A Tea Party Candidate Loseth, A Tea Party Candidate Winneth

Last week around this time, many of us Tea Party supporters were at the very least disappointed in the North Carolina race for the United States senate as Speaker of the House Thom Tillis beat back a divided challenge in the Tar Heel state.
And judging from the leftywhore media, it was a huge loss for the Tea Party and a huge win for the senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ken.). And it was confirmed in the usual confines of the leftywhore media. In defense of Mr. Tillis, I don't think that North Carolina Republicans exactly nominated a total RINO* in the manner of maybe Mike Castle. Mr. Tillis is a solid conservative, but not exactly a fire-breathing, tried and true Tea Party type.
But tonight, Republican voters in Nebraska gave the Tea Party a substantive win in the candidacy of Ben Sasse.
As of this writing with about 80% of precincts reporting, Mr. Sasse is handily ahead of a late rush challenge by Sid Dinsdale with 50% of the vote to Mr. Dinsdale's 22%. In third place, yes you read that right, third place is the establishment-backed candidate, Shane Osborn with 21%. The rest of the vote is scattered between two also-rans with about seven percent of the remaining vote.
This race was much more animated than the North Carolina race.
The senate minority leader, Mr. McConnell, put all of his weight behind Mr. Osborn, the former state treasurer. He was helped out by Karl Rove and his American Crossroads group. Most of the Tea Party and aligned groups backed Mr. Sasse, the president of Midland Lutheran College. These groups helped raise $2,000,000 for the Sasse campaign. In fact, Mr. Dinsdale, former chair of Pinnacle Bank, was himself pretty RINO, definitely not right of center. He was a supporter of Obamacare. And yet between two establishment types, they could not unite to defeat Mr. Sasse. A late endorsement from the Omaha World-Herald may have helped Mr. Dinsdale to end up finishing in second place.
But here's the difference in North Carolina and Nebraska.
In North Carolina, the Tea Party candidate, Greg Bannon, was weak. And there was a third candidate, Pastor Mark Harris, that took away votes from Mr. Bannon. There was division among Tea Party voters.
In Nebraska, there was no such division on the Tea Party side. Most groups were united behind Mr. Sasse. Most establishment groups backed Mr. Osborn. And, as noted Mr. Dinsdale was able to gain some establishment-like support. The establishment ended up being divided.
This is why we have primaries.
It is the only way that we can take a look at candidates and see which one will be the best in a general election.
Check that.
On the Republican side, what conservative can be the best in a general election.
The fact is that this is good for the Republican party. It is the way to see how a candidate will react in a general election campaign.
And we will see a lot of this back and forth in the upcoming primaries.
In the end, it will be a Tea Party candidate loseth, a Tea Party candidate winneth.

*RINO-Republican In Name Only

North Carolina, That "Swing" State Swinging Right

For some reason, North Carolina has been deemed by the compliant Obamawhore media, and to be fair, some on the conservative side as a swing state this election cycle.
I suppose when the Dear Leader, President Obama, did win North Carolina by the rip-roaring margin of 0.3 percent in 2008, it would be easy to categorize as such. And the state does have a Democrat governor in Beverly Perdue.
But a funny thing has happened in North Carolina since 2008.
It has swung to the right and with a vengeance.
In 2010, the infamous mid-term election, the state senate went into Republican hands. Before the election, the state senate was 30 Democrat, 29 Republican. WHOOPS! After the election, it went to 19 Democrat, 31 Republican. OUCH! And lower house went from 68 Democrat to 52 Republican to the new number of 52 Democrat to 67 Republican and one independent.
One would contend a total reversal of Democrat control, right?
Somehow, the Democrat party bought into the notion that their party was on the rise in North Carolina and chose the state's largest city, Charlotte, to host the Democrat National Convention this time around.
The reward for that?
Of course the now infamous vote on same-sex marriage in which 61% of voters said should be recognized as being between one man and one woman.
And the Democrat implosion is now about to be complete as the latest Rasmussen poll for North Carolina shows the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, with an eight percentage point lead. As Ed Morrissey correctly points out, this will probably take North Carolina off the so-called swing state map and into solid Republican territory.
Oh, another aspect of this poll is that Mr. Romney has 51% of those polled. That is a high number this early out. And Mr. Romney is not even the official nominee as yet. And note that this is among likely voters. So this is a pretty accurate read at this point.
And yes, I think this takes North Carolina out of the Democrat column.
The question then becomes how many other states the Dear Leader, President Obama, won in 2008 that former President George W. Bush won go back to the Republican column?
A safe projection at this point is this.
Indiana will go back to the GOP. So will the following states (with the electoral votes for each state):
Colorado 9
Florida 29
Iowa 6
New Hampshire 4
New Mexico 5
When you figure the 11 electoral votes for Indiana and the 15 for North Carolina, these states have a combined electoral vote total of 79.
And all of that takes the Dear Leader, President Obama, down from his 359 electoral vote total in 2008 to 280 this time around.
At some point, it may become more of what Democrat state can Mr. Romney take away rather than the other way around.
But so far, North Carolina is really no longer a swing state but a getting safer Republican state. And that has to hurt the Democrats across the board.