.
One thing you’ve gotta give the Republicans: They’re loyal to their tribe. The national GOP is still defending Richard Nixon’s re-election strategy, not to mention Hoover’s handling of the Great Depression. They’re gearing up to give the Bush family a third chance at breaking the godsdamned world. Us Democrats, on the other hand — “we” give every hopeful one shot at the lottery ticket, and if they can’t deliver a million-dollar win by the end of the quarter, the professional Dems of the permanent party run away like they’d just been informed of an Ebola outbreak. (President Barack who?) Then, of course, the DNC whines that nobody respects them — so, of course, you should send them another donation, because I guess Andrew Cuomo can’t gear up for 2016 fast enough. If only our candidates had the staying power of titans like Mark Penn and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz!…
From the Washington Post:
Sen. Mary Landrieu’s underdog bid to hold her seat in a Dec. 6 runoff is getting a boost from two of the best fundraisers of 2014 election cycle, who are asking donors to open up their wallets one more time on behalf of the Louisiana Democrat.
Both of those candidates lost on Tuesday, however.
Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes and Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) have sent fundraising e-mails on behalf of Landrieu, who has — for now, at least, — been effectively abandoned by her national party, which lost control of the Senate on Tuesday…
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pulled back its ad reservation in Louisiana at a time when Landrieu can use all the help she can get against Rep. Bill Casdidy. Pre-election polls showed Cassidy has the upper hand heading into Dec. 6. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has vowed to support him as needed…
Davebo
At what point though should you cut your losses on races like Landrieu’s?
She has tried bless her heart, to be a party faithful but let’s face it she has to disown the party to a certain extent even in a statewide race.
I’m not saying we should give up on the sportsman’s paradise but let’s face it, it’s a hard sell there statewide.
PsiFighter37
She’s going to get absolutely creamed in the runoff. She was far below 50% in the initial round, and she was winning less than 20% of the white vote.
I know she’s had a couple of tight escapes before, but you would have to be nuts to donate to a losing cause. Her main argument – being chairwoman of Energy – is no longer relevant. Frankly, I think it makes more sense for DSCC to pay off their debts and start working towards 2016 than trying to salvage what is plainly a lost cause.
Mustang Bobby
Yeah, we sure learned our lesson with Adlai Stevenson, eh?
Omnes Omnibus
People on this site have been savaging people who had the guts to run for some of these tough seats because they didn’t run the campaign the way the commenter wanted.
Jack the Second
Eh, I’d take Jeb over Santorum or Paul or Perry or Christie.
JGabriel
Davebo:
A win for Landrieu now makes it easier to take back the Senate in 2016 – or sooner if a couple Senate Republicans find themselves resigning over criminal charges, which can’t entirely be ruled out.
Yeah, it’s long shot, but it’s not like we have any better races – or any other races at all – to focus on.
Joel Hanes
I’ll have a bit of respect for DWS when she forcefully endorses a strong candidate running against Ros-Lehtinen. Until then, she’s clearly a Villager first and a Democrat second.
I can’t conceive of any events that would cause me to respect Steve Israel or Steney Hoyer.
Omnes Omnibus
@JGabriel: Plus, she made some courageous votes given her home state. She deserves support, both for herself and as an example to show that the party will back its people even in difficult spots.
Kay
I don’t know- shouldn’t Landrieu have her own base by now to drag her over the finish line? I get it when they’re trying to get elected the first time in R territory, but one would think she’d have some loyal 50.00001 % support in that state after a while.
On the state-level problem, I thought this might be a good start:
We’ll see.
PsiFighter37
@Joel Hanes: DWS is awful. I’ve read things where even Obama dislikes her a great deal. If that’s the case, why the hell hasn’t he fired her? He is the effective head of the party as president.
I like the president – easily the best person to be president in my lifetime – but he is absolutely disinterested in politics when he is not on the ballot. We really need Hillary (or whomever is next presidential nominee) to be fully engaged in making sure the DNC isn’t doing jack shit like it has been under DWS.
