Well guys, says Cantor, we torpedoed the economy and Obama still won.
Newt lifts his head off the table, blinks his bloodshot eyes against the fluorescent light. So we call it a half win?
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[…] 72% of the electorate, which appears to be insufficient to deliver the White House to the GOP. And the Republicans’ sabotage approach to legislation and economics doesn’t seem to have helped them all too much either this […]
Pen
They still control the House, they’re just getting started. The questions to ask are: will Reid have the balls to steamroll the Senate republican’s for their filibuster antics, and how can we make the house pay for their (inevitable) “bring on the default” brinksmanship?
chopper
yeah, professor grift can’t fade out of sight fast enough for me. if only.
Snarki, child of Loki
Newt thinks that he’s a wit. He’s half right.
chopper
so, gay marriage and abortion are big losers now and latinos hate their guts. now to split the teabagger faction even further.
what will be the GOP’s fort sumter moment? will cantor stick a shiv in orange julius and try to take the gavel?
ChrisS
Listening to the FauxNews talking heads last night whine about the non-white voters, I can only imagine that the GOP leaders are scouring their party ranks looking for a Latino candidate to run on the ticket in 2016.
Change the tune? Never. It’s always about finding the right piper for them.
Violet
Ha ha ha. Peter Alexander on Today Show saying Romney told reporters in PA yesterday that he really believed he was going to win, that “he could feel it.” Wingnuts are all about the feeling.
forked tongue
Anyone know of a link to video of Sarah Palin on Fox last night? Word is she looked like death warmed over. I’d kind of like to see that.
dmsilev
@Violet: Republicans keep chasing PA like Ahab going after the Great White Whale.
And the ending is roughly the same as well.
EconWatcher
@Pen:
I was commenting on another thread, the obvious thing for Obama to do now is push for Senate and House bills targeting middle-class tax relief, while allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire. Then House Republicans will have to decide whether to sign on, or be responsible for tax hikes for the middle classe.
But for this scenario to work, the Blue Dogs in the Senate and House have to cooperate. If they give a lot of bipartisan cover for renewing the Bush cuts in toto, Obama will face a difficult situation. I expect and assume that people a lot smarter than me are gaming this out as we speak.
Violet
@chopper:
Half the wingnuts last night were saying “Mitt was a northeaster liberal. Next time we need to nominate a Real Conservative.” and the other half were saying, “The Republicans are losing the demographics battle and social issues aren’t working like they used to.” GOP schism!
Mark S.
@forked tongue:
I saw a screen shot of her last night, and wow. Sarah, it’s not a good idea to take naps on the tanning bed.
Paul
@Pen:
If people can get bothered to vote in the 2014 midterms…But if they couldn’t be defeated in a presidential year, I wouldn’t hold my breath until 2020 when the next redistricting process occurs.
Mark S.
@Violet:
I’m going to channel Nate Silver and predict with 97.42% confidence that the story will be “We would have won if we nominated a True Conservative.”
Violet
@ChrisS:
They’ve got Rubio ready to go. He’ll be in prime position for 2016. I don’t know if a conservative Cuban will win over the larger Latino vote, though. Susanna Martinez might be another good option for them. Female, Latina. But she’s a former Dem, so until the GOP stops the purity purges, she’ll never get through a primary.
TheMightyTrowel
I’m so excited once again to have a senator that I’m not ashamed of. Senator Warren has a great ring to it. Can’t wait to see her sink her teeth into the stodgy boys club that is the senate. Big win yesterday (still today here in Vietnam where we’re 12 hr ahead of east coast US) for the ladies and the gays. White men, what gives?
gbear
The news in MN is so incredibly good this morning I can’t believe it. Democrats took back both the state house and senate, the teaparty creep legislator in NE MN lost, and BOTH the marriage amendment and voter ID amendments were defeated!! Oh, and Bachmann faces a recount because the vote was so close (It was a long shot to defeate her in her district). I went to bed very nervous but I am SO happy to see these results this morning. YAY MN!! This is the MN I know.
Rosalita
Love how the wingers are saying the election comes with no mandate…after King George II crowing about it with a slimmer margin. Fucking fuckers.
