What the Chambliss Win Says About National G.O.P. Prospects: Nothing

The New York Observer ^ | December 3, 2008 | Steve Kornacki

[redk]

The danger of special elections and run-offs is that they invite analysts to impute some sort of national significance or trend to their outcomes. Sometimes, like in the string of Republican victories that preceded their 1994 revolution, this kind of analysis is warranted. But in the case of yesterday's Senate run-off in Georgia, it most certainly is not.

[redk]

Yeah right. If Martin had won we wouldn't stop hearing about how important this election was.

[ilgipper]

It means this: Georgians backed the GOP, just as they did a month ago....probably at a larger margin since this helped prevent a supermajority of liberals.

[WayneS]

If Martin had won we wouldn't stop hearing about how important this election was.

You are correct.

Unfortunately, I think the author of the article is also correct.

It's going to take MUCH more than a Saxby Chambliss victory in Georgia to "right" the GOP ship.

[Tzimisce]

Wow - Republicans have a filibuster power.

Are they ever going to use it? So far, there are plenty of RINOs and “Mavericks” who are willing to sell us out for 30 seconds of puff on the nightly news.

[Chet 99]

if the Republican wins the runoff in LA this Saturday, then we might be talking about some kind of pattern.

[couchpotatoxxx12]

Agreed, this sadly isn’t as big as people are making it out to be. Considering in 2010 most of the dem seats are safe, I think 45 is a realistic goal, then a complete blitz in 2012.

[Bertram3]

Sounds to me like a scared liberal media mongrel whistling in the dark to keep his courage up.

[TheOgre]

” So far, there are plenty of RINOs and “Mavericks” who are willing to sell us out for 30 seconds of puff on the nightly news.”

X’s eleventy-billion to the 69th power. Hell one of them was running as the GOP nominee for president.

[RichInOC]

“Mr. Martin meant to do that.”

[deannadurbin]

Of course it’s important. It showed that Obama was AFRAID of Sarah Palin! He couldn’t go down there and hit it over the fence for Martin, he was too “busy” (or so the excuse goes). So Sarah went down there and hit it over the fence for Saxby.

[Mojave]

It says nothing about Barack Obama, who correctly smelled a loser and stayed far away from Martin's campaign

YouTube says otherwise.

[lonestar67]

Translation:

It means a lot.

Conservatives win and moderates lose. The mainstream media bought and paid for Obama. Obama supporters already know they have been duped and don’t want to turn out for the dems any longer.

[Troll_House_Cookies]

Bingo, Sarah isn’t the silver bullet to fix this party, it needs a MAJOR “root” canal from the grassroots on up to the RINO one issue voters steering it. We need to get back to FISCAL CONSERVATISM, B. Goldwater style!!!

[Mr Inviso]

Gee, didnt some special elections just before the 2006 midterms start going Dem? Back then, the press consensus was that this was the beginning of a sea change.

[redk]

The author even went of his way to mention that this would have happened with or without Palin. Whether the article is right or wrong I find the fact that they think they need to smack us down today amusing.

[mhx]

So far, there are plenty of RINOs and “Mavericks” who are willing to sell us out for 30 seconds of puff on the nightly news.

Are they counting McCain toward the Republican total?

[bfh333]

LOL... You must not actually know “Shameless”’s voting record... He's NO conservative... He's a McLame RINO... Having said that, I still prefer him over Martin...

We'll see how he votes... My guess is he'll do what he's always done... go along to get along...

[WayneS]

Yes.

Gov. Palin can be PART of the solution but there is no way she can shoulder, even with some help of a few “Bobby Jindals”, the majority of the load.

We have GOT to find some REAL conservatives to run in 2010 and beyond.

[veritas2002]

YOU'RE WRONG! What it says is that we need to re-capture the GOP agenda and wrest it away from the “moderates” (aka idiots). It says we now need to rehabilitate our party. It might take 8 years, maybe even 12 to get back to a philosophy of limited government, States’ rights, reductions in the Federal budget, tax reductions, limited government interference in private enterprise (i.e. no bailouts), a strong military, promotion of family values (no homosexual marriage, sex education in the schools, valuing home schooling, laws on abortion that reflect the true will of the people), strict interpretation of the Constitution (i.e. no legislating on the part of the judiciary). Have I left anything out? If we run on PRINCIPLES such as these and GOVERN accordingly, we will win elections most of the time. When we cave into “moderates” like McCain, we give the electorate no choice - it becomes a toss-up and, because of the novelty of Obama’s being Black, people say, “Oh what the hell, give the Black guy a chance because we're guilty of oppressing his people.”

[bfh333]

AMEN! Give the electorate a TRUE, distinctive choice and it falls on the side of the Conservatives... The GOP needs to STOP acting like DemonRATS...