She needs to be fired. I won’t say bring back Howard Dean, but someone who will pay attention to grassroots organizing needs to be installed in the chair. Unfortunately, I think Obama doesn’t give two shits and will probably leave DWS there until the nominee is decided in 2016.
PsiFighter37
@Kay: Maybe they should start with the organization that already exists to help out state legislative campaigns (the DLCC). This is another thing I dislike about the Obama team – keeping everything centralized around Obama (via OFA) has virtually zero impact in helping us ensure that the coalition that got him elected stays loyal to the party once he is off the ballot.
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37:
Right, because he has no interest in passing legislation and getting anything done. Jesus fuck.
Kay
@PsiFighter37:
Well, that’s the point though. He knows there’s a DLCC. He thinks they do a bad job selling state legislative races to Democratic donors and are thus outgunned by the GOP orgs. That’s what he’s spent a year doing. Telling liberal donors why they should care about state races.
They also want to write model legislation.
max
@Davebo: At what point though should you cut your losses on races like Landrieu’s?
Well, when you have only the one major race for two years and you have (or should have) plenty of money – never, basically. Because one more Senate seat is better than one more Republican senator.
max
[‘Full stop.’]
RobertDSC-iPhone 4
She voted for Obamacare. I’ll send a little her way.
Kay
@PsiFighter37:
I’ve helped two statehouse candidates, closely, I was the treasurer for one, I have never once been contacted by the Democratic org that is the state legislative race arm nor has anyone even suggested I might contact them. I’ve literally never heard an actual live person mention them, in any capacity. The candidates were both long shots, Democrats in Republican districts, but I would think I would hear something about the national Democratic group who help with that. Nope.
I wonder who they help.
Tree With Water
The same democrats that turned the cops loose in Chicago, and took a hike on McGovern four years later, still call the shots in that party. And look where it’s gotten the rank and file. Obama wasn’t joking a few months into his first term when he joked to an assembly of big shot bankers that he was the only thing standing between them and a mob with pitchforks. And then he appealed to them to work with his administration for the good of the country.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I was in Grant Park during that convention.
KG
Since 2004, I think american politics could be summed up thusly:
One party deserves to lose and the other doesn’t deserve to win
Sadly, we only have two choices
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I had turned four earlier that month. My parents just couldn’t afford a babysitter so I went with.
BruceFromOhio
@Kay: There’s a huge vacuum in my neck of the woods. The republicans got a stronghold that is tough to crack – the incumbent state rep (R) ran unopposed, and the incumbent state senator is a long-time, well-known WASP that digs the parks and recreation department, which has done pretty well right around here.
So you have long-time, well-known names and faces with obvious good works to trot out for the photo op. What do you go up against that with? “Coin-gate”?
These motherfuckers ain’t going anywhere, not even when the Gaia-damned frackers come rolling in and drill right through your local home-rule bullshit. The bunch in my parts are either barely-hanging-on Dems, home-schooling god-botherers, or deep, red conservative, and no Democrat has a hope in hell of dislodging the republican barnacles on this hull. They can’t even pass the Gaia-damned levy to fix the high school roof, much less oust the familiar, friendly faces of the local conservative mob.
I used to chuckle at the “states rights” crowd, now they scare the hell out of me.
Marcion
Who does DWS have dirt on? Why did she even get installed in the first place? What are her successes.
For sleeping at the switch while the Democratic party lost most of the statehouses she deserves to be fired… out of a cannon, maybe.
catclub
@Marcion:
The head of the GOP was fired after the 2010 elections. I wonder if they will fire Reince Priebus. Now… what is the key difference between Michael Steele and Reince Priebus?
KG
@catclub: one looks like a muppet, while the other just has a muppet’s name?
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus: I watched the convention on our new color TV.
Baby blue helmets ftw!
PsiFighter37
@Omnes Omnibus: I think it’s a pretty objective statement to say that Obama has exhibited close to zero interest in setting up the DNC as a functional entity to help support his agenda. Why keep OFA separate otherwise?
