SMACKDOWN
GOP sweep: Big governor victories in Virginia, NJ
Wed Nov 4, 6:33 am ET
WASHINGTON – Independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.
Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in the Virginia governor's race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris Christie's ouster of unpopular New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was a double-barreled triumph for a party looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Maine voters rejected a state law that would allow same-sex couples to wed. If supporters had prevailed, it would have marked the first time that the electorate in any state endorsed gay marriage.
And Democrat Bill Owens captured a GOP-held vacant 23rd Congressional District seat in New York in a race that highlighted fissures in the Republican Party and illustrated hurdles the GOP could face in capitalizing on any voter discontent with Obama and Democrats next fall.
California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, also a Democrat, won a special election to a vacant congressional seat, Ohio voters approved casinos and a slew of cities selected mayors, including New York, which gave Michael Bloomberg a third term.
The outcomes of Virginia and New Jersey were sure to feed discussion about the state of the electorate, the status of the diverse coalition that sent Obama to the White House and the limits of the president's influence — on the party's base of support and on moderate current lawmakers he needs to advance his legislative priorities.
His signature issue of health care reform was dealt a blow hours before polls closed when Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid signaled that Congress may not complete health care legislation this year, missing Obama's deadline and pushing debate into a congressional election year. Democrats in swing-voting states and moderate-to-conservative districts may be less willing to back Obama on issues like health care after Virginia and New Jersey showed there are limits to how much he can protect his rank and file from fallout back home.
The president had personally campaigned for Deeds and Corzine, seeking to ensure that independents and base voters alike turned out even if he wasn't on the ballot — and voters still rejected them. Thus, the losses were blots on Obama's political standing to a certain degree and suggested potential problems ahead as he seeks to achieve his policy goals, protect Democratic majorities in Congress and expand his party's grip on governors' seats next fall.
Interviews with voters leaving polling stations in both states were filled with reasons for Democrats to be concerned and for Republicans to be optimistic, particularly about independents — the crown jewel of elections because they often determine outcomes.
Independents were a critical part Obama's victory in Virginia, New Jersey and across the country. But after more than a year of recession, they fled from Democrats in the two states, where the economy trumped all.
The Associated Press exit polls showed that nearly a third of voters in Virginia described themselves as independents, and nearly as many in New Jersey did. They preferred McDonnell by almost a 2-1 margin over Deeds in Virginia, and Christie over Corzine by a similar margin.
Last year, independents split between Obama and Republican John McCain in both states.
In Virginia, McDonnell won by big margins in rapidly growing, far-flung Washington, D.C., suburbs — places like Loudoun and Prince William counties — that Republicans historically have won but where Obama prevailed last fall by winning over independents and swing voters. Republicans swept all three statewide Virginia offices up for election: governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
"Bob McDonnell's victory gives Republicans tremendous momentum heading into 2010," declared Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican Governors Association. "His focus on ideas and pocketbook issues will serve as a model for Republicans running next year."
Said Tim Kaine, the Democratic National Committee chairman and the term-limited Virginia governor: "We are disappointed."
In both states, the surveys also suggested the Democrats had difficulty turning out their base, including the large numbers of first-time minority and youth voters whom Obama attracted. The Virginia electorate was whiter in 2009 than it was in 2008, when blacks and Hispanics voted in droves to elect the country's first black president.
Democratic victories in both Virginia, a new swing state, and New Jersey, a Democratic stronghold, in 2005 preceded big Democratic years nationally in 2006 and 2008.
Tuesday's impact on Obama's popularity and on the 2010 elections could easily be overstated. Voters are often focused on local issues and local personalities.
Yet, national issues, like the recession, were clearly a factor, with voter attitudes shaped to some degree by how people feel about the state of their nation — and their place in it.
And, voter attitudes — particularly among independents — could bode ill for Democrats in moderate districts and in swing states like Ohio, Colorado and Nevada, should they remain unchanged when the party seeks to defend its turf next fall. In 2010, most governors, a third of the Senate and all members in the House will be on ballots.
It's also difficult to separate Obama from the outcomes after he devoted a significant chunk of time working to persuade voters to elect Deeds in Virginia and re-elect Corzine in New Jersey.
More than four in 10 voters in Virginia said their view of Obama factored into their choice on Tuesday, and those voters roughly split between expressing support and opposition for the president. People who said they disapprove of Obama's job performance voted overwhelmingly Republican, and those who approve of the president favored Deeds, the Democrat.
