Al Giordano, who had a pretty good prediction record in 2008, has this to say about the current fustercluck:
… One of the reasons I’ve had no predictions for you yet for the Congressional midterm elections is that even now, two weeks out, it is very hard to tell who or how many are going to vote. And that is what is going to decide stuff like which party controls which House of Congress. But Lordy, if folks spent half the time they spend teeth gnashing over what could happen and speculating on the consequences and instead put yourselves to work actually making phone calls and knocking on doors and dragging others to the polls – or deploying your other talents, as Katie has done here, to inspire the fun people to vote – there would be a very different and better result on election day. There is no use complaining that big money interests rule the airwaves if while doing so you are forfeiting your power to rule the ground!
__
From here on out, my response to those great many who come worrying to me over worst-case scenarios for election day is going to be, “Shut Up and GOTV.”
__
Meanwhile, you can practice actually voting by heading over to vote for Katie’s video. Thank you.
gizmo
Giordano is right, and political junkies like myself will take his message to heart. But the problem is that the goddam clueless Democrats have given their base no reason to be excited. “We’re marginally better than the godawful Republicans” just isn’t a winning message. The GOP always does a good job with care & feeding of their base, and it keeps them competitive.
Joe Beese
Al’s a strong writer. And he was admirably cool-headed in his analysis of the primaries. But he still thinks it matters which team wins. It doesn’t.
Moses2317
If you care about progressive values, it certainly matters which team wins on November 2. Here are some ways to help out and make sure we keep our Democratic majorities.
Winning Progressive
peach flavored shampoo
Go TV? Is that like Tivo for active people?
BR
@Joe Beese:
In the big picture it doesn’t, but in the small picture it does.
(That is, in ten years we’re screwed due to decades-old problems that we haven’t dealt with like peak oil and climate change. But in the meantime I would rather not have wingnuts launching new wars and adding the ten commandments to the constitution.)
Ash Can
@Moses2317: Hell, if you care about the whole country it matters which team wins. I can’t tell you how tired the purity trolls make my ass.
kwAwk
Hell. I just gave $10 bucks to Joe Sestak based upon some chain letter from Kos, and I found out that I can vote early in Illinois so I’ll do that.
What was that Cole said about crawling across broken glass to vote Democrat? Okay. I’m not doing that, but looks like I don’t have to.
robertdsc-PowerBook & 27 titles
Bull fucking shit.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gizmo:
If the Senate had repealed DADT, the (weak ass) PO in the House HCR bill had passed the Senate, Gitmo had been closed, and Howard Dean had strung Rahm Emmanuel up by the balls and called it a progressive pinata, and unemployment were still at 9+%, I think the polls would be pretty much right where they are.
Lolis
Joe,
I used to be kind of like you. I supported Nader in 2000, but even then I knew it mattered which side one. I was horribly depressed when Bush finally took the presidency. The idea that there is no difference between the parties is just horseshit. Do both parties bow down way too much to corporate interests? Sure. Do both parties support an imperial fantasy in the Middle East? Sure. But there are enough concrete differences in the parties to support the Democrats. Voting is such an easy task, it is not too much to ask people to take fifteen minutes out of their day every couple years or even every election to vote for the better team.
You should think about why super liberal factions of the Democratic party have not won a statewide election in even very liberal states when the Tea Party has had multiple candidates win their primaries. Why is the Green Party so weak and without any national presence? There is no appetite for it. Liberals aren’t willing to fight for it. I voted for Nader, volunteered for him and literally nothing happened. There was no movement. The Democratic Party did not become more liberal. Liberals need to come up with an effective strategy and stop whining all the damn time.
KCinDC
If you have a few bucks and want to help with expenses for a group from DC for Democracy making weekend trips to Pennsylvania to help Bryan Lentz (House), Joe Sestak (Senate), and Joe Onorato (governor), we’ve got an ActBlue page.
Since we have no vote in Congress, we have to go elsewhere to help maintain a degree of sanity in the body that occasionally decides to use us for their social experiments. We determined Pennsylvania should give us the best return on investment for our efforts this time.
Restrung
The Michele Bachmann ads on this site give me hope.
Sanity may prevail again and kick Chuck Todd in the shins.
Obama’s win two years ago was bigger than the village expected. I felt it was a quiet but huge vote for reality, sanity and competence.
My old man poo-poo’d and called Barack a “rock star.” They really think he’s vacuous and stupid… when he’s not an evil genius like Hitler.
I’m ready to drive people to vote, but that’s kinda my limit. In MN-4, it isn’t even a big deal. Other places, it really is a big deal. Do what you can.
Joseph Nobles
I have been wondering why Republicans so rarely tamp down on “we’re taking the House and Senate” meme running around out there. That just seemed like bad politics to me.