Look – the man doesn’t love the politics part of politics (I he likes policy more), and it shows in his desiccated the existing Democratic organizations have become. The only one that was semi-decent (except for this cycle) was the DSCC.
rikyrah
She did vote for Obamacare. That earns her some $$$$
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37: Sorry, I just don’t lay this at Obama’s feet. He campaigned for people who wanted him. He stayed away from those who didn’t want him. He supposedly held back from certain initiatives at the request of vulnerable legislators. You’re just wrong on the facts.
Joel Hanes
@Omnes Omnibus:
I was in Grant Park
I was part of the whole world who watched and wept and shook my fist.
Before that event, I looked up to police — I had never in my life had a reason not to.
Kay
@BruceFromOhio:
It was hard this year because we had a genuinely great person running. By all rights, he should have gotten the job. Better-qualified, better human being, but a Democrat in a GOP district.
Instead we got this horrible lawyer, son of a judge, who is pretending he’s religious and pro-life when he is neither.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: She actually did pretty well, IMO, for someone in Louisiana.
Omnes Omnibus
@Joel Hanes: My mom, who was a tiny, pretty, long-haired woman, asked a cop where she might find a restroom. The response was “Fuck you, hippie.” It has affected her view of the police ever since.
ETA: She was looking for a place to take me, her four year old son, to use the facilities.
Kay
@PsiFighter37:
Why do you think they were good before Obama, though? Were they good in 2004, Democratic political organizations? We lost, so not very. 2006 was a wave year. They didn’t have to be good. They just had to show up.
Kay
@Marcion:
They’re doing a “top to bottom review” of what went wrong.
With experts! :)
Tree With Water
@efgoldman: OK. Let’s try “those who heartedly approved Daly turning the cops loose in Chicago”.
madmommy
This fucking pisses me off so much. Yes, Landrieu is the bluest of blue dogs. But this is Louisiana and she is the closest thing to sane we are ever gonna get. Bill Cassidy is an asshole of the first order. He is your typical I-got-mine-screw-you teatard, a millionaire doctor who wants to raise the retirement age to 70 and kill the ACA. He wants to gut environmental regulations that are the flimsy barrier keeping this god-forsaken shithole of a state I call home from subsiding into the Gulf, while opening up every available acre to 24/7 drilling/fracking and whatever else the oil and gas lobby can think to do. The only thing Landrieu had going for her in this election was her seniority and committee seats. Now that the dems have lost the Senate, that is out the window and it looks as though she is as well. The tiniest of silver linings in all of this is that the Tea Party favorite, a guy named Rob Manness, somehow managed to finish well behind Cassidy.
Comrade Luke
So many of the same people who have been clamoring for a 50-state strategy here are now saying “Eh, she can’t win. Don’t bother.”.
Typical.
Joel Hanes
@Omnes Omnibus:
her four year old son
That would make you … [counts on fingers, runs out] … class of 1983, yes?
Too young even for disco.
Three years younger than my littlest sister.
dww44
@JGabriel: I absolutely agree with this. And it sorta is the only game in town. And, by golly, I saw an interview with her just ahead of the election in which she directly addressed the issue of racism. I cheered her for that. Who heads up the DSCC? Can we email bomb him or something?
Felonius Monk
This might be worth a read:
Yes, But WHY Didn’t Democrats Turn Out On Election Day? WHY?
Omnes Omnibus
@Joel Hanes: Class of ’82, but one of the very youngest – I had only turned four the month of the convention,
Joel Hanes
@Kay:
With experts!
If seances worked, they could consult the revenants of FDR and Truman and LBJ for insight.
I don’t think they’d like the advice they’d get.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dww44: Michael Bennet.
Can “we”– the left blogosphere, ActBlue– organize some kind of money bomb? Everybody donates what they can on the same day? November 15 can be “She’s Better Than The Other Guy Day!” “Stop The Bleeding Saturday!”?
Kay
@Joel Hanes:
“Experts” and”stakeholders”
They could start by retiring the word “stakeholders” It’s such a DC word. No one hears that word and thinks it means THEM. No more of those words.