The Obama factor was similar in New Jersey, though there were slightly more voters who said the president did not factor into their choice.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
posted by John | 6:41 AM
50 Comments:
Obama has lost his magic. Not good. That's all he had.
One-termer (assuming the GOP doesn't run another Dole/McCain).
Poooor wingbats ... spinning desperately (in their graves.)
Bloomberg the zillionaire repug barely eeks out a victory despite outspending his dem opponent, who was given no chance at all by the pundits, 16-1... dem opponent would not have lost even then if he had not supidly advocated tearing up bike lanes in nyc
closet repug running as gutless conservative dem and not wanting obama's support loses gov race in Old Macaca
mafia gub who has been in politics longer than most joiseyites have been alive is finally replaced by another (worse) mafia thug who will most likely be indicted within a year
teabagger loses gop district in upstate noo yawk district that has NEVER previously gone dem ever
watch ca 10 for more signs that the goop is doomed...
maine pending....
Dems who hid from being liberal reformers lost...Reichos who showed their ugly, extremist (pin) heads in public were repudiated even where they supposedly could not lose.
And a real liberal takes Ca-10.
Third ass kicking in a row for the dying GOP.
Bigotry crumbling in the old south...where will the ugly GOPigs hide?
Openly gay Kleinschmidt is next Chapel Hill mayor
Mark Kleinschmidt becomes third openly gay man to hold mayoral office in North Carolina
Share this story:
Mark Kleinschmidt in the 2009 N.C. Pride Parade in Durham.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Mark Kleinschmidt emerged victorious in his campaign for mayor of Chapel Hill on Tuesday, with a 49.49 percent (4,006) to 46.53 percent (3,766) lead against chief opponent Matt Czajkowski with 21 of 21 precincts reporting.
Shortly after 9:00 p.m., Czajkowski conceded to Kleinschmidt.
A member of the Chapel Hill Town Council since 2001, Kleinschmidt will become the third openly gay man to hold mayoral office in the state, following Mike Nelson in Carrboro and Elic Senter in Frankinton.
Translation: Nevermind what happened in just Maine!
Every time. Every time these sniveling losers suddenly point out something off topic and heckle about it, it means that they're trying to deflect attention away from something deleterious to them vis-a-vis the same topic (and buffoonishly calling attention to it in the process).
That would be the third ass-kicking in a row for the suddenly dying left.
Only Obama triangulating to the right (a la Clinton) can save them now from extinction.
I'm still waiting for just one of them to stand up and announce--during a campaign--"I'm a liberal!"
But that would be political suicide (unless your Pelosi from San Francisco or somesuch).
Can you imagine any of them saying the things that stankey over here says?
Their political careers would be destroyed.
The thing is, they sound just like the stankeys when they think that no one is listening (like Obama's "Clingers" commentary), and so they have to lie off the bat in public to pretend that they're something they're not (like likeable, for starters).
Hoffman Gets His Teabags Dunked by Democrat Owens in New York's 23rd!
By Mark Karlin
Forget about the two GOP govenor pick-ups in VA and NJ. The splash heard 'round the country was Right Wing Nut Job (RWNJ) Doug Hoffman getting his teabags dunked by Democrat Bill Owens in New York's 23rd Congressional District, which borders the "socialist" nation of Canada.
Oh, Beck, Pawlenty, the Club for Growth and Dick Armey's gang of Tea Party propagandists thought that this would be the shot that officially started the Civil War in the GOP. But add this to Sarah Palin's ever downward trend in political forays (she prominently endorsed Hoffman, who was running on the New York Conservative Party ticket -- New York has a number of long-standing independent parties -- over the official GOP candidate, one Dierdre Scozzafava); Sarah's going rogue by chronically being on the losing side.
Hoffman was defeated in a district that hasn't been represented by a Democrat as long as anyone living -- or dead -- can remember. The next Republican who gets Palin's endorsement should remember that the pit bull from Alaska is the kiss of death. You definitely don't want her lipstick on your collar if you are running for office (except for maybe South Carolina, where they still think that they can win the Civil War.)
"Every time. Every time these sniveling losers suddenly point out something off topic and heckle about it, it means that they're trying to deflect attention away from something deleterious to them vis-a-vis the same topic (and buffoonishly calling attention to it in the process)."
Too funny...like the moron going on with great shrillness about some fight at the WaHoPo...as though that had something to do with anything...and in the social section, already!! Now, they won two idiosyncratic races that had nothing to do with anything nat'l against the two worst candidates in the entire Democratic party and got their asses kicked in the only one that did, and...pretty pathetic.