But then Josh Marshall is talking about the coming voter fraud angle over at Talking Points Memo, and it all comes together. Heads, the Republicans win. Tails, the Democrats lose. And it doesn’t matter if there are any actual cases of voter fraud. All the Republicans need are the allegations, and the Tea Party will be going ballistic.
This may seriously get ugly before it’s all over, and should the Republicans not gain even the House (there’s a distinct chance that won’t happen), the Republican base won’t be taking it out on their own party or their own candidates. Obama will reap that whirlwind in 2012.
Bnut
The greatest candidate ever, represnting the (no shit) “Rent is Too Damn High Party”, running for NY Gov. Great quotes from tonights debate.
Roger Moore
@gizmo:
The problem is how you go about feeding the base. Decades of experience show that the Republican base feeds mostly on fear with the occasional promise, but that actual policy success is somewhere between unimportant and harmful (since they quiet down when they get their way). The Democratic base demands actual policy success- or at least frustration of Republican policies when the Republicans are in power- and gets frustrated when it doesn’t come through. The really odd thing this time around is that the Democrats have been objectively very successful, but they’ve lost the narrative, so their supporters think they’ve sucked.
Redshift
Yes, yes, yes. If you consider yourself an activist, committing to vote is just the beginning.
Even before the Citizens United abomination, the one reliable rule was that they have more money, and we have more people. More people on the ground makes up for a lot of expensive TV advertising and direct mail.
Get involved. Talk to people personally, in person and on the phone. We all have more influence than we usually credit ourselves with.
KG
I remain firmly in the a-pox-on-both-their-houses camp. I will go vote – likely for mostly third party candidates – though, mainly because I feel you have an obligation to vote if you are going to bitch about shit afterwards.
I’m not happy with either Whitman or Brown, Fioria or Boxer. I simply can’t bring myself to vote for any of them, not even out of protest or to vote against the other. With the possible exception of Obama in 2008, for the last decade all I can think of is Dennis Miller’s old line in 2000 about how we keep getting the B-list candidates and I just want to tell them all “just don’t fuck anything up between now and the next election when we can get some real candidates.” But the real candidates aren’t coming.
Rhoda
GOTV.
I honestly think that the Democrats keeping power is vital right now. Our country is in a vulnerable state and we can’t handle two more years of Republicans in the house effing with the president in the hopes of bringing him down.
From where I’m sitting, I’m going with the Democrats keeping both houses by narrow margins (53 in the senate and given the money flowing out there I’m going to say 220 in the house).
Anya
@Joe Beese: Really? Were the last eight years a nightmare? Or are you saying Gore would have done exactly the same thing?
garage mahal
Giordano is real good at covering elections, but an absolute nutty Clinton Truther.
arguingwithsignposts
@Joe Beese:
Fuck you, Joe.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@garage mahal: What’s a “Clinton Truther”?
eemom
Jesus H.C. Christ on a Diebold , Anne Laurie shares a great common sense post from one of the few people left who know common sense from a hole in the ground…….and it gets sprayed in the first two comments with standard BJ troll piss.
We are sinking ever deeper into the abyss of fuckery.
Cain
I went to a wedding over the weekend. Turns out while we were having the wedding, the Illinois republican convention was going on next door. I really wanted to go up there and tell them that we need to stop George Soros and other kinds of mischief. Sadly, I couldn’t do it cuz they were really quite nice in person. I’m sure that if I started hearing the speeches I would have gotten pissed off.
Of course, later in the night, as i was holding my glass of wine and wandering out of the reception area.. low and behold I see 40 muslims kneeling in prayer.. oops. I discretely got rid of the wine glass…
Good thing they didn’t all occur at once.. that would have been interesting. ;)
cain
matoko_chan
Anne Laurie, let us perform a thought experiment….. if im right, and the Wikileaks Iraq docs drop Monday…..
how does that change the political landscape?
or does it?
Jamie
good point
jinxtigr
I voted for Nader. I got Bush, Bush got 9/11, and butchered countless Muslims in the name of Christ because God talked to him. I honestly had not expected THAT big a difference.
Won’t be fooled twice. If you’d like to see where the other path leads, watch the video in the Joe Miller thread. Those people are the tail wagging the Republican dog now, and I do not want to experience the next big surprise should they get more power, bent on vengeance.
Mike in NC
I early-voted after work on Friday. It felt good to give a big middle finger to the teatards and their MSM enablers.
eemom
perhaps the Joe Beeses of the world would rather hear this from the Last Honest Asshole:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/18/odonnell/index.html
Really, Mr. Honest? Attacks on tea party candidates are overblown?
And really, Mr. Civil Libertarian, Citizens United apologist? There is something wrong with a perfectly truthful campaign ad depicting the hypocrisy of a candidate for national office?