I’d also get rid of “reform” while they’re at it. Just stop using it. Cold turkey.
sdhays
@RobertDSC-iPhone 4: You’re right. She’s certainly not my favorite Democrat (the thought of her as Chair of the Energy committee makes me ill), but she’s loyal and certainly no Joe Lieberman or Blanche Lincoln. I just sent a little her way too.
pseudonymous in nc
@Joel Hanes:
She’s clearly a South Florida politician first, and a national Democrat second. Which makes her not a good person to marshal campaigns against shitty SoFla pols like Diaz-Balarts and Ros-Lehtinen.
As for Landrieu, she’s a terrible squish who has to suck from the teat of Big Oil, but she’s the best Dem you’re going to get from a state that re-elects Diaper Dave Vitter. And that’s the problem with the fucking Senate: there are a lot of shitty states with not many people.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Serious question: What does Landrieu need money for in the runoff? How would it help now when it wasn’t enough on Tuesday?
Presumably every voter in the state knows who she is. Presumably they know her and her opponent’s positions. What would the money be used for? More TV ads? More GOTV? What would be different this time?
I gave her a little money earlier. I don’t like the idea of giving her money now that would only be used for TV ads on stations and networks that are predisposed against her. Or money that would be used to keep brainiac operatives employed…
Yes, having her win would be great – one less seat needed in 2016. I’m not convinced that money, or lack of it, will make any difference in her chances to win the run-off though…
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike J
@Kay:
I first heard it when working in London. It was meant as a specific alternative to shareholder, that is, there were more people to think about in an enterprise (employees, customers, suppliers) than just the shareholders.
Marcion
Yanno what’s insane? Steve Israel either frightened off or refused to back any challengers to 21 R seats in districts Obama won in ’08 or ’12:
• NJ-02- Frank LoBiondo- D+1
• MI-06- Fred Upton- R+1
• WA-08- Dave Reichert- R+1
• FL-27- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen- R+2
• PA-06- Jim Gerlach- R+2
• MN-03- Erik Paulsen- R+2
• PA-07- Pat Meehan- R+2
• MN-02- John Kline- R+2
• PA-15- Charlie Dent- R+2
• MI-08- Mike Rogers- R+2
• WA-03- Jaime Hererra Buetler- R+2
• VA-10- Frank Wolf- R+2
• CA-25- Buck McKeon- R+3
• WI-01- Paul Ryan- R+3
• MI-11- Kerry Bentivolio- R+4
• IL-06- Peter Roskam- R+4
• PA-16- Joe Pitts- R+4
• CA-49- Darrell Issa- R+4
• IL-16- Adam Kinzinger- R+4
• MI-03- Justin Amash- R+4
• MI-04- Dave Camp- R+5 –
Like, hello? We needed 19 seats to win back the House. Knocking these guys off might have, uh done something about that, maybe?
And why? Because these R’s are all part of a “bipartisan” group of buddy buddies Israel is also part of. This is who we choose to run our national campaign?!! Someone who is Liebermanning the party in winnable seats?
The GOP doesn’t stab themselves in the dick this way. The Democratic Party needs a purge.
drkrick
@Omnes Omnibus: I was in choir camp hoping to hear good news about McCarthy when I got home. I’m kind of glad that saved me from the traumatic experience I would have had watching events in real time. What a shitshow ’68 was.
Omnes Omnibus
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Why does any incumbent need ads? Obviously, people don’t know enough.
@Kay: I think stakeholders is an important concept. There is more to the world than stockholders. And that is what is reflected in the idea of stakeholders
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Marcion: VA-10 wasn’t close. Not spending money there wasn’t a stupid call. Foust’s campaign had issues:
I dunno about the others in the list.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Gian
@Omnes Omnibus:
I really don’t care whether the candidates run away from the president, or run on the party record. What I think is a foolish plan is to refuse to do either.
I’d have been much more understanding if, for example, Grimes rolled with “I voted for Romney because” and then listed some policy concern or two.
