Pat Robertson Thinks GOP Base Voters Are Too Extreme

Those of us who live in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia are accustomed to cringing whenever we hear that resident loon, Pat Robertson, has made some new pronouncement because Pat's pronouncements are typically, racist, anti-gay, anti-non Christian, or batshit crazy in general. In short, he's a lingering embarrassment to the region even though the Norfolk Airport Authority continues to display large posters of Pat and Regent University in some bizarre belief that show casing religious based extremism and craziness is somehow good for the region. That said, it's truly frightening when out of the blue Robertson says something sane that you find yourself in agreement with. A case in point is Robertson's recent pronouncement that the voters who comprise the GOP base are too extreme and pushing candidates to take positions so extreme and crazy that they render themselves unelectable. Right Wing Watch has coverage on Robertson's surprising statement. Here are highlights:

Today on The 700 Club televangelist and past Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson warned that the Republican primary base is pushing their party’s potential nominees to such extremes that they will be unelectable. While Robertson has said that he will not make an endorsement this cycle, in 2008 he caught flak from many in the Religious Right for supporting Rudy Giuliani. After a segment on Herman Cain’s ever-changing and completely incoherent views on abortion rights, Robertson told viewers that he thinks that the Republican presidential nominee may be unelectable if he or she embraces all of the policy positions of the party’s far-right base.

When even Pat Robertson thinks the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right, you know there is a problem:

"I believe it was Lyndon Johnson that said, ‘Don’t these people realize if they push me over to an extreme position I’ll lose the election? And I’m the one who will be supporting what they want but they’re going to make it so I can’t win.’ Those people in the Republican primary have got to lay off of this stuff. They’re forcing their leaders, the frontrunners, into positions that will mean they lose the general election. Now whether this did it to Cain I don’t know, but nevertheless, you appeal to the narrow base and they’ll applaud the daylights out of what you’re saying and then you hit the general election and they say ‘no way’ and then the Democrat, whoever it is, is going to just play these statements to the hilt. They’ve got to stop this! It’s just so counterproductive!" . . . Well, if they want to lose, this is the game for losers."