Pen
@Paul: Kinda reminds me, my wingnut family members really didn’t like it when I told them last night that the only areas the GOP seemed to be able to win anymore were the Confederacy and gerrymandered districts.
chopper
oh, and while we should give nate silver his due, wang called it closer in the electoral college.
pk
It’s a vulgar, but the only thing I thought of on the republican defeat was that women took the vaginal wand and shoved it up the collective male GOP ass!
Violet
@forked tongue: Here you go: http://www.businessinsider.com/sarah-palin-on-election-night-2012-11. Palin looks like she’s wearing a raccoon on her head.
Schlemizel
@Violet:
sing along with them:
FEEEEEEEEEEE-lings, nothing more than FEEEEEEEEEEE-lings . . .
I have this smile I can’t get rid of today 8-{D
Robin G.
@gbear: I couldn’t believe it when I checked the results this morning. (I’m particularly happy about Chip Cravaak going down. The Iron Range has regained its relative sanity.)
I think Bachmann’s going to win, but I kind of don’t mind. Let her keep talking and continue to remind everyone how batshit the Republican party still is.
Higgs Boson's Mate
OT? California is on the road back to sanity; Prop 30, a four year, quarter percent sales tax increase to fund education, passed. IOW, Californians voted to raise their own taxes.
CA Secretary of State results for the General Election HERE.
double nickel
WTF is wrong with Florida? I’ve seen better run elections inmost 3rd world countries.
EconWatcher
@TheMightyTrowel:
If I understand correctly, Obama won a majority of white men in the northeast, and lost white men by only a small margin in the midwest. However, he lost resoundingly and overwhelmingly with white men in the deep south and other states of the old confederacy.
I think that context is critical to bring up whenever anyone talks about Obama’s problem with white men. He doesn’t have a problem with white men. He has a problem with white southern men. Wonder why.
Violet
@Schlemizel: I know! Me too! It’s cracking me up how often the pundits and the wingnuts talk about feelings. They don’t care about facts or policy. They just care about how they feel. Idiots.
El Cid
I think we need to make and sign a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge “Thank You” card to black people and Latinos and women saying “Thank you for putting up with all the shit you did to keep our unworthy white male asses out of that fire.”
Violet
@EconWatcher: Republicans are going to be the party of white men if the demographics keep heading the way they are. Old white men.
beltane
@Pen: The GOP is now officially the Southern party, fully embracing the region’s traditions of treachery and white supremacism. They’re going to have to take a very long bath if they hope to ever rid themselves of the redneck stench they carry around with them.
AA+ Bonds
Statements from Republican leaders in the House and Senate this morning advised Obama that now is the time to propose bills that are more in line with Republican ideology
El Cid
Actually, let me revise that: We should really also thank Republicans, because between Romney attacking Chrysler and GM and a thousand other things, and the Republicans handing the Democrats Senate wins by putting up Tea Party assholes and in general exhibiting loudmouth dickweed behavior, they made this possible.
AA+ Bonds
@EconWatcher:
According to the numbers Obama also has a problem with white women in the same areas
El Cid
@beltane: That’s not fair — you’re leaving out the former slave-allowing territories of the West, who now wish to join the Confederacy.
beltane
@Violet: Last night’s results showed that they are already the party of old white men in all regions of the country but one, where they are also the party of old white women and their dumbass children and grandchildren.
Mino
I’m just waiting to hear from Nancy that she is not leaving us to the likes of DCLer Steny.
AA+ Bonds
@beltane:
So what about everyone else in the South
beltane
@El Cid: You are right. I should have specified that the GOP is the party of the Confederacy and its sympathizers. There is no room for anyone else in that tent except in the role of servants, tools, and tokens.
AA+ Bonds
I see that now that Obama has won Virginia two times in a row it is definitely time for Democrats to talk about how the South sucks and how much they hate the South
Ben Franklin
I don’t see any talk about a landslide. Did I call it correctly?
Southern Beale
Here are my post-election thoughts and I even have a soundtrack. Enjoy.
beltane
@AA+ Bonds: Everyone else in the South already fills a similar role to that of the GOP in Vermont-members of a small club whose habits and cultural practices seem rather odd to the majority of Vermonters.
