bad news.

I've read this site for a few months, but I'm gettin' involved now, as we will soon start to inspect the ashes of what we used to call the GOP and there will be tough questions in need of answering. For example, in re: Colorado Springs:

What does it mean? Why did it happen? I have my guesses (I think the GOP overestimates the fidelity of evanglicals to the party, for one), but please leave your guesses and theories below.

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Comments

You could just call it the Democratic-leaning areas, no?

Submitted by johnson springs on Fri, 10/31/2008 - 13:49.

You could just call it the Democratic-leaning areas, no?

amazing

Submitted by jro on Fri, 10/31/2008 - 15:40.

I'm not from the area but have spent some time in Co Springs.  Beautiful country, btw.

I certainly don't have a feel for the area, so maybe you could expound on a few things for us:

  • Military area (A.F. academy) and a war that's dragging on
  • Ted Haggard hangover?
  • Excitement in the base just isn't there

On the whole, I'm not sure there's any part of the country that's exactly the same as it was 4 or 8 years ago, so maybe it's just an expectations things (the area is more in play now.)

I'm just fishing here, as my expectation would have been that Co Springs was solidly red and would deliver without much effort outside the area.

More Thoughts On Colorado Springs and Dem Ascendancy

Submitted by Snowden on Fri, 10/31/2008 - 20:27.

This grew larger than expected, so I also made it into a new post:

 

"jro" wrote some good responses in the comments to my last post on the decline of the GOP in Colorado Springs, my hometown. I was going to post this in the comments section as well, but it grew too large. It ends with some broader-rebuilding thoughts, which are what I'd really like to hear bandied about.

Good questions. Here's my brief synopsis:

1. The military will come out strong for McCain, no question. I think that they will always be around as a viable base for GOP activity. It's in the other categories of voters we're suffering.

2. Ted Haggard is distant memory. Pastor Brady Boyd is pretty popular, as well as Pastor Ross Parsley. The evangelical community is diverse enough and has enough church outlets that the one case at New Life Church shouldn't affect it much.

3. I agree wholeheartedly that enthusiasm from the base isn't very strong. A lot of my evie friends were Huckabee supporters (barf!), and as a brief aside, anyone who thinks that Mitt has a future in the GOP party needs to spend more time looking at some in the Christian movement: anti-Mormonism is quite strong and doesn't seem to be fading anytime soon.

I think you touch on some parts of the issue with the 4-8 year window of change. I think no small part comes from some dissatisfaction with the GWB administration. For many thirtysomething evangelicals, he was their first political candidate in their lifetime to closely identify with them. To see his second term devolve into a wimpfest of moderate gestures and unconvincing speeches was disheartening. But I also think there's part of this that is more personality than politics. For many evangelicals, their issues are strictly social (marriage and abortion, mainly, with some other things like homeschooling and God-in-the-public-square stuff), and they are downright squishes when it comes to economics.

We can definitely talk about this more, but I think a key part of the Righting the GOP Ship (as good a pun as I've seen yet. Pass it on!) will be addressing the need to have more of our public officials acting as advocates for freedom/conservatism, even to our own partymembers. We can't have Denny Hastert types in leadership, who might be great at playing the game in D.C. but are enigmatic, surly, or awkward when given the chance to talk. The Left has such control of MSM that it takes special communicating talents to cut through the b.s.

bamboozling of evangelicals at hand?

Submitted by Freedoms Truth on Fri, 10/31/2008 - 21:15.

To see his second term devolve into a wimpfest of moderate gestures

While that was certainly a disappointment for conservatives, I am simply aghast at the illogic of "Bush was too moderate so we will let the socialist Obama win" ...

For many evangelicals, their issues are strictly social (marriage and abortion, mainly, with some other things like homeschooling and God-in-the-public-square stuff), and they are downright squishes when it comes to economics.

Must be some hypnosis trick the obama campaign pulls, because they've managed to convince some (or are trying) that a hard-core leftist and social liberals is 'okay'.

Like the pro-life idiots who claim that pro-abortion extremist Obama is somehow a viable choice for prolife voters. (paging Mr Kmiec). He's for taxpayer funded abortions, freedom of choice act, repealing mexico city policy, wants more ginsburgs on the court, and even voted against that bill to protect born alive victims of botched abortions. And yet our local paper has an article on some supposedly prolife evangelicals. I dont buy it. What I do buy is that the liberal members at some churchs have decided to 'come out' of the closet and allow themselve to be used as pawns by the obama campaign.  I'm convinced that a part of this is simply deliberate obama campaign hype.

If 20-something church members are following then the hype and bamboozling worked, since there is really nothing in obama's real record and agenda that Christian values voters can relate to, unless those "values" are "Black Liberation Theology" or other marxist perversions of Christianity. It will be interesting to see if the ball moves on the evangelical vote. I wouldnt be surprised if the movement ends up being less than advertized.

We can definitely talk about this more, but I think a key part of the Righting the GOP Ship (as good a pun as I've seen yet. Pass it on!) will be addressing the need to have more of our public officials acting as advocates for freedom/conservatism, even to our own partymembers.

I agree 100%. I see that too. Huck really worried me as a candidate because he was walking away from that tradition. And of course the leaders have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. It's a tall order, but we need real leadership from our leaders. If that cant make the case for the party's ideals, how did they get to be in charge???