Posted on 11/07/2010 1:12:35 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
1994 was much worse. Much. So was 1980, but of course, that was also a presidential election. Within days, there were makeshift unemployment offices in all the congressional office buildings.
Actually, to be a little Pollyanna-ish here, what's striking is that for Democrats, it could have been so much worse. California and New York were, for starters, exempt. Also Massachusetts. A whole slew of people who could very well have lost — from Harry Reid in Nevada to Chris Coons in Delaware — didn't. The Senate remained Democratic. People were much more into throwing the bums out when it came to House races than gubernatorial races.
For all the talk about the tea party movement generating enthusiasm, that enthusiasm came at a price, for which Christine O'Donnell will always be the poster girl. You nominated her for a Senate seat you would have otherwise won? Are you crazy? People were still asking these questions on election night.
This is what Republicans have to "manage" for the next two years, along with the fact that their best-known and most magnetic star, Sarah Palin, also has the highest negatives. I'd take Barack Obama's political problems over hers any day. And so, I think, would any professional.
No one speaks for "the American people" — notwithstanding the many who claimed to on Tuesday night. At best, candidates who won really "big" could claim to speak for about 60 percent of the 50-some percent of us who even bothered to vote. Most people, it bears remembering, didn't say anything at all on Tuesday, one way or the other.
But the message that comes out of the results is not revolutionary at all. The Republicans got the keys, but they didn't get the car.
Cynics will tell you that paralysis is the most likely result, and they're probably right. Still, among all the "voter" interviews I've heard in the past 24 hours, it is hard to remember anyone saying they were voting so that Washington could become even more divided and partisan and unproductive than it already is. Voters, we should not be shocked to hear, are a whole lot less partisan than the leaders of partisan politics. If paralysis cometh, he or she who is seen as being responsible for it will pay.
The other possibility is some balance. At least some Republicans were sounding a more practical theme. They recognize that they have to do some things that actually pass and become law. They can't spend the next two years solely focused on making sure that Obama doesn't get re-elected, or they will assure that he does. That was 1996. Whatever the talking heads say, once they get to D.C., even the biggest tea drinkers will discover that a revolutionary who comes home empty-handed isn't going to be welcomed.
The best thing about midterms is that they provide an occasion for midterm corrections. I don't think America rejected Obama's presidency last night. But they rejected the experience they've had of it in the first two years: unemployment; huge bills being passed that most people don't yet understand; bailouts for those too big to fail but not for those too small to matter; a president who is without question smart, but whose ability to "feel our pain" much less motivate his base has yet to be established.
It's how you play your hand that matters in the end. The president has been dealt a new hand — not the one he wanted, certainly, and not the easiest hand to play, but it has possibilities. If politics works at all like it's supposed to, in the playing of it, he'll show himself.
In before the big mouthed bass photo.
“I don’t think America rejected Obama’s presidency last night. But they rejected the experience they’ve had of it in the first two years: unemployment; huge bills being passed that most people don’t yet understand; bailouts for those too big to fail but not for those too small to matter”
in other words, basically everything about Obama’s presidency.
When you start here, where can you go? I'll skip the rest if this is Estrich's level of acceptance of reality.
Susan, you lost Russ Feingold. Russ Feingold! If that doesn’t tell you something, I don’t know what will.
The amazing Commies push and push, don’t they? Hundreds of millions dead and displaced, and they still want Stalin or Mao to be their leader.
Dukakis, The Clintons, Obama, Kerry, Mondale, Edwards, Gore...they are all the same, Communists who want a USSR with their buddies ruling over us all, then uniting with Soros to be ruled by the UN.
Bush I vs. Dukakis - 1988
Electoral votes - 426 - Bush, 111 - Dukakais
Now, that was an ass-kicking, why didn’t you mention that?
I guess you could say a prostitute is a professional.
The American people are beginning to see that these people are just making things up. They so want to believe in socialism, despite all the evidence that it doesn't work.
She's really not stupid enough to believe that but she sure hopes her readers are. That Reid "could very well have lost ..." is nothing short of amazing given the fact he was not only a big wheel in on the Hill, but both democrat and republican pundits classified his and a slew of others as "safe seats" where the incumbent never faced a serious challenge and according to the pundits never would.
It's sure nice to see people like Estrich grasping at straws, really nice. Regards
Susan isn’t alone in her delusions, but at least these were written long BEFORE the election:
As we head toward 2010, history suggests that Republicans would be expecting to make gains — though whether any gain, if it materializes, is a modest one of 10 seats or less, a moderate one of 10 to 20 seats, or a major gain of 20 or more, remains to be seen. For those looking for comparisons to 1994, however, there are limits to the similarities – at least in the way the current House is set up.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-5335263-503544.html
“[e]ven if Obama and Democrats are just as popular next November as they were last November, they might stand to lose five to ten seats in the House based on the altered composition of the midterm electorate alone.”
