I, for one, welcome our new fiscal conservative overlords.
Because this time, they really mean it.
Reader Interactions
239Comments
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
I really should read my own blog.
When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?
Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?
And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.
I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.
Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.
You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.
Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.
We are aware of all internet traditions.
Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.
White supremacy is terrorism.
rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius
Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.
Fuck these fucking interesting times.
“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”
Republicans don’t trust women.
The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.
This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.
T R E 4 5 O N
Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.
There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.
Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.
In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.
You can’t love your country only when you win.
someguy
You left out a “k”. You’ll have to ask the Ku Kluxers now running the House if you can borrow one of theirs.
El Tiburon
Just catching up, feel nauseous and disgusted.
Fuck John Boehner that prickish prig’.
The Grand Panjandrum
You forgot to mention they will get rid of the death panels. Pretty important shit you know. Now Granny and Uncle Jed can spend their Golden Years out by the cement pond.
gibsojj
We will survive. Although the constant impeachment and investigation hearings over the next few years might get a little tiresome.
cleek
pendulums gotta swing.
jwb
@The Grand Panjandrum: And I’m sure the Goopers will keep government out of Medicare.
AB
any chance we can pass aid for 9/11 families in the lame duck session?
seriously, we have what, two months? I don’t think Pelosi is the type to go out quietly, so I’m hoping.
harlana
Yup, just heard analyst say on WJ/CSPAN, John Boehner is now the new face of the republican party. Nuff said.
Bill E Pilgrim
This may offer some explanation. Scroll down. To the stamp part.
gogol's wife
“All ideas that have huge consequences are always simple. My whole idea is that, if vicious people are united with each other and constitute a force, then honorable people must do just the same. It’s that simple.”
Lev Tolstoi, “War and Peace”
Violet
@harlana:
Ha. He’ll have to fight Sarah Palin for that designation.
JWL
They’ve always meant it.
It had to come to this. The boneless wonders of the democratic party establishment assured it would, by their craven behavior…
…I was about to add…”of the past three decades”.
But 30 years does not constitute a political capitulation.
That national party is a corpse, unworthy of the people who cling to it as if it were a life preserver.
For the record, I voted a straight democratic ticket yesterday.
Face
Now that the R’s own 1/2 of Congress, Mike Pence has vowed to repeal HCR. I’m not sure he passed his math classes as a young boy.
Bill E Pilgrim
@harlana:
Sounds right: artificially-colored, smoked, and full of baloney.
The new GOP, brought to you by Oscar Meyer.
Gromit
So, when do we get to start demanding OUR country back?
Did anyone else see Beohner start to cry? It was so weird and uncomfortable that the local station cut him off halfway through his speech.
jwb
Given what they ran on and what they did last session, doesn’t that give the Goopers a mandate to do nothing?
I can hardly wait until the Goopers start proposing their agenda. We’ll have to get to impeachment pretty fast because otherwise it will become entirely too clear that their entire agenda consists of extending the Bush tax cuts and not extending the debt ceiling.
My prediction is back in recession by April, 15% unemployment by June and riots in the streets by next August.
debit
I, for one, am looking forward to pestering every Teahadist with “Is everything fixed yet? No? How about now? What about now?” for the next two years.
Captain Haddock
Personally I am glad it is over. I was getting over three automated calls a day from my state rep for the last two weeks – irritating the hell out of people at home is not the best GOTV strategy.
jwb
@Bill E Pilgrim: Too bad the name “Great Orange Satan” is already taken.
Blue Neponset
The thing that truly makes me nervous is that the R’s have no responsibility whatsoever!! They can sit back and say no to everything and then blame Obama and the Democrats for the mess. This is the last thing we need right now.
I know asking Obama to actually lead is frowned upon here, but….if he can’t make the public debate about issues in the next two years he will lose in 2012 and the R’s will have the WH, and huge majorities in the Senate and the House.
The Grand Panjandrum
@jwb: Yes. And he is a Very Serious Person because … well just because. TNC makes a very good point about him:
He then links to a piece by Ezra Klein. Well worth a click.
Kryptik
@Face:
Knowing the infamous lack of spines within the Senate and the predilection of Blue Dogs to fuck us over on major stuff, I’m not sure he’s so far off. Remember, Republicans only ever need 50 votes to get anything through the senate, otherwise Dems are the worst thing ever and hate democracy and upperdown votes.
Don’t forget folks, they get to play under different rules.
Violet
@Gromit:
Wasn’t that part of what the Sanity Rally was about?
It’s the headline clip on all the news shows. When it happened last night, Tweety and the gang had a huge discussion about it. Tweety said it made him look like he “had a pulse” and he was “human” and the “American people like that kind of thing.” Rachel pointed out that Boehner cries all the damned time, including when they were voting on TARP. Cue 5-10 minute discussion on the merits or lack therof of Boehner’s crying.
BudP
I predict it will take them at most one Santelli unit (30 days) to fix all of the nation’s problems.
ChrisS
@Face:
I’m not sure he passed his math classes as a young boy.
41-59 senate minority, remember?
The math has never stopped them before. I wouldn’t be surprised if a Democrat co-sponsored the bill. The democrats had four years in power and they did some good, but nibbled around the edges a lot and hemmed and hawed, and extended a helping hand to the GOP time and time again, used their words, and tried to out-anti-government them. Guess what? It got them out of the government.
Pelosi promised not to investigate Bush when they won the congress. Obama promised bi-partisan government with co-presidents Snowe, Palin, and Boehner. The GOP is going to show them how to run a congress.
cmorenc
@Violet: @harlana:
What’s really going to be fun now is watching the “insider” GOP establishment go about trying to undermine, discredit, and sideline Sarah Palin without igniting a cataclysmic schism with the Tea Party extremist portion of the GOP base who worship her. The GOP has hitched their wagon to a fire-breathing dragon-lady, and the wagon the GOP leadership is riding in is made out of very dry, flammable wood.
jwb
@Captain Haddock: No, and neither is receiving 10-15 emails a day on top of that. The Dems have to fix their communication strategy with respect to their volunteers and likely voters. I got to the point that I directed it all to the spam folder because it was just too much. But, then, of course, I missed some of the volunteer opportunities I was actually interested in, so I don’t know what the solution is.
Cris
Government is going to be small enough that I’ll drown myself in my bathtub.
homerhk
Depressing as it to admit, the republicans won on a platform of lack of compassion for their fellow man (unemployment benefits encourage unemployment), resistance to spending money for the benefit of the whole country rather than a small proportion (healthcare, student loans), American isolationism (START, apology tour) masked as American exceptionalism, avowed and celebrated ignorance (climate change) and corruption. They didn’t really try to hide all these things that much and yet people still voted them in.
It is really too trite to say that it was 10% unemployment, or lack of boldness in healthcare and financial reform, or bipartisanship etc. that did the democrats in. That is not to say that none of these weren’t issues but really if you care about those issues why would you vote for someone who was going to make the position worse? I blame the public for being ignorant, lazy and above all selfish. We saw time and again during the healthcare debate that much opposition arose out of a “i’ve got mine, fuck everyone else” mentality.
Culture of Truth
Obama has been in office two years, which means the GOP has controlled the House for the last three months.
JohnR
@Gromit:
harlana
@Gromit: Yep, it was even more contrived than any other Boehner Bawling I have seen to date
Redshirt
I’ve always wondered why the Romans didn’t get their act together in the hundred years where it was obvious their Western Empire was collapsing.
Now I understand. There’s profits to be grabbed before the Barbarians arrive!
Kryptik
@The Grand Panjandrum:
In other words, he’s precisely the kind of Dem whose wisdom will be all the rage for at least the next two years, since it feeds the idea that ‘DAMN FUCKING LIBS WERE TOO FUCKING LIBERAL! KICK THEM ALL THE FUCK OUT’. Because you know, all those damn fucking hippies in Congress just couldn’t rein themselves in, you know.
Feh…
Tom Levenson
Kvetch today, kvetch tomorrow, hell bewail our fates through the weekend.
Then let’s secede.
jrg
@jwb:
This. I just read on CNN that seniors went 47% for the Tea Party. We’ll see how enthusiastic they are after the government cheese stops arriving in the mail.
Hell, we could even distribute the money back out depending on what states it’s coming from. I’d love for people in this country to have a discussion about who’s really sucking on who’s tit.
jinxtigr
Sorry, try again- the Confederacy is not America, even if you creatively misspell it. I don’t recognize my ‘civics class’ stuff in there anymore.
Sucks for people living in it or bordering it.
I say, the concept of ‘firewalling’ needs to be used here. We obviously tried and failed a long time ago to force these people not to beat their slaves and live like Somalia. I think it’s getting to be time for all people who expect to live in America to get the hell out of there, and we’ll build a nice wall around it, and throw wetsuits over it to keep the inmates happy.
Curb-stomp Stasi-unit guy WON there. Around here he’d have been run out of town on a rail. These are not the same countries and shouldn’t even have the same name. The center will not hold.
Center-right nation my ASS. Things fly apart.
homerhk
Can I also ask those people who urge “Obama to lead” to name me three things – three specific things – that you want him to do that he hasn’t already done countless times in the past 18 months?
lacp
Look, I know it’s tough for you jihadosocialists to wrap your little minds around it, but cutting taxes, freeing Wall Street from Nazi regulations, and off-shore drilling are going to make America #1 again! Also, too, invade Iran. Because shut up.
arguingwithsignposts
@jwb:
I’m sure Markos will gladly cede the title to an *actual* Great Orange Satan.
Fuck, I am off the internets today.
Uloborus
Well, we control the Senate and the White house, so basically what the Republicans now have is a giant filibuster. So we’ll certainly see a successful vote to impeach from the House that will die in the Senate. No doubt there. And it’s JUST possible the Dems will let a repeal of the ACA go to vote in the Senate to be passed so that Obama can veto it. It gives cover to Blue Dogs so that they can go ‘See? See? I’m conservative!’ to their voters. Other than that, a whole lot of gridlock.