As for Maine, this issue is so far ahead of where anyone could have imagined even ten years ago. It's just a matter of time til this one passes all over the US...whah, even the Counterfeiteracy is electing gay mayors.
But we mustn't pay no nevermind to what happens in just NC.
The party of bigots is hanging on by their rotten teeth. The really interesting question is who will they find to hate when the gay issue is dead.
lol
Stankey doth protest too much, methinks.
Your cage is rattled, stankey.
You're guzzling and upchucking the Kool Aid faster than a bolemic would an extra-large pizza with all the toppings.
Speaking of Pelosi, she's ho-humming the same tune as stankey here is (of course, since she's a queen bee in the collectivist hive which is on the same buzzing wavelength from top to bottom):
"Pelosi dismisses Dem losses in Virginia and New Jersey
Most House Democrats tried to put a good face on Tuesday's election results, saying they picked up two more votes for a sweeping health care bill that could be on the floor as early as Friday.
But it can't make it any easier for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she works to corral the last holdouts she needs to pass legislation overhauling the nation’s health care system.
Of course, the speaker, who told POLITICO recently she's 'not big on showing weakness,' brushed aside questions about how the Democratic gubernatorial losses in Virginia and New Jersey would impact her final tally and instead trumpeted the two special election House wins."
[Note by Republicus: This is all about "not showing weakness," or bluffing, not the truth. It's a game face.]
'From our perspective, we won last night,' the California Democrat told reporters during a Wednesday photo op. 'We had one race that we were engaged in, it was in northern New York, it was a race where a Republican has held the seat since the Civil War."
[That's precisely what stankey buzzed about. Top to bottom. These are the Borg.]
"And we won that seat. So, from our standpoint, no, a candidate was victorious who supports health care reform, and his remarks last night said this was a victory for health care reform and other initiatives for the American people.'
'From our standpoint, we picked up votes last night,' a cheerful Pelosi said, 'one in California and one in New York.'"
[Remember about "not showing weakness." She is not holding a full house, but hiding a pair of twos and "trying not to show it."
They are weak. The house of cards has already begun to fall. The gloss of the gimmickry of Obama (The First African-American President) has already gone flat, and all that's left for the left is the liberalism itself, which the great majority of Americans despise.
From here on out it will be damage control and triangulation to the right to downplay and even marginalize the liberalism (a la Clinton in '95)--in hopes of avoiding a blowout in '12 a la '94, and if he wants a second term.]
Leftists, when on a dumb-luck ascendancy, use their chronic, psychological defense mechanisms as offensive weapons, with their favorite--projection-- at the vanguard.
When backed into corner and on defense, the whole gamut kicks into overdrive, as we can see, and frenzied rashes of denial and rationalization break out to deal with these latest setbacks.
hahaha...speaking of projection, this moron should get a job as a projectifier in a movie theatre. Between The City and NY 23, "conservatism" is virtually dead in the entire northeast and becoming a hollow, dying thing even in the south, where creeping broadmindedness is eroding its ugliness, bigotry and fear based underpinnings. And, hilariously, they plan more such brilliant stadageries in coming elections, notably Cali and Florida just for starters. Not to mention finishing themselves off completely in New England with their "Snowe melting" freak show.
Meanwhile, have you seen the impending GOOP disaster in NJ? This gleep is such and embarassment that he makes GW look polished. He won only because Corzine was roundly hated, and will soon take Corzine's place, only as corrupt laughing stock rather than smooth villain...which is even more deadly to a pol.
"hahaha...speaking of projection, this moron should get a job as a projectifier in a movie theatre."
In other words: "I know you are, but what am I?"
"Between The City and NY 23, 'conservatism' (not un-quoted conservatism) is virtually dead in the entire northeast and becoming a hollow, dying thing even in the south, where creeping broadmindedness is eroding its ugliness, bigotry and fear based underpinnings."
Stankey's "conservatism" is a projection of their own ugly bigotry and fear-mongering.
"And, hilariously, they plan more such brilliant stadageries in coming elections."
Projection is on auto-pilot at this stage. They will continue to lose elections unless they embrace Morrissian triangulation (although it is probably too late at this point).
How about that Italy?! Go gettem.
Definition of projection...
Member of the racist party with .00000000000001% of the black population calling the other party racist.
