Notice to Freepers who claim Obozo never accomplished anything significant: The Big Wee Wee caused a stunning reversal of a full quarter of the electorate in one year's time. So there!
Posted on 11/04/2009 11:59:55 AM PST by Zakeet
The Democrats did not lose a 2-1 squeaker last night. They lost two huge races, saw an overall evaporation of 25 basis points of support -- and lost by nearly 500,000 cumulative votes in the three high-profile elections.
Or put another way, Republicans won two races decided by millions of voters -- and Democrats won a small race dominated by party operatives. In addition, the GOP made some historic gains in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Washington state special elections to boot.
In the context of Bob McDonnell's huge win in Virginia and Chris Christie's surprisingly comfortable win in New Jersey, of all places, the fact that Bill Owens scraped up enough votes to win NY-23 is a testament to the superior political insider maneuvering of the Democrats over the Republicans. So you mean the GOP party apparatus stinks? Well yes, but I think we knew that already.
What we did not know was just how overwhelming the anti-Democrat tide would be among voters. In the three talked-about races, it was a blowout of something like 55%-42% overall in precincts that voted for Obama 56%-44% just a year ago. The raw totals will end up a tad under 2.4 million GOP votes to 1.9 million for the Democrats in round numbers.
So don't buy into any 2-1 split-decision analysis. It was a stunning reversal of a full quarter of the electorate in one year's time.
For the record, Barack Obama "voted present" by not even watching the election returns -- let alone commenting -- as his party suffered the massive 25% reversal. (Okay, I don't believe White House reports that he didn't watch, but who could blame him a little fib considering the magnitude of the actual loss?)
The stunning stat of the night might be this: that McDonnell beat Creigh Deeds by a thousand times the margin he did in 2005. Or it might be that Christie overcame a 700,000 party voter disadvantage to win a race with about two million total voters. Or it may be that all this happened with zero references to "reaching across the aisle" or mavericks. So what does this mean?
It means Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and "big tent" politics just suffered a huge electoral defeat. Likely the same can be said of whatever this week's Obama-Baucus-Bogus-Consumer-Ponzi-Care bill is being passed around these days. To quote CNBC's politically-minded financial analyst Jerry Bowyer, the 1,900-page health care bill is "now pulp." He made that call before 8 p.m. eastern.
None of this will be in the White House spin, of course -- but at the risk of offending the sensibilities of the suddenly decorum-focused Pelosi -- any attempt by the Democrats to candy-coat or minimize what happened last night is nothing less than a bunker-mentality fantasy.
Here is the breakdown race by race:
VIRGINIA: The result could be the name of a Star Wars Droid: R 60 D 40.
This was almost like an actual generic ballot election. Populous Northern Virginia is heavily dominated by the Washington media, and national news and voters responded to that. Virginians voted loud and clear to reject Obama and his party as McDonnell routed Deeds by almost 19 points. For those scoring at home, that's a 26-point swing towards Republicans -- or away from Democrats -- in precisely one year. The last time McDonnell ran against Deeds for Attorney General in 2005, McDonnell won by only 323 votes statewide. That was the closest race in Virginia's history. Last night, he won by over 320,000 votes.
And there is much evidence that what mattered was the party symbol, not the candidate's name. Actually, the symbol that mattered was the D -- and Virginians voted against the D. Some are saying that the key was a very disciplined and down-the-middle campaign by McDonnell against a poor Deeds campaign. Maybe. But that does not explain why all the down ballot races almost exactly mirrored that of the Governor's race.
Even a Frank Luntz focus group -- not known for attracting conservatives or particularly knowledgeable voters -- said it was about national issues and the Obama agenda by an overwhelming majority. In short, this was D versus R, or at least D versus anything else.
And you can bet that three so-called "blue dog" Democrats in Congress are taking a look at the tallies. According to Michael Barone, McDonnell won the three districts where freshman blue dog Democrats live by 62%-38%, 61%-39%, and 55%-45%. I think ObamaCare might have just lost three blue dogs in the Commonwealth.
NEW JERSEY: This win carries a lot of weight!
In Democrat stronghold New Jersey, the revulsion and rejection factor of Democrats continued in a major way. While Christie was given a decent chance in recent polling, in historical context this is a stunner. In a state where Obama carried 59% of the vote in 2008, incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine struggled to reach 44%. Corzine publicly hitched his wagon to the Obama White House, and whether or not the White House likes it, they are in the mire of this incredible defeat.
Corzine had twice as much money, a lot more Democrats to mobilize, the multiple Obama appearances, and a third-party candidate hand-picked to mess up Christie -- and yet he still lost. Even Juan Williams admitted this loss "was big" for the Democrats. Sure Corzine is wealthy, corrupt, and a tax-raiser, but that never stopped Democrats from winning in New Jersey before. Almost all of them are all of those things in the Garden State.
NEW YORK 23: The Obama White House machine was far superior here to an awful local Republican Party.
