While the votes have yet to be verified, the Arizona primary election results look to be pretty clear. And the Tea Party once again reaches for presence in the system and fails to achieve it while still influencing the results against all logic.
The Huffington Post reports that Sen. John McCain rolled to an easy victory in the Arizona GOP primary for his seat, beating former US Congressman JD Hayworth. Hayworth ran for McCain's seat as the Tea Party's darling.
McCain responded to Hayworth's presence in the Arizona senatorial primary by adopting a hard-line stance on immigration. This was a flip-flop for him, as he'd worked a few years ago on a bipartisan plan to help illegal immigrants achieve citizenship.
Hayworth responded to McCain's change in stance by arguing that McCain was lying about his beliefs on the issue. McCain denied the accusation despite obvious proof to the contrary, such as his "Complete the danged fence" ad not three years after claiming a border fence would never work.
The swing in McCain's issue stances was so severe, the Democratic National Committee referred to the GOP results in Arizona's primary as nominating "JD Hayworth in the shell of a politician that was once John McCain."
As for the Democrats in the Arizona primary for Senator, Rodney Glassman has the lead in the results as of the time of this article. Glassman is perhaps the one Democrat out of the four who has a strong chance at unseating McCain. The Senator certainly has provided whoever wins with enough material to drive a searing campaign against him.
Where the Arizona primary election results demonstrate a problem with paying attention to the Tea Party is amply demonstrated by John McCain. He changed his declared positions and principles in a blatant attempt to court votes. It's not that he had a real change of heart. He feared being the loser and changed to avoid that fate. Winning honestly can't seem to happen in a Tea Party-influenced campaign.
In a year, if he wins, McCain will change again. How Arizona expects to remain properly represented by someone who is so vulnerable to the direction of the wind is even more of a mystery than what John McCain really thinks.
Article ©2010 Brenda Daverin for Gather.com. All rights reserved.
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