Whether turnabout is fair play on cloture will be interesting.
The only thing I’m worried about are budgets. Since neither side can just plain have their way I have no idea what we’ll see. And the elephant in the room is what will happen when the merely sane assholes in the Republican House realize that the lunatic fringe would be quite happy to not pass a budget at all. Budgets are going to be WEIRD.
I had high hopes this wouldn’t happen, but we knew it was a very real possibility and what it would mean. It’s not even the worst case scenario, since we hold the Senate. All the bizarrity of the Senate that’s made things hard the last two years is now in our favor.
cmorenc
@ChrisS:
I’m predicting that now that Harry Reid has been through a near-death political experience, both with his previous leadership style and with the Nevada electorate, we might actually see a far more pugnacious, political street-fighting side of him – he could surprise us. At least there’s enormous room on the upside for that pleasant possibility, and very little room on the downside for further disappointment.
Mind you, I’m not expecting him to morph into the second coming of LBJ-as-majority leader. But he might actually discover his missing spine this time around.
General Stuck
Conservatives have been screaming Obama is too liberal, conservatives win in landslide
Mr Furious
Why are all of you and John Boehner crying about what last night’s results mean for policy and governance? The only issue that matters is Prop 19!
Sully told me so!
His front page is at least 50% pot remorse.
chopper
let them sodomize you again, for the first time.
SiubhanDuinne
So I gues in a day or two we’ll be seeing “special editions” of Time and Newsweek on all the magazine racks with Boner’s tangerine visage looking at us.
And then in a few weeks, Time will select him as Man of the Year, and we’ll be confronted with his tangerine visage looking at us from all the magazine racks.
Then in early January, Time and Newsweek will feature cover photos of that thrilling yet poignant moment when the speaker’s gavel changes hands from Nancy SMASH! to Mr. Tangerine Man.
Oscar Leroy
Now the battleground shifts to the deficit reduction commission and it’s likely attempt to cut Social Security. It releases its report December 1st, just around the corner.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/08/AR2010060805081.html
President Obama fought to establish this commission, when he couldn’t be bothered to fight for much else, and stocked it with people who hate Social Security and can’t wait to diminish it. He didn’t have to do any of this, but he did, and now we have to stop it.
Captain Haddock
@cmorenc:
Sorry, but I wager he takes the opposite path – is it even possible to be less pugnacious?
Kryptik
@Mr Furious:
Because the fall of Prop 19 is hardly unrelated. ‘If them damn hippie libs want it, then IIIIII’M A’GIN IT!‘
Amazing how effective running on nothing but tax cuts and ‘FUCK THE DEMS!’ can be. What a fucking country we life in.
Mr Furious
Yeah, because he was an amateur boxer 40 years ago, and he choked a guy at an FBI raid…
[/holding breath]
homerhk
Oh fuck off! He didn’t have to fight to establish this commission, he just did it – it’s a Presidential commission. Unlike, say, healthcare (where he fought to get the law passed), financial reform (where he fought to get the law passed), student loan reform (where he fought to get the law passed), the recovery act (where he fought to get the law passed). Critique on policy all you want, just stop this incessant and ignorant meme of Obama “not fighting”.
soonergrunt
@ John Cole
Nicely done.
Mowgli
@Blue Neponset: I am a hard-core liberal and I have the same prediction you do: This election has established a beach-head to run the Federal Government for at least 8 years starting in 2012. If Obama cannot reinvent himself in some fundamental way but continues to be the wonkish but detached persona some of us love but America has rejected, the Dems are pretty much done for a decade.
I made hundreds of calls and knocked on dozens of doors this election and I am happy I did. But my way of thinking loses to a public that thinks otherwise and so I am moving on to focus on other parts of my life.
(That also means getting away from spending an hour a day on blogs like this one)
Good luck, folks– make sure you have your own fiscal house in order, because the satefy nets are being cut, the regulations will be rolled back and it’s going to be every man for himself…
chopper
@Violet:
sometimes my boehner cries when i look at a beautiful lady.
Paris
Is dope free now?
jlow
I blame Al Gore. Lard ass.
Kryptik
@Mr Furious:
Yeah, didn’t we hear that shit when he first became Senate Maj. Leader? How he was a hard-nosed fighter and would bang some heads? How’d that turn out?
Don’t expect Reid to find religion and a spine soon. Like said, it’s just as likely he’ll remain in a defensive huddle for the next two years at least. Whether he keeps the leadership position past that, we’ll see.
Punchy
What time tomorrow do the impeachment hearings begin?
mai naem
My one big silver lining – Joe Lieberman can go cheney himself now. He doesn’t matter.
ChrisS
@Paris:
Nope, but I know what crop I’m going to be growing when the shit hits the fan.
ChrisS’s Cider House and Dope-a-Rama: Come drown your miseries and pass the days away!
My buddy is a beer distributor and has been for 14 years. When the economy is in the shitter, business for him is still just fine.
cleek
@Captain Haddock:
i’m with Captain Haddock.
the Blue Dogs and Indies will pull him to the right, and Reid will bend even more.
arguingwithsignposts
@Mowgli:
What the fuck is this? “wonkish but detached?” “rejected”? America hasn’t “rejected” Obama. Obama’s approval ratings are 44-48 approve according to Gallup, and the numbers move up and down daily. That’s almost half of the country that still approves of his performance.
And last I checked, Obama wasn’t on any goddam ballot in the nation last night. In fact, there was no national ballot last night. So STFU with that bullshit meme.
Guster
@homerhk: I think Obama’s done a pretty good job, but:
1) Stop-loss order to end DADT, directing the DOJ not to defend anti-gay legal bullshit–and coming personally out for equal rights for gays, instead of supporting making them second-class citizens, as he currently does.
2) Saying that we need another $1 trillion stimulus this year, and explaining exactly why. Three times a week.
3) Pushing Medicare for All. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_for_All
I’m not even gonna start on foreign policy or prosecuting war criminals or the civil liberties stuff.
Would his leadership have _changed_ anything? I dunno. Probably not (except on number 1). But I dearly wish he’d repeatedly done those things in the past 18 months.
People seem really stuck in the love-Obama or hate-Obama camp. He’s pretty good. I mean, he saved us from a complete catastrophe. I like that in a president. He’s taken intelligent, cautious, small-c (sometimes big C) conservative steps in the right direction. That’s all wonderful. Doesn’t mean, contra BJ, that the bully pulpit is some DFH fantasy that no president ever used to sway opinion. Or ever used and failed to sway opinion, for that matter.
cmorenc
@Captain Haddock:
No, it’s not possible for Reid to be even MORE wimp-ish in the next congress than in the previous one. It IS indeed possible for him to remain in-character with the SAME wimp-ish approach, regarding which he’s just about exhausted the possibilities for further disappointment.
That’s why the possibility (albeit uncertain) that his political near-death experience might bring out a different side of him (the side which managed to summon enough toughness to win an uphill battle for reelection). He didn’t win reelection simply by waiting for Sharon Angle’s craziness to do all his work for him – he had to work and fight like crazy to keep the tea-party craziness from drowning him in Nevada, by some pretty tough ground-level political organizing and street-fighting.
In any case, he CANNOT be any worse than he was before.
SlyFox
Ok, I’m not one of those Woulda, coulda, shoulda people. No matter what, the Orange man is Speaker now. The question should be, What do we do now? Because whether we like it or not, we have a Republican House and barely Democratic Senate. Say goodbye to Progressive haven.
Kryptik
@cmorenc:
Perhaps, but I can’t imagine he’ll be any better. Remember, we were told he’d be a fighter before when he got the leader seat.
Culture of Truth
So I gues in a day or two we’ll be seeing “special editions” of Time and Newsweek on all the magazine racks with Boner’s tangerine visage looking at us.
Oh, those were out last week.
cleek
just remember, people: in 2012, the Dems will have 21 Senate seats to defend. the GOP will have only 10.
if you thought last night was bad… it can get a fuck of a lot worse.
Blue Neponset
@homerhk: 1) Publicly and repeatedly urge congress to vote on repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy 2) Brand the Republicans as the party of slogans and/or the party of no. Make the village idiots talk about what the Republicans want to do for a change. i.e go on the offensive 3) Repeal DADT via Presidential authorization. Leaders lead they don’t ask for permission.
Anya
It’s depressing to realize the level of the lunacy that exists in this country.
I’ll let the great Nina Simon speak for me:
Ohio’s gotten me so upset
Pennsylvania made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Minnesota Goddam
I am picking on Minnesota because they had the fucking teatard wannabe asshole Tim Pawlenty and they voted for the repubs. WTF!
D-Chance.
We’ll make sure only to use Perrier for your sessions. Only the best for you, m’man!
Jamie
https://balloon-juice.com/2010/11/03/mourning-in-amerikka/#comment-2166767
while it’s difficult to conceive of how Reid could be more of a wimp than before, I think he has that potential
schrodinger's cat
Does anyone know what the turnout was like? What percentage of the eligible voting population actually voted?
arguingwithsignposts
In somewhat related news, Sarah Palin endorsement tracker shows she’s not gold.
The Grand Panjandrum
But the real story is at the state level. The GOP kicked ass in a lot of states. They now have a veto proof majority here in NH. Look out gays and lesbians the “Family Values” crowd is coming for you spouses and children.
ChrisS
@homerhk:
Fighting with his own party doesn’t count. They had majorities in both houses and he had to fight with them to pass a bunch of watered-down or recycled GOP bills.
The American working class has been walked all over for the last thirty years and are doubling down on the crazy. Manufacturing, working class and lower middle class jobs aren’t coming back. Period. Full stop. They’re competing with a global pool of laborers that will work for pennies. The American standard of living keeps getting more and more expensive and Obama and a lot of lefties promise them a return to the glory. It ain’t happening. And they’re pissed about it without knowing which way to focus their anger. The GOP, precisely the party that fucked them over, is more than happy to use that anger. The democrats, meh, not so much.
