What if Caprio had not taken the "shove it" approach?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

"Well, I wanted the President's endorsement but he obviously feels that Chafee would be a better governor than me and we should respect that because he's the president and is awesome."

Now that's how you win elections!

The President went out of his way to tell Rhode Islanders to not vote for the Democratic candidate. (When the leader of your party endorses everyone in the party except you he might as well leave a flaming bag of dog-shit on your porch. Notice how people up in here were quick to assume that Caprio must be facing some scandal, or that there is somehow "a reason"... of all the Dems in the world this guy is singled out as someone the President doesn't want to stand for?

It is damaging.

So, when you get knifed like that what do you do?

You can meekly accept the president's considered judgment that you suck or dramatically assert your independence, making it plain that you don't give a rat's ass what weird deal the president has with Chafee and play it out that way.

A politician has little choice but to play the cards he's dealt.

There is the "we are the party" card and the "I am my own man" card. It appears that Caprio was willing to play the first one but was not permitted to. So what option remains?

I don't see how else Caprio could or should have played it in terms of trying to get votes, which is supposed to be the name of the game.

We want candidates with spunk... until they get spunky.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

1. He could have just said "I get it"

"The President has a friendship with former Senator Chafee. I'm disappointed, but I think the people of Rhode Island in the long run don't care about endorsements."

End of story.

[Toucano]

2. The president did not endorse Chafee

I agree with you, but it doesn't even have to go that far.

He could have simply said, "I understand the president has a long-standing friendship with my challenger, and I respect him for honoring his friendship by abstaining from making an endorsement in this race."

But nooooo.

We get the vulgar and the hostile.


There are no "Ladies and Gentlemen" left to appeal to, perhaps.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

4. Just listen to radio station he made the comments on......

....for five minutes. Par for the course. All day, it is "Obama and the Democrats are destroying the country".

Rhode Island talk radio fucking sucks balls. Wall to wall rightwingers.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. Do you believe that would gain more votes?

If so we disagree on tactics.

Caprio lead this race for a long time. In the last few weeks Chafee has pulled ahead and has the momentum.

Nothing mild or polite can help Caprio because the default position is that he loses.

One option was to rely on RI's overwhelming Dem registration advantage and partisan it up... hope for some straight-D voting action.

But when de-friended by the leader of the party the "vote for me, I'm a D" option is jerked away.

So what remains to change the dynamics of the race? He is going to lose but trying to win.

When he party says you are shit then you have to go for the voters who really don't care what the party says... the substantial block of RI dems who are less than crazy about the president.

Again, the man is in a terrible position where he needs to shake up the race.

He is playing it correctly, as a political matter, in a year when independence and anger are somewhat popular.

IMO.

He will still lose, but at least he is trying to play the hand he has been dealt.

[OHdem10]

3. Conservative Democrats have been dissing Party, President

and Leaders the whole season, what is one more.

Manchin, WV has an ad in which he holding this serious
looking gun aimed at Cap and Trade. No one is spared
when you listen to the whole ad. Shown at Fox.

L. O'Donnell gave a fair comment on the Shove IT
comment. It is unprecedented for a President not
to endorse a member of his own party.

[Iggo]

5. When I ride in my 80-yr-old Dad's car...

...I sometimes have to (quietly, and with respect) remind him that there's a whole range of speeds between way-too-slow and way-too-fast.

I wish someone would have reminded Caprio there's a whole range of things he can say that fall between "Shove it" and "Thank you sir, may I have another."

[Ozymanithrax]

7. Senator Chafee was one of the first to endorse Obama...

Now imagine his Chagrin and the base betrayal when Obama did not opoenly endorse him. I mean, Chafee should have told Obama to shove it when Obama did not return the political favor.

Except that Obama was in a dificult position with a Democrat running against Chafee. He did not return the political favor of endorsement, but he did not come out and endorse Chafee's oponent.

Politics is a maze of personal favor and loyalties. Every politician knows who he ows and knows who owes.