Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
... well, ok, this actually IS another Murphy post. Sorry.
I've been thinking a lot about some of the things Mr. Murphy said on the latest podcast. On some points I tend to agree with him: there is an anti-intellectual section of the conservative base; sometimes we (active Republican primary voters) make the good the enemy of the perfect; the GOP needs to find a way to reach out to new voters. All of these things are true. I even have many of the same reservations about Michele Bachmann that he does vis a vis the general election. I'm a Pawlenty man myself, for what it's worth.
But I'm bothered. Bothered by the general tone Mr. Murphy takes about certain aspects of our party. For example, I'm a little nonplussed by his easy conflation of social conservatives with "the crazies", a general dismissiveness of the Tea Party, and his tendency to lecture conservatives on their inflexibility to "deal" with this administration.
What would Mr. Murphy have us do? For eight years- maybe a long as 12 years, depending on your perspective- the Republican party abandoned their small government principles and found plenty of "deals" with the Democrats that left ordinary voters with the not-untrue perception that the GOP was perfectly willing to spend, spend, spend to buy votes... which Mr. Murphy seems to be suggesting we do. And what was the result of all this bipartisan, reach across the isle, compassionate conservatism, "not crazy" behavior? Voters sent our majorities down the river, electing a man that can only be described with maximum charity as "college campus director of burn the country to the ground fun time brigade".
So now, all of us committed conservatives should buy some "deal" that would cause even the most cynical carnival barker to blush like a... well, like... like a big blushing THING... on the premises that we were going to get a 3 to 1 return on the abandonment of our principles! Step right up, step right up, this MAGIC MACHINE will turn your SCRUPLES into ELECTORAL GOLD! Come one, come all!
I'm sorry, Mr. Murphy. We have been to the fair and we've ridden the rides, and all we got at the end was dizzy and broke, oh yeah and our spine was left somewhere in there next to the papier-mâché clown...
If there's a debt deal that truly cuts spending, reforms entitlements, or makes sense of the rotten tax code, I and most of my fellows will be happy to support it. Well, not happy happy, but happy enough. Because we know that we have two missions in life: to maintain our principles, and to beat this President in 2012.
But don't whine to us about how "the crazies" won't accept a phantom, non-existent, completely imaginary "deal" that was clearly shopped around by the Administration to the gullible rubes at the New York Times and the dapper, not-crazy, well read, singular David Brooks, Esq., he of the Hattan of Man, long may he live, such a nice boy, so reasonable, truly a paragon of Manhood and what a fine dancer. Us dumb morons who are scared to death about the financial collapse we are experiencing RIGHT NOW in REAL TIME are just not going to get on that crazy train again, sorry.
One final bit, and I promise the vitriol is spent: the Tea Party isn't crazy. I'm not a Tea Party guy, never attended one, don't follow Palin on Facebook, you get the idea. But the Tea Party people are my people in a real way. The way that I, and a lot of us conservatives are, realizing that this whole thing we call the American Experiment isn't a perpetual motion machine. The whole point of a democracy is for active, concerned citizens to keep it rolling, and right now I don't see any other political group who is fighting to give us all a little bit longer. When people like Mr. Murphy talk about winning elections, we actually agree with him- we just don't think winning on any term is a real victory. Because if we just win, but don't move the pendulum back towards sanity, we haven't won anything at all, and the end result is the same- horrors beyond imagining.
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Jul '11
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Well said. Hear, Hear!
Nov '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
I am not sure what all the fuss is about Mike Murphy's comments. The man is a campaign strategist whose job is to get politicians elected. Period. Much of what he says should be assumed to be disagreeable in that its his job to make the sausage. He is giving us behind the scenes looks at what goes on behind the scenes. And what goes on may not be very easy to witness for the pure of heart. But as he said any number of times, that which he is reflecting is his professional opinion on matter he is paid lots of money to professionally opine. And lets not kid ourselves. He is in full self-promotion of his professional skills mode when he visits and posts. Just as is ever other contributor and guest. They all have stuff to sell, and images to project. Bottom line is this...its important that we explore the intellectually and spiritually pure aspects of Conservatism. But we also need to leave room at the table for the perspective of those operators who get tasked with selling and forming those purities into something palatable for everyone else whose votes make the actual difference.
Aug '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Very well put.
The Mike Murphy types are very much a significant part of the problem. To them it seems to be entirely about holding power and nothing about what one does with it.
Jun '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
For example, I'm a little nonplussed by his easy conflation of social conservatives with "the crazies", a general dismissiveness of the Tea Party, and his tendency to lecture conservatives on their inflexibility to "deal" with this administration.
