Once Again... All Politics Are STILL Local
Well we've had plenty of time now to digest the results of the elections, and the spin provided by the media and also by Republicans is just plain laughable. The GOP has declared victory and said that this is a sure sign of how things will go in 2010. Actually, I would agree with that last statement, just not in the way Republicans would like to hear.
I'm certainly not a fan of the current president or his agenda (I'll pause while you call me a racist), I couldn't agree more with the White House dismissal of GOP claims that this election was a big poke in the eye at the Obama administration. The two major races that ended with Republican victories were gubernatorial elections. I will admit that the bloom might be off the rose for Obama the campaigner because he campaigned vigorously for Governor Corzine in New Jersey and Corzine lost, but give Chris Christie credit. He ran ads with Obama voters saying they were voting for Christie for the same reason they voted for Obama -- they wanted change. New Jersey is a joke. They have the highest taxes in the nation, corruption out the ying-yang, and Corzine's solution was to raise taxes AGAIN?
Then came word during the last weekend of the race that 3rd-party challenger Chris Daggett, who was viewed as key to a Corzine victory because he was more likely to take votes from Christie, was sending robocalls out to New Jerseyans asking them to vote for him... and the robocalls were paid for by the DEMOCRATS. I wouldn't be surprised if that gave Christie the bump that put him over the top.
The point with this race was that it wasn't about President Obama in New Jersey. It was about Obama's message (hope and change), but it was coming from the mouth of the Republican. It was anti-incumbent, which leads us to the second place where the media has it wrong... that congressional Democrats better beware next year because there is an anti-incumbent mood in the country. This was the only race of note where an incumbent was running and lost. Virginia featured new candidates. NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg breezed to a 3rd term. And the two special congressional elections (in other words, no incumbent running) were both won by Democrats.
Which brings us to NY 23. The seat was vacated by John McHugh being appointed to the Secretary of the Army post by President Obama. McHugh had a pretty moderate voting record. The Republicans nominated Dede Scozzafava, another moderate. Right-wingers went berserk. The Conservative Party selected their own candidate, Doug Hoffman, and the right-wing attack machine started importing all manner of national GOP types to destroy Scozzafava. Sarah Palin endorsed Hoffman. In an article here in the Philadelphia Inquirer, an activist/blogger from Tennessee declared his desire to take the Republican Party back from elitists, and that's why he set about smearing Scozzafava. I seriously doubt this guy from Tennessee even KNOWS anyone in NY 23, let alone knows what the people in this district are like. Newt Gingrich pleaded with his party to stay united, pointing out that the "big tent" is why Republicans win elections. He was ripped apart by bloggers who pretty much wrote off his presidential chances in 2012. What does that tell you when Newt Gingrich is no longer favored by the right?
The weekend before the election, Scozzafava said she'd had enough, dropped out of the election... and endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens. I don't blame her for this. Would you endorse the guy whose minions had been trashing you mercilessly? She called what she was subjected to "hate". End result: NY 23 decided they'd rather elect a Democrat than a right-winger. Congratulations, right-wingers: you managed to lose a seat that had been in Republican hands since the 1850s. How did they respond? Well, the leader of the Republican Party (Rush Limbaugh) declared that this exposed all so-called RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) for what they really were... liberals. In other words, they clearly didn't show contrition and clearly showed they hadn't learned their lesson.
This idea that moderate districts (particularly in New England and New York, where the pockets of red are quickly disappearing in these solid blue states) would rather vote in a Democrat than a right-winger will really come into play next year in the midterm elections if the right insists on continuing to purge all moderates from their party. What will it take for them to learn the error of their ways? A two-thirds majority for the Democrats? That's a very real possibility the way things are going. The fact that the right has ignored the political truth that all politics are local shows once again that they are no different than the left. They are only concerned with power.
I'm certainly not a fan of the current president or his agenda (I'll pause while you call me a racist), I couldn't agree more with the White House dismissal of GOP claims that this election was a big poke in the eye at the Obama administration. The two major races that ended with Republican victories were gubernatorial elections. I will admit that the bloom might be off the rose for Obama the campaigner because he campaigned vigorously for Governor Corzine in New Jersey and Corzine lost, but give Chris Christie credit. He ran ads with Obama voters saying they were voting for Christie for the same reason they voted for Obama -- they wanted change. New Jersey is a joke. They have the highest taxes in the nation, corruption out the ying-yang, and Corzine's solution was to raise taxes AGAIN?
Then came word during the last weekend of the race that 3rd-party challenger Chris Daggett, who was viewed as key to a Corzine victory because he was more likely to take votes from Christie, was sending robocalls out to New Jerseyans asking them to vote for him... and the robocalls were paid for by the DEMOCRATS. I wouldn't be surprised if that gave Christie the bump that put him over the top.
The point with this race was that it wasn't about President Obama in New Jersey. It was about Obama's message (hope and change), but it was coming from the mouth of the Republican. It was anti-incumbent, which leads us to the second place where the media has it wrong... that congressional Democrats better beware next year because there is an anti-incumbent mood in the country. This was the only race of note where an incumbent was running and lost. Virginia featured new candidates. NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg breezed to a 3rd term. And the two special congressional elections (in other words, no incumbent running) were both won by Democrats.
Which brings us to NY 23. The seat was vacated by John McHugh being appointed to the Secretary of the Army post by President Obama. McHugh had a pretty moderate voting record. The Republicans nominated Dede Scozzafava, another moderate. Right-wingers went berserk. The Conservative Party selected their own candidate, Doug Hoffman, and the right-wing attack machine started importing all manner of national GOP types to destroy Scozzafava. Sarah Palin endorsed Hoffman. In an article here in the Philadelphia Inquirer, an activist/blogger from Tennessee declared his desire to take the Republican Party back from elitists, and that's why he set about smearing Scozzafava. I seriously doubt this guy from Tennessee even KNOWS anyone in NY 23, let alone knows what the people in this district are like. Newt Gingrich pleaded with his party to stay united, pointing out that the "big tent" is why Republicans win elections. He was ripped apart by bloggers who pretty much wrote off his presidential chances in 2012. What does that tell you when Newt Gingrich is no longer favored by the right?
The weekend before the election, Scozzafava said she'd had enough, dropped out of the election... and endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens. I don't blame her for this. Would you endorse the guy whose minions had been trashing you mercilessly? She called what she was subjected to "hate". End result: NY 23 decided they'd rather elect a Democrat than a right-winger. Congratulations, right-wingers: you managed to lose a seat that had been in Republican hands since the 1850s. How did they respond? Well, the leader of the Republican Party (Rush Limbaugh) declared that this exposed all so-called RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) for what they really were... liberals. In other words, they clearly didn't show contrition and clearly showed they hadn't learned their lesson.
This idea that moderate districts (particularly in New England and New York, where the pockets of red are quickly disappearing in these solid blue states) would rather vote in a Democrat than a right-winger will really come into play next year in the midterm elections if the right insists on continuing to purge all moderates from their party. What will it take for them to learn the error of their ways? A two-thirds majority for the Democrats? That's a very real possibility the way things are going. The fact that the right has ignored the political truth that all politics are local shows once again that they are no different than the left. They are only concerned with power.
posted by Dave | 9:17 AM
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