General Stuck
No surprise, I been calling it sedition for 2 years now. But here is the nutter problem, if they choose to continue the same bully white guys routine. Mitt Romney, I believe won the indie vote, or at least was leading in that group up to the election. And Obama made up for this group of white people, most likely via more minority votes. Which means we may well already be into the demographic bomb pointed at the wingnuts. They only have two ways to go, if that is true. Keep on being tight ass ideologues for failed GOP econ theory, or begin to moderate their policy preferences and read the riot act to the conservatives. Not only for serving the needs of the coming majority of minorities of color, as well as stop trying to destroy the middle class in this country.
This could be their wake call, or most likely not, since the 27 percenters are a majority in the GOP, and are quite insane. So they can keep trying to destroy the vote in our democracy, and keep losing elections, or not. Don’t nobody hold their breathes.
scav
Should I be concerned that my gloating may persist for longer than four months? (hous/days, easy, years possible but unlikely, but I am facing the real possibility of months).
EconWatcher
Here’s some reality-based analysis from wingnut John Podhoretz, who acknowledges what should be obvious by now: Barack Obama is one of the most talented politicians in American history.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/brilliant_victory_sh5Q0XzyfxHCuFJxzHbV4N
AA+ Bonds
@beltane:
Except they’re terribly oppressed because of race, creed, gender and class and it’s your duty as a liberal to change that, so not very similar at all
PeakVT
Argh. I’m very disappointed that the Democrats only picked up 7 seats in the House. A few nice defeats of unwanted people (West, Bono-Mack, Walsh, Canseco (TX), Cravaak) makes it somewhat less painful. And perhaps AZ-2 will turn blue in the recount. But, still, argh.
/needs caffeine
Face
@double nickel: This is killing me too. Every other friggin state can count the vote in a matter of hours. Florida needs days to do it.
Get your shit together, Gubbnah Skeletor.
AA+ Bonds
@scav:
Continued Republican control of the purse will make short work of it
chopper
@scav:
if gloating persists for more than four months, call your doctor.
Punchy
Mrs. Punchy and I saw that together and both of our jaws hit the ground. She looks to have aged 15 years in a matter of months. She looked absolutely sick and/or methed out.
Suffern ACE
@PeakVT: that’s what happens when a party fails to mobilize in a mid term in a census year when the other party shows up like its a presidential year. I expect that to continue to favor republicans for years to come. We won’t be taking back the house until our demographic groups connect those dots.
Linda Featheringill
@AA+ Bonds:
I understand your point.
Maybe we can figure out a way to discuss specific demographic groups without falling into regionalism or other isms.
I’m open to suggestions.
Trinity
Words of wisdom from Krughthulu: Wall Street’s Bad Investment Decision
RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
I slept through the hoopla. Went to bed at 9:00 pm and woke up at 4:00 am to check FB and see how it went. I figured there was a vanishingly small chance that Nate Silver was wrong. And of course he wasn’t.
Lotta hangovers and downcast eyes at work today. GOP supporters sucking it up and looking at 24 more months before they get another shot. Righties on FB sharing their disappointment over the Demss’ triumphalism. Too bad.
scav
Well, after losing the numeracy to read and understand statistics, I suppose counting would be next. An entore state going one, two, many, one, two, many, over and over again. Fed to a punditocracy that counts one, two, too close to call. . .
Michael
For a good laugh, take a trip down memory lane
Davis X. Machina
Maine had both Houses in Augusta flip R > D.
LePage can do his enraged water-buffalo routine for a couple years, and veto stuff, but that show is over, and without enough episodes to go into syndication.
Michael
Worth noting that Wang’s final map had NC going to Romney, Florida too close to call, and the rest of the battlegrounds to Obama. Right on the money
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Linda Featheringill: As soon as AA+ Bonds explains the whopping difference in White voting patterns I’ll be all for it. But this Texan saw his county go for Romney 72%.
ETA: And the explanation doesn’t even have to have a racist tilt. Just explain why this one region is so anti-Democratic compared to the rest of the country.
MomSense
I really think that both the tea party and the right wing media machine had a lot to do with these losses.
The Republicans are living in a FUX “news” bubble and completely missed that the rest of the country is evolving.
gbear
@Robin G.: The Tim Pawlenty era is dead. yay.
joes527
Time to own up where I got things wrong.