I love your post. Yes, it certainly is an "easy conflation" that bugs me. Critics of the tea party never intelligently discuss their reservations point-by-point -- it's easy to paint the movement as a bunch of crazies or racists and it assures the commentator of some cable news screen time. I had never heard of Mr. Murphy before all the Ricochet attention & I never watched his podcast or read anything he's written, aside from posters commenting on his position here on Ricochet. But from your description, I won't bother. It sounds like the same old capitulate, cave, make nice road to irrelevance advice that the Republicans have been following for too long.
The tea party spirit is the catalyst our country needs. The overwrought reactions from the Murphy types prove its relevance and power.
Oct '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
The role of campaign consultant is to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. To take a mediocre, as in middle quality, candidate and provide the varnish necessary to present a statesman of the first order to the electorate. And it appears these days that the mediocre is the best they have to work with.
Statesman: "a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level."
Occasionally, an actual unvarnished statesman will come along, a Ronald Reagan or a Calvin Coolidge, and the consultant types are at their best when they just get out of the way.
Given the current crop of "educationally qualified" candidates, Mr. Murphy is guilty of nothing less than taking on a herculean task.
Edited on July 11, 2011 at 2:41pmMay '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
I reacted very similarly to Mr. Murphy's comments. While I agree with Lance's post in defense of Mr. Murphy, my position was formed despite already acknowledging Murphy's motivations, professional role, etc.
The Tea Party has been slandered and libeled by various pundits since inception. To the non-affiliated layman (me), this seems unfair in a unique sort of way. The SEIU, Moveon.org, ACORN, and a host of other despicable special interests have supported the democrats for years, giving the dems a pool of 'crazies' to draw from on election day. Why should the taxpayers not be similarly represented?
Why must conservatives fight against these political operatives without sufficient ability to organize the 'crazies'? As the wise former gladiator told Maximus in Gladiator, "Win the crowd, and you will win your freedom" -- well the crowd finally has something to support on the conservative side of things, and I for one could not be happier about it.
Ideological purity may not be a winner on election day, but the only ideological purity I see in Washington comes from Barack Obama. His ideology is one that will end in economic suffocation. Time to draw the line in the sand.
Mar '11
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Mr. Murphy's refusal to acknowledge the utter fatuousness of the John Wayne/John Wayne Gacy "gaffe" meme is quite sufficient to suggest to me that either his intelligence or his integrity may be of less than sterling quality. But his willingness to trot out the charge on Ricochet tells me something even worse, i.e., that he believes Ricochet members are as stupid as his readers at Time.
Oct '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Well said. Maybe I am completely wrong, but there is something off about what he is saying. Something changed in 2009-2010. He is still talking about Bush v Gore, but do those models really still work?
Call me a "crazy", but I am not going to support a nominee like Romney. I will probably leave the party.
Where the heck is Paul Ryan....we need him.
Edited on July 11, 2011 at 3:43pmJun '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Fancy Pants, have some respect for your betters, for gosh sake. Murphy is definitely one of our great minds, just ask him if you don't believe me. He's a category of his own, a ten star General, if you will. What is way too apparent...he doesn't have much use for the little people. So while he is happy to round up our votes for whoever happens to be paying his wage this year, he really doesn't want to get too close to the stink of our bodies or the emptiness of our minds.He is an OPERATOR, doncha know.
Jun '11
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
I wasn't going to comment on the ongoing Mike Murphy flap until I saw this post, and it gave me the excuse I needed. First, I agree that his flippant and oft-repeated slur of anyone who adheres to a conservative ideology rather than strictly the numbers as "crazies" was more than a little offensive and was an insight into his snobbery.
Secondly, I respect the intellect and experience that Murphy and other campaign experts bring to the fore. However, with all his number crunching, trend watching, etc., he, along with other Washington, D.C.-centric thinkers continually miss the most important variable: the unknown, the human element. Murphy, like so many leading economists who are continually "surprised" month after month by bad economic news, can't seem to get past the mean, median and mode to see what is truly motivating people and voters and how strong that is.
Oct '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
That's all well and good, Lance. But unless I'm mistaken, Mr. Murphy's professional expertise is as a campaign consultant, not as a general analyst. So I'm much less interested in his prognostications (as an analyst) and much more interested in having him put his consultant hat on and tell us what he thinks Michele Bachmann, for example, needs to do to win the nomination and then to win the general. THAT kind of thing is in his wheelhouse.
How 'bout it, Mr. Murphy? Assume a blank check from one of the following, and tell us what Michele or Sarah or Tim or Allen (but not Tim Allen) would have to do to win.