If there’s anyone around who still wants to mount a defense of Greenwald as an advocate of “principle” rather than a spiteful little toad who has had it in for this presidency since before day one (as he indeed admits in the same post)……..well, I’m sure they are somewhere on this blog.
nepat
@Joe Beese:
It’s official. People who say things like this are the enemy. Treat accordingly.
Kerry Reid
@KG:
Given what instant-gratification WATBs most American voters are, why would any “real candidate” put himself or herself through the wringer?
Take a bold stance and lose fighting the good fight (which is what so many newly minted “true progressives” demanded that Obama do on the weak-tea public option) – and no one calls you a winner. Seriously. If the Dems went down with the SS Public Option, no one — especially the self-described “base” of internet natterers (not to be confused with the real “base” for the Democratic Party — i.e., African Americans), would say “Hey, good effort! You lost fighting the good fight! We got your back!” Bullshit. They would join the media rats and the GOP in the “They’re weak, they can’t govern, blah blah blah” narrative.
Make necessary compromises to get legislation past one of the most hostile opposition parties around (and that’s just the Blue Dogs — not even talking about the GOP)? People will scream and cry about how you’re a “sell out” and didn’t use this thing called the “bully pulpit,” which is a word that doesn’t exactly mean what they think it does but it sounds good and he’s the president so he should be able to fix it all RIGHT THE FUCK NOW DAMMIT!!!!
In short: given how thoroughly deranged, spoiled, and contemptible most Americans are (we shoot each other over parking spaces for god’s sake), is it any wonder only the hotheaded Teabagger crazies and the preternaturally cool-tempered (i.e., Obama) manage to stick it out? Why would anyone paint that target on their back? (I mean, aside from big paydays in speaking engagements and consulting fees after leaving office. Duh.)
Roy Blount Jr. said it best (I’m paraphrasing, but only a bit): America has become a place where the dominant attitude of the electorate can be summarized thusly:
1) I am entitled to everything.
2) Taxes are BAD!
As for people wondering where the good candidates are — how much are you looking at races downticket — for state houses, state senates, school boards, water districts, state insurance commissioner (a position that will probably be pretty dang important in the coming years)? For the life of me I’ll never understand why so many Dem supporters talk about how they care more about democracy than the GOP – yet fail to engage in races other than those on the sexy high end of the ticket – president, U.S. Senate, Governor, maybe a high-profile House race or two. But otherwise, I don’t see a lot of boots-on-the-ground organizing to get good people in at the grassroots level.
freelancer
@Bnut:
Holy Shit. Now we know who George Thorogood would vote for…
Dude even talks like George.
Chris G.
@Rhoda: Can I just point out a thing? Generally speaking, either the House and Senate flip control, or just the Senate flips control. And the Senate is looking pretty OK at the moment. And that’s making me wonder if a LOT of House races are going to go surprisingly well for us. We don’t have to do that well to hold on to the majority in the House, even.
Mark S.
Jesus, the Yankees are all of the sudden getting hammered. This series should be 3-0.
Morbo
Sharron Angle… seriously, WTF is she talking about here? I’d say it’s racist, but I honestly am not sure what it is.
MikeJ
@Joe Beese: You’re a fucking moron. Unless you think
the Ledbetter act, the stimulus, the most progressive middle-class tax cut ever enacted, saving the auto industry, reforming health care, cutting corporate welfare by reforming student loans, withdrawing 100,000 troops from Iraq, giving Federal Reserve and the FDIC the power to seize and dismantle firms like AIG and Lehman Brothers and to force the financial industry to pony up the costs of their liquidation, and launching a clean industry moonshot
are nothing.
burnspbesq
@KG:
Sorry, but with all due respect, that is an idiotic position. It does matter who wins. Whitman will be worse than Pete Wilson. Fiorina wouldn’t know a good idea if it jumped up and bit her on the nose. Tell me who is on the ballot who will better than Brown and Boxer, and has a chance of winning.
Please, I am begging you, DO NOT WASTE YOUR VOTE.
Bob Loblaw
@eemom:
Common sense? Al Giordano?
How can you possibly despise Greenwald and not similarly detest single-minded zealots like Giordano all the same? Look at this nonsense:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/4138/coup-attempt-ecuador-result-sec-clintons-cowardice-honduras
“Silent coup?” For fuck’s sake. That poor innocent faun Barack Obama, so maliciously outfoxed by that spiteful bitch, even after he magnanimously allowed her into his administration. Because we would never expect the President of the United States to display any degree of corporatism in Latin America, nope, nope, nope. Not Our Esteemed Leader Who Renews Our National Promise Each and Every Day.
