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I disagree with your analysis that good, liberty loving candidates can't make it. Look at Sharon Angle (sp?) in Nevada. She was definitely not the party choice. The tea party movement is starting to turn the tide of establish candidate dominance. The problem with the IN GOP Senate primary is that the votes were split between too many candidates. In the end if Marlin Stutzman were to have the support of the other 3, he would have defeated Coats handily. In the end, the voters choose who advances.
These two examples (Coats in IN, and Angle in NV) are opposite ends of the spectrum.
You're right about IN having too many candidates. With three relative unknowns (Bates, Behney and Stutzman) that could have been anyone's race. Add in a former congressman and a former Senator/Ambassador and the momentum shifts heavily toward the establishment.
Angle is a different case.
Instead of four candidates each trying to cast themselves as the maverick TEA Party vote (Behney as a TEA organizer, Stutzman as a 9.11 patriot, Hostettler as a maverick former congressman, and Bates) Vs one establishment guy - Angle was able to be the voice of the TEA party vs. Two fairly established Republican Names: Sue Lowden and Danny T.
Angle had something that no one in the Indiana race had: Endorsement from a national TEA Party group (TEA Party Express) AT a Nation event (Tax day rally in DC).
Instead here in Indiana - we had dueling endorsements. Ron Paul for Hostettler, DeMint and Huck for Stutzman, and Bill Bennet and Mike Pence for Coats.
The Ron Paul endorsement was the closest thing to a TEA Party national endorsement -but Dr. Paul's image still suffers from the beating enforced by the national GOP machine that don't want to go down the road he wants to lead them on. Face it. Ron Paul is still regarded by the rank and file average GOP voter as a looney.
So the establishment GOP didn't have a large reason to vote for John. They could pick and choose between Dingy Dan or upstart (but paying his political party dues) Stutzman.
Plus, Angle had another huge advantage: Harry Reid wants to run against her. Reid had his trash team following Lowden, and released her gaffs in speeches including one where Lowden said we should start bartering for Health Care. That got played heavy in the NV media.
Reid isn't stupid. He helped set the table up so the least experienced and least establishment candidate to prevail.
We didn't have that here... to a large extent. The dems did attack Coats early on - but I'm still leaning toward them liking the choice of Coats. His past record on 2A issues, his lobbying, and a host of other issues gives them fodder for attack ads, more-so than the others. That helps offset any money he has.