Reader: Tom Tancredo disenfranchised every Republican in the state by challenging Dan Maes

• Don't think I have ever seen an endorsement pulled so fast after Palin found out she was duped into backing a chickenhawk.

• Very interesting debate, everyone. Thanks for sharing it.

• This is the beauty of our system in the US. We elect people not parties. Anyone who votes on party lines is an idiot, and it becomes a widespread thing then we should outlaw parties.

• Tom Tancredo played a role, but the GOP torpedoed itself in the governor's race. You had a Democrat. A liberal Democrat. From Denver. And he WON. Just as the Dem leadership tilted the scales and we got Bennett again, the GOP leadership tilted the scales for McInnis. Suppose Penry had been allowed to run, instead of being ordered to go home like a good little soldier and fall on his sword. What's the worst that would have happened? A loss? If Penry had won the primary, who knows? Tancredo might have stayed in the fold and helped drum up support. I'm liberal, but I'm tired of the Dem's and the GOP's establishment playing fast and loose with the primary process. All the parties' establishment should do is provide a level playing field, and then support the winner. That's it. Strict neutrality during the primaries. Let the party faithful decide for themselves. Instead, they like playing king-makers, and the Republicans got rooked. Now, I like Hickenlooper. I think he'll make a great governor. But the Republicans got rooked, nonetheless, in the governor's race. And, GOPers, I'd take note of all those who backed Maes 100% -- until Tancredo came along. Nothing like being for someone until you were opposed to them to make your credibility go down the drain.

• Maes seems to be the narcissistic one. He had no chance of winning, thanks to his numerous omissions like getting fired in KS and his personal bankruptcy, and yet he persisted in his quixotic campaign. He relished his acclamation at the Republican Assembly, and deluded himself into thinking he could actually win. A man whose entire life has been a failure could not give up his 15 minutes of fame. As for Mike Rosen, he does insist that "party trumps person", but he has said often that this applies to most cases though not all. And Maes did not qualify due to the hopelessness of his situation. Tancredo made a fantastic run in only two months. He did us a favor by providing an alternative to the Maes dilemma. Unfortunately, we get Hickenboober - which means higher taxes, fewer jobs and more illegal aliens.

• Tancredo did not have anything to do with disenfranchizing the Republican voters. This distinction goes to the Colorado GOP leadership (or lack thereof) and the convention for allowing such a lousy, unqualified and unvetted candidate (Maes) to ever carry their banner

• Bill has a point. The GOP wanted McInnis so when they couldn't have him they dropped all support for Maes. Maes wasn't a "player", so they got behind Tancredo even before the primary, hence a doomed campaign. Another factor was that the state GOP did not ask for GOTV money and Buck got cut short as well. It looks like Colorado ended up being the GOP's sacrificial lamb.

• Mike Rosen preaches that "Party Trumps Personality". Yet I don't recall Rosen carrying much water for Maes. What gives? Rosen also claimed that if you added up the votes for Maes and Tancredo, you'd have more than enough to beat John Hickenlooper. Didn't happen. What gives?

• I know how the Commenter of the Day feels. President Obama disenfranchised every Democrat in the state by stuffing "Michael" down our throats.

• Tancredo is in fact a narcissistic, bigoted jackass who never has won anything outside of his lily-white home district. But really? Blaming him for the total clusterfuck that is the Colorado GOP? Tancredo didn't disenfranchise anyone, he simply provided an alternative (albeit one doomed to utter failure from day one) to the "official GOP" train wreck. It was the GOP's own hierarchy -- and the GOP rank and file that failed to demand a better gubernatorial candidate -- that not only brewed the poison Kool-Aid but then lined up at the garbage can to gulp it down and ask for seconds. When are you people going to realize that on the state level the Colorado GOP and its dingleberries (hello, Independence Institute!) for the better part of the past decade has looked like a bunch of monkeys trying to fuck a football? THAT is what is driving it more deeply into irrelevance in what should have been a year of complete domination.

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