Giordano and Greenwald are the exact same sort of person. Greenwald hates Congress and the Presidency as institutions, he wants them broken down and their war powers marginalized, regardless of who’s controlling them. And Giordano hates the Clintons and the DLC.
kommrade reproductive vigor
And remember Marylanders: Early Voting.
Mark S.
@Morbo:
Sharron Angle was the first Asian legislator in the Nevada State Assembly? I seriously wonder what drugs she is on most of the time, and where I can get them.
Kerry Reid
And thank you all for reminding me that I need to check on the status of my vote-by-mail ballot in Illinois — first year this has been offered and during my phone banking and canvassing, it’s been popular. Hope it helps retain the governor’s mansion and the open Senate seat. Because Pat Quinn and Alexi Ginnoulias aren’t terribly exciting — but their opponents are HORRIBLE. Easy choice to me, but then I’m just an idiot who doesn’t understand the elegant genius of choosing of victory-through-suicide.
Jamie
well sometimes it’s good to reflect on the possibility that President McCain would have us in Iran and Georgia by now.
Scott Parkerson
“I think we’re going to do good,” said Charles Rhodes, a Republican who cast his vote Monday at the Wake County Board of Elections office. “We’ve lost touch with reality – the white male. We kind of take care of everybody, (and) we just don’t like what’s going on.” [emphasis mine]
Source: http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/8471426/
Now *that’s* Paternalistic Racism at its finest!
GOTV or GTFO.
Omnes Omnibus
@Morbo:Now who can argue with that? I think we’re all indebted to
Gabby JohnsonSharron Angle for stating what needed to be said. I am particulary glad that these lovely children are here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authenticfrontier gibberishracist idiocy, it expressed thecouragestupidity little seen in this day and age.kwAwk
@Kerry Reid:
Bully Pulpit:
So what exactly do other people think it means?
Kerry Reid
@Omnes Omnibus:
Honestly, sometimes thinking of this entire period of our history as an extended-play version of Blazing Saddles is all that gets me through the day.
morzer
@Bob Loblaw:
Kindly do the world a favor and raise the national IQ level by accepting that play date Dick Cheney keeps asking you on.
burnspbesq
@matoko_chan:
Most Americans know, on some intuitive level, that we have behaved abominably in Iraq. So in that sense, there isn’t much there there. People who are inclined to vote Republican don’t care, and people who are inclined to vote Democratic know who is responsible.
I’m almost at the point of not caring whether Julian Assange gets the long prison term he so obviously deserves, or just gets shunned and ignored.
Kerry Reid
@kwAwk:
From my meanderings in the Emosphere, I’d say they think it is a magical place from whence the president says magical things that magically make people in Congress vote against their own future electoral and financial prospects (i.e., Blue Dogs in states that overwhelmingly rejected President Dusky-Hued Kenyan/Muslim, and that are also states with no progressive state organizing apparatus to speak of for supporting more liberal candidates).
They are also wrong about how effective this magical place is in real life.
arguingwithsignposts
@matoko_chan:
It lives!
Redshift
@Mark S.: I know what you mean. When most conservatives start telling really obvious lies, my go-to guide is Harry Frankfurt’s On Bullshit, but Angle seems like something further gone than a straightforward BS artist.
Bob Loblaw
@MikeJ:
Well, I see you’ve found a copy of the latest talking points. I read that Rolling Stone article too. It was rather clever to compare the ARRA energy funding to the Apollo program’s inflation-corrected budget, if it wasn’t such an immediately and obviously shallow comparison. But hey, good luck with that ‘moonshot’ moniker catching on, I guess.
Although, I’m not sure why everybody keeps trying to bring Joe Beese in line. Your respective positions are pretty clearly irreconcilable, at this point. You’re really just talking past each other.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kerry Reid: It is a gift that keeps giving.
MikeJ
@Bob Loblaw: Yeah, $94 billion for clean energy is nothing. Fuck you you ignorant prick.
Kerry Reid
@Omnes Omnibus:
Though I know the president has no say in the Kennedy Center Honors, I did find it grimly appropriate that Mel Brooks was one of the honorees last year — Obama’s first year with the event.
Linda Featheringill
@Restrung:
If local opportunities are limited or out of your reach for various reasons, you might try to go to this site:
http://calloutthevote.com/
Sign up online.
They will send you an email.
Click on the link in the email to join the conference call 10 minutes ahead of your shift so they can bring you up to date.
Sign in.
Your username is cotv dot first initial last name.
[my username is cotv.lfeatheringill]
Initial password is cotv2010
You can then enter your own password
Type in your phone number
They will call the phone number you give them
Pick up the phone
You are entered into the system
Hang onto your phone receiver
A person will be called by the system and a beep will sound
Talk to the person who answers the phone
Fill in the little spaces on the form on your computer
Hang onto your phone receiver
Click on save/next
Go again.