Did her campaign think that the “I won’t tell you” plan would work with independents? republicans? that it would motivate the African American community to turn out and vote for her?
people don’t vote on policy, I recall reading polling stuff in Jr High and High School and reading how Reagan’s policies all polled for shit but people loved the old racist bastard anyway and voted for him. Not having the guts to pick a side in a fight will not motivate anyone.
that’s my argument/point, and that’s why I think she ran a poorly planned campaign. would throwing the president under the bus have worked? hell if I know I didn’t read the internal polls. But the whole plan smacks of fear, and seriously, the idea of “vote for me I’m scared” is not a winning plan.
Gian
@Omnes Omnibus:
I like “stakeholders” and not just in the anti-vampire (anti stockholder way) it includes, for example kids in school who don’t have a vote but sure as hell have a stake.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gian:
Bull.Fucking.Shit. And I stopped reading there. If you can’t accurately say why she said what she did, you are incompetent to comment on the wisdom of her decision.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Once again, you are 100% right.
Look. If we only run perfect progressives who speak truth to power and vigorously defend the great things that progressive politics have brought this country, I will have damp panties and not a whole lot else. Everyone is tearing Grimes apart for not being a better Democrat, BUT THOSE FUCKERS JUST ELECTED MITCH MCCONNELL. It wasn’t like there was a critical mass of people who wanted to vote for Bernie Sanders, didn’t see him on the ballot, so they voted for McConnell instead. FFS. Lord.
The blame lies with the lazy bastards, uh, CITIZENS, who want government to work and yet can’t be bothered to mail in a freaking ballot themselves. The people who show up once every four years when it’s tun and exciting, and then don’t show up for the midterms. The people who don’t even know who their congressperson is, or how many of them there are.
We have the greatest information delivery device in human history and it literally fits in our pockets, and yet how many people don’t know what Congress even is or what it does.
I think we need to get away from this idea that voting needs to be “inspirational”. Fuck that. Taking a shower and going to work aren’t inspirational, but I do them because I’m an adult and that’s what adults do. Participating in democracy isn’t always fun and personally engaging, but I am sick of the idea that it needs to be in order to be worthwhile. Like it or not, all the blather about inspiring young voters sends this message. If you need to be INSPIRED to not be a lazy shit, then you know what, maybe you DO deserve a crappy economy and no prospects for a better life.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I agree completely.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Omnes Omnibus: My point was that there was an election last week where she had years to prepare. There’s another one December 6. What will my donation to her enable her to do that she couldn’t do last week?
“She can respond to negative attack ads from the Eleventy-Seven Million Dollars that Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers have committed to spend!!11” is an answer, but, somehow, I don’t think that my pitiful donation would be more than a drop in the barrel. She could, as a sitting Senator, of course, have a press conference, too, if she felt so inclined. That wouldn’t cost anything. She could have a rally. That wouldn’t cost much.
I may send her some money – I dunno. I just don’t like the framing of the appeal:
“Me need money! Money good! You give me money!”
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I don’t mean to be insulting, but IT IS ANOTHER FUCKING ELECTION! Ne-c’est pas?
Villago Delenda Est
@Marcion: As far as I”m concerned, Israel is a traitor to the Democratic Party.
Hanging is too good for the likes of him. No apple tree sour enough to do it justice.
Jamie
well there’s plenty of Blame to go around. Chief amongst these are those who did not have a visible press sresponse to the GOPs Ebola infected ISIS terrorists are coming down your street! Hide! election strategy.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Omnes Omnibus: Heh. I know that, as I’ve mentioned it. Now please answer the question(s). How is it different?
Thanks. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: it isn’t different. It is an election. She deserves money. Read what I said upthread.
ETA: Please try not to be a douchebag in the future. It is not helpful.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Omnes Omnibus: Meh.
I know she’s as good a Democrat as one can expect for Louisiana. That’s why I didn’t feel bad giving her money before. I just don’t see how money can help her now. At least not money from me.