Without a doubt, Hoffman's loss takes a bit of sheen off the night. Having said that, a single race involving roughly a hundred thousand voters in odd circumstances is not the equal of multi-million vote governors' races. Don't let the Obama spin fool you with all the talk about the GOP losing a district they had held since the Civil War. Obama carried that district by 5 points in 2008. Moreover, he tapped the Republican House Member from this district for a minor cabinet post for the express purpose of hoping the Dems could win an open seat. That was good tactical politics.
When local Republicans anointed the extremely liberal Dede Scozzafava without a primary, they were asking for trouble. You can call that awful tactical politics. Scozzafava's endorsement of Owens validated conservative activists and those like Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson in backing Hoffman. That an inexperienced candidate -- with much of the official local GOP machinery pouting on the sidelines -- lost to a suddenly very well-funded Obama-machine candidate is really no surprise. For all the national hoopla about Hoffman, the on-the-ground reality is that the Obama hacks beat the GOP hacks in the game of turnout and tactics. Is anyone surprised that the local Republican operatives would be outplayed?
In short, the night showed that the tea party movement and the palpable bubbling up of a conservative ascendancy is no joke. It would seem to indicate that a repeat of '93-'94 (fueled by HillaryCare) is at least possible in 2009-2010 (fueled by ObamaCare and all other symptoms of malignant government). Certainly last night was superior to those in 1993 when the GOP swept Democrats out of state houses in Jersey and Virginia by any statistical measure.
And it needs to be. Our Republic is in more danger than we were in 1993 -- by any statistical measure. We won bigger, but it was absolutely necessary that we did. And that's the proper spin of election night 2009.
Notice to Freepers who claim Obozo never accomplished anything significant: The Big Wee Wee caused a stunning reversal of a full quarter of the electorate in one year's time. So there!
Christie needs to go on a diet or else I'm gonna get real tired of all the fat jokes.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
I'd hate to see voters not sure of what to do because of 'more of the same'. Time to really embarrass the Dems.
That sounds more like the DC insiders losing their grip on power than it does anything else.
The Democrats look set to repeat the same mistake that cost them their majority in 1994. Incredible political tone deafness combined with arrogance and corruption waiting in the wings. The one thing they are not going to do is to correct course.
Of course, the same thing could be said about the Republicans after 1994...
And another two big wins for conservatives that no one is talking about: The Gay marriage issue in Maine and the Doctors of Illinois now have to notify parents of any abortions on girls 17 or under. Both very important Conservative values.
I'm waiting for some leftist legislator to suggest that everyone register and non-voters be counted by default, according to party affiliation. That or some other weird scheme to assure them of permanent Democrat control.
The fact that an independent without major party backing came so close to winning should be the story. The fact that the RINO was slain and that the “future of the Republican Party” as Newt called her, endorsed the Democrat proves that the conservatives were right all along.
Not that Steele will learn a thing.
both to be overturned by leftist judges within months.
Lots of people are fat, fat jokes attack a lot of people. Make jokes about boob belts, theres only one who wears them.
Nobody wakes up one day, and suddenly decides they want to be fat. Meanwhile, somebody does wake up and suddenly decides to wear a boob belt.
Who's the bigger joke?
I see your glass is half empty. Mine is half full and looking good.
Not sure about Christie, but McDonnell seems to know, in some detail, what he wants to do. If he can get the GA to cooperate, some real “performance” is possible.
What the hell is a boob belt?
I’m not going to blow smoke. I wanted Hoffman to win that House seat. I think we’d have been even better off had he done it. But given how it turned out, I’m glad it was him who had the near miss and Scozzafava who got clobbered instead of the other way around. Sometimes, it’s useful to play the elections out and see who the small, hard-core minority of disgruntled spoilers and sore losers actually are. And it appears that, even in Rust Belt New York, it’s not necessarily the right-wingers.
Just looking into the election results, Deeds won only one county that the previous race had not. His own in Bath.
Everywhere else, this is better than it ever was during the Bush years.
Look at virtually any picture of Chewbacca the First Lady and you will instantly recognize it...
Huck, do a search of Caption Michele Obama dated today. You will REALLY see what a boob belt is!!
Um, I think I’m suddenly too busy :-) No thanks!
Excellent article!
As usual when a rat president is destroying himself, we often have to look at what reporters from other countries are say to escape the PLM/Progressively Liberal Mediots’s spin.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2378580/posts
Voters swing against Obama
The Australian ^ | November 5, 2009 | Brad Norington
**[Last Night’s Election] Was a Rout**
I agree!
I nominate yours the Posting of the Day, LOL!!
>>> "...somebody does wake up and suddenly decides to wear a boob belt..."
Whether the Dims like it or not, this was a mandate on 0bama’s economy, his healthcare initiatives and cap and tax. Bring on 2010. We need to win the House in 2010 to make the tax cuts of 8-9 years ago permanent.
One like M and Hitler wear/wore.
They are counting on the fact that the Republicans, if they regain control, won't undo anything they have put into place.
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