I always believed Obama would win, so that isn’t one of them. That said, the economic models that had him losing (while useless for predicting the outcome) _did_ point to some real challenges that Obama had to overcome to win. So … woo-hoo
Early on, I bought into the “We’re going to lose the Senate” thinking. That was a reasonable position early on – but the D team exceeded all reasonable expectations and proved me wrong, wrong wrong.
Florida is still trying to get its shit together, and it doesn’t even matter, so I was wrong about the fist fights and lawsuits, but not about the general cluster-fuckery. That state is going out with a whimper rather than a bang.
I may have stated at some point that Massachusetts is a state populated by morons and assholes. I need to amend that to: Massachusetts is a state 46% populated by morons and assholes. Oh, and to the folks in congress who blocked Professor Warren from leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Fuck you, losers.
jibeaux
Arithmetic
AA+ Bonds
@Linda Featheringill:
I would just dial it back on defining the South as the sum of its white supremacists because it serves their purpose and makes non-whites invisible, simple enough
gene108
@Pen:
You can’t.
Very few Republicans are in contested seats. Their biggest threat is from their own base, who frown upon compromise.
Bringing on a default would get Republicans rewarded.
Pen
@AA+ Bonds: Well by all means AA, let us know how we can change the Confederacy to be less oppressive of anyone who doesn’t fit the “old white male” demographic. I’m all ears, but as long as we’re a federal government structure with soverign states I don’t see what we can do beyond help. If they keep voting for the GOP nuts what, exactly, do you see anyone not a citizen of those states being able to do about it?
beltane
@Davis X. Machina: Tierny also held on in Mass. leaving New England without a single GOP rep. in congress.
Suffern ACE
@AA+ Bonds: exactly. What should happen is that the dems figure out how to take back the governors mansions in nj and va in those weirdly timed off off year elections they hold in 12 months, not write off those states. There’s no reason why they should write off va and nc forever. There is no reason why ken cunicelli should be allowed to run riot as ag in that state.
AA+ Bonds
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
What exactly do I need to ‘explain’ here
Do the Hispanics in your county not ‘count’ as Southerners
geg6
@Punchy:
Yup. She’s younger than I am and looks about a decade older lately. I have to wonder if she’s on drugs or something because that doesn’t happen that fast. It just doesn’t. Hell, I’m on the other side of menopause and I don’t look as old and worn as she does.
All of that said, I once again hated the CoverItLive thing. It crashed my computer about every 10 minutes. And I still could not comment. Again. Don’t understand why I keep having all these problems with it when it seems everyone else just loves it. Lesson learned, though. Will just skip BJ during these events. Guess I’m stuck with Sully/GOS live blogging. I can run both at the same time and not crash the computer once.
dmsilev
Steve Benen: “When Republican strategists come up with a game plan for the 2014 midterms, I suspect page one will include a rather straightforward piece of advice: “Let’s not talk about rape this year.” “
AA+ Bonds
@Pen:
You can start by differentiating Southerners (“they” in your chosen parlance) into different groups of people with different points of view like, I don’t know, every other region on Earth
Then you can start working to build Democratic gains in the South on the basis of Southern traditions that include the struggles of blacks, women, etc.
gbear
@PeakVT: West lost too?? Sweet!
Davis X. Machina
@dmsilev: They’ve already had that meeting, and the answer is “Lie more, about more stuff. Start lying earlier. And this time, don’t get caught.”
japa21
Regarding Republican attempts to attract Latino votes. My Illinois House district has a fairly substantial Latino population. The GOP ran a candidate who is not only Latino but has a very obvious Latino name. The Dem is also Lationo but with a more Anglo name. All the mailers for the GOP candidate did not even mention that he was a Republican. He still lost big time. Just one district, in a blue state, but it really says soemthing about the extent to which the GOP has lost the Latino community.
Raven
Motherfucker on the Athens paper comments had the balls to whine to me about not being “gracious”. The preceding posts are all about how stupid the electorate is complete with nasty images of Obama. Just fuck these punks.
PeakVT
@Suffern ACE: Yep. Republicans did a good job of favoring their candidates during the redistricting process.