Moron who says the GOP needs to go more conservative seeing the historic loss of a seat using that strajedy and imagining conservatives won the recent election. He's hanging on to sanity by a thread of threatened delusions...just like his sick party.
Bleeding off the sane continues.
Conservative lawmaker calls fellow GOP rep. ‘captain crazy’
By John Byrne
November 5th, 2009
Michelle Marston, an aide to Republican lawmaker Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), wanted to leave quietly.
But her decision to "jump ship" while her boss engaged in perhaps her boldest media moment yet has some on Capitol Hill scratching their heads.
Including a conservative lawmaker in Bachmann's own party.
The Minnesota Republican has garnered national attention for her sometimes outrageous quips -- including one in which she said conservatives should slit their wrists to defeat Democrats' healthcare plans.
Marston appears to have soured on Bachmann over time.
This fall, when she said President Barack Obama held "anti-American views," her tune changed.
“You either love Michele Bachmann or you don’t love Michele Bachmann at all,” Marston told a reporter.
When your captain's crazy, it's time to find a new ship.
Very good, stankey. Try not to show any weakness.
There's circle-jerking wishful thinking, and there's reality:
"Election result: Red-state Dems worried, rethink agenda
By MANU RAJU & JONATHAN ALLEN
Election Day losses in Virginia (where Bob McDonnell, above right, won the gubernatorial race) and New Jersey have congressional Democrats focused like never before on jobs -- their own.
While the White House and party leaders are urging calm, Democratic incumbents from red states and Republican-leaning districts are anything but; Tuesday's statehouse defeats have left them acutely aware that their votes on health care reform and other major Obama initiatives could be career-enders in 2010 or beyond."
Elsewhere, the same:
"Republican Wins May Make Democrats Cautious on Obama Agenda
By Jonathan D. Salant
Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Republican victories in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races may make some congressional Democrats more leery of backing key elements of President Barack Obama’s agenda because of the political price they could pay, analysts said."
Note what's coming out of the leftist spin machines that the stankey grunts are circulating:
A 180 degree inversion of reality.
...i.e. Not only do Democrats have nothing to worry about, but they should be celebrating yesterday's "Victory."
A couple members of the uncivil but incredibly looney Left got their *sses dragged out of Lieberman's office and tossed into the can today. Congrats, Stan. Finally got some company?
SMACKDOWN FOR DEADBEATS:
Amazing positive development today...have the Dems finally learned their lesson?
The dingbat, obstructionist reichos decided to refuse their duties on the climate change committee so the Dems just did it without them...and the goofballs are whining about it. Here's a clue, fools...just show up for work.
If the left continues this they will pass everything they want and stay in power forever.
They're all the same...when do they learn to just shut the fuck up?...then nobody would give a rat's ass what they do with their ratty ho's asses. Report: Racy sex tape ends Prejean’s lawsuit against beauty pageant
Carrie Prejean, the dethroned Miss California 2009 who stirred up controversy by expressing her views against gay marriage, has dropped her lawsuit against the Miss California contest because of an "extremely graphic" sex tape, says a report at the celebrity gossip site TMZ.
"Carrie Prejean demanded more than a million dollars during her settlement negotiations with Miss California USA Pageant officials -- that is, until the lawyer for the Pageant showed Carrie an XXX home video of her handiwork," the Web site reported.
While TMZ would not state what was depicted on the tape, it hinted at the content by saying that "Carrie has a promising solo career."
hahahahahahaha another homophobic family values heroine down the tube...siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick fucks.
"When the captain's crazy, it's time to find a new ship." Right but what if the whole fucking crew is insane?
hahahahha...just after he whines about the anti-Liebermans
Ahh, the full freak out.
Ten Tea Party protestors were arrested for trying to force their way in to Nancy Pelosi's congressional office this afternoon. (To be clear, that's the office that handles her constituent work as opposed to her leadership office which is actually where she works.) There was then another big uproar as the arrestees were led out of the building for transport. "This is America, this is not the Soviet Union," said one protestor watching the arrestees.
We have video of the scene when the arrestees were being led out of the building.
Stankey's having a meltdown.
No, Stanley's having a ball...so much GOP idiocy as the party implodes, such fat targets, so little time:
Report Exposes Campaign of Racial Attacks From Far Right
WASHINGTON - November 5 - "The Right Plays the Race Card." The report covers the Right's continued use of racially charged rhetoric to excite its base and attack its opponents. It also explores the calculation that politicians from both parties have made that it is advantageous not to confront racist rhetoric from the far right.
