"Teresa was watching her soap operas but NASCAR was on, so I had to slap her around a little. Sometimes you have to show the little lady who wears the pants, you know what I mean?"
Ya got any smokes?
Posted on 11/11/2004 6:27:00 AM PST by OESY
Dispirited Democrats are doing what political losers usually do: self-flagellating. Foremost... is figuring out... how to reach those red-state voters?...
• The issue is not getting evangelical Christian conservatives; they are to the Republican base what African-Americans are to Democrats. Rather, it is about getting a respectable share of the small-town and exurban working- and middle-class folks, many of them regular church-goers, who should be aligned more with Democrats on economics and health care.
• The debate already is veering into false choices: Stick to principles and don't change because we're right or change your views on gays, guns, God and abortion. Both approaches are stupid.
• There was not a huge outpouring of religious conservatives at the polls last week; 42% of all voters were weekly churchgoers, the same as 2000. Democrats, however, were undeniably on the short side of the values debate and paid a price.
• Simplicity and symbols matter. George Bush excelled in both, John Kerry in neither....
...Peter Hart, however, believes that central to this year's defeat was the fact that Democrats "failed to tell their story. It wasn't that they were at odds with voters, but they failed to express their values, it was hidden. In the Bush campaign, values were overtly and explicitly mentioned."
...Democrats should have framed some of the economic debate more forcefully as moral choices: minimum wage, growing numbers of children without health insurance, companies outsourcing jobs and cutting health and pension benefits while executives enrich themselves.
This was a devastating defeat for the Democrats....
In a deeply divided country, the Democrats are on the minority side of that division. It can be reversed, but it will take a party and a candidate less centered in Washington and more comfortable and conversant with the everyday values of most Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
They started losing their value's back in the 60's and it is going to take them just as long to get them back.
The only card they have is class warfare. That's it. That's all.
When Republicans lose, it's because the voters rejected their ideas. When Democrats lose, it's because they "didn't get their message out."
His nasty vicious attacks on those with whom he disagrees is a deep seated defect prevalent on the left.
They can't pursuade, so then denigrate.
Keep on keeping on!
Hunt is as out of it as they come - right after the election he wrote that Bush obviously didn't have a mandate.
"The debate already is veering into false choices: Stick to principles and don't change because we're right or change your views on gays, guns, God and abortion. Both approaches are stupid." I really hope the RATs do just that. If they follow Al's approach we will own the Congress and the White House for the next 60 years. I just hope that the RATs never figure out what a major (and real, not feigned) change in their view on guns would do for them.
Democrats did tell their story. They hated Bush.
Its funny how every election season the Democrats complain like clockwork they didn't get their message out. They did! This time it was Hate Bush and We'll Raise Your Taxes. Al Hunt and fellow liberals must think the American people are stoopid.
I read this in today's WSJ. It was one of the very few of Al's columns I could stand. To summarize this one for those of you who can't stomach ANY of Al's columns - we have to figure out a better shade of lipstick for the pig of Democratic ideology.
Being a leftist means never having to say you're sorry...or wrong.
Hunt seems to forget that the United States Senate missed a seminal moment to re-establish "essential core values" very clearly ... and they wimped out. Politics trumped values! [The same is very likely regarding Specter.]
It was not "about sex" ... it was about lying under oath to, in effect, deny a citizen of the United States her day in court.
The wording in the United States Consitution regarding "high crimes and misdemeanors" and the process of impeachment itself were very publicly neutered ... as if never written, as they clearly were not taken seriously.
Leading by "core values" is sorely missed today ...
It's the same old poop expressed in a little different way. Won't these people ever learn? Hope not!
As long as liberals confuse morality with their left wing issues, they'll get thumped at the polls.
There was Leahy attacking Gonsalves within moments of his nomination.
Kennedy followed with more blather.
The quintessence of cluelessness.
I do see your point though that the "values" has to do with things like the protection of marraige or the garbage coming out Hollywood, which according to Hunt above, the democrats won't budge on. I am predicting another democrat loss in 2006 if they don;t wise up.
"Teresa was watching her soap operas but NASCAR was on, so I had to slap her around a little. Sometimes you have to show the little lady who wears the pants, you know what I mean?"
Ya got any smokes?
On the contrary, they tried to sell the story that they:
Oppose partial birth abortion..but will doing nothing to stop it
Oppose gay marriage..but will do nothing to stop it
Oppose high taxes..but will do nothing to lower them.
Actually they told their story rather well..and it was rejected.
"42% of all voters were regular church goers, the same as in 2000."
But of course the amount of voters increased dramitically, and it was a record vote.
Thus to remain at 42% {Which Really Is a REMARKABLE number when you think about it} there had to be a much larger number of church goers who voted in 2004. The Only statistical possibility.
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