I’m looking forward two years of deadlock and then President Boehner.
jwb
@The Grand Panjandrum: If I was in the mood to be charitable about this whole thing and I was to read very much between the lines to get at fundamentals, I might admit that there is in fact a yawning fissure in the Democratic party between its corporate and progressive wing, and Bayh is in essence saying that the corporate wing is very powerful but its attachment to Democratic politics is extremely tenuous and the progressive wing on its own doesn’t stand a political chance in hell; because if you alienate the corporate wing, you are at a severe financial disadvantage and, with its ownership of and access to the media, it has sufficient capacity to move moderate low information voters from the Democratic to the Republican column (and vice versa). (He he would be more or less right about that.) On the other hand, it’s not all that clear to me how you govern with that coalition since if you completely alienate the progressive wing and occupy the corporate center, the progressive wing will fail to show in sufficient numbers to counter the GOP numbers, but if you don’t utterly alienate the progressive wing and clearly signal that you know who calls the shots then the corporate center throws their support to the GOP.
schrodinger's cat
He needs to that, the economy is not going to improve by itself.
matoko_chan
meh.
I think the TP lost a seat for every seat they won.
Someone should count.
Why do TP seats count as republican seats anyways?
Didn’t the TP run against republicans?
unless…..the teabaggers WERE really just stealth republicans ALL ALONG, and the whole TP thingy was just an attempt at rebranding?
So ‘conservatives’ could scrape the Bush/Cheney off their shoes?
Rubio won– TP candidate.
Angle lost– TP candidate.
Buck and Tancredo lost– TP candidates.
Murkowski, republican, beats Miller, teabagger.
lawl, Obama just needs youth and minorities to turn out like they did in 2008. 365 to 173 is a damn steep hill to climb with Sarah Palin on your back.
This is not a moratorium on Obama– this is another successful republican conjob.
The TP REALLY IS just republicans that are rebranding to disassociate from that despised WEC retard GW Bush…. The TPers are going to vote with the republicans and caucus with the republicans. They are trying to take over the republican party.
Colorado and Nevada were the most interesting– because the Red Wave turned into beach break. Pollstah fail.
this election is just the Revenge of the Heartland. Youth and minorities didnt turn out….except mebbe in Colorado and Nevada. Notably two places where cellphone penetration spoofed the national pollstahs. Anti-Buck sentiment was stirred by the fetalpersonhood amendment (lost again), and Bucks position on student loans and abortion restriction. Boulder County and Denver County host universities. Tancredo never actually had a chance outside of landline households. Nevada has a high cellonly concentration in Las Vegas, because of UNLV and transient casino workers.
If you think of the demographic geography of cell-only households….its not uniform over America…. there will be sharp peaks in urban areas and college towns, and broad valleys and ravines in flyover and rural country.
So Silvers predictive model worked well in rural “real america”, but the Red Wave had a beach break in Colorado and Nevada, both cellonly household topographic peaks in the landline plains and valleys of the Real Murrican Heartland….
The Tea Party message is actually, “hey that wasn’t us– that was those republicans.” Abdication of responsibilty is always a winner.
In the “abdication of responsibility” department, ‘conservative’ rebranding as Tea Party was successful– not so much in the “appeal to youth and minorities” category.
But then….youth and minorities didnt vote in this midterm. And they usually dont vote in midterms.
I repeat– 365 to 173 is a damn steep hill to climb with Sarah Palin on your back. :)
matoko_chan
why am i ALWAYS moderated? WP hates l33tspk?
Guster
@cleek: Thanks for making me ever sicker. Blah. And look at the races. We’ve got five or six that we’re _gonna_ lose, another couple on the cusp. They’ve got one and one.
tomvox1
All hail President Lieberman!
Kryptik
@jwb:
In other words, ‘C’mere hippie and take what’s comin’ to you’. There is no hope because we don’t actually have a fucking voice anymore. We’re helpless hangers on, because the corporate wing will simply do all it can to fuck the progressive wing over and ensure Galtian ponies for all at the expense of sanity, just so they can say they got to fuck over the progressive wing.
Wheeee.
jwb
@homerhk: I would say you can just stop at the 10% unemployment. That was enough to do the Democrats in, especially since they sold the stimulus on the basis that it was just the right solution to the problem. I’m not saying that they could have gotten a better stimulus package, but they didn’t have to claim that the package that passed was more or less adequate. That was a colossal political blunder, and probably these election results were sealed the moment the decision was made to sell the stimulus package that way.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
Looks like mostly older people voted for the GOP and there was a lower turnout of younger voters. Californians learned something from our high unemployment rate and the craziness of the Repubs here. I think the rest of the country will too in two years. Especially those senior citizens who voted for Republicans if social security gets cut.
Interesting that one Democrat who gave as good as he got and was uncompromising in his attitude to Republicans got his ass handed to him (Alan Grayson). The most principled Democrat also got his ass handed to him (Feingold) while McCain talked out all sides of his mouth and won his primary and election. I guess Cokie Roberts and George Will were right about one thing: people may say they want bipartisanship, but what they honestly love is some gridlock. And they’re going to get it.
curious
@Gromit: he seems to have three modes: crying, cursing loudly, and fred thompson-style drooping.
homerhk
Guster, points well taken but they are about policy not “leading”. The criticism on policy I get – I would have liked at least the first and third thing on your list. On the first, this may well happen now that there probably isn’t a path through Congress. On the third, I just think that was a non-starter from the word go (and not because Obama ‘gave up on single payer’ or some such) but because the system just couldn’t take that much change – look at the hysteria involved in the modest (but absolutely necessary) reform that actually did pass.
The second I’m just not that strong of an economist to say that an additional $1 trillion in spending is going to raise employment quickly enough. The fact is that there is more than enough capital in US companies to fill the hole in the economy and it may be that any addition influx from the government is going to allow those companies to sit back and continue to not-invest. But as I said I’m just not qualified to be able to comment properly on that.
But, in any event, my point was about this amorphous “leadership” that people so want and from your response it seems that it is rather what I suspected which is that it is just a substitute for complaining about policies.
Oscar Leroy
@SlyFox:
“The question should be, What do we do now?”
See post #46.
Shalimar
@harlana: I’m glad they aren’t going to replace him with an nuttier nut. Any of the Republican leadership would be bad. At least with Boehner we will get our first ever orange Speaker of the House. Maybe they are keeping him at the top just to prove they aren’t a lily-white party?
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
I find it interesting that people from Massachusetts rejected the measure to lower their state sales tax. I guess not everyone believes in a free lunch/services that magically pay for themselves through tax cuts.
DBrown
One good thing did occur – blue dogs took the biggest hits by far. While this fact will be lost on many, maybe a few democ-rats will notice. My blue dog was taken down even as he kissed the thug’s asses on the health care bill. So you remaining blue dogs, if you are going to burn, at least do some good first and not just look after your own dumb ass – the thugs don’t give a shit for what you do for them, they vote on fox directions only – stupid is as stupid does and both the thugs and blue dogs are exactly that.
wrb
I wonder if Huff n’ Ham & co have enough self-awareness to ever feel a tinge of remorse for what they have done.
meh
I’ll tell you the part that hurts about last night. It’s not that the GOP took the house. I live in a democracy and if more people agree with their point of view than with mine, I’m ok with that. The part that hurts is that it feels like the game is rigged. For folks with a lousy paying job (or two or three) and a couple of kids, they don’t have time to sift through the issues in any kind of meaningful and only see the 30 sec ads in between the sitcoms they watch to numb the pain of the shitty jobs they have. It’s rigged. The only people that get to speak are the people with money. Now that this has been shown to work, there is a zero percent chance of this ever being repealed, changed, modified or fixed. I’m not angry about this, I am genuinely sad.
Corner Stone
@arguingwithsignposts: Sure he was. 37% of voters said they cast their vote specifically in opposition to Obama.
The R’s nationalized many, if not all, of their races and that pushed them forward. Obviously.
tomvox1
@mai naem:
How do you figure? If Alaska goes GOP, and the Dems wind up losing in Colorado & Washington, doesn’t that make Lieberman the 51st “Dem” vote? Or are we assuming that Biden is going to sleep at the Senate and be the tiebreaker every time (not an impossibility of course, just asking)? And that’s only assuming you can keep the Nelson’s of the world on board…
Kryptik
@DBrown:
The problem unfortunately is that it’s all too likely that the national Dems won’t see the Blue Dog losses. Instead, they’ll see Grayson, Feingold, and Perriello, and scream ‘FUCK, we need to move hard right now! Hard right or we’re fucked!!’. Oh, and don’t forget that with Republicans on the cusp in the Senate, the Blue Dogs there hold even more power, and will likely deliver that magical Republican number of 50 consistently. No cloture issues here, remember. After all, you don’t want to fight against the will of the people and deny upperdown votes, would you?
Corner Stone
Anybody who still thinks the Catfood Commission isn’t gonna fuck us right up the ass is an idiot.
I’m buying stock in companies that make lubricant because the commission isn’t even gonna give us a courtesy spit before they start.
Everyone’s gonna need to buy their own KY.
Oscar Leroy
@homerhk:
“I’m just not that strong of an economist to say that an additional $1 trillion in spending is going to raise employment quickly enough. The fact is that there is more than enough capital in US companies to fill the hole in the economy and it may be that any addition influx from the government is going to allow those companies to sit back and continue to not-invest. But as I said I’m just not qualified to be able to comment properly on that.”
Don’t worry, there are many very strong economists who show that a large stimulus would raise employment quickly. Many of them predicted exactly what has happened: a too-small stimulus would not only fail to fix the economy, but would discredit the very idea of stimulus in the process and thus there would be little chance at a second one. Google “Joseph Stiglitz stimulus” for just one example.
There is a tone of capital in US companies, but they aren’t spending any of it. Why would they? There is no demand. No one is buying what they are selling. That’s why we need the government to inject some money into the economy with direct spending; it is the “employer of last resort.”
