Free Republic

Washington -- Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County. As it turns out, neither was true.

Mistakes, distortions and outright lies appeared so frequently in media coverage of the elections of 2009 that they made accurate analysis all but impossible. The most serious of these errors built upon gross misrepresentations of the presidential election of 2008 falsehoods repeated endlessly and shamelessly enough to become enshrined in the conventional wisdom. Before this years whoppers achieve similar acceptance, its worth re-examining some of the most familiar confusions regarding the last two election cycles. LIE NUMBER ONE: By winning New York’s 23rd Congressional District, Democrats captured a seat Republicans had held without interruption since the 1850s. Nancy Pelosi herself...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) says Tuesday’s Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey should be a “wake-up call” for Democrats in Congress. Here are 10 likely to be hearing alarm bells. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) No one noticed the election results more than Reid’s advisers, who know he faces a situation similar to that which befell New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. Like Corzine, Reid is an unpopular incumbent running in a state whose economy is in the tank. And like Corzine, he’ll have to use his massive war chest to create a negative impression of his opponent...

With independent voters favoring GOP candidates in New Jersey and Virginia, many in Congress wonder whether they'll lose electoral support themselves if they stick with Obama on controversial issues. Reporting from Washington and Madison, Wis. Even before voters went to the polls this week, moderate congressional Democrats were anxious. Would the swing voters who coalesced around Barack Obama almost exactly one year ago stay with the Democrats or defect to the Republicans? The answer came Tuesday night as Republican gubernatorial candidates swept to power in New Jersey and Virginia, with the help of large packs of self-described independents. Exit polls...

November 5, 2009 Election results warn Barack Obama and Democrats of disastrous 2010 Tim Reid in Washington Barack Obama and his Democratic Party were given clear warning yesterday that they face a potentially disastrous 2010 after big Republican victories on Tuesday signalled mounting voter discontent with the economy and the President’s spending plans. The Republican gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey also revealed significant cracks in the broad coalition that swept Mr Obama to power last November 4 and showed that floating voters — crucial to his win last year — are defecting to the Republicans in droves. The...

Yesterday Chris Christie did even better than Whitman, winning by 4. McDonnell won by 18, which was the largest margin of victory for a Virginia Republican in history. People can say Creigh Deeds was a bad candidate, but was he really the worst candidate in history? So to the extent that 1993 was a harbinger of 1994, last night's elections make 2010 look worse for Democrats than 1994. So when the Democrats today start bleating about how the extremist wing of the Republican party cost the GOP the election in upstate New York, be sure to remind them that it...

The conservative candidates won in the mountains of Virginia by margins that qualify for the descriptor “landslide.” In contested races for the House of Delegates, an incumbent Republican won re-election by almost 2-to-1 and a newcomer unseated a Democratic incumbent by a 15-point margin. The Democratic apologists were quick to point out that Virginia usually elects a Governor from a different party than the Federal-election majority. True — but not by the stunning margin of 18 points rolled up by Bob McDonnell. If the liberal Democrats insist on believing that there is “no message here” . . . well, they...

We knew it was going to be a bad election night for the Democrats when former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe announced on NBC's "Today" program that "the results of these elections tend to be overread." Certainly that was not the prevailing opinion in Democratic circles in 2008, when giddiness over Barack Obama's election reached manic proportions. Virginia, which voted Democratic for president for the first time since 1964, was singled out as an indication of the shape of things to come. In 2008, Mr. Plouffe bragged that only Mr. Obama could make Virginia competitive, and when he won the...

A Mason-Dixon poll reported today in our local newsrag shows Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell maintaining a strong lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds. The poll results have McDonnell up by 12 points, with only 6 per cent of voters undecided. These numbers are almost exactly the same as the aggregate of eight earlier polls analyzed in Friday's report, Virginia Election -- A Hammer And Tongs Finish.

A poll released Friday by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research confirms the Republican ticket’s lead in the statewide Virginia races. Focusing on the two down-ticket slots -- Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General -- Mason-Dixon found the GOP candidates leading in almost all areas of the state

As Virginia's off-year election nears the finish, the statewide Republican ticket has jumped out to a huge lead in the final week of the contest. What is remarkable about this contest is the hammer-and-tongs finishing push by the Republicans, which may signify the return of the Republican killer instinct -- the will to win overcoming the internecine bickering that has marked the GOP's poor performances in recent years.

President Obama traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, yesterday to appear on behalf of the Democratic candidates for statewide office. The location very likely was chosen because the Democrats had been polling better in the Virginia "Tidewater" than in the rest of the state -- but polling information released by Republican Attorney General candidate Ken Cuccinelli indicates that the tide already had turned in the Tidewater and the the effort came too late.

No sooner was the ink dry on this morning’s article, In Virginia Dems Dis Deeds As Republicans Roll, than there were two new polls confirming double-digit leads for the Republican slate. The stage has been set for a conservative landslide in the statewide races.

With only a week to go before we vote in Virginia’s odd-year election, the outcome looks good for the Republican statewide slate. The Democrats, optimistic a month ago, have taken to blaming their candidate, Creigh Deeds, for the loss to come — although Deeds has run exactly the race the national Democrats wanted him to run, trying to use a "wedge" issue to mislead voters.

Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds is incomprehensive when is comes to raising taxes. He says he will not raise taxes - “general revenue” taxes that is. He is forced to admit he may need to raise the gas tax to fund transportation...

Republicans are set to sweep November's statewide election. That's according to an exclusive News7 poll. The poll, conducted this week by SurveyUSA, found Republican Bob McDonnell with a 15-point lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds in the race for governor. McDonnell leads among men, women and independent voters. Republican Bill Bolling leads the race for Lieutenant Governor and Ken Cuccinelli would take the attorney general's race if the election were held today. Here is a look at the results: Asked of 526 likely voters Margin of Sampling Error for this question = ± 4.3% If the election for Virginia governor were...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe signed papers Monday signaling a possible run for governor next year in Virginia. McAuliffe told The Associated Press he set up a campaign committee and will tour Virginia for the next 60 days before making his candidacy certain. He signed papers setting up his committee after a series of barnstorming campaign appearances across the state on behalf of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. McAuliffe would face two other Democrats already in the governor's race. State Senator Creigh Deeds narrowly lost the attorney general's race in 2005, and House Democratic Caucus...

link only.http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gDgHGLpSnR4V9L_yGzr2USAwY4BQD933E5BO2

These days no one, especially New York Senator Hillary Clinton, can deny the charismatic magnitude of Democratic front runner Barack Obama. Watching him on television one cannot help but be drawn into the passion of his presentation. His commanding voice, reminiscent of WWE superstar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is a welcome relief after several years of the bumbling oratory of President George W. Bush. Americans, for a variety of reasons, appreciate this man’s polished presentation whether they like his politics or not. Many are so enraptured by his presence that they are willing to swear allegiance to this elections “change”...