The report maps out not only the consistent pattern of racially tinged attacks against President Obama, but ways that the Right's rhetoric on a wide range of issues plays on racial fear and misunderstanding, including:
Baseless claims from television commentators that President Obama "hates white people."
Claims that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was an "Affirmative Action" pick who would bring a radical agenda to the Supreme Court.
Assertions that the Republican Party should ignore the votes of African Americans and Hispanics.
Attacks on ACORN designed to raise unfounded fears about organized voter fraud by African Americans.
Smears against African Americans who voted for President Obama, accusing them of putting race over God.
Using "race coded" attacks to brand Obama as "foreign" and echo segregationist tactics as the appropriate response to an Obama presidency.
"Far from being isolated incidents, these examples show a clear pattern of racially charged attacks designed to undermine President Obama and the progressive agenda," said People For the American Way President Michael B. Keegan. "Whether or not individual right wing activists are motivated by racism is unimportant; the far right is displaying a pattern of inflammatory rhetoric and astonishingly few leaders in the GOP are standing up to it. That's a reckless strategy, and members of both political parties need to stand up and put a stop to it."
The report is the latest in a series of "Right Wing Watch: In Focus" reports drawing on the reporting and expertise of People For the American Way's RightWingWatch.org. You can read it here or download a PDF version here.
John,
As a fellow virginian (I live in Richmond) I think you guys are seriously misreading these results. Deeds was a HORRIBLE candidate. A bunch of us who campaigned for Obama couldn't stomach Deeds. And while I'm not in NJ, Corzine wasn't a much better candidate. If Blago ran for governor in IL and lost would that be Obama's fault or would it be that Blago was a crappy candidate. And while I'm sure someone has talked about it, I could've missed it with all the posts, where is the dissection on NY23? Isn't that the real repudiation? The FAR-right/Tea parties painted that as the referendum. If anything Tuesday was a draw, 2 Dem pickups in the House and 2 Rep pickups in Governors.
Back to the sidelines I go.
Samarai, I believe the same can be said for conservatism...you can't read too much into its "demise" as some have suggested. Bush/McCain, etal, were not the best representations of the core.
It is still alive and well.
and better yet...Obama only won with a very narrow margin...even AFTER ACORN got involved.
I'll trade the NY23 house seat for the VA and PA governorships anyday, Sanjay.
I think the crazy co-captains, Palin/Bachmann are the answer to conservative malaise. Hoffman was the REAL thing, but after his embarrassing flop, it's clear that we need to go deeper and get even REALER REAL things. Somewhere, way down in there, the REALNESS factor will become REAL enough and the GOP will emerge from the bilge, bigger and REALER than ever.
Now, that Okie, Inhofe, there's a REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAL REALpublican...I think he should also move to the head of the class. That could be achieved merely by totally reversing the class, thus making the ass of the class the new face of the place.
See?
Ooh, you're so slow.
Stankey is inverting (it's a programmed, automatic impulse).
"Malaise" is Andrea Mitchell asking Axelrod what went so horribly wrong. She concluded the interview by sighing: "Oh well, we'll always have NY23!"
Note to Sanjay:
You're talking to monkeys.
Learn monkey lingo.
Have fun with it.
"I think he should also move to the head of the class. That could be achieved merely by totally reversing the class, thus making the ass of the class the new face of the place.
See?"
Clearly. You just blurted out your inverting m.o.
I've been cruising Der Reichsblogs looking for choice dementia on the beginning of the long awaited Moozlim uprising which, ass we no, began yestiddy at Hood. Butt, so far, nada...hasn't Limpballs or Pox Nooze tole you how to get cranked on that yet?
Did you see the latest analysis on Pox, btw?...Murderoch losing money on it. Ad revenues down...Beck asks for more Vick's. The gutless Dems are worried...only that craziness can make them look good by comparison.
John trying to figger out why now and then he catches a flash of himself hanging upside down by his tail.
Do you think Beck can bome back from his operation...no, not the botched hemmorrhoid (how IS that sumbitch spelt?) disaster, the current one, after Stewart's deadly lampoon of him?
I think he can. I mean he is without shame -- which works in his favor again and again, like Limpballs with his cyst -- and will continue to show his face and his hems on air in total oblivion...even finding perverted pleasure in it, in the GOP manner.
Un(D)employment hit 10.2% today, double digits. It hasn't been this bad since Jimmy Cahtah f'd up the economy back in the late 70's early 80s. But then, I'm sure Stanky can spin the new un(D)employment numbers as a "good thing". So, have at it, Stanky! Dance my little monkey, dance!