A pox on them, I say. One that produces really nasty boils.
AA+ Bonds
I don’t know why this is hard – the President has better reasons than politeness to not talk about how the South’s traditions can be summed up with the KKK, or how the South should just secede, etc.
Just follow his lead? Don’t be a jerk? Think about those black grandmas on old family plots in Richmond that helped you win the election, and the black grandmas in Durham or Atlanta, and how they’re Southerners too?
jibeaux
I’m a lifelong North Carolinian. I think it is simultaneously true that the Republican party is becoming the Confederate party, and that it is short-sighted and wrong for Democrats to write off all portions of the south. Sure, Alabama is not going to be in play for quite some time, but Alabama isn’t the whole south. IIRC, the state Romney won by the biggest percentage margins is not in the South (Utah). Obama plays the long game. Demographic changes will shake out, and if we ever get immigration reform, that could be a game changer. Forever and ever, I will be thankful to the Obama campaign for not writing me off even when they didn’t “need” us.
JWR
I’d like to know what CBS was thinking when they hired Frank Luntz as a political analyst. But then, after watching Scott Pelly and Bob Scheiffer last night, I’d say he fits right in. CBS really looked a lot like Fox last night.
jurassicpork
Nate Silver should seriously contemplate shoving his infallible crystal ball up Dick Morris’s and Karl Rove’s fat asses.
Here’s my thumbtack analysis of the elections that should tide you over until I can properly respond to last evening’s historic night.
beltane
@Pen: If they were a foreign country they could be boycotted, sanctioned, and issued sternly worded reprimands by the UN. Since they are not a foreign country I don’t what can be done.
maya
The only things I want for Christmas are a few greasy meatball sized infarctions to hit the SC[R]OTUS. Hard and fatal.
Is that too much to ask?
mainmati
@Mark S.: Her expression was deer in the headlights – stricken and shocked all at once. Hilarious.
Cermet
@Violet: The Goper’s wil NOT be the party of white men in the Northeast! WE vote for intelligence and competence – spelled O B A M A.
AA+ Bonds
@beltane:
Oh yes let’s fantasize about measures that would mainly hurt the worst-off people
AA+ Bonds
It is a good thing for Democrats that Obama agrees with me about the South
Paul
Remember when the Suffolk polling outfit said they were done polling VA, FL and NC after the first debate. Their guy was on FoxNews claiming the race in those states was a “done deal” for Romney.
Obama ended up winning two of those states…
Suffolk should be at the same level as Rasmussen.
AA+ Bonds
@jibeaux:
Thank you for bringing some brains to bear here where others refuse to do so
beltane
@JWR: Bob Schieffer was awful, defending Romney and the Republicans at every opportunity. At least Fox had Shepard Smith.
JoyfulA
@AA+ Bonds: The South also has, not enough, but a lot of white Democrats and liberals. Let’s not forsake them.
chopper
ONLY MINUS 12 HOURS TO PRESIDENT-ELECT ROMNEY!!
AA+ Bonds
@JoyfulA:
Absolutely 100% agreed.
Cermet
I’ve never been more proud of Maryland – first, we had the third highest percentage to reelect President Obama; next we vote for gay marriage; and third, even through we have a small Hispanic community, we voted to tax ourselves to allow children that are illegal but grew up here to get in State tuition! Finally, we threw out one of our last thugs in congress who served 20 years (just one more and we are 100% Democratic!)
General Stuck
I don’t think the House wingnuts can torpedo the economy, at least in the short run, as for a long time now, the economy has been primed for rapid growth, but something was keeping it in the starter gate. We will see if that was either reluctance by big business to help Obama get reelected due to ideology or personal dislike, or just the lack of certainty for continuation of current policies.
You can’t hold back for long the engines for profit, if all else is equal and favorable. Not for ideological reasons for sure. I expect to see the plutocrats come off the sidelines from nothing left to keep them their. Hopefully, for those out of work.
The House nutters can torpedo the economy for the longer term, but they are living on gerrymandered time right now,
TheMightyTrowel
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Saw this on the guardian. Apparently it’s “winning ugly” to win without white straight male votes.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204349404578102971575770036.html
Wankers the lot of them.
