So much for moderate Republicans

John Seiler:

A computer couldn’t come up with a candidate more moderate Republican than Meg Whitman. And she’s rich and willing to spend $160 million, too. Her computer-date running mate, Abel Maldonado, also was a poster-boy for Republican moderation. So was Mike Villines, the moderate Republican running for insurance commissioner.

Carly Fiorina was more conservative, mainly because she was pro-life. But she certainly was far more moderate than Chuck DeVore, whom she beat in the primary (although not more more moderate than Tom Campbell, whom she also beat).

Result: moderate Republican wipeout. Fiorina actually did the best of the Republicans who ran statewide.

If Republicans had run Tom McClintock and other proven tax-cutters, instead of an amateur like Meg and tax-increasers like Villines and Maldonado, they would have swept the state.

Of course, then all those Republican consultants would not have gotten their hands on Meg’s megamillion lottery cash.

Oh, and how did “far right” Republican Ron Paul do in his re-election bid in Texas? He’s the guy who’s openly for ending all those foreign wars, legalizing drugs, ending Social Security and other welfare programs, abolishing the inflationary Federal Reserve Board, and shrinking the federal government to almost nothing. An obstetrician, he’s also solidly pro-life.

Paul got 79% of the vote. That’s not a typo. 79%. It shows what principle and hard work get you.

And his son, Rand Paul, who’s almost as good as his old man, won a U.S. Senate seat from Kentucky, despite the whole state establishment — Democrat and Republican — labeling him an extremist.

So let’s not hear any more about how only moderate Republicans can win in California. If they can’t win this year, they can’t win any year.

California Republicans need to refashion themselves into a Ron Paul-Tom McClintock-style libertarian juggernaut. Otherwise, elephants, just stay home.

Nov. 3, 2010