I make all of this public because I had difficulty with the technology and found it quite frustrating until I figured it out.
burnspbesq
@Bob Loblaw:
Because you’re a lost cause. With Joe, there is still a glimmer of hope.
morzer
@MikeJ:
I don’t think Bob’s calculator can handle billions….
Bob Loblaw
@morzer:
Are you then endorsing Giordano’s claim that SoS Clinton exhibits “horrendous and unforgivable anti-democratic behavior?” That’s sounds very dangerous to our shared national security. You should really do something about that.
It’s weird, I would have thought calling Glenn Greenwald a single-minded zealot would have earned me all sorts of Balloon Juice cool-points tonight. Just goes to show some people are never happy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kerry Reid: My father and I saw Young Frankenstein the first night that it was shown in the single screen theater in my hometown. He had wanted to take me to see American Graffiti, but it had ended the night before. Since we had walked over, we stayed and watched the movie that was showing. I was 11 so I missed half the jokes (still enjoyed the movie), but my dad cried with laughter throughout. He was still crying the next morning.
morzer
@Bob Loblaw:
No, I’m laughing at your buffoonery, Bob. As soon as you make a claim, it debunks itself.
Linda Featheringill
@Rhoda:
I agree, mostly. I figure 54 in the senate and 225 in the house. But we are close to each other.
Bob Loblaw
@MikeJ:
It’s neither nothing nor everything. I’m just mocking the messaging. I think the moonshot label is incredibly stupid and unnuanced.
I happened to think that Rolling Stone article was quite good, for the record. Very comprehensive. I’m very supportive of this administration’s domestic legislative agenda and record, and would very much like to see them have the congressional resources available to expand and better it in the years to come.
But that would hurt your narrative, wouldn’t it?
Oscar Leroy
Well shoot, no one has ever suggested that the Democrats do more to fight that 9-10% unemployment, have they? But even if they had done more, voters would still be unenthusiastic because [mumble mumble] firebaggers!
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq:I am not sure you are correct. The task seems sisyphean to me
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
Perhaps you’re right. But Camus tells us that Sisyphus was in essence a happy man, because he always had something to do.
At least that’s what I remember. But I had mono when I read it, so I could be misremembering.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: Camus was a Frenchman; can we rely on his analysis? After all, we are ‘Murcans here, right?
ETA: “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
Yutsano
@morzer: He needs to get in touch with his inner Carl Sagan.
Bob Loblaw
@Oscar Leroy:
Oh, Oscar, you’re weeks behind on your propaganda.
Nobody cares about firebaggers anymore. That’s so inside-baseball. Anybody who questions this administration’s commitment to full employment is just a filthy racist instead. The internets told me so. Because these are Serious Times and we need Serious People in them. Shape up.
morzer
@Linda Featheringill:
Well, I was having a few drinks with the Aqua Buddha, and he told me (this was of course highly classified information):
54 in the Senate
223 in the House
I tried to pin him down on specifics, but he had a call come in from Kentucky…
burnspbesq
Jeez, the Yankees got roasted again. Take away the one big inning in Game 1, and they’ve been outscored 20-3.
Somewhere in Heaven, Steve Gilliard has a huge grin on his face.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: If you can demonstrate why in any way this is a negative feel free to enlighten us. I thought you were a Metropolitans fan anyway.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
What Senate seats are Dems gonna lose? N Dak, Indiana, Arkansas, maybe/probably PA…. NH, FL, OH, are a wash; KY will be a wash if BabyDoc (love that) wins;. I think CO, CA, WA, NV, IL, stay Dem. WI I think will get closer and I don’t know how it will play out. So 55, 54 after the election. Who am I missing?
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
Speaking of Camus, it occurs to me that all Democrats should be
madeencouraged to read The Plague. It is a wonderful explanation of why we should always continue to fight for what we believe in, even when it seems hopeless.Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: Weirdly, that is one of my favorite books.
aisce
@Bob Loblaw:
win.
i don’t know what you did to piss these people off, bob, but you’re a quality poster in my book
burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
You misunderstand me, sir. This is a good thing. It is to be celebrated.
Bartender! Schadenfreude for the house, on me!
Suck It Up!
@gizmo:
Really? so explain why their lives and economic situations keep getting worse year after year. Their base ain’t getting shit for their support.
morzer
For those seeking something a little different (and perhaps Sharron Angle’s ultimate nightmare) we present: FEMALE MONGOLIAN SUMO WRESTLERS:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11566529
Mark S.
Idiots in Tennessee argue that Islam is not a religion. They apparently called anti-Muslim nutcase Frank Gaffney to the stand at one point. I guess Atlas Pam was unavailable.
morzer
@Suck It Up!:
Base here = corrupt polluting billionaires and bloggers for Reason.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suck It Up!: Their base likes to be fed fear, anger, and resentment.