Easy call, fj. It's Bush's fault.
That's not what the Obamonkies said when they picked our pockets for a $700B "porkulus" package. 9.5% was supposed to be the maximum unemployment Bush impact rate w/o doing ANYTHING. In other words, anything and everything over a 9.5% unemployment is PURE Obama policy related, and they own it.
The Obama Economic Team owns this chart now.
hahahaha...sick little twats are tooo easy...3 years into the Reagan term it was Jimmy's fault...ONE year into Obama's it's Obama's fault...siiiiiiiiiiiiick little cockroach's.
It took years to come out of the last big depression you freaks left...and we may never come out of this one. That's why liberals need to learn that extinction is the only thing that will solve our lower order problem.
Look at the bright side, stankey: The last time the jobless rate was this pathetic was indeed 1983, three years into The Ronald's first term, and he was still able to win reelection and a second term one year later.
Let's see the Demonrats do the same next year, since "everyone knows" that it's Bush's fault. And let's see Obama win a second term with the benefit of having two years--not one--to get his shit together.
You can growl and bark and show your teeth all you want like the foaming little bitch you are, mindlessly defending the alpha male master--right or wrong--but you can't distract mature, reasonable adults from listening to what Obama assurred us about the unemployment rate and matching those words to reality.
And you can't distract from the spectacle of Obamonkey taking a day off from playing golf so he could jump up and down and pound his chest and h-h-hoot and screech for Deebs and caveman Corzine only to have them lose.
Don't expect these parrots to talk about the TWO congressional races they lost. The ones that flipped from R to D. The resident blowhard hasn't gotten his Fox news talking points about them yet so he doesn't know what to say about the conservative party getting their asses handed to them in a district that rethugs had for 100 years!
You devious weasels keep try to play up the Republican loss of a congressional district in a blue state getting bluer to deflect attention away from the far larger Demoncat disaster of the very blue state of NJ going red in governorship, and newly-purple VA going back to very red in governorship with McDonnel.
I--and most everyone else outside of your circle jerk-- know that you and your crooked cult leaders are harping about NY23 for that very reason, and you know that we know (unless you're even dumber than I assess, which is pretty dumb), so your harping must be for the sake of keeping your mindless and maleducated cultmembers enthralled and in the tank (although it's hard to get a lot of them off their racist behinds to vote for any white guy, which is yet another buffoonish backfiring of liberalism and is going to be a big problem as we quickly head into '10. Obama has to personalize these lower level contests and come right out and directly say that a win or loss for any Demoncat candidate is a win or loss for him, except that when he does lose under those explicit commands, it will be a lot harder to insist that it wasn't a referendum on him, so he would be ill-advised to take such a gambit).
I also know that the loss of the NY23 district is especially gratifying for you to gloat over because of Palin's endorsement of the conservative candidate and the rift it caused.
As usual, however, you fail to properly interpret the event or are ignoring the unpleasant reality of it (as the defense mechanism of denial kicks in) and instead are concocting (or accepting, as concocted and delivered to you for drink and distribution by the Kool Aid mixing gurus) a more pleasing explanation (as the defense mechanism of rationalization takes its turn).
What is the reality of NY23 that your hissing side is trying so hard to claw and disfigure?
One, that the conservative base--as represented by Hoffman--is starting to flex its muscle and is putting the RINOs of the GOP on notice as the social and fiscal conservatives and the Libertarians begin gravitating towards each other in a way not seen since Reagan.
You don't want such gravitation to be consummated into a revived Republican party, stankey.
But that's what's happening very quickly.
Two, you can always get the reality of a situation by listening to what your side is projecting.
In this case, while gloating out of one side of your collective, fork-tongued mouths that Palin's interventions helped Hoffman crash, out of the other side there was a chorus of croaking from the frogs in the pond about how Deeds and Corzine did better than expected precisely because of Obama's own interventions (as Youtubed and posted), to counter the idea that their losses were a humiliating referendum on him.
But by the immutable Law of Liberal Inversion, that just means that the losses of NJ and VA were, indeed, in great part, a referendum on Obama, and that Palin's interventions, indeed, helped make Hoffman that much more competetive, despite the treacherous RINO splitting the ticket and throwing all her support to the Demoncat.
