White House Gears Up for Disappointing Election Day

ABC News ^ | October 31, 2009 | Jake Tapper

[Oldeconomybuyer]

With Democrats poised to lose the governor's race in Virginia, and to possibly lose the governor's race in New Jersey and a special election for a House seat in New York, the White House has started insisting any pending losses will not have any significance.

"Whatever the results are I don't think they portend a lot in dealing with the future," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Friday, pointing to the fact that Democrats won the Virginia and New Jersey governors' races in 2001 despite a very popular President Bush, with Republicans picking up seats in Congress in 2002.

"I think we continue to take the long view on what's going on in Washington and throughout the country," Gibbs said.

President Obama will appear at campaign rallies in New Jersey Sunday to help the struggling and unpopular incumbent governor, Jon Corzine, who polls show is in a statistical dead heat with the Republican nominee, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden will appear at a campaign rally in Watertown, NY, to help the Democratic candidate in the special election for that New York House seat, Bill Owens, who is in a tight race with Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

[Hardastarboard]

Don’t even think that they’re going to lose this one. The Dems in NJ (aided and abetted by the White House) will pull out every “dead voter / lost ballot / keep the polls open past the regular hours” trick in the book to avoid this loss. Christie will have to have a million vote margin to win the NJ election. If they can win one of two, then their propaganda ministers in the SRM can position it as an 0bama win. Bet on it.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Good old Wrongway Gibbs. How is he act picking football games ?

[seoul62]

Karma.

[IronJack]

What’s the name of that river in Egypt?

You mean the Pre-emptive Damage Control?

[ditto h]

Sometimes it’s peaceful, and sometimes wild and churned...

[Carley]

Considering that President Dubya actually gained seats his first midterm, I’d say that by comparison this is truly going to be a shellacking of major proportions.

And I for one, will be overjoyed to point out the difference between O and a real President.

[dawn53]

I don’t care how the White House feels, it’s how those Congress critters up for reelection will feel that matters to me.

[Zack Attack]

What’s the name of that river in Egypt?

Not so much DeNile really as it is trying to do spin control. I think they are very much concerned under the surface.

[Trueblackman]

Even if we lose, we still won, it means nothing to us, we shall tell you who to vote for and even if you don't we shall vote for you.

[Rocky]

LOL, Obi-wan-Obama. We are under your spell.

[fr_freak]

I have preached long and often on these threads that the Republican Party must be reformed and that it cannot win if he does not accommodate The Tea Party Movement. Equally, The Tea Party Movement will succeed only in electing Democrats if it does not align itself with the Republican Party.

I disagree with the second sentence here. The only real value of the Tea Parties, if the Republican Party is assumed to be the only hope of conservatives, is that they send the message to the GOP that liberals will not be elected. That threat must be there, and it must be real. Otherwise, the republicans will continue to move left. In order to keep the threat there and make it real, Tea Partiers MUST refuse to vote for RINOs, DIABLOs, and liberals of all stripes, regardless of which party they're in. The Republican Party must come to US, not us to them.

[Allegra]

...the White House has started insisting any pending losses will not have any significance.

Right.

Oh...and wait 'til next year.

[nascarnation]

Like German tanks bogged down at 40 below in Russia, we’ve stopped the Baraqqi surge.
But the toughest fighting lies ahead.

[nathanbedford]

I quite agree that the Republican Party must always be held to account or for various environmental reasons it will tend to drift to the left with the tide. My admonition to The Tea Party Movement was addressed to a different issue which is a tendency within that movement which is observable even within these threads to veer away from the Republican Party to form a third party movement. This is the gravest mistake conservatives and those who love freedom in the time of Obama could possibly make.

Without rehearsing again the history of the political party movement in America, it should suffice to say that splinter groups succeed only in electing the party not from which they splinter but rather the party to which they are most opposed. So it will be if The Tea Party Movement indulges a quite understandable emotional need to punish the Republican establishment.

There is another complication. The Tea Party Movement is comprised not only of conservatives but of independents of several flavors, many of whom are certainly not doctrinaire conservatives but who are fiscal conservatives and some are libertarians. These people have no objection to Rinos who will abandon conservative social issues providing they are fiscally conservative. I am of the opinion that the Reagan construct for the conservative movement in shaping the Republican Party with three legs is the only viable way for conservatism to prevail in America. That means that the party embraces social conservatives, national security conservatives, and fiscal conservatives. Not all tea party goers will be congruent with all three legs all the time.

[HighlyOpinionated]

the White House has started insisting any pending losses will not have any significance.

Just like the person who sits in the doctor's office on a Friday afternoon waiting for the results of cancer testing, whips himself into a frenzy telling himself he does not have cancer and will not accept that as a diagnosis. Then the doctor gets called out to the hospital, so the person has to come back after the weekend and doctor's day off. The person has the entire weekend to play mind games with himself, trying to make it "no big thing" if he's dying of cancer.

The voters vote for the Cancer aka Democrat Bill Owens or the voters vote for Good Health aka Conservative Doug Hoffman.

[HighlyOpinionated]

I have preached long and often on these threads that the Republican Party must be reformed and that it cannot win if he does not accommodate The Tea Party Movement. Equally, The Tea Party Movement will succeed only in electing Democrats if it does not align itself with the Republican Party. A 21st-century election campaign throughout 50 states is too vast, too complicated, and too expensive to be accomplished by a bunch of well-meaning, overweight, middle-aged, suburbanite, middle-class, patriotic, Americans. They need the apparatus of the Republican Party because that professionalism, fund-raising ability, mailing list, ground game, national coordination, is absolutely indispensable if we are to have a hope of doing battle with the juggernaut being prepared for us by the Democrats. Just consider how many fundraisers Obama has already attended.

Essentially, this is a call for both groups to come together and accommodate each other and

for God sake act as patriots!

So quit preaching to this choir and take it up with Mikey Steele and the GOP. I'm tired of continually telling them (after politely asking them in a dozen emails) to Set Up A Conservative GOP Agenda. Instead, sweet Mikey just can't find enough brass to stand up to the "moderate[ly liberal]" GOP and actually DO SOMETHING TO PROMOTE CONSERVATIVES IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

He needs to step down and the GOP needs to put someone like Liz Cheney or her Dad as GOP Chairman. GOP want to raise funds? Put a Cheney in as Chair and watch the mail.

[Vision Thing]

It’s good when the enemy is in denial. It’s mentally unhealthy and damaging for them. I hope their denial hurts them badly.

[nathanbedford]

I can easily accept that you are a highly opinionated but I would have a hard time believing that you are well-informed or you would know that I have led the charge from the beginning against Michael Steele with countless posts decrying his appointment and calling for his resignation.

Further, you would know that I have been predicting GOP defeats since before 2006 because of their wandering off the true path under George Bush. In fact I have been preaching since the time when "the choir" consisted of an amen chorus for George Bush.

Your admonition to me was gratuitous.

[Let's Roll]

“Obama is a one timer for sure.”

If he’s arrogant enough to run again, we need to campaign on:

“You thought his first term was a nightmare, wait’ll you see him in action when he has nothing left to lose.”

[Non-Sequitur]

We’ll find out Tuesday.