(incidentally: guardian commentary is “The Wall Street Journal editorial board genuinely appears to resent the fact that Obama bothered to appeal to non-white voters. They make it sound like he cheated”)
scav
@jibeaux: This is all rhetoric and conceptual blather. Practically, there was a ground effort and I would hope/think that it would continue. Sorta like the Midwest. Mostly cities out . . . to descend to mere practicalities for a brief second.
Raven
@AA+ Bonds: It’s all about YOU isn’t it?
jibeaux
@scav: Might be blather to you, but makes more sense than
jibeaux
@AA+ Bonds: I’m in the South. It’s either leave or speak up for myself, and I HATE cold.
Cassidy
@AA+ Bonds: Oh good god, get off your high horse. For someone who lives here, you don’t seem to know a lot about it. Let’s be realistic, the “white” South only excepts change when forced. That last time it was really effective was when Sherman said fuck it to polite society.
Hypatia's Momma
@forked tongue:
She looked ill. As in, “I’m battling a serious illness”-ill. Her hair looked like a wig.
Enhanced Voting techniques
@Violet: Even the Fox news speaking head couldn’t stand her word salad. It was just a bunch of random slogans coming out of Paulin’s mouth.
Raven
@Cassidy: Hoooah!
pagodat
Front page of nytimes.com right now is a big graphic about America’s “rightward shift”. Our liberal media at work!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@AA+ Bonds: The GOP being a Southern Party doesn’t mean they represent everyone in the south. They don’t represent me. But they do have the issue that the one and only place where the whites went for Romney a lot (by 23% if I remember correctly) is in the Confederacy.
flukebucket
@forked tongue:
I watched Greta Van Susteren interview Palin last night. Poor Greta looked like an animated corpse. Brit Hume tried at one time to make the point that Obama has lost ground with Hispanics. Susan Estrich always sounds like she has inhaled whatever the opposite of helium is and the whole damn FOX team was just a complete disgrace. It is no wonder that their viewers are brain dead. You would have to be already brain dead to consider that your go to news source.
drlemur
I think we should designate the day after a relatively successful election as an official “Lesser Evil Day.” I would like to be able to go around saying “Happy Lesser Evil Day” to everybody today.
And think of the chants:
What do we want!?
Less Evil!!
When do we want it!?
Now!!!
Then we can all go back to hoping and agitating for even better actual policies than we’ve been getting now that we held off the really dangerously insane dudes for another election.
scav
@jibeaux: urban v rural differences were pretty persistant even during the repub primaries. Romney won in areas Obama was likely to win in the general, so not a good sign for him. but, you can ignore that if you choose, We’lre not in charge.
chopper
@Cassidy:
AA’s been concern trolling this whole morning. ignore it.
Kirbster
Senator Elizabeth Warren. I like the sound of that.
Even though Scott Brown spent the entire campaign pretending that he wasn’t a Republican, his two years in the Senate carrying water for the wingnuts when it mattered will probably earn him an analyst spot (or his own show) on Fox “News” come January. He wants to stay in the public eye, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. He’s that full of himself.
jibeaux
@Belafon (formerly anonevent) Utah
Jay in Oregon
@Violet:
Pundits forget that reading entrails is only accurate when they’re removed from the body.
jibeaux
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): North Dakota
jibeaux
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Idaho
gene108
@jibeaux:
The bigger issue is can the DNC or OfA or whatever national Democratic organizations that are out there help the South rebuild their state Democratic parties.
So far state Democratic parties throughout the South have been left to fend for themselves, while the Republican parties in various states get big boosts from SuperPAC money (from what I’ve read about the NC 2010 legislature races), various “think” tanks and right-wing media muddying the waters for local Democrats, as well as things like the Bush, Jr. DoJ prosecuting Alabama’s Democratic governor (forget his name) about 10 years ago.
It’s not just a “demographic” realignment that destroyed Southern Democratic parties that had produced state wide elected officials for a couple of decades after the Civil Rights movement. There’s more than that pushing down on Southern Democrats.
jibeaux
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Oklahoma
jibeaux
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Nebraska
jibeaux
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Kansas
jibeaux
@gene108: Our state party was more or less a juggernaut until 2010, which also happened to be redistricting year. We now appear to be screwed. Any help from the national party will be awesome, but gerrymandering’s a bitch.