And as other people in this thread have stated, Obama did the worst thing he could have done: proposed a stimulus that everyone knew was too small, then went around saying it was a perfectly-sized stimulus that would keep unemployment below 8% (it’s at 9.6% now) and that it would turn the economy around any minute now.
homerhk
Blue neposet
This is the reason why I asked the question. 1 and 2 he did repeatedly and to no avail. the phrase “party of no” originated from the Obama administration in 2009. As for the Bush tax cuts, Obama repeatedly urged congress to repeal them for the most wealthy. He has always been about trying to get some more revenue from the more wealthy (remember that he wanted to pay for healthcare by limited the charitable deductions for people earning over $250K – that went down like a lead ballon amongst his own fucking party!).
On 3) how many times does it have to be said that the President cannot repeal a law by presidential decree (wouldn’t be much point to congress would there?) and that’s a good thing, no? he could have ordered a stop loss, I suppose, and I would have liked to see that but I think that so long as there was a possible path to full repeal through Congress that was the better option since it would be a permanent repeal not able to be undone by the next president (once DADT is gone, no congress is going to vote for it again). So, in any event, a stop loss would have only been temporary. Nonetheless I think that something like that might happen if it doesn’t get repealed in the next session of congress.
mellowjohn
@Captain Haddock:
good thing you don’t live in chicago. the heavy push for our mayoral election in feb. starts today.
jwb
@Kryptik: It just shows how difficult the Democratic coalition is to manage. On the other hand, I don’t know that the GOP coalition is any easier to manage, and the corporate overlords wouldn’t be running back and forth between the parties if the GOP were offering them everything they want.
meh
@SlyFox:
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
The Republic of Stupidity
@harlana:
A teary-eyed, human jack-o-lantern…
And the freak show that our political process has become rolls on, unabated…
Will Obama now be forced to drop trou on national teevee, to prove once and for all to the Teabaggers that he has been properly circumsized?
Or will he just be deported, period?
***starts beating head on keyboard***
Que Sera Sera
I need to find a market maker for soylent futures. I’m going long.
Kryptik
@jwb:
Comparing how successfully monolithic the Republicans have been, and understanding that Dems couldn’t act monolithic even on slam dunk issues…yeah, I honestly can’t see that happening.
Fuck, I’m depressed now. It feels like the next decade is completely lost.
Anya
@cleek: I don’t think it will be as bad as this election year.
I don’t think 2010 is that dire. I think, Dianne Feinstein, Tom Carper, Daniel Akaka, Ben Cardin, Amy Klobuchar, Bob Casey, and Sheldon Whitehouse are somewhat safe and we will take back
Joe Lieberman’s seat in Connecticut, and Scott Brown’s seat in Massachusetts. The endangered seats will be Missouri, Montana, and Virginia. I am not sure abou the rest.
curious
@Cris: in republican america bathtub drowns you.
Guster
@homerhk: I’m not really sure I understand your distinction between leadership and policies. I’m not saying that I expected Obama to _deliver_ on my numbers 2 or 3, just to lead the charge. Leadership doesn’t mean victory. I expected him to ‘say’ something repeatedly, and to ‘push’ for something else (repeatedly). That’s all, really. To stake a claim for the best solution, before settling for the third-best or whatever was possible.
And I mean, I don’t know what else I’d want him to lead on, other than policies.
jwb
@Kryptik: This is hard to say. You have to look at who is left. Are they the type who will think they need to move to the right? If it was primarily blue dogs who lost, then their clout will be correspondingly lessened so it’s not clear to me that the caucus as a whole will see that it’s in its interest to move right.
The Republic of Stupidity
@homerhk:
We’ll see what President Palin has to say about that!
arguingwithsignposts
@Corner Stone:
Which, last I checked, is still not a majority of the nation.
Oscar Leroy
@Corner Stone:
No doubt about it. Most likely, they will cut benefit payments then use the money SS has saved up for tax breaks for rich people.
Corner Stone
@DBrown: Why would they do any good? Their whole goal is to set the plate before they quit Congress. They serve the money interests, then when their time is over they get the paying gig.
Really interested to see where Dodd goes, and where a lot of these Blue Dogs go in the near future.
Suck It Up!
@Blue Neponset:
Its frowned upon because its a vague and generic talking point that has spread throughout the liberal blogosphere.
Kryptik
@arguingwithsignposts:
But it does feed into the point that the crazification factor is rising at breakneck speed.
wrb
@schrodinger’s cat:
It would probably take more like $2 trillion, I’m guessing.
That is because both Romer and Krugman calculated that it would take $1.3 trillion to close the production gap & we’re probably in worse shape now. It took $33 trillion of deficit spending (WWII) to finally end the great Depression and the technology, education and capacity it bought kept us on top of the world for half a century.
Doesn’t work that way. Stimulus is used to buy stuff. Companies invest only when they are confident that stuff will be bought. They don’t sit around hoarding their cash because government buying stuff relieves them of some duty to invest.
Corner Stone
@arguingwithsignposts: Don’t be silly AWS. Obama was on the ballot as sure as if he had been running.
The R’s will demagog the whole “refudiation of Obama’s policies” all day and night. But the fact is a lot of voters bought into that meme too. I think this will become much more obvious as we find voter breakdowns soon.
ET
District of Columbia residents are screwed.
homerhk
Guster,
But he doesn’t get any credit for urging further spending, such as the infrastructure bank or the small business loans thing, does he? or for urging congress to pass the repeal of DADT which failed because of the republicans? It is a bit of a myth that people want to put forward that if only Obama had pushed for something and failed, we’d like him better when he never gets any credit for doing so in the first place.
Mowgli
@arguingwithsignposts: You’re kidding, right? You’re trying to spin this that last night was NOT a rejection of Obama’s policies? Riiiiiight. Whatever. I am a pragmatist, not an ideologue, so I tend to look at the reality, not the fantasy.
Obama is in deep, deep trouble and he has no one to save him (unless he somehow changes his fundamental approach to communicating with people), since the GOP will claim for the next two years that Obama is blocking them from giving everyone jobs as CEOs and getting rid of all their taxes and making them deliriously happy. And the blue-collar males that determine elections in this country will swallow that whole and pull the R lever in 2012.
New Yorker
So the sun is still shining this morning after something of an inevitability in a midterm election in a bad economy. How about that?
Also, doesn’t anyone else think there might have been a bit of an overreach by the teabaggers here? They promised they’d repeal healthcare reform. That ain’t happening without a new Senate and President. Plus, the general public is already more positively disposed towards Obama than the GOP….
Yes, this could be 1994 all over again, with Obama rising to the occasion and the GOP house going Wile E. Coyote again.
Oscar Leroy
By the way, here’s what it means to say “Obama fought for the deficit reduction commission but not much else”: he tried to get the DRC pass legislatively but that failed. So he just set it up with an executive order and rang Congress’s phone off the hook until it agreed to vote on the commission’s ideas.
Meanwhile, he tried to get repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell done legislatively but that failed. So he. . . sits around, hoping it will work the next time.
Anya
@Anya: meant to say 2012
homerhk
Guster, and I think that Suck it Up says it best regarding the “leading” thing. urging Obama to “lead” is a vague and generic complaint that actually doesn’t have much substance – i have a lot more respect for policy critiques like the ones you set out because it turns out that much of the criticism around “leading” turns about to be criticism that he didn’t try to follow this or that policy.
Dennis SGMM
The Guess Who
“Undone”
She’s come undone
She didn’t know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
It was too late
She’s come undone
She found a mountain that was far too high
And when she found out she couldn’t fly
It was too late
It’s too late
She’s gone too far
She’s lost the sun
She’s come undone
She wanted truth but all she got was lies
Came the time to realize
And it was too late
She’s come undone
She didn’t know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
Mama, it was too late
It’s too late
She’s gone too far
She’s lost the sun
She’s come undone
Too many mountains, and not enough stairs to climb
Too many churches and not enough truth
Too many people and not enough eyes to see
Too many lives to lead and not enough time
It’s too late
She’s gone too far
She’s lost the sun
She’s come undone
(Doe-doe-doe-doe-doe doe un doe-doe-doe un doe-doe-doe)
(Doe doe-doe-doe-doe un doe-doe-doe doe-doe-doe)
(Doe doe-doe-doe doe doe-doe-doe doe doe)
[break]
It’s too late
She’s gone too far
She’s lost the sun
She’s come undone
She didn’t know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
It was too late
She’s come undone
She found a mountain that was far too high
And when she found out she couldn’t fly
Mama, it was too late
It’s too late
She’s gone too far
She’s lost the sun
She’s come undone
kgc16
@debit: I am going to remember this. Thank you.
Corner Stone
@homerhk: Companies will never use that money until demand rises.
Government is the spender of last resort. They had a role to play and they didn’t do it very well. A $450B stimulus was never going to even come close.
Kryptik
Oh, jesus fuck.
Iowa kicks out 3 State SC justices who helped clear the path for legal same-sex marriage there. And there’s a chance that Terry Branstad will end up appointing their replacements. Guess where the next regression of civil rights is gonna be?
Goddammit, I’m crying right now.
homerhk
Oscar, the equivalent of the deficit commission when you’re talking about DADT is the Pentagon review of the imminent change in the law. He got that done and got the JCOS and top generals to say in Congress that the law should be repealed. The deficit commission doesn’t actually have the power to enact any law.
Cacti
@Mowgli:
What are you talking about?
The R’s have locked up the Bubba vote in every election since 1980.
Obama won with a coalition of women, racial and ethnic minorities, the young, and a minority of the white male vote.
Suck It Up!
@Blue Neponset:
HA LOL HA LOL!!! OMG! WTF is this a Clint Eastwood movie? I’m no historian but from my recollection leaders who didn’t ask for permission were usually dictators.
jwb
@Kryptik: Let me just add that Bayh himself is a fucking asshole, not very smart (I actually doubt he has a very good grasp of the political fundamentals and expect that he believes all the crap he spouts about moderates), and I want him nowhere near the levers of power.