It would be nice for her to make a better case for why she needs money from me than this:
But if wishes were horses…
I do hope she finds a way to pull it out.
Gotta run.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Dude, make your own decisions. I don’t and never have lived in LA. If you want to be superior, go for it. I prefer to let local people run the best campaign they can imagine.
Gian
@Omnes Omnibus:
ahh the inability to read the word “if”
my point is that she needed to pick a side, period, mattered less which side.
Let me cut and paste for you:
I’d have been much more understanding if, for example, Grimes rolled with “I voted for Romney because” and then listed some policy concern or two.
bolded for you too.
that would be actually quoting the whole freaking sentence so as to not destroy the point of the sentence, in order to argue against a figment of your imagination
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Omnes Omnibus: Something I’ve written has obviously rubbed you the wrong way. Sorry about that. I was hoping to gain some insight on something I might have missed on what would make Mary’s race in the runoff somehow more likely to be successful than her race last week – especially if she had some more money. It wasn’t intended to be trollery or wankery or douchecanoe-ery.
That’s all for now…
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who never lived in LA either.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Gian: Show me where she picked Romney. Or simply piss off. She was a fucking Obama Delegate at the the 2012 convention.
joel hanes
@Villago Delenda Est:
As far as I”m concerned, Israel is a traitor to the Democratic Party.
Nancy Pelosi appointed him in 2006 and 2010, and even after the debacle of this year’s elections, she wanted him to continue in the role. This time he turned her down.
This leads me to the despairing conclusion that the national Dem party apparatus has become so dependent on corporate campaign contributions and lobbyists that they can’t conceive of cutting that umbilicus. As a result, they’ve carefully slid out of claiming to be the party of the common person, working people, and the demos, and have no remaining reason to exist other than “not as bad as the Republicans”.
Now, given how bad the Republicans have become, that’s still an important role.
But it’s not the stuff of political leadership, and the demos can smell the Party’s ambivalence through all the foofaraw.
SatanicPanic
Abandoning her would be stupid. There’s really no upside to that. And what does that tell other senators? If you end up in a tough election, you’re on your own, sucker!
joel hanes
@Suzanne:
The blame lies with the lazy bastards, uh, CITIZENS,
Let’s stipulate that.
Next step:
What do we do about it ?
Gian
@Omnes Omnibus:
piss the fuck off yourself.
I never said she picked Willard. You seem unable to actually read. Damn shame that. Or are you unable to get the meaning of “IF”
should I help with a dictionary link to “if” I mean “if” learning the fucking conditional would help.
let me be even more clear. she needed to pick a side. I don’t care which side. being scared to take a side makes your team stay home, and doesn’t make the other team trust you.
wait, let me be clear, IF she had the guts to (wait, did you see the “IF”) say which way she voted, even IF it was for R-money it was a better play then trying to be coy about it.
IF you can argue that her strategy was optimal because her failure to state she picked a side won her votes, stand up and argue it.
not your fever-dream about a misread argument
SatanicPanic
@Suzanne: I don’t know if hectoring people is going to work either.
Gian
@SatanicPanic:
she needs everything that team can give her. I think she’s best served by running on how she’s done good retail politics, how she’s helped the people in her state, from roads, to getting some guy or gal married to a soldier fast tracked citizenship – that she’s a native and her opponent is funded by out of state money
Omnes Omnibus
@Gian: She was working in Kentucky. She picked a strategy. It didn’t work. She also worked her ass off. Just off hand, do you really think that tying herself to Obama would have paid off for her? she did the best she could.
Gian
@Omnes Omnibus:
midterms are about turning out your base. The state is about 8% African American, (and that vote does skew dem) would more voters have turned out if she was vocal in her support of the president? (yes) would more have turned out to vote against her (probably)
I can see the reason for the choice. I just think it’s the wrong choice. Back your party’s president or attack him, don’t pretend to be neutral, when everyone knows it’s a calculated lie. I must be crazy, ’cause I just don’t see the “I won’t tell you” game as a good idea.
