Bob Bennett's Humiliating loss from his right is the best thing that can happen to Dems

[Perky]

It emboldens the tea baggers because it givers them their first real sense of political power and what they are capable of.


Emboldened, where there is opportunity they will attempt to throw other perceived moderates under the bus in what is effectively a purity purge as much as it is muscle flexing. But in so doing the will alienate and scare the middle and wind up ceding them to the Dems.

[mucifer]

1. don't you think it pulls our party to the right also? The moderate repubs have

no where to go so they join us. It scares me as a liberal it's not what I want.

[rucky]

3. If this holds, it makes it safer for liberals to go "fourth party"

as an option.

[Perky]

7. Liberals can't go "4th party"

They do not have the infrastructure or the funding mecahnisms to even attempt it wither on national or a state level. Some Liberal like Kucinich could try it as an indy and possibly win, but any Dem who tries this will lose their seniority in the Caucus at a minimum and be shunned by institutional leadership to be sure.

[KingFlorez]

6. They might not necessarily go Democratic, they could go Independent

[nevergiveup]

2. It is always good for Democrats when Repubs are eating themselves.

It doesn't always transmit into Democratic victories and this is especially probably going to be the case in Utah but it does in general lead to a descent percentage of less enthusiastic Republican voters.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. What we have found, in general conservative districts that usually elect...

a Conservative Republican will, when pressed, elected a conservative Democrat.

As long as we are a two party nation, the government will shift right and left around the middle of the political spectrum.

As long as a third party is just a means of splitting the ticket of one of the big two, there is little chance of real move to the left or right.

The nomination of a far right conservative fringist in a district will not give a far left candidate in that district. Faced with such extremes in a district they will most often move conservative. A Democrat in such districts is most likely a conservative democrat, because that is what the district likes.

[gravity]

5. The problem is it is pushing moderate Republicans further right

If they get ousted from power, it will give the Democrats opportunity. The former moderate Republicans will still have credibility from the independents and they won't do us any favors in Congress.

[IndianaGreen]

8. I hope he knows how to flip hamburgers

because that's the only job he will be able to get.

[Drunken Irishman]

9. Not the best thing to happen to Utah, however.

:(