In fact, under those quite challenging circumstances, Hoffman, with Palin campaigning for him, received 45% of the vote, which is more than Corzine got, and a lot more than Deeds got, with Obama aggressively campaigning for both of them.
That's the reality, and the concerted effort you and your insidious, ideological ilk make to warp and invert reality is called lying.
And your sour-graping of NJ and VA are especially pathetic, knowing full well that Obama would never risk his credibility and compromise his "winner" aura (which has been fading fast since he last won anything a year ago) by going out of his way to stump for candidates if he knew they would lose, as you jokers now assert that "everyone knew" they would.
Liars.
Co-founder of the religio-reich delivers SmackDown...revealeth how he exkape WingBatizm...
I'm Now a 'Liberal' Because I'm a Conservative
Frank Schaeffer
I grew up in a fundamentalist missionary family that in the 1970s and 80s morphed into my father's activity as one of the founders of the Religious Right. We would hobnob with Republican leaders from Ronald Reagan to Gerald Ford and the Bush family, Jack Kemp and many others. One day it dawned on me that the far right of the Republican Party --- in other words its base --- actually hates America.
The Religious Right reveled in rising crime statistics, "family breakdown" statistics, failing public schools and so forth. As I explain in my book Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism), if crime started going down, or public school test results started going up --- without the country "turning back to Jesus" --- then that would prove that somehow "we" were wrong.
We wanted our country to fail because it had "turned away" from what we believed to be true.
Combined with the fact that we began to lose parts of the culture war, when it came to other Americans beginning to recognize gay rights, expanding women's rights, abortion rights and such, the Religious Right and the Republican Party infected gun-toting America with a chip on its shoulder about a mile wide. This led to the myth that "they" (fill in the blank, gays, Jews, blacks, liberals --- whatever) are "taking away our country from 'us'"...
"Conservative" means that you believe it's right to legalize torture, but reject health care for all.
These days to be a conservative means that you hate the United States government elected by the people; believe that if millions of citizens are out of work that it's their own fault and that the rest of the community should not help them by spending tax dollars; think that Sarah-believes-in-casting-out-demons-before-she-ran-for-governorship-Palin speaks for you. To be a conservative means you believe that healthcare reform will lead to "death panels"; that the president of the United States is not a "real American"; that a university education is a dangerous thing; that Americans who live in big cities are less American than those who live in small towns; that brown people, blacks, progressive whites, gays, public school teachers, Hispanics, immigrants, are somehow conspiring to subvert the "real America" with a "gay agenda" or a "Muslim agenda" or at least the browning of "our" white America.
In other words to be a conservative today is to be an anti-American, nihilistic libertarian know-nothing who believes in unregulated consumerism and the theology of dominion, and the Rapture that many conservatives also subscribe to along with such "facts" as that Obama is the --- literal! --- Antichrist.
Other than trying to stop women from having abortions and fighting the whole world, our "terrorist enemies", in other words everyone "not like us", conservatism today is nothing more than a pent up reaction against everything "we" don't understand --- like art, literature, government, history, geography, diversity, how people get to be gay, black or female... things like that.
Conservatism today is actually not for anything. It is just against everyone but "us" and a few like us bound together by an alternative reality, otherwise known as Fox/NRA/Beck/Palin/Jesus's Return--"News."
The irony is that conservatives used to wrap themselves in the American flag and belonging to a cause built on higher ideals than pure selfishness and individual choice. Patriotism was based on principle, not fear and anger. Conservatism led by people such as the late William F. Buckley, Barry Goldwater and others had its feet firmly planted in what it regarded as the reality-based community as opposed to liberal wishful thinking about progress coming from government, human nature, etc.
Revelations, Part II:
The problem for the conservative movement --- hence the Republican Party --- is that the us in "us" was never more narrowly defined.
No one said it openly, in fact it was denied, but it really amounted to we Real Americans boiling down to mostly uneducated white people, dumb enough to believe things such as Sarah Palin's barefaced lies about Obama consorting with terrorists, and/or, post the Obama election, conspiring to unleash "death panels" on unsuspecting elderly and/or handicapped Americans while turning us into a "Communist state" as everyone knows Hitler did to Germany, that other "communist country" famous right up there with Canada and the UK for killing its sick, tired and poor.
What is the conservative movement today, and/or the Republican Party?