RalfW
“I, for one, welcome our new fiscal conservative overlords.”
I woke up to the confirmation this morning that the Minnesota House and Senate flipped to GOP. And my first thought was unprintable, my second was despair, and my third was “Dudes, you just bought a 5 Billion Dollar deficit. Enjoy governing!”
Corner Stone
@homerhk:
I personally like it when representatives invest themselves and fight for policies I want. Sure, sometimes they don’t quite get there. But a lot of good policies are inevitable, like Prop 19 and repeal of DADT. Those are going to be resolved sometime in the very near future.
homerhk
Corner stone, don’t know where you get that $450 bn figure from but I assume you discount the tax cuts entirely. Actually the total ARRA was about $820 bn of investment. I understand the argument that the size was too small in Feb 2009 – and substantively that sounds right. As for further investment, isn’t that why he wants to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy – he keeps saying that that $700 bn could be spent more efficiently.
jwb
@Kryptik: And it will continue to rise so long as economic anxiety remains high.
Cacti
@New Yorker:
It’s easy to be a deficit scold when you’re out of power. Actually doing something is hard work.
While people support cutting the deficit in principle, nobody supports cuts to programs that benefit them personally.
Oscar Leroy
@homerhk:
“It is a bit of a myth that people want to put forward that if only Obama had pushed for something and failed, we’d like him better when he never gets any credit for doing so in the first place. ”
He gets no credit for trying on DADT because he said he wouldn’t halt discharges in return for letting Congress do it. Then Congress failed to do it and he still won’t halt discharges.
An infrastructure bank is better than nothing, but it’s kind of weak tea. Waiting for private money to start rebuilding roads and bridges so the government can help is kind of a pipe dream, and if it works it might leave things that should be public in private hands. Small business loans will do little or nothing because there is little or no demand from customers.
As for the rest of what he’s done, it either sucks (Afghanistan, abortion restrictions, forcing people to buy health insurance) or is small potatoes window dressing (tobacco legislation, equal pay law, etc). That’s why he doesn’t get much credit.
Que Sera Sera
The only thing I will enjoy is the increasingly frantic insistance of the dead-ender Juicebaggers that this really is the best of all possible worlds.
That, and eating my cats to survive.
Corner Stone
I think we’re also going to look back and realize that not dealing with the “Bush Tax Cuts” was a monumental blunder.
And I don’t mean calling for a vote right before elections, even though I doubt it could’ve made the outcome any worse.
I mean using the tax cuts as a bludgeon against the R’s for six months or so during the Summer.
Everyone knew they were sunsetting. Not having a tactical plan to use them IMO will be looked back upon as incompetence of the first order.
Oscar Leroy
@Cacti:
“Obama won with a coalition of women, racial and ethnic minorities, the young”
Now ask yourself: what did he do over the past 2 years to get those people excited about voting again?
Blue Neponset
@homerhk: @homerhk: OK fine. You don’t like my suggestions. I don’t have all the answers why don’t you tell us what 3 things Obama could have done to improve yesterday’s results.
matoko_chan
tole jah so tole jah so tole jah so
Via Denver Post. RT @pwire: Bennet wins CO-Sen race… http://pwire.at/8YpQui
tomvox1
@Oscar Leroy:
Gee, I don’t know…
http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@homerhk: As America starts to slip in dominance in an obvious way because other countries are outspending it on infrastructure investments and investments in education (especially science education) and research, some of that “I got mine fuck you” attitude will change. It will take a while though.
Just Some Fuckhead
I am convinced that if we give tax cuts and deregulation one more chance, this time will be different.
Corner Stone
@homerhk: About $330B of tax cuts, which he got no credit for. No credit with the people, and no credit with the businesses who are hoarding the money.
Chyron HR
@Oscar Leroy:
And once they do pass the DADT repeal, you’ll just switch over to “Congress failed to do it SOON ENOUGH, and Obambi didn’t stop the discharges in the meantime.”
In the meantime, you’ll continue to berate Obama for both:
A) Paying lip service to bipartisanship, and
B) Not bargaining with Snowe and Collins.
matoko_chan
CAN I HAZ MY COMMENT UNMODERATED PLZ?
#77
Corner Stone
And can I say I despise Tweety with a serious passion. Hate that moran.
Oscar Leroy
@homerhk:
This is exactly what I’m talking about: instead of just signing a stop-loss order and saying “who’s the man?” he goes around to all his generals and admirals–who work for him, he is their boss–and says “why don’t you do a survey, then based on the survey do a review, then based on that issue a report, and then if everything looks alright we’ll start thinking about repealing DADT.”
Why on Earth do we need to study this issue? How many countries let openly gay people serve–18? 20? Letting black people serve didn’t wreck our army. Letting women serve didn’t wreck our army. Stop piddling around and do it.
Why not discount them? Tax cuts are the weakest kind of stimulus there is. And, as a bonus, Obama hid them so middle class voters wouldn’t know he cut their taxes. Huh???
matoko_chan
@Dennis SGMM: Are you talking about Palin?
Oscar Leroy
Matoko Chan, did you put links in your comment? Putting in too many is a one-way ticket to Moderationville.
Corner Stone
2012 should scare the absolute shit out of anyone who cares about this country.
I am going to be saving every damn penny I (please Lord) earn between now and then.
Disastrous Debacle will have a new definition.
Culture of Truth
Obama is timid! Unlike those brave kick-ass bloggers!
cleek
@DBrown:
and were likely replaced, not by moderate Republicans, but by teabaggees.
all those swing voters who were moderate enough to vote for a D last time are going to get to enjoy the Full Wingnut Monty.
Guster
@homerhk:
Well, it’s criticism that he didn’t _lead_ on this or that policy.
If he led a fight for single-payer, or Medicare for All, then settled for the ACA, which is a great bill (even though I personally–and many others–are even more fucked now that it passed), that would’ve been leadership.
I think you’re seeing vagueness because I’m not saying exactly what ‘led a fight’ means? I know that ‘bully pulpit’ is a punchline here, but it means using the bully pulpit. It means friendly interviews designed to push the message. It means having Gibbs pick a fight by saying, ‘Anyone who opposes Medicare for All wants Americans to suffer without health care.’ It means sending a proxy to visit every state for a press conference with an ‘ordinary citizen’ who’d benefit from MfA.
I don’t know exactly what it means, because I’m not a political professional. But remember how Bushco lied us into war? Brilliant example of leadership. Easier for them, of course, because they own the media. But still. That’s the idea. Send surrogates around talking about ‘I don’t want the smoking gun to be chemotherapy on _your_ child,’ and ‘the health insurance companies are profiteers of mass destruction.’ Pick a fight. Start a controversy.
Cacti
@Oscar Leroy:
He gets no credit for trying on DADT because
he said he wouldn’t halt discharges in return for letting Congress do itbecause firebaggers are liars. We said we’d be happy if Congress just tried to force a vote on it.Erik Vanderhoff
Last night I learned that America is not a center-right nation. America is a very, very stupid nation.
matoko_chan
meh.
I think the TP lost a seat for every seat they won.
Someone should count.
Why do TP seats count as republican seats anyways?
Didn’t the TP run against republicans?
unless…..the teabaggers WERE really just stealth republicans ALL ALONG, and the whole TP thingy was just an attempt at rebranding?
So ‘conservatives’ could scrape the Bush/Cheney off their shoes?
Rubio won hes a TP candidate.
Angle lost.TP candidate.
Buck and Tancredo lost.TP candidates.
Murkowski, republican, beats Miller, teabagger.
Dems +5 on senate.
Wash state, Colorado, Nevada, W. Va., Delaware.
Suck It Up!
@Oscar Leroy:
are you fucking kidding me? you want to sit there and tell me that Obama has done nothing for these groups? ’cause then I’d have to call you a liar.
Chyron HR
@Que Sera Sera:
Given your incohrent shrieks of “Juicebagger”, I assume you’re one of the so-called “Firebaggers”–progressives who seriously claimed that the Tea Party were grassroots independents that would join forces with the left to bring about Single Payer health care and all that other good stuff.
Why aren’t you savoring your victory? I’m sure withdrawal from Afghanistan is imminent now that Jane Hamsher’s Tea Party allies have the reins of power.
Oscar Leroy
@Chyron HR:
He SHOULD HAVE stopped discharges in the meantime. That will never change no matter what happens in the future.
As for relying on bipartisanship, if he hasn’t learned by now what a fool’s errand that is, he’s even more hopeless than I thought.
Davis X. Machina
@jwb:
Small but non-zero chance of Bernanke’s chopper fleet, and actual improvement. The teahadis might scream about deficits, but the big boys might also say — “Shut up. You have the majority. The nice offices. The big desks. Now leave us alone while we still have an economy, and you still have a funding stream.”
Oscar Leroy
@Suck It Up!:
Alright, what did he do? Please, prove me a liar.
Culture of Truth
I have this image of a young hipster with his arms crossed going “come on, Obama, dude, excite me…”
homerhk
Blue Neposet,
I honestly don’t know – I never claimed to have the answers. If I were an American I would vote for Obama in a heartbeat. I would vote for an all democratic ticket so that he got as much support for what he wants to do in Congress. I may not agree with the pace that he wants to do things, or the manner of how those things are achieved but from what I have seen and heard where he wants to end up is broadly in line with where I would like to see the country end up, some exceptions aside.
But then I’m not the person who keeps saying if only Obama had “lead” the democratic party would have done better. Here are three things which I think contributed to the rout (but are no means exhaustive):
– a bad economy coupled with an insane lack of trust in the government on the part of the majority of the public
– a crappy and ignorant media reflecting an ignorant and lazy population
– democratic congresscritters not being sufficiently strong in defending the substantial accomplishments of this Congress (of which there are many).
All three of these things overlap and interrelate, obviously.
–
matoko_chan
second verse, same as the first….
lawl, Obama just needs youth and minorities to turn out like they did in 2008. 365 to 173 is a damn steep hill to climb with Sarah Palin on your back.