JPL
@AA+ Bonds: An Ann Romney look alike on the Atlanta CBS news was shocked that the President won. How can Americans vote for someone who doesn’t share their values. It might not be an exact quote but it’s close. Not sure what she meant about that and the interviewer didn’t ask her to explain.
hep kitty
@pk: @forked tongue: Heard they were all pretty desperate and depressed last night.
The Moar You Know
@gene108: So has California’s. And the Dems are playing with fire by doing that. We had uncontested legislative races this cycle. In California. That should not only never happen, it should be unthinkable.
Bill Arnold
@PeakVT:
Also TP-R Nan Hayworth (northern NYC suburbs – 18th), lost to openly gay Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney.
AA+ Bonds
@chopper:
Don’t be stupid, please
Concern trolling is when someone comes in here and tells you that Obama better “move to the center” (i.e., the right) because his margin of victory was narrow, which is a bunch of bullshit
What drives the old guard BJ conserva-Dems up the wall is that I come in here and bring up things that they don’t feel they need to worry about because worrying makes them uncomfortable
AA+ Bonds
@Cassidy:
At this point you are completely agreeing with me except you feel it necessary to pretend you disagree with me for reasons I cannot fathom
hep kitty
WTF is wrong with FL, btw??
The Moar You Know
@AA+ Bonds: I think it’s your lack of punctuation.
I still have most of my family and a few friends back in the south, even though I myself have not lived there since the age of one. I’m not willing to write them off.
Look at the returns. Where Obama got slaughtered was in places like Wyoming and Idaho. The South is within seven points across the board. It’s doable.
patrick II
New Senator Warren would kill on the Sunday talk shows. Does anyone think that she’ll be invited?
Bill Arnold
I am hopeful that the word “treason” (or a surrogate) gets used a bit more over the next several months, lightly but firmly.
Not by somebody who has to negotiate with the House and Senate Republicans though, except maybe in private with microphones disabled.
Bill Arnold
I am in awe of whoever (and uhm aided by whatever; it seems clear that there is some new information technology involved) is leading the BObama political team. Very well done. The margins in some of the swing states were really tiny – one out-of-control news cycle might have swung it to Romney.
gene108
@jibeaux:
Long New Yorker article about Art Pope as NC’s puppet master. Whether or not Pope really has that much power is something I’m not sure about, but what I always found interesting is the first paragraph of the article.
Ed Gillespie went to North Carolina to flip the state legislature for Republicans.
With all the evidence of the Koch brothers and other right-wing money men funding the Tea Party, as well as Fox News relentless promotion of the group, I’ve come to conclude the Republicans are really, strategically, pushing local for a complete take over of government and using national level talent to help push things at the state and local level in their direction.
I think it’s one reason why they keep pushing privatizing Social Security and now Medicare, even though privatizing Social Security was hugely unpopular in 2005. They know there are other ways to grab power and advance their agenda, than just doing things the public agrees with.
Cassidy
@AA+ Bonds: Please feel free to correct me, but what I gather from your comments is (in summary) “hey, there are liberals in the South too!”. To that extent, you’re right. There are plenty of liberals in the South. We are some of them. We are not a majority as evidenced by our state and local gov’ts.
You also seem to be insulted a the notion that we’re still the Confederacy down here. That is also true and both can be true at the same time. We are living in the modern Confederacy with a third world, regional economy based on cheap labor, service, and construction. Yes, we do have some technology parks and corporate HQ’s, but they don’t have the same impact.
What you consistently miss, and where we disagree heavily, is the culture of the South. The South is not about urban vs. rural. It is about white vs. the others.
So as I understand it, you get upset when people want to just shitcan the South because we’re not all bad; you sound like a Texan. While that isn’t an entirely reasonable position, it is true that the South is a stalwart member of the “Keep America White” club and is teaching it’s little Midwestern brother how to be a good bigot.
The Moar You Know
My father has been openly using this term for Congressional Republicans for over a year now.
He then voted for Romney.
Sometimes there’s just nothing you can do.
chopper
@AA+ Bonds:
yes, and walking in during the afterglow of a nice election win to remind everyone of what they really need to worry about is bullshit. DEMS YOU NEED TO WORRY MOAR!
quit with the anxiety-inducing shit. at least for one fucking day. you’re coming off as a concern troll.