Yutsano
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Our dear blog host’s home state of West Virginia. And Manchin is leading there now even with Ras. I count 56 if Russ manages to pull it off.
@burnspbesq: FTMFY. That is all.
burnspbesq
@Suck It Up!:
Patience. They’ll figure it out eventually. It took the Protestants in Ulster 300 years to figure out who their real enemy was.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq:The Yankees?
morzer
@burnspbesq:
Themselves? The Mets? Little Green Footballs?Howling Mad Loblaw?
Elie
@Linda Featheringill:
Count me in. Spending some dough on Patty Murray and others up here in WA state too…
Yutsano
@Elie: Patty has broken 50% consistently in her last three polls. Rossi may finally be toast for good.
morzer
@Yutsano:
Considering how close Murray versus Rossi has generally been, it would be nice if she put the old fraud away for good.
Yutsano
@morzer: She’s five points up in the last aggregate polling, but it would be even sweeter if he lost by 10. Honestly, you can’t run in this state with zero ideas.
morzer
@Yutsano:
It must be a state unique in the USA. Lack of ideas hasn’t deterred 30 years worth of Republicans and Blue Dogs elsewhere.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano:
Of course, you can. You just can’t do it well.
jl
@Suck It Up!:
I think the explanation is that a big chunk of the base consists of scared middle class white people who are not hurting that bad from the economy, and think the GOP will protect them.
Then there are the poor whites with a tribal mentality, who hope the GOP will keep things from getting even worse for them, no matter how bad things are, and receive psychic income from seeing the right kind of people in charge.
Then there are the Xtianists, who hope the GOP will deliver a sectarian state to their liking.
All three groups share one thing: a great susceptibility to delusion and liability to deception (self and otherwise).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I still think he’s kind of a dolt, but damn me if Joe Mancin doesn’t sound like every fucking Democrat should
Nick
@Oscar Leroy:
Oh I forgot, they were supposed to end DADT, close Gitmo, end the wars, pass cap and trade, EFCA, sweeping immigration reform, sweeping healthcare reform with a public option, break up the banks, AND solve the unemployment crisis in less than two years. Of course, that’s realistic.
Then, surely, liberals wouldn’t have anything to bitch about.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: I was trying to think of the biggest Republican we’ve had and the only one with any sort of electoral success was Rob McKenna. And he shot his load attempting to challenge the health care law without checking with our governor first. Oopsie.
asiangrrlMN
@jl: You got it in one, FH#4.
And, for all the ‘it makes no difference/Obama fucked over his base/I’m voting third party’ people out there–YOU are the reason I am so fucking reluctant to vote this autumn. (Besides the teabaggers, of course). I have no enthusiasm to be in the same party as you people. I read the first comment on this thread when it first opened and immediately had to leave and contemplate which apron to buy because I was so pissed off.
@Yutsano: How the hell are you? If Emmer wins my state, I’m moving.
@morzer: Don’t forget drumming nekkid in the woods.
Brian J
@Chris G.:
There’s a lot that I could say about this, but I’ve already said it at Swing State Project today, so I will simply say that you are right. To go with what Nate Silver said, it’s as possible that the losses could be as bad as 70-80 seats or as good as 30 seats. So many of them are so close that it is very hard to say.
A few thoughts:
1. The NRCC is still spending in some districts that, if they gain a lot of seats, they should in theory have in the bag at this point. CO-04 is one example I’ve been using. The Republicans are still spending a lot of money, and it’s among the first seats that should fall, almost by default, unless the Democrats magically keep the losses to about 10 seats.
2. The Democrats are spending some money in districts they shouldn’t be spending in if things were going well, like AZ-07, but it’s mostly as a safety measure. Outside groups are spending money in somewhat different ways, if memory serves me correctly, but they aren’t dropping serious money in any usually liberal districts. In fact, in CA-03, American Crossroads, Karl Rove’s group, just dropped almost $700,000 to keep Ami Bera at bay. If things were going really, really well for them, why would they be doing this? Wouldn’t both be trying to take down, say, Tim Bishop in NY-01?
3. Without going into all of the details, I think strong performances by some candidates for governor and the Senate and/or strong ground games could, at worst, help minimize massive losses in the case of a massacre, or, at best, help us keep the losses down to something more normal, like 30 seats. It just so happens that a lot of the seats are in states where the Democrats supposedly have an awesome ground game (Nevada, Iowa, and Ohio, for instance) and where, in the event the Democrat doesn’t do particularly well, the losses might to be concentrated among certain seats in that state (Pennsylvania, for instance).