This is not a moratorium on Obama….this is another successful republican conjob.
The TP REALLY IS just republicans that are rebranding to disassociate from that fucking WEC retard GW Bush…. The TPers are going to vote with the republicans and caucus with the republicans. They are trying to take over the republican party.
Colorado and Nevada were the most interesting…because the Red Wave turned into beach break. Pollstah fail.
this election is just the Revenge of the Heartland. Youth and minorities didnt turn out….except mebbe in Colorado and Nevada. Notably two places where cellphone penetration spoofed the national pollstahs. Anti-Buck sentiment was stirred by the fetalpersonhood amendment (lost again), and Bucks position on student loans and abortion restriction. Boulder County and Denver County host universities. Tancredo never actually had a chance here outside of landline households. Nevada has a high cellonly concentration in Las Vegas, because of UNLV and transient casino workers.
If you think of the demographic geography of cell-only households….its not uniform over America…. there will be sharp peaks in urban areas and college towns, and broad valleys and ravines in flyover and rural country.
So Silvers predictive model worked well in rural “real america”, but the Red Wave had a beach break in Colorado and Nevada, both cellonly household topographic peaks in the landline plains and valleys of the Real Murrican Heartland….
The Tea Party message is actually, “hey that wasn’t us! that was those republicans.” Abdication of responsibilty is always a winner.
In the “abdication of responsibility” department, ‘conservative’ rebranding as Tea Party was successful…but not so much in the “appeal to youth and minorities” category.
But then….youth and minorities didnt vote in this midterm. And they usually dont vote in midterms.
I repeat….365 to 173 is a damn steep hill to climb with Sarah Palin on your back. 2012 campaign season starts today. :)
Joe Beese
Up next: Obama’s hand-picked Catfood Commission recommends cutting Social Security benefits.
Last night will feel like the best blowjob you ever had compared to 2012.
Corner Stone
@cleek:
I would love, love, love to be there when these idiots demand constituency service and these Tea Party representatives give them the long bony one. Or even better, not even bother to respond to them at all.
Cacti
Okay, I’m going to shoot a sacred cow of the DFH’s.
Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy was proven to be a strategic failure. It realized some short term gains in electing blue dogs in reddish districts…
All of which were negated 4 years later.
Suck It Up!
@tomvox1:
don’t provide any links. these guys know exactly where to look if they really wanted to know.
Corner Stone
Reid, “We’ve got to start working together!
matoko_chan
@Oscar Leroy: no links.
WP hates me because im beautiful…like the rest.
:(
Oscar Leroy
@Guster:
“ACA, which is a great bill (even though I personally—and many others—are even more fucked now that it passed)”
With all due respect, that isn’t the definition of a great bill. Sorry to hear about your troubles with it :(
Corner Stone
@Cacti: There was nothing wrong with taking advantage of weakness to steal a few R districts and put together a majority.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
I enjoyed Speaker Pelosi, on balance.
Suck It Up!
@Cacti:
Oh no you’re wrong Cacti. If Dean were the head of the DNC right now, this bloodbath would never have happened. How? I don’t know, no one will tell me.
Guster
@Oscar Leroy: Thanks. It’s great because there are many families who are getting a huge amount of help–and I’d be just as more-fucked-than-ever if it _hadn’t_ passed.
So I try to be happy for all the people who are better off.
Socraticsilence
@Mowgli:
Um- so you think Obama needs to go Clinton and reform Social Security or something? Look, as it stands Obama despite a horrible economy would win re-election against any major GOP contender- some (namely Palin) in margins approaching 1964 or 1984.
Blue Neponset
@homerhk: That is a cop out. You don’t claim to have answers but you claim to know when the answers are correct. It can’t be both.
The short version of our discussion is that Obama and the Democrats lost badly yesterday. I think something could have been done to lessen those losses. You seem to be resigned to the fact that Obama and the Dems did everything they could and still manged to lose by historical numbers.
Socraticsilence
@Oscar Leroy:
You know what really sucked- Social Security if only we’d had a true progressive during the depression instead a racist trying to protect the rich (which is essentially what Social Security did).
Oscar Leroy
@Cacti:
“Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy was proven to be a strategic failure. It realized some short term gains in electing blue dogs in reddish districts…
All of which were negated 4 years later. ”
Well, let’s be honest here: Howard Dean is no longer making strategy for the Democratic Party. Tim Kaine is. We aren’t doing the 50 state strategy anymore. And if you think Howard Dean deserves blame for this election, how many voters said they were voting against him in exit polls?
Suck It Up!
@Oscar Leroy:
so the same people who opposed Obama since the day he took office are saying that they are voting against him in the mid-terms?
homerhk
Guster,
But this is fucking nuts, if i might say so. Why would he lead on a policy that wasn’t part of his campaign (medicare for all). But more importantly, how can one seriously be disappointed that he didn’t lead on such a policy that specifically wasn’t part of the campaign?
Corner Stone and Oscar, the tax cuts can’t be discounted completely as stimulus even if they weren’t as effective as spending on infrastructure. And you can’t really have it both ways complaining that he doled it out in increments so he didn’t get credit for it because that’s the way to increase their stimulative effect.
Oscar on your question about what he’s done for women, young people and ethnic minorities I really hate sounding like a stuck record but (deep breath): student loan reform, healthcare, consumer protection agency, EPA regulating carbon, lily leadbetter act, Sonio Sotomayor, credit card act (which has a disproportionate effect on minority households) and saving the country from a fucking depression.
Oscar Leroy
@Socraticsilence:
“trying to protect the rich (which is essentially what Social Security did). ”
I’m not sure what you mean. If by “protect the rich” you mean “gave working people a new lease on life so they didn’t storm the gates and draw and quarter the rich” there’s something to that.
All in all, though, rich people haaaate Social Security. All that money, just sitting there waiting to help old fogies who had the nerve to not be born with silver spoons in their mouths. Nice, big piles of money that could be gambled in the stock market! Mmmmm, money.
Ryan
@Guster:
If he’d have gone out for those things he’d have come back with nothing. Then we’d be talking about how if we can elect enough Kuciniches we might have a perfect health care bill pass sometime in the second half of the century. Instead, we have a workable health care bill that extends coverage to most Americans that is actual matter-of-fact law. The price was some lost seats in the midterm.
Socraticsilence
@Oscar Leroy:
Yes- he didn’t fight for much else- I mean sure he basically staked his presidency on HCR getting passed (unlike say Clinton who wilted like a punk) and sure he and his DOJ got destroyed by both sides in the first year of his administration for trying to bring various Gitmo detainee’s to trial in American Civilian courts and to close Gitmo entirely (it was funny watching big mouths like Grayson and Yellow Russ Feingold buckle and admit that they didn’t really want to close Gitmo- at least not if that meant the detainee’s were transferred to federal facilities near the areas they represented).
The Debt commission will come out with some interesting- non-binding findings- likely recommending cuts to entitlements and military spending as well as tax hikes- since the recommendations can’t be voted on piecemeal I can’t see either side passing them (seriously, you think the GOP is going to back a cut in defense spending- something that along with Social Security has always been what Alan Simpson railed against).
homerhk
Blue neposet, I don’t regard it as a cop-out but anyway. What I think is that despite all the fair policy critique from the left (on substantive grounds), the fact is that overwhelmingly the reason why the Dems lost was that the US public thought that what had been implemented was too far left. I don’t agree with that assessment but I think that one lives in fairy land if you think that be going the medicare for all route, nationalising banks, etc etc. the democratic rout would have been lessened. there may be a small part of the population that would have loved those policies (let’s be generous and say 20%) and there may be a very small portion of those people who refused to vote but I really don’t think that would have countered the even more ferocious “enthusiasm” by the know-nothings on the right. Maybe that’s too pessimistic to think but that’s certainly what it looks like to me. I don’t want Obama to go all centrist in response, believe me. I want him to stick to his guns and prevent any diminution of the laws already passed and to continue to seek to pass laws he wants to pass.
Socraticsilence
@Oscar Leroy:
While he doesn’t deserve blame, I think we can safely say that the 50 state strategy only works when conditions favor Dems anyway- seriously, you realize how many seats in +5 or worse districts Dems picked up in 2006 and 2008?
arguingwithsignposts
I forgot that alongside all the batshit insane teabag gloating today, we’d get firebagging schadenfreude as well.
I may retreat to solely the pets, sports, and tv threads for the foreseeable future.
Cleek, do you have a plugin for that?
Que Sera Sera
Chyron HR: Actually, no, I think that Jane Hamsher is an idiot, fool, and liar, but I have been amused by the unending attacks on’firebaggers’. I believe that the great undifferentiated mass of Panglossian centrists at Ballon Juice should probably direct their anger at the American people or their Democratic leaders, instead of doubling down of the Hamster hate, but YMMV.
WereBear
Yes, but when it comes right down to it; the Teabaggers don’t care about accomplishing anything. Their patron Saint Palin quit in the middle of her terms, they love running Confirmed Losers, and they prefer plain whining to just about anything else.
What promises have the Republicans gotten in trouble for breaking?
Oscar Leroy
@Suck It Up!:
“so the same people who opposed Obama since the day he took office are saying that they are voting against him in the mid-terms? ”
Yes, that’s exactly right, but this time there weren’t enough Democrats coming out to vote to balance them out.
[email protected]homerhk:
“student loan reform, healthcare, consumer protection agency, EPA regulating carbon, lily leadbetter act, Sonio Sotomayor, credit card act (which has a disproportionate effect on minority households) and saving the country from a fucking depression.”
Half of what you mention does not appeal directly to those core groups. The EPA regulating carbon is a good thing if it ever happens and the CPA might end up being good once it gets up and running, but those don’t appeal to those core groups. The health care reform is a mess that half the country doesn’t like (see below). And he sure hasn’t saved this country from a depression. Look at the unemployment graph–this is a depression. 9.6% unemployment makes an equal pay act a pyrrhic victory and it’s much, much higher for the young and nonwhite.