She would’ve been a massive upgrade over Mitch, and the polling was close. some of the frustration with her is over the elections in general.
I don’t have the data from the internal polls, and I don’t know if she hired the Mark Penn in training to help her. My thinking is that playing coy and neutral was a bad idea, and that picking either team was better. I don’t even know that the guy who killed bin laden could’ve won there as a democrat (even IF he’d cured cancer too)
AxelFoley
@PsiFighter37:
Where in the FUCK to you get this? Hell, this man has practically begged us to give him a Congress he could work with in 2010 AND 2014. He’s offered his services to Dems across the country, only for most of them to spurn him.
So, fuck that noise.
Skippy-san
If Wasserman-Schulz is not canned as DNC Chairman, then there is no hope. They need a strong chairman -and she is not it. Howard Dean may need to make a comeback appearance.
J R in WV
@Omnes Omnibus:
Then maybe, just maybe, she should have said so in that interview. Then asked “So did you not know I was an Obama delegate to the convention? Or is this question supposed to be a gotcha?”
Maybe she should have gone on for several minutes with great things Obama has done for Kentucky people.
I donated money to her campaign, saw that interview, she looked stoopid [sic, for emphasis!] not saying who she voted for. She
couldshould have said “I’m a Dem, I voted for the Dem, I always vote Dem, unless the Dem is Stalin, Obama isn’t Stalin despite what his enemies say about him, here’s why…”But she didn’t. I donated a lot (in hundred dollar bunches) to Natalie Tennant, Kay Hagan, Michelle Nunn, Ron Barber, Mary Blount (sp?) and a couple of others, and all it did was get me hundreds of the most stupid examples of fund raising emails you ever saw, the same ones for all of them. Yetch!
I’m a retired state employee. Now I was relatively highly paid for state employees, because I managed a software Development shop, but still a state employee. $100 is a lot of money for me to donate over and over! I won’t be doing it again, not when they appear to use it for TV ad buys instead of organizing party construction work.
It is hard to explain how bummed out I am for our country. We deserve better than these glassbowls running the Democratic party, and running the country.
The folks running the Demo party are as stupid as the Rs running the country if they can’t figure out that doing the same thing every two years is gonna get the same results the next 8 times as it got the last 8 times.
So, Yes, I too drspair of the National Democratic Party machine, which is totes broken, but won’t get out of the way to let others try to do better.
Daniel'sBob
@Omnes Omnibus: My Mom’s cousin-in-law was pastor of a nearly all black Methodist congregation at the time of the police riot and got in a bit of trouble with his superiors for sheltering some demonstrators in his church. He was a good man.
DTOzone
@Omnes Omnibus: I think there’s some truth to Obama not liking politics, and I don’t blame him. He’s an idealist, always was. That’s part of the reason he won. He’s more interested in passing legislation and making shit work than playing the parlor game.
Unfortunately, as he’s finding out, you have to play the game. I sense that he really REALLY hates his job. I got that sense in his presser last week, where he felt relieved that he’ll never have to play this game again.
I don’t think you’ll see Obama on the national trail like you’ve seen Bill. I think he’ll disappear into social work and humanitarian causes. And that’s fine, because the rest of the world loves him.
Keith G
@AxelFoley:
But it takes more than activities performed in the last month of an election cycle. Party building is a 365, 24/7 responsibility. It starts with an aggressive marketing of key messages and of building a narrative that can be understood and bought into by the electorate. This has not been this administration’s strength…as Obama himself has commented on several times throughout his presidency. The latest being on Nov. 5:
I am rather sanguine about this now. It’s his legacy that the contest is presently about. He needs to figure out how much effort it is worth. In an interview in CBS during the 2012 campaign, Obama was asked about things he could have done better in the previous four years. His response was along the lines of, “We should have done a better job telling our story.” That gave me hope, as I saw that as a true weakness and maybe it would finally be addressed. Or not.
Winning in politics, especially at the presidential level, is not about being the best person or having the best ideas, it’s about fiercely engaging in a gut-wrenchingly Byzantine process that masquerades as a competition of ideals.
