Castle Admits: “I Lost because I sucked. The big problem, ultimately, was really me.” (Do you believe me?)
Time Magazine asked four outgoing “moderate” Republicans a simple question: Why did you lose?
Castle names three agents of his demise: The Teabagz, the media, and Lazy Ass Mike Castle Supporters.
The Teabagz: “I was a victim of the Tea Party. They came in and, frankly, did a good job politically.”
The Media: “The media has gotten very involved in this. The media has taken very strong political positions maybe not in favor of a particular person running for office, but in terms of their ideological drifts, it makes a huge difference.” (He goes onto apologize to conservatives by saying that in addition to being too conservative, the media is also too liberal. Typical hedge from Baron Von However.)
Lazy Ass Mike Castle Supporters: “I can’t tell you how many letters, e-mails and personal conversations I’ve had with people saying, ‘I had no idea you were in trouble or I would’ve been out there to vote for you in the primary.’ And they just did not do that, unfortunately.”
Shorter Castle: “It was everyone’s fault but mine.” Classy to the very end
Yeah Castle had this huge army of supporters who couldn’t be bothered to come out and vote for him. This is why I think the idea that Castle would have won in a walk is probably not reality.
Here is what I don’t get. Say you were one of those ten of thousands of Castle supporters that stayed home. How do you have the nerve to write, email, or tell Mike Castle that you would have voted for him if you weren’t so darned lazy?
Castle’s supporters didn’t turn out because their portfolios tanked on Castle’s watch.
Castle is right, but you guys are misinterpreting what he said with “I would’ve been out there to vote for you in the primary.” He did have passionate voters, but they were registered independents and moderate Democrats. Therefore, they could not have voted in the Republican primary with a shrinking Republican electorate. Had these independents and moderate Democrats (Markell Democrats) known Castle was in trouble early in the game, they would have switched party registration and voted for Castle.
How do I know?
I, myself, am one of those people Castle was talking about. I’m a registered ‘unaffiliated’, but I really wanted Castle to win the primary when O’Donnell started to make some noise. However, I couldn’t actually vote, because I wasn’t a registered Republican. Had I known Castle was in trouble in March, I would’ve changed my registration to Republican and voted for Mike.
Mike’s base was in the center, not the far right.
That’s a pretty good theory. It also explains how someone could email him about it. For most of the primary season Castle wasn’t in trouble. It wasn’t until late August when Joe Miller knocked off Murkowski that things started breaking loose for O’Donnell.
I will forever hold that it was two blogs who took him down.
Yes, Delaware has strange laws about registration. I think the last day to switch parties is in March.
The odd part is that if you are not registered to vote you have until August to register for the primary. But if you are already registered then the deadline to change party affiliation is in March..
Strange laws indeed.
Castle and his people did not take COD seriously. He did what all political campaigns do: Count on New Castle county to carry the state. They didn’t count on her having a base in new castle.
He thought he was Biden, and he didn’t have to bother campaigning against her. But I know Joe Biden, and Castle is no Joe Biden.
Right on paratrooper. Also, I don’t doubt that there were some independents who were upset that Castle lost but I don’t really know how big that group was. Rasmussen (yeah take it with a grain of salt) suggested his base of support may have been around 5%. We also know Castle was polling a write-in himself but never released those poll results. To me that suggests his base of support was not that big.