RUSH: I don’t like playing the coulda/woulda game, and I don’t believe in moral victories. You lose or you win and that’s it.

But having said that, folks, do you realize what coulda happened if the Republican establishment woulda supported Cuccinelli yesterday? In addition to him winning, I mean. The GOP apparently didn’t want to win Virginia because they didn’t want the Tea Party getting credit for it. But we can also add to that. I think we have to be honest and say that they didn’t care about repudiating Obamacare, either.

Because if there was a place to plant the flag in opposition to Obamacare in the midst of this rollout, it was in that election. I can’t tell you how frustrating this is. Here the country is just abandoning Obama and Obamacare as fast as they can on this, and here’s a race where it is albatross of Obamacare is hanging around McAuliffe’s neck. If the Republicans had gone in there and secured a Cuccinelli victory, do you realize Obamacare would have gotten the blame for McAuliffe’s loss, and do you know what that could have done?

That could have caved the Democrats and Obamacare. Now, stop and think about this. This is why this really frustrates me what happened there. Because if Cuccinelli wins, everybody’s gonna blame Obamacare for McAuliffe’s loss. They’re not gonna blame McAuliffe. They’re not gonna blame the Clintons. They would blame Obamacare — and imagine the Democrats running for reelection next year see what happens to a Clinton bagman. He loses an election where he had all the money, he had all the support.

He loses an election because of Obamacare.

Can you imagine what that would have done to other Democrats and their support of Obamacare? It was a chance to plant the flag by the Republicans against Obamacare — to drive a stake, maybe (a little one, at least), through the heart of Obamacare, and the Republicans didn’t take the chance. That’s the wrong way to put it. The Republicans didn’t take the opportunity. Now, we know that the Republican establishment did not want the Tea Party being credited for any victory.

We know that the Republican establishment is happy that the Tea Party get blamed for the loss. But can we also say that the GOP establishment didn’t care about repudiating Obamacare? ‘Cause they clearly had a chance. The Republican Party could have really dealt a huge blow to Obamacare by helping Cuccinelli win, and they didn’t. As I say, I hate playing the Could’ve/Could’ve/What-Might-Have-Happened Game, because it didn’t happen. But, man, you can’t deny what an opportunity it was.