The Moar You Know
@gene108: We had GOP money going directly into our local school board race here in San Diego. We beat them this year. We will probably beat them next year (not a given as a board member is retiring) but after that we are flat-out going to need some help.
gbear
@patrick II: Not as long as John McCain can still sit upright and not drool on himself.
jibeaux
@The Moar You Know: Exactly, and I forgot Wyoming. Georgia, and yes I know it’s because of the black vote, was WAY closer than someplace like Utah.
Judas Escargot, Bringer of Loaves and Fish Sandwiches
@beltane:
Tierney’s holding on to MA-6 was frankly a shocker. Tisei hasn’t conceded yet, btw (he’s talking about ‘voter irregularities’ in the city of Lynn, an urban area just north of Boston with high-minority population, so interpret that as you will).
Realized this morning that everyone I voted for won. In 20 years of voting, that’s never happened before.
Canuckistani Tom
Hey folks
First, congratulations! BHO 4MY!
I see certain trolls are sulking this morning. Hope they got paid before the polls closed.
Would this be a good time to talk about the road ahead? Laying the ground work for 2014 and 2016?
ding dong
@patrick II: no they only have space for one senator john mccain and now they have to make time for romney because one always has to make time for the last repub top ticket loser.
ruemara
@El Cid: You’re welcome. Try not to need rescuing again.
catclub
@General Stuck: Um, take a look at the stock market. We did not have any euro-collapse this year. But it could still happen.
When Yglesias posted monday or tuesday that whoever wins will have a strong economy, I started worrying. Europe and recession in China could make the next few years worse than
2010-12. I will note again that a recession in the start of 2013 could be excellent news (for people who do not lose their jobs and houses, which is the majority) if we are strongly coming out of it in 2014. But there are no guarantees.
General Stuck
@catclub:
I stand by my prediction. And for the reasons stated.
MattY is not the only person predicting this in the village and beyond. Economists have been saying for a while the economy is primed for growth and hiring. It will certainly be tempered by other factors in Euro and elsewhere, but our economic engine dwarfs theirs and can make the world’s boat go faster.
catclub
@General Stuck: “I don’t think the House wingnuts can torpedo the economy, at least in the short run,”
I think it is just the reverse. They can slow it in the short run, but in the long run they would no longer be re-elected.
In the short run, they can take us over the fiscal cliff and refuse to either raise taxes or stop defense and other cuts.
That cut in spending has all the economists predicting a recession, in the short run. I agree with those who say that in many aspects, the economy is primed for growth. But in the short run, they can sabotage that.
Joel
@PeakVT: That was all we could expect. 10 was the upper limit thanks to gerrymandering (Sam Wang calculates that as a +2.5% PV advantage, which is enormous).
I think Dems in control of state legislatures should push for algorithmic districting immediately.
Regnad Kcin
@Judas Escargot, Bringer of Loaves and Fish Sandwiches: meh. Tierney is a waste of space. I did not vote for Tisei, cuz I just can’t pull that “R” lever, but Tierney has got to go
Regnad Kcin
@Judas Escargot, Bringer of Loaves and Fish Sandwiches: meh. Tierney is a waste of space. I did not vote for Tisei, cuz I just can’t pull that “R” lever, but Tierney has got to go
General Stuck
@catclub:
The fiscal cliff is only that if the economy, the private side, continues to under perform on its own and would be compounded by the anti stimulus effect of the ‘fiscal cliff’ for spending cuts and raised taxes. The wingnuts in the senate won’t go for that as it would harm their precious plutocrat benefactors. And in the House whatever tradeoffs get made, can be passed like the debt ceiling deal with dem votes and halfway sane GOP votes.
It doesn’t do the nutters any good now, after the election, to keep sabotaging the economy to get Obama out of office. They will find other ways, or try to, to get to him. imho
Bubblegum Tate
@Cermet:
Yeah, Maryland really was an all-around superstar yesterday. Makes me feel even better about having a half-bushel of Maryland blue crab arriving out here in Cali on Saturday–support Maryland’s economy and all that.