Okay, so I went into more detail than I planned, but suffice it to say that if the polls continue to seem decent or actually improve, and the Democrats can get their voters to the polls, I think we can keep the House. (We are keeping the Senate, unless the night goes just horribly for us.) I’m going back and forth with this, especially since I am usually wrong about a lot of my predictions, and I will feel more confident one way or the other in a week or so.
morzer
@jl:
I wonder whether there’s an opening for a new religion, where angry white men get together, yell ritual abuse, bow before an idol and pay money for the chance to select next week’s shaman?
Aqua Buddha Revivalism, here we come!
Pooh
Ladies and gentlemen, Gentleman Joe Miller:A Valley woman who witnessed the incident involving Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller and the editor of Alaska Dispatch on Sunday says the journalist, Tony Hopfinger, did not threaten Miller and that the whole thing should never have escalated into a police matter.
Lolly Symbol says she drove in from Big Lake with her two young sons because she was a staunch Miller supporter and wanted to ask him a question about his stance on gun control.
She said she found the opportunity to speak with Miller when he stuck around after his town hall at Central Middle School and spoke with a few people outside the main room. She says she stood right next to the candidate as the scene that has captured national public attention played out.
Symbol said Miller became angry with an elderly woman who asked him about his military background. “He ended up getting really huffy with her,” Symbol said.
She said she got about two words into her question when Hopfinger interrupted her, stuck a small camera in Miller’s face and asked him about his work with the Fairbanks North Star Borough.
“I would say Tony was aggressive, and I would say he was rude because he interrupted me, but he didn’t do anything wrong and he wasn’t posing a threat to Miller,” Symbol said.
She said Miller tried to get away from the reporter and in doing so put his hand on her arm and pushed her aside. Her 8-year-old son, Vincent Mahoney, was standing right behind her, and Miller bowled him over in his attempt to get away. “I don’t know if [Miller] didn’t see him or didn’t care, but he didn’t say ‘excuse me’ or ‘I’m sorry’. He didn’t even turn his head,” Symbol said. “He simply did not care at all.”
…
For those that don’t know “the Valley” is the Mat-Su Valley whose major cities are Palmer, and yes, Wasilla.
aisce
@asiangrrlMN:
that sure does show them. you people are way to self-actualizing in your politics
Brian J
@burnspbesq:
This is an old development, so perhaps it was just a reflection of the stronger environment for Democrats at the time, but Mark Kleiman noted that Hewlett Packard’s political action committee gave the maximum amount to Barbara Boxer. You’d think that there would be at least some love for Fiorina at the company. Maybe something has changed; after all, like I said, this is almost a year old.
Now, I’m kind of indifferent to business experience relating to government. It’s possible that Fiorina could be a good senator after mistakes were made at HP, at least in theory. But my guess is, HP isn’t exactly a bastion of liberals. Boxer was certainly helped by being the incumbent, but still, they gave nothing to the person who used to be their CEO. That says a lot.
morzer
@aisce:
Is there an English version of your last incomprehensible sentence?
asiangrrlMN
@aisce: Sure shows whom? I’m just saying for all their bitching about the Dems not doing enough for them, they are the ones who are wearing me down. Did I say anything about not voting? I did not.
@morzer: Oh. I think s/he meant “too”. It still doesn’t make sense, but it reads a little better.
Has anyone seen valdivia? I want to know if she’s surviving in my state.
FlipYrWhig
@Nick: Even after all of that there would still be people bitching about how the whole Donnie McClurkin episode left them with a sense of unease about Obama’s commitment to progressive ideals.
@Oscar Leroy:
Oh, right! Do MORE! Wow, never thought of that! DO MORE. It’s so simple!
Say, before I get on the phone and tell my Congressperson to DO MORE, tell me something. How will this be accomplished when a big chunk of the Democratic caucus does not believe in doing more and in fact is actively engaged in making sure they do even less? Obama makes a mean face and scares them into it?
@eemom: Glenn Greenwald has a soft spot for both Pauls, I guess. Has he ever met an Attorney General he liked?
I’m amused that Greenwald has all kind of people thinking he’s liberal. Evidence suggests that he’s a doctrinaire libertarian, only verbose and gay.
FlipYrWhig
@Mark S.:
I made this admittedly in-bad-taste joke at Kos’s place…
Um, Sharron? Whoever explained to you what “mongoloid” meant was just trying to spare your feelings.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
I mean.. self-actualizing? Really?
Bob Loblaw
@FlipYrWhig:
Considering he’s a rather strident proponent of the welfare state, and the fact that much of his policy positions descend from the theory of positive liberty, it would seem to contradict that doctrinaire idea. I think he’s more complicated that a simple label, for better or worse, but I like the use of labeling as a means of discrediting him across the board. That’s something you never see these days. You’d have a bright future in politics.
