Commentary: Time for the GOP to Unite

From the American Thinker - by Richard Baehr - There has been much ink spilled on the Delaware Republican Senate primary. I am in the Charles Krauthammer camp on this one. Krauthammer is a fan of the Buckley rule, promulgated by William F. Buckley. In essence, conservatives should support the candidate in the party primary who is the most conservative of the potential nominees who is also electable. In Delaware, that rule would have suggested backing Congressman Mike Castle. Nate Silver, the numbers maven of the website fivethirtyeight.com, gave Castle a 94% chance of winning the general election for Joe Biden's old seat over Democrat Chris Coons before the primary last week. Castle had a solid 11-point lead over Coons. In a very blue state, Castle had already won statewide twelve times. The nominee who came out of the primary, Christine O'Donnell, had lost her only prior statewide run by 30% and is given a 6% chance of winning the seat by Silver. I think Castle's chances were slightly less than 94%, and O'Donnell's may be slightly better than 6% (the first post-primary poll shows her down by 11%). But in essence, the small number quibbling on probabilities does not matter. The GOP will likely lose a seat it easily could have won. Some conservative purists are happy with this result. I am not. I want the health care bill to be repealed. For that to happen, the GOP needs to win the White House in 2012 and hold both Houses in the Congress sworn in in 2013. The loss of the winnable Delaware Senate seat makes that harder to accomplish. Castle voted against the health care bill and was a vote for repeal. Chris Coons will not vote for repeal. Read more

Commentary: Time for the GOP to Unite