That’s bad, but it’s certainly not political reversal on the scale of 1994. Unlike Bill Clinton at the same time in his presidency, Obama’s approval ratings seem to have recently stabilized in the low-fifties; not great, but not that bad in a polarized country, either. And as both Abramowitz and Ron Brownstein have pointed out, in group after group of the electorate, he remains as popular as he was when he was elected. A cyclical turnover of ten House seats, which seems to be the most likely scenario in 2010, would not a revolution make.
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/some-revolution
ROFL!
Rubio deserved to win but O’Donnell and Angle deserved to lose. Rubio’s a rising star while the others would have been the butt of jokes for the next 2 years, killing all chances for more pickups in 2012.
As opposed to getting getting two self serving anuses one of whom proved he had zero loyalty to party?
I would have taken the chance and we would have two more definite conservatives on our side.
Same with Joe Miller of Alaska.
Same with Sharon Angle of Nevada.
Same with Ruth McClung of Arizona. I mean who doesn’t find a Rocket Scientist sexy?
I get your point but disagree.
Bottom line is our guys, well supposedly our guys, worked against the expressed will of the voter to knee cap our choices.
“The Dude” does not abide with back stabbers.
The progressive spin: The 2010 mid-term elections saved dozens of Democrat jobs in Congress.
Miller seemed to be a solid guy but he lost it with the east germany comment.
These people must be outed as communists. The don’t ask don’t tell censorship of their politics has got to stop.
I saw Estrich on Greta or some show the other day. Man, either they used a soft filter on the camera lens, or she’s had some major work done. She had more wrinkles in 1988!
LOL
You are just anti anyone who didn’t win and a contrarian.
No problem.
Miller hasn’t been defeated yet. They are still counting.
Gotta go to bed.
Manana.
Fixed.
PS What a friggin tool.
Yes. It could have. Except for no GOP ground game, no RNC help and no GOP leadership help (and the case of COD active opposition).
Have you seen this?
They discuss Feingold in the end
http://www.therightscoop.com/glenn-beck-happy-days-are-here-again
Once again, we get more than we could have hoped for. From the President on down, the liberal side is in denial, which will cause them to stay the course toward complete political annihilation.
The only reason the other two-thirds of the Senate didn’t suffer a similar fate, is they weren’t on the ballot. In the south, we call what Susan has written, as “picking the pepper out of the fly s#*t.”
>>Rubio deserved to win but O’Donnell and Angle deserved to lose. <<
Sorry to disagree, but Christine O’Donnell didn’t deserve to lose. No state should have a Communist senator. No candidate should ever have to fight their own party for support. No woman candidate should have to face the kind of attacks that all Republican women faced.
Chtistine O’Donnelll was right on the issues, so they attacked her on personal issues. Comments made in high school, her non-sex life, her family, even made-up stories did her in. Not to mention the open hostility by the Delaware RINO Party that it is so in bed with the RATs that they collude on which races each will contest.
BTW, Castle would have lost to Coons, according to exit polls.
She’s one of those people that you never know how she’s gonna look - I mean sometimes she looks really awful, like last week ... she looked like she’d been on steroid therapy because her face looked so round and puffy.
I'll say that she is something that starts PRO, but it ends with stitute.
She’s right. It could have been much worse. But that just shows that there is more to be done in 2012, and there will be a whole lot more Dems on the hot seat in 2012.
The despised Reid, Pelosi and Obama team will be around in 2012, thus ensuring that the Democrats will take another bath. That being said, if the Republicans want a landslide then they must choose their candidate from fresh blood. No Huckabee, Romney, Newt, and even no Sarah Palin.
Susan, get thee into rehab.
Couldn’t agree more. Hard to see who’d be best though. I’m supporting Pence. I’m open to suggestions though.
“You nominated her for a Senate seat you would have otherwise won? Are you crazy?”
No. We’re just not partisan like you, Susan. We could care less about whether the GOP wins. What we care about is whether conservatives win. Electing a liberal Republican because he’s a sure bet doesn’t appeal to us as much as nominating a conservative who has only a remote chance of winning.
Is she high? Dems lost at least 4 out of their 6 House seats in NY.
I think the best that Conservatives could do for the next year is to marginalize the 2008 wannabees, and that includes Palin. The search for young blood should be an ongoing process. Give the young’uns a chance to speak out at every opportunity. Forget Rubio, his day will come in 2016, if he has shown promise. Same holds true for the New Jersey giant-killer; however, close scrutiny should be given the governors. For the time being, forget the Senators (where elephants go to die). Rush, Savage, Miller and Ingraham favor the rise of the young conservatives. People like Hannity, Hewitt, Rove and the old dog Conservative journalists will have to be dragged along. (Beck is immaterial, he plays his own game.) Let the Games begin.
That’s a pretty good analysis.
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