Chris McDaniel's behavior since his primary run-off loss has been nothing short of childish. I am reminded of my son when he was around eight and the Oakland Raiders crushed the NY Jets in the playoffs. After watching the game he cried for hours, "They Cheated, They Cheated," I tried to console him explaining, no one cheated, the Raiders followed all the rules, but this was the New York Jets and they always break your heart. Chris McDaniel could learn from that.
Personally, McDaniel's loss was very disappointing (especially after I went out on a limb and celebrated his win on Tuesday morning before the first vote was cast). By Tuesday evening his campaign was pronounced dead by the voters, it's time for him to lie down.
Whining that Cochran was cheating because he courted Democratic votes is like the pitcher who walks in the winning run and complains to the umpire because five balls rather than four should be necessary for a walk. McDaniel knew that Mississippi was an open primary state, if he didn't like the rules he should have worked with the state legislature to change them before the primary. Truth is he was out-maneuvered by a more experienced team. It's very disappointing but its not cheating. Every "Campaign 101" class emphasizes get out the vote. Cochran's team did it much better than McDaniel's.
It is also true that the GOP establishment helped Cochran, just like “our” guys helped McDaniel. And that establishment included the National Republican Senatorial Committee-the NRSC (Note to the crazies-the RNC was not involved so stop making threatening calls to them--Please). And guess what the NRSC probably helped some of the other incumbents. BTW do you know who runs the NRSC? Incumbent Republicans do. So who do you think they are going to support? The job of the NRSC is to gain a senate majority. Removing incumbents runs contrary to that job. Politics is all about the building of coalitions
That means we aren't always going to have all the same goals, truth is in politics everyone is a "user." We use RNC and NRSC support and money when a conservative candidate gets nominated they use us to get a more votes.
Thad Cochran's campaign was nasty. He branded McDaniel as a racist and every other kind of Tea Party "crazy." McDaniel's effort was not very nice either; there was the whisper campaign about Cochran cheating on his wife, and the commercials linking Cochran to the release of the "Taliban Five" for example. Politics is not a nice "game," especially in the big time.
Here's the bottom line, right now the best thing that conservatives can do is in the remaining primaries fight like hell for your candidates to win, but in those states where primary day has passed (including Mississippi) fight like hell for the victory of the GOP candidate. Working toward a GOP senate takeover is important for Conservatism. Think of all the conservative bills that Harry Reid killed. The majority leader sets the Senate agenda. Remember the shut down? Except for the first proposal every option the house sent over to the upper chamber was tabled--not even debated and voted on. A GOP majority will beat the heck out of a continued Obama/Senate alliance pushing their progressive agenda.
I read this morning that Chris McDaniel is considering a third party run. Chris it's over...you lost and an attitude of "I lost so I'm going to make sure he lost too" is nothing more than childish whining. And everybody knows, there is no crying in politics.
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