Mark Steyn: I was wrong again! Hurrah!

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 11/09/2002 | Mark Steyn

[Rocko]

Bump.

[Irene Adler]

"The reports were accurate from the first moment and showed the good guys winning in a landslide over the anti-American commies. The media could not afford to speak of this for fear of stampeding the very shallow, love-to-back-a-winner Californians into a major dump Blackout Davis drive. It was either lie and abort or report facts and scuttle west coast commies and, naturally, the ultra-left wing media protected Davis. It wasn't reporting wrong information about the good guys losing, they feared reporting the truth about the leftists and what that would do to the elections in the west."

Okay, now I have heard this story both ways, and I would dearly love to know which version is right. My cynical guess is that Tacis has it correct. It makes more sense. Why would VNS NOT go with the "Republicans are losing everywhere," version if that was really what their exit polls were telling them (and how could their exit polls have been telling them so wrong)? Does anyone know for sure just what they were getting from their pollsters outside of polling places?

[AmishDude]

I'd like to tip my cap to the person who came up with the quote of the campaign, when he described the Wellstone memorial as "the cantina scene from Star Wars."

I disagree. It was more like the stadium scene from Attack of the Clones.

[grammymoon]

Please, put me on your Mark Steyne ping list???
If you have one , that it.

Thanks, I just love this guy.

[terilyn]

You must have been in the stupid part of Minnesota LOL!

We haven't elected a dem to the Governor's office since 1986. And Tuesday night we elected a new Republican Govenor. We defeated a relic known as Walter Mondale, and in our state legislature, well..read on:

"High tide for Republicans in Legislature
Robert Whereatt
Star Tribune

Published Nov. 7, 2002 LEGI07

The Republican wave that swept across the nation Tuesday also drenched the Minnesota Legislature, increasing GOP numbers in the House and Senate to their highest levels in 30 years.

Republicans will have 82 members in the 134-seat House, increasing their majority by 11 since the end of the 2002 legislative session. And they will hold 31 seats in the Senate, just three short of controlling the 67-member body, something they have never done since legislators began running with party labels in 1972."

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/3415211.html

There are a lot of good conservative Minnesotan's that are absolutely thrilled with the outcome of the 2002 elections.

[PLK]

the Minnesota memorial gave us the religious Left: they don’t believe in God, they believe in politics; the Democratic party is their church, Wellstone their latest martyr, and the campaign a crusade. They couldn’t have been any freakier if they’d been speaking in tongues.

ROTFLMAO!! Similar thoughts have been knocking around my brain since the rally. But, of course, I could NEVER put them to words the way Steyn can. Thanks for the ping, Pokey.
PLK

[billhilly]

The last time I heard you, about 6:30 Tuesday night, you were in a panic over Elizabeth Dole. Are you breathing normally again? #;^)

[VOA]

You must have been in the stupid part of Minnesota LOL!

You are correct. On the campus of The University of Minnesota.

Honest, I meant no offense! And the U of MN is really a good public university
(My brother got his mastes in Plant Sciences over at the St. Paul campus).

The thing is that most of my couple of weeks in MN were spent at the academic site...
so that's why I stayed up most of Election Night, re-loading the MN Senator race
results on the MN Sec. of State site!
I'd just been exposed to a self-selected bunch of liberal academic
(nice, smart people...and totally confused about politics).

But it's really no different in other parts of the world.
I spent a couple of weeks in England visiting collegues at a major university.

I'd say that in friendly talks at the pub (probably with up to 20 people)
I didn't find anyone who voted for (or had a kind word for) Lady Thatcher.

[McGavin999]

I'm afraid I'd have to vote against that amendment. I'd miss Steyns writing too much. Vice Presidents don't have enough time to write these wonderful articles.

[Howlin]

Yes, I am. And thank you for asking. I know how you feel. :-)

[terilyn]

No offense taken :)

And if you were at the U of M, admittedly a great school, it's no wonder that you saw the most liberal of our state.

It's nice that we seen to be moving in the "right" direction though.

And I'm so happy that we could help contribute to that new Republican majority in the Senate with Norm Coleman, and add to the House with our new GOP Rep, John Kline that defeated the liberal Bill Luther!

[Pokey78]

You have been added.

[No Truce With Kings]

the GOP has basically expelled the Demorats from the Southeast. Texas will probably be next.

What you mean, "next" paleface?

Name a Democrat in a statewide office in Texas.

The R's have the edge in the state leg.

Since the House districts were drawn by a judge, the (now Republican) legislature can rewrite the boundaries in the next session.

[mrustow]

Thanks for the ping, Pokey. Keep 'em coming!

[leilani]

"we’re (New Hampshire) a solidly Republican state and, even weirder, we’ve got Republican governors in our sissy-boy border states of Vermont and Massachusetts." Live Free or Die, guys. God bless NH, land of poets & patriots, because if yall ever go over to the other side, I will know then that it's time to bail. New Hampshirites (sp?) are the canaries in the coal mine for a lot of us across the fruited plain, you know.We're counting on you scrappy, self-reliant North Country types to stem the tide of Massachusetts-style social self-destruction. Godspeed, and may the Old Man of the Mountain keep you safe wherever you go.

[Dialup Llama]

>he only other bad news for the Republicans was their single defeat in the House: hasta la vista to the most liberal Republican Representative, Maryland’s pro-abortion, anti-gun Connie Morella,

An anti-gunner in MD (considering the sniper and all) is not going to be too popular.

[Dialup Llama]

>But, but Terry McAuliffe says the election outcome doesn't mean much and that nothing has changed.

The world has changed. I smell it in the air. I taste it in the water. Much that once was is lost.

[Dialup Llama]

>Mr Mark ["Ahem"] Steyn is a REPUBLICAN Canadian!

There's nothing really preventing Steyn from voting in our elections. South of the border types do that all the time.

[Dialup Llama]

> "if I vote for Mondale, the rest of the country will will think we really are as nutty as what they saw on TV last Tuesday night".

People in MN were greatly pissed at the 'Rally at Nuremberg' qua memorial service. They boo-ed the governor. They made Terry Ventura cry. Bill Clinton was laughing, backslapping and high-fiving with Walter Mondale.

[VOA]

Bill Clinton was laughing, backslapping and high-fiving with Walter Mondale.

"Wasn't it great to see Mondale come back for a final ass-whipping?"
(paraphrase of David Letterman from last night).

I like Minnesota from my visits...after seeing Coleman get elected I have had
to do a little recalibration of my view of the politics of the state.
And I'm more than happy to have to do that!
I was checking results Wed. morning until the AP and FOX were calling for Coleman...
I had a weird mixture of elation and wondering if I was dreaming...