FlipYrWhig
@Bob Loblaw: Mostly the label I have for him is “dickface,” but I thought I’d give it a whirl with something a little more intellectual-like.
asiangrrlMN
@FlipYrWhig: GROAN! I will say it again, we don’t want her–she’s WHITE! No backsies!
@morzer: Yeah. Meaning I think too much, methinks. Funny that I’m only saying what other people have said, but whatever.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Feh. Fuck purity trolling. If you share at least a few common goals with me let’s move forward and iron out the differences in committee. That’s for the fartknocker who basically misquoted you.
KG
@burnspbesq: with all due respect, fuck you… it’s my vote and I can vote for whomever I want to. The major parties have convinced everyone that they are the only two choices. They are not, and I will not choose the lesser to two evils from the major parties. If I choose to vote for a third party candidate that is my fucking right, so piss off.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Yeah. I hear ya. I’m just…worn out. And, for some reason, I cannot make up my mind on an apron (for my Halloween costume). I can’t believe I’m dithering over apron choices. And, it’s gonna be pastel! Or white! My dress is red, so the apron has to be a tad more subdued.
How was Indonesian?
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: It was actually pretty good, although I ordered too safe. Next time I’ll go a bit further off the ranch and try a few more unusual items. One flaw of the place: parking bites.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: It’s better to be safe the first time, methinks. Then, you can build from there. Hate bad parking, though. It really cramps the mood right from the start.
Paula
@FlipYrWhig:
Well, at least they got a nice mental workout trying to justify his Citizen’s United posts.
I’m not sure how I feel about Giordano’s view on Clinton (it’s rather noticeable that a lot of foreign policy people that I disagreed with came to Obama’s team after she ended her campaign for pres — but I do think it was his choice to follow their advice). But Al’s right on the money on the incredible immaturity of the progressive blogosphere.
burnspbesq
@KG:
Fine. When the Republicans run amuck, you had damn well better keep your fucking trap shut, because you will be responsible for every bit of it.
And fuck you right back. Moron.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: Forgive me for being in the school that thinks that my vote will make a difference instead of being a useless power play to get me to sleep through the night. Plus there are only two on the ballot here period. I’m dying for the jungle primary to throw up two Democrats in the general at some point. Watch the Republicans (who screamed for it in the first place) back off from their bright idea so fast.
Paula
@eemom:
Being a liberal — or, never mind, a “progressive” — is an ideology as much as any other. For it to be valid and applicable to some kind of situation (even if only in the abstract and not in the “real world), there are going to be some principles that you value and from which you make your judgments.
GG ain’t a progressive — and may not even be a liberal — if he can’t connect the rather obvious dots between the Teabagger rhetoric, the national security state, and those reports of dead Iraqi/Afghans. Seriously, that’s some WTFuckery right there.
Origuy
\@Brian J:
I work at HP and have since the Compaq merger. There’s still no love lost for Carly. I haven’t seen any bumper stickers for her in the parking lot.
The list of candidates and groups that got contributions from the HP PAC in 2009. It’s more Democrat than Republican; I don’t see any obvious wingnuts in the list. This is the list funded by employee contributions. There’s a separate list of corporate contributions, which was restricted by the pre-Citizens United rules. Like a lot of corporations, they were giving to both sides.
Micheline
So in other words, we are going to lose big time.
Karen
The two parties are the same? Sorry, it’s not the Democrats who have hinted they’ll grab their guns if the results aren’t to their liking…or do the Teanuts (whoever came up with that, I love that, thanks!) mean something different when they say they’ll use a 2nd Amendment solution. What I am really worried about is that there will be an armed “Fraud Squad.” After all, that’s what they do in other countries when they want to scare the “wrong” people into not voting and death threats are not affective if there is no ammunition.
I pray that I am wrong but what has been keeping me awake is GOP sanctioned violence or a coup. They’ve been flirting with facism. Watch the movie “Z” and you’ll see it instantly.
Please tell me I’m wrong, talk me down, as Rachel Maddow says. Tell me this won’t happen and I’ll cling to it by my fingernails.
slightly_peeved
Yeah – because you don’t vote for the B candidates.
Here’s the deal – the reason Europe likes Obama is because he’s a pretty exciting leader by any country’s standards. Europe doesn’t have brilliant, inspirational, gods among men or women leading them – they have Gordon Brown or David Cameron. The reason they have all those social welfare policies you like aren’t inspirational leaders; it’s having lots of people in government and in political parties pushing those policies over a long time. Having a functional filibuster-free government helps too.
If all of the US voted, in every election, you’d be slightly right of Sweden by now.
Joe Beese
@slightly_peeved:
Do you have a lifesize cardboard standup of Barack Obama that you pray to? Like that one in Jesus Camp ?
liberal
@KG:
They’re not the only two choices, but in a first-past-the-post system, they might as well be.