Mar '11
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
MrFancyPants: .
One final bit, and I promise the vitriol is spent: the Tea Party isn't crazy. I'm not a Tea Party guy, never attended one, don't follow Palin on Facebook, you get the idea.
Well said, Mr FancyPants, and I agree with most of the comments, here.
I am actually a Tea Party guy (there is no secret handshake, I have just been to a few meetings), and I do follow Sarah Palin on Facebook...
I finally got round to listening to Mr Murphy's podcast, and it wasn't as bad as I feared it would be - he may well be right, and Mr Romney is our best shot at winning the General.
But still it is rather depressing to realize that the Left have essentially won the debate (this comes close to violating Kenneth's rule). They will trash any conservative candidate and the best that we can hope for is a Republican candidate who can slightly slow down the inevitable decline into a bankrupt socialist state.
Also of note is how fast the debt limit debate has moved on since the podcast - nobody foresaw how ruthless/incompetent is Mr Obama - unexpectedly!
Oct '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Yes, that did it for me, too, and especially Franco's devastating rebuttals.
Apr '11
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
First: Spin Doctors are professional liars
Second: Political consultants are spin doctors
Third: Professional Politicians are thieves
A political consultant is a liar trying to sell me a thief. Personally, I'm not buying.
Apr '11
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
When I was listening to Murphy on the podcast, what I heard was a recipe for what might as well be called "McCain 2.0" — middle of the road Republican who was able to say, "I'm not one of 'the crazies'," but who was, ultimately, not enough of a conservative to excite the base nor enough of a "moderate" (read liberal) to draw anyone left-of-center away from Obama.
I don't know what the answer is, but I'm pretty certain that Murphy's prescription will result in Obama's re-election.
May '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Gosh y'all are mighty sensitive. Leave the moaning and dudgeon to liberals. Conservatives have more important things to do. One thing a conservative should never say is "I'm offended; apologize!" So girly.
I think it's important to distinguish between what Mike Murphy is phenomenally good at and what he's only about as good as the rest of us at. He's really good at horse race prognostication, and certainly worth listening to seriously. On that score, my only disagreement was with his contention that Rick Perry would have trouble getting elected nationally. He didn't persuade there.
The policy stuff, you can give his arguments about as much weight as anyone's, but not necessarily more. I think he's dead wrong about the consequences both economic and political, of the debt ceiling impasse. By refusing it, we've done the party and the country some good.
Jun '11
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Mike Murphy, in small doses, is good for Ricochet. After all, it's a "conversation" and he certainly has prompted lots of that. I take issue with is contention that Romney, Pawlenty, and Huntsman are the only ones with a chance at the nomination.
South Carolina has, since 1980, picked the Republican nominee correctly every single cycle. Maybe rule changes won't allow that this time but I can report from here that Mike's trio has a long way to go. Huntsman's name never comes up here-- he is a zero. Pawlenty barely registers with anyone in my conversations with people who will vote in the primary. Romney has issues here and it isn't because he's a Mormon. He benefited from DeMint's endorsement last time and still didn't do very well. His problem? In simplest terms-- he's seen as a Northeastern country club type. That's tough sledding in SC and across the South. But in a fractured field he could, like McCain, get just enough to win.
But, if I had to buy Republican nominee futures at Intrade today I'd wager on someone not yet in the race. A Southern governor.
Dec '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Kennedy, I agree with you. I didn't say it in my original post, but on balance I think it's a good thing for the GOP to have guys like Mike Murphy around- someone who will tell them things they don't want to hear. It is possible to become blinkered by ideology and lose touch with the wider electorate, and Mr. Murphy is good at reminding us of that. But do we really need to give away the store just to get customers in the door? If that's the case, then it's over- OVER over.
Oct '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Political consultants / strategists think (or know) that elections are won by getting the squishy, centrist, independent vote. They think that to get that vote, a candidate should be squishy and 'reach across the aisle' by compromising principles and convictions.
The idea that a politician should try to convince the centrist voter that the politician's principles and convictions are correct, or at least better than the alternative, either doesn't occur to the consultant, or such a strategy is deemed too risky.
I was in high school when Reagan was elected, and though I had been raised to believe Liberals were Good and Conservatives were Evil, I can remember very clearly coming to the conclusion, on my own, that Reagan was right. The argument for individual freedom is a winner, we just need someone who can make the argument effectively, and doesn't allow themselves to be defined by the leftist narrative. (Chris Christie seems to be really good at that).
May '10
Re: Not Another Mike Murphy Post...
Possibly a Texan... Then again, I thought Fred Thompson would be the nominee last time. He didn't even make it to the Tennessee primary.