It's about as far away from conservatism as it can get. It is a party ready to trash its own country in support of nihilistic, selfish market-driven "values" the very opposite of conservative values of family, community and stability. It is in fact what conservatives of the 60s said the hippies were: selfish brats with no sense of responsibility to anyone. It's also a party of armed revolution not so subtly egging on its lunatic fringe to commit violence. It applauds white rubes who show up at public meetings carrying loaded assault weapons "to make a point" and signs reminiscent of Timothy McVeigh and his famous T-shirt; "the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants" and the like are held up by Murdoch/Beck/Fox and company --- those profiteers off the unregulated market --- as paragons of good sense and free enterprise and gun rights.
To be an actual conservative today is to be a progressive Democrat.
An actual conservative believes in community and accountability to a moral tradition that puts the greater good of others ahead of oneself. Take a look at the way the very conservative communities of New England's Puritan towns were arranged around the village green known as "the commons."
Shared public spaces were owned by the community, for instance grazing land, and town meetinghouses. People were obliged to show up and participate in the fledgling democracy and vote. Taxes were dispensed by committees for charitable purposes. A duty to government and obligations placed on citizens by other citizens --- when it came to putting the life of the community ahead of the self --- were the norm. The free-market and individual enterprise were strictly curtailed based on not just the needs of the community but, when it came to things like banking and lending, the Old Testament teachings that frowned on "usury" --- in other words banks making more money than they should from ordinary people-- were upheld.
President Obama is a conservative. He believes in the brotherhood of all people. He believes in the freedom of the individual to make moral decisions. He believes that sexuality, religion and skin color should not define us but the content of our characters should define us. He believes that we are our brother's keeper. He believes in loyalty to community and country --- in other words patriotism, whether that's the honor of serving in the military or the honor of paying taxes to support not just national defense but how we treat what the Bible calls the least amongst us.
People ask me why I'm a progressive these days and "changed sides" from being a conservative. I didn't change sides.
What changed --- ironically with my father's and my nefarious "help!" --- was a conservative movement that became an enclave for hate-filled ignorance, anti-American sentiment and nihilistic individualism. What changed was my bare faced self deception as I profited from the God business and the far right even though I knew better. Today I am an independent voter, and an Obama supporter, and a progressive because I am a conservative.
LOL. poor little modewator can't take the heat so he's deleting comments he can't address until he get his rethug talking points!
Hahahahaha...funny shit...do you think the poor, shrill loser convinced himself? 23 was the only race that had nat'l, right v. left over and undertones. Deeds was a total amateur/dud who ran far to the right of Obama, and the Macaca clone did everything he could to downplay that he was even a GOP. Corzine was a corrupt, hated individual who was voted out on those grounds. Va. proved that the moderate indies and lefties would not bother to come out for a Dudeeds and wanted a real lefty. The Dems win BIG if they find their balls...they lose ground if they don't...it's a liberal nation desiring reform.
Hey Stanlee...were you created from my rib? Kick some ass.
NY-23 "gave Democrats another seat in the House, 27 of 29 congressional seats in New York and 258 seats overall. The outcome also was significant because it’s very rare for the party controlling the White House to flip control of a seat that way. Owens’ victory in New York’s 23rd was the first time since 2001 and only the sixth time in the past 30 years that has happened. And not since 1980 had a Democratic White House claimed a special election victory in a Republican-held district. Because of their unusual timing and low turnouts, special elections present challenging circumstances for the party in control of the White House in part because the opposition party is usually more ginned up than the defending party in these sorts of races.
Yeah turns out those 2 house seats we picked up were worthless after all. Even without those seats the ds would've passed healthcare reform with 218 votes. Wait a sec... A rethug actually sided with the dems??? So if the rs had suck together AND kept those 2 seats they could've killed the bill in the house!!! Oh well, at least they have those governorships.
Stan, not created from your rib, I just forgot the password to the top secret account all us libs use to persecute the wackos on this site!
Do I know you, stankee? I'm picking up a tone of hostility from you that's personal.
btw, troll, if you're not going to acknowledge and appreciate my magnanimous tolerance and forbearance from obliterating you at will, try not to spite that unearned and undeserving courtesy by inverting and accusing me of being intolerant and a deleter.
I know inversion is an automatic m.o. of your crowd, but if that were so, i.e. I was engaging in censorship, do you think that your mindlessly malicious presence would even exist here?
You're like a Palestinian terrorist: Ungrateful with a false sense of entitlement, warped values, an irrational world view, a big mouth, and willing to commit suicide for the sake of taking a vindictive cheap shot.
So stfu before I bulldoze and steamroll your terrorist ass, k?
You've had fair warning.
Post a Comment
<< Home