Student loan reform is nice (though Obama had to be dragged into it) and Sotomayor looks like a good justice. Now compare that to stepping up deportment of Hispanic immigrants–why the hell can’t we focus on illegals who came here on now-expired visas?–and sending troops to the Mexican border. When the Census and the IRS cut their partnerships with ACORN that was a killer; who ultimately commands those agencies? Our drug war continues unabated–witness Obama’s administration cheering the defeat of proposition 19–with ever-higher numbers of minorities being locked up for things Obama himself did and Mexico a bloodbath. To pass HCR the government had to restrict funds for abortion–but why did Obama sign in even harsher restrictions than Congress demanded? We all know white voters prefer Republicans, but white union members prefer Democrats 2-to-1; so why not ram through the Employee Free Choice Act instead of letting it wither on the vine while his chief of staff goes around saying “f*** the unions”?
Oscar Leroy
@Socraticsilence:
Just because an election year favors Democrats doesn’t mean any strategy is sure to work. 2000 sure as heck favored Ds; was Al Gore’s strategy a good one?
@homerhk:
“I don’t agree with that assessment but I think that one lives in fairy land if you think that be going the medicare for all route, nationalising banks, etc etc. the democratic rout would have been lessened. there may be a small part of the population that would have loved those policies (let’s be generous and say 20%)”
Come on now, Medicare is one of the most wildly popular government programs in the world! Over 80% of people on it like it.
If the government had nationalized bad banks, the benefits would be: they would be lending again, boosting the economy; investors would be wiped out, giving the right wing less money to buy–err, invest in this election; and the public would see a president working for them instead of Wall Street. Anyone who doesn’t think the Democrats would benefit from that, well, I just don’t know what to say to them.
Oscar Leroy
“the great undifferentiated mass of Panglossian centrists at Ballon Juice ”
haha )
Pangloss was the guy who said there was no point in trying to change things because we already live in the best possible world.
Guster
@homerhk: I’ve never understood why I’m only allowed to be disappointed about things that a candidate promises but fails to deliver. When I support a candidate–and I supported and still support Obama–I don’t think to myself, ‘And I will be certain to never push that candidate closer toward my own views.’ In fact, I think the opposite–and am disappointed both in myself and the candidate when I fail.
I understand your point. But what I’m saying is something like this: he didn’t lay down any markers about what the Democratic Party stands for. He’s the party leader. He didn’t give us any rallying cry. Do we stand for ‘significant improvements around the margins of existing policy?’
Maybe so. I think you’d probably say yes, and I’d certainly agree that ‘significant improvements around the margins of existing policy’ is a damn good thing.
But it’s not leadership. Leadership is saying, ‘We stand for every single American getting the affordable, quality healthcare’ and ‘Equal rights for all Americans.’ Then if the best we can do on the former is ‘significant improvement around the margins,’ fine. So be it. Reality is reality.
I just think it’s pretty clear that Obama failed to say ‘that, over there, is the ultimate goal. That is what we stand for.’ And to say it over and over again–not just in speeches, but in actions. Maybe I’m being naive, and the president doesn’t have a big enough megaphone to overwhelm the chatting media crap-hats. But I saw him on Jon Stewart, say, choosing to defend his extremely-defensible compromises instead of choosing to lay down a marker for the future.
Ryan: You think that if Obama pushed hard for Medicare for All, we’d have ended up with less than the ACA. I imagine there are some people here who think that if he’s pushed for Medicare for All, we’d have ended up with the public option. I think that if he’d pushed for Medicare for All, we’d have ended up with exactly the ACA … and a sense that the president really, really wanted Medicare for All.
Maybe you’re right. We’re both talking out our necks, I suppose, it’s pure speculation.
homerhk
Oscar, you asked what he did and I responded. Simple enough.
did Obama have to be dragged into student loan reform? what is the basis for saying that?
I beg to disagree with you re the consumer protection agency and healthcare in that those laws help minorities the most since minorities are most often in need of consumer protection and access to healthcare.
On the abortion thing, I really don’t know how you can say that he signed more restrictive provisions than Congress demanded when you clearly know about the Stupak – Nelson nonsense that went on.
and, contrary to your post, 9.6 % unemployment is not a depression – http://useconomy.about.com/od/grossdomesticproduct/f/Depression.htm – a depression is downturn that lasts for several years and when it last happened in the 1930s unemployment was 25%!
in the context of your comment, the reference to EFCA is really strange – how does that help youth, women or ethinc minorities in particular.
On the deportation thing, again I’m not sure what you’re saying. Are you saying that he is deporing legal immigrants? or that he should concentrat on illegal immigrants overstaying their visas (i thought that was what the deportation thing was!).
Blue Neponset
@homerhk:
It also seems like you think Obama could not have done anything to change what “the US public thought” about those policies. If, as you suggest, the policies themselves were proper and correct then it seems like what you think went wrong was the messaging about those policies. Who controls the messaging of the Democratic Party? My answer is President Obama. If he can’t get dumbfuckistan to understand why his policies are proper then he is not doing his job very well. Do you disagree with that?
Also, yesterday was a regularly scheduled election not the Kobayashi Maru test. Obama and Co. weren’t facing a no-win scenario or results that no one could have predicted. Exactly what happened yesterday was talked about for over a year if not longer.
I’d really like to hear the Obama defenders tell us what he could have done to improve yesterday’s results? Is the answer nothing? Is so, what does that mean for the next two years.
Citizen Alan
@Chyron HR:
You really think Congress is going to pass DADT in the lame duck session? Really? If it does, I’ll cheer Obama for a rare victory. And if someone comes by and installs a heated swimming pool in my backyard for free, I’ll happily swim in it. Neither seems very likely at the moment.
Comrade Dread
The lizard people have learned to imitate our human emotions in order to blend in, but they have yet to learn the man rules about crying:
Men are only cleared to cry when:
1.) A significant other/wife/parent/close sibling/child/dog dies.
2.) The birth of a child.
3.) When you’re wounded. And I’m talking about the kind of wound where you start shopping around for a prosthetic limb.
Any guy who cries in any other situation is likely one of the lizard people and should be closely monitored to see if he also eats kittens.
Lupin
There is no pendulum; you’re deluding yourselves; ask the the British Empire, the French Monarchy or the old USSR. You’re in the Gorbachev era; the Yeltsin clowns have arrived; in 2015, the US will sort of look like Mumbai, minus the tasty food. Get used to it.
300baud
@homerhk:
I’ll name two:
During the campaign, he showed some passion, some compassion. I have seen none of that since inauguration. As a nerd, I trust that he’s on the side of the American people. I trust he’s on the job. But non-nerds want a leader who visibly demonstrates passion and compassion in a way they can feel it. I want him to do that. Not about partisan stuff, but about things that the bulk of America cares about.
If the Republicans become, as I expect, even more obstructionist, then I want to see him get riled up on occasion, to visibly fight, to point some fingers when there are obvious problems. Which, yes, I understand works against his desire for low drama, which I share. But Republicans just used a lot of trumped-up drama to make major gains, and I expect they will repeat the strategy. Politics is many things, but it is also theater, and if he wants to win in 2012, he needs a compelling counter-story.
ruemara
@JohnR:
Why not, it seems to be what the Democratic Base is happy with.
@300baud:
case in point.
EDITED again
@Guster:
Oh. Good. Lord.
Michael
@Kryptik:
*chuckle*
This happens every time – you have to move the public toward supporting the position, not do the short cut, because the quick victory is fleeting. I know it takes time, but patience is important.
chopper
the funny bit is going to be watching the goopers sucking each others’ dicks for the next week over winning one chamber of congress.
yeah, the worst economy since the depression and you couldn’t even repeat 1994. and obama’s approval rating is still 50%. and you don’t have anyone to run in 2012 that has a snowball’s chance in hell of beating the president.
but still, golf claps all around.
ruemara
@Blue Neponset:
It’s actually less than historical numbers and was parroted as fait accompli since the beginning of the year, if not last year. But please, don’t let that stop the narrative.
DaBomb
@Oscar Leroy:
He increased money to HBCUs, got money for the Native AMerican farmers, Lily Ledbetter Act, Female domestic abuse victims from Native American tribes will receive more help from government funding that helps tribal police prosecute the crimes.
More money for kids trying to pay for college, because of no middle man.
This is just some of the things that I have popped off the top of my head. Maybe because I am in both of these groups that Suck It Up mentioned. I have been paying attention to what the President has done and how it has affected me and my family.
Of course there are plenty of sites online that state his accomplishments. But I am not going to bother giving you those since, they have been brought up incessantly several times on this website and others on the blogosphere.
Proving you a liar and ignorant fuckwad wasn’t hard to do.
JD Rhoades
@debit:
Yep. Payback’s a motherfucker.
JD Rhoades
@debit:
Yep. Payback’s a motherfucker.
Elie
Ya know what makes me feel bad about yesterday?
I sat in a room of people who were all Democrats last night to watch the returns. The State of WA had a proposition to for the first time, implement a State income tax instead of the regressive user fees and sales taxes that have put funding the state on the backs of the working class. Several of the DEMOCRATS in that room voted against it for their own, selfish reasons, citing the “slippery slope” of funding for people who “don’t deserve it”.
Now THAT is why we had yesterday, if these folks are a crosssection of what we are calling Democrats these days… they are self serving, selfish people who cannot be bothered to inform themselves of the facts, much less do the right thing. BTW, all of these people are College educated, retired professors, some business folks etc… people who I considered to be partners in enacting environmental regulations for the county and working to GOTV for Democrats.
THAT is why I am bummed today — after a 45 minute conversation/argument with one of the women who swore up and down that people on welfare were receiving enough dough from the govt to fund a three bedroom apartment, in California no less! That pregnant welfare recipients should only be allowed one baby and any subsequent should not be supported, (though she backed off of that a little bit)
THAT is America. Worried, pissed off about the spineless Democrats? THESE people are the spineless Democrats who are the guardians of things as they are not only in this party, but in our country. Nothing less than some huge epiphany, much worse than 2008, will reach these people and then, only after a great deal more misery.
Our country learned all the wrong lessons. All of it. It is not anyone else’s fault but our own. Like Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and it is us”
I don’t think that truly we can seek a solution to this from the top – down. The cancer is in us and we own the fix — however, whenever — it must start here…
DaBomb
@arguingwithsignposts:
It’s like living in a parallel universe. Of course, they were going to sliver out from under their rocks and screcch.
**SIGH**
Blue Neponset
@ruemara: Holy fucking shit! You are seriously splitting hairs with me about how losing 65 seats in the House isn’t the worst ever?
How does it change my “narrative” if yesterday was not the worst ass kicking in the history of the universe, but, in fact, the second worst ?
ETA: Also, if yesterday’s bloodbath was a fait accompli why didn’t the Democrats leave everything on the field? If they knew they would lose their power why didn’t the use it more when they had it?
FlipYrWhig
@Blue Neponset:
Sad to say, the answer is nothing. He’s been sandbagged by conservative Democrats from doing more to help everyday people. That’s what they do. Also, as everyone was worried all along, many of the young people who like him don’t really care enough about “Democrats” or “liberals” to be part of an activist army when Obama isn’t himself on the ballot.
What does it mean for the next two years? They’re going to suck. We’d better hope that the economy turns around. And for some of the fucking awful old people in this country to just die already.
ruemara
@Blue Neponset:
HOLY FUCKING SHIT!
It was projected to be 70. The Senate could have been lost too. We lost more in prior elections.
Considering that some our best progressives lost in the +R districts they somehow won last time Americans felt like change the decorations in DC, give us the game plan that would have prevented serious losses. While you’re at the fantasy presidentin’, give up a game plan to get the media to actually, you know, report shit with facts.
Edited to respond to your edit.
Oi and fucking vey. Sir/Madame, you can’t tell me that you don’t get what happens in Congress and you frequent political sites. I am sure you just need a cup of a good hot beverage to grace your day.
homerhk
Blue neposet,
It was a blowout, undeniably. One reason for it, unmentioned by some, is that actually doing things while in power is going to please some people and displease others. Obama may have had an easier time of it if they had not done very much but that is what political capital is for. He spent his on substantial things. I don’t begrudge him that and maybe he or the other dems could have done more at the margins to make the things they did seem more palatable but there is a reason it’s called “spending” political capital.
Corner Stone
@arguingwithsignposts:
That you and Cole and others keep doing this is amazing to me.
ruemara
@Corner Stone:
Then how does a post about the incoming congress turn into an “Obama’s to blame/No he’s not” 300+ post thread?
Corner Stone
@FlipYrWhig:
IMO, that is impossible. The admin and previous Congress had already decided “stimulus” was the equivalent of “baby kidnapping/rapist/murderer”. The new makeup is full on preaching about smaller more limited government. Which we all know they lie as easy as breathing but whatever they spend our money on it will definitely not be to create middle class jobs.
The banksters and businesses will not commit capital until they see defined demand. Which isn’t coming from any large sector of the public.
The spender of last resort will not be spending on us.
chopper
@Blue Neponset:
uh, because they’re democrats?
seriously guys, it was a drubbing to be sure, but not doomworthy. given the context (worst economy since the big one, high unemployment etc etc), the dems should have lost the senate as well. they didn’t.
Corner Stone
@ruemara: There are real problems. Problems that were identified months and months ago. A lot of people brought those up only to be derided here, or told to somehow bring criticism “from the left” or using “left wing frames”.
Well, the fucking problems really didn’t give a shit about framing, and apparently neither did the administration.
Now you and other individuals here can make excuses for the most powerful elected leader in the world but I think that’s not going to get the problems resolved either.
We’re fucking dead in 2012. Yes, right now there isn’t an R candidate who could challenge or beat Obama. But that’s right now. If we don’t get U3 under at most 7.5% or so damn quick, and IMO we will not, the D party is fucking dead in 2012.
Blue Neponset
@ruemara:
I guess we could give up and do nothing but praise Obama. You guys seem to like that.
daveNYC
And I’d like to give a hearty fuck you to Iowa. Terry Braindead back in the govenor’s seat, and they booted out three of the justices that had voted on the gay marriage decision. I’m so glad I left that hellhole.
Blue Neponset
@chopper: Keeping the Senate was an unforced Republican error. Nothing the Dems did saved the Senate. We should be thanking the teabaggers for saving it for us.
wrb
It is inspiring to see that after the hard work that helped bring about last night’s triumph the firebaggers and the permanently pouting PUMAs are all ready hear hard at work to bring us a Republican Senate and White House in two years.
Awsome
catclub
@Socraticsilence:
“Obama despite a horrible economy would win re-election against any major GOP contender- some (namely Palin) in margins approaching 1964 or 1984”
That implies winning Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina again, Pennsylvania also. If the economy is horrible I don’t think he wins those. I can only hope the economy improves and unemployment is going down faster.
uriel
@homerhk:
Well, to be fair, you did leave out pants-pissing fear- that is a big part of what made their base so gosh darned frisky this year. Otherwise, nicely put.
homerhk
Uriel,
Thanks for that – and given all of that, I’m at a loss to know what more Obama could have done about it. I suppose the buck stops with him in the end so he should bear some responsibility but isn’t a lot of the responsibility on the voters as well?
fasteddie9318
Maybe it’s time to consider the George Carlin position:
fasteddie9318
@homerhk:
I think it was the other way around. If it were isolationism masked as exceptionalism, they wouldn’t be so gung-ho to start up another war and to keep fighting the two we’ve already got. They firmly believe that America is King of the World, but they played it off as isolationism for the teatards. And, hell, most of the teatards don’t see a disconnect between “SMALL GOVERNMENT” and “BOMB THE HELL OUT OF ANYBODY WE DON’T LIKE,” so it wasn’t a tough sell.
Comrade Dread
God, I wish it were American Isolationism. If these Tea Loons were truly like their early 20th century forebearers, we’d be out of Afghanistan, out of Iraq, out of Europe, drawing down our forces and defense budgets.
Sly
Look on the bright side, folks. What doesn’t kill makes you stronger. That, or it will just scar you for life.
The economy was going to go further into the tank before it got better regardless, due to the cloture rule. Now its just going to be faster and a lot more will suffer, particularly after the impending government shutdown and massive state budget cuts. If you know anyone who works in civil service professions, they’ll probably be needing a hug soon.
What can be said about the 2010 Midterm Elections is that the electorate has apparently decided that the country hasn’t hit bottom yet, so we’re all going to be forced along on the ride. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and make sure that the ride only lasts another two years. Not because you don’t want it to, but because it literally cannot be allowed if you want your kids to have an even slightly better life than your own.
chopper
@Blue Neponset:
true, but that doesn’t change the point. it wasn’t as bad as it should have been.
chopper
i will recommend everyone, start watching the market. with the GOP in charge of the house and even more gridlock coming down the pike, any spending programs with any real stimulus to them (infrastructure etc) are going to be blocked. the GOP is going to push austerity hard. double-dip, here we come.
englishmajor
Elie,
Word up.
Me too crying in WA. It’s Alabama 2003 redux: working/middle class plus ignorant, “educated” Dems voting to save millionaires from the indignity of having to pay taxes. Voting against tax cuts for themselves. Voting against funding the public schools whose dark, peeling hallways the kids of said millionaires will never tread. Voting against health insurance for their own families.
To be absolutely clear, we didn’t vote against a pol who made a bunch of airy-fairy promises, but voted down an initiative that would have delivered the realio, trulio, much-deserved goods today.
Yes, not as much angry as incredibly sad.
Plus, it’s personal, as I have kids in WA public schools who were just told by the coalition of Steve Ballmer, Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen, and Bubba to go fuck themselves.
Elie
@englishmajor:
Yep.
I am without words.
I had the angry and disappointing reality of knowing these people and being amazed at their ignorance…
amazing, amazing and completely depressing
Angry Black Lady
@Oscar Leroy: right, because e’rybody knows that whatever the commission says, obama has to do.
::wrings hands::
Angry Black Lady
@Blue Neponset: because every democrat is lockstep behind obama the way every republican was lockstep behind bush, so OF COURSE obama could have and should have forced the dumbfuckistanis–who will vote against their interests every damn time just because fox news told them to–to behold the power of his
liberalismcentrism.and certainly all the “DFHs” (what a dumbass term) who are crowing as we speak about how FAIL obama is and who have been crowing for a year about how FAIL obama is had nothing to do with it. certainly every “help feingold” message that went out right after ‘we hate obama” helped motivate people.
bush never had to fight his own party because his own party was a monolith. obama is taking hits from all sides because democrats aren’t a monolith. fucking AIDS activists are shouting at him at rallies. and when he hits back, the lefties cry “oh my god, you’re punching hippies” which is, by the way, the goddamn dumbest shit ever.
some lefties like to think that only the “hippies” are the democratic base and that they are being punched because they didn’t get a public option or hate the fucking catfood commission. they keep coming up with pithy terms for whateverthefuck, and they keep talking about how obama is angering his base and didn’t give the people what they want, but these lefties never stopping to think that there are people who are perfectly content with the job that Obama is doing, and a lot of those people are ::gasp:: people of color.
but i forgot, we don’t count.
also, you ever talked to a dumbfuckistani? i tried to. so hard. every day. i had to give up. it really is like talking to a dining room table. they have no critical thinking skills and no comprehension skills. so no, if obama had just been MOAR LIBRULER, the Democrats wouldn’t have done any better because half the country doesn’t like LIBRULS. full stop. and these people are MORANS who make up their own facts and then run with them.
i’m so tired of these stupid ass liberal talking points.
Corner Stone
@Angry Black Lady: Woohoo! You tell him! You fucking A tell him!
You tell that strawman bullshit right the fuck off! Yeah! Knock the hell outta that shit! Go for it! Fuck yeah!
DaBomb
@Angry Black Lady: THIS x eleventy billion.