David Axelrod hit on part of the issue when he said, “There’s no doubt that there’s a theatrical nature to the presidency that he resists. Sometimes he can be negligent in the symbolism.”
It’s a seemingly small thing, but these small things do add up.
palindrome
I’m offended – I forced my grandchildren to read Kim on pain of no Halloween one year… Yeah, I suck.
palindrome
P.S. Sent ten bucks to Mary yesterday – you’re right, the Dem machine sucks.
LAC
@Omnes Omnibus: being wrong has never stop the narrative here. But thank you for stating facts.
JMG
Why would it be so hard to have co-chairpersons of these committees, one to do the groveling for money from rich people, the other to do the work of party building and communicating? Wasserman Schultz was one of the most horrible television personalities I have ever seen, like she was from a failed sitcom pilot.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
@Jack the Second:
And I would take ebola over terminal brain cancer.
lawguy
If I may…….WTF? What in gods’ names are they saving their money for?Although, it does tell you something about where we are right at the moment (or perhaps have been for quite some time) in terms of political parties.
Whatever most of us think is going on, it isn’t. There is something else, perhaps they really are the Washington Generals?
jake the antisoshul soshulist
The DNC threw Grimes under the bus. She was losing ground, so they pulled the great majority of their ads. The only Grimes ads in the last two weeks were from her committee and Senatemajority, an outside PAC.
I suspect that at least 5 % of the margin came from the DNC abandoning her. Not that it matters, but why would you fight for a DNC that does not fight for you.
tobie
I’m going to go out on a limb here. The Democratic Party is run by Clinton loyalists. DWS fits the bill perfectly. She rose to prominence as a vocal advocate for Hillary Clinton in 2008. (She was actually very good in this role.) I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Clintons didn’t help the DNC craft its strategy for the 2014 election. Run away from Obama. Have loyal stooges like Leon Panetta come out with books questioning the effectiveness of the President in foreign policy on the eve of the election. Gin up panic about ISIS. Talk about Hillary’s wisdom versus the President’s blindness. All this was supposed to prepare the ground for 2016. Of course it also backfired. Thanks Clinton machine, if you were behind this. Who knows? Just a theory or maybe better to say conspiracy theory.
Suzanne
@joel hanes: I don’t really have an answer that is satisfying. I think we need massive cultural change in order to promote ideas of empathy and the common good and civic engagement. But I don’t think we will win elections on a regular and lasting basis by being progressive until that sea change occurs. Until then, I think Blue Dogs are the best we can hope for. At least they can limit some of the damage done.
I know that people like progressive policies a great deal. I think they just enjoy being apathetic, cold-hearted shits even more.
Don
Us Democrats, on the other hand — “we” give every hopeful one shot at the lottery ticket, and if they can’t deliver a million-dollar win by the end of the quarter, the professional Dems of the permanent party run away like they’d just been informed of an Ebola outbreak.
I don’t think the DNC should walk away from an impending election, but I find this phrasing a little naive and kind of deceptive in its portrayal of the amounts involved. A campaign is a reverse lottery ticket, where spending of millions maybe gets you a position paying a tiny fraction of that. It is far too expensive an operation to keep running folks who couldn’t deliver the first time. You want multiple bites at the apple, go after cheaper apples. City council or dogcatcher, maybe. In the bigs you deliver or you get out of the way (or are pushed) for someone else to try.
That shouldn’t apply when all the pieces are in play and the election is a few weeks away unless maybe you’re dealing with limited resources and have a better shot at a different win. I don’t see how that applies in a run-off like this where there’s not other campaigns to spend the money on for another year at best. But comparing zero-cost things like voicing support for long-ago choices to a million-dollar ad buy and volunteer efforts is just foolish.
Fair Economist
@Omnes Omnibus:
She probably wouldn’t have won by tying herself to Obama. But she wouldn’t have lost by 16 points. All the Republicans already thought she was Obama’s lackey, because their party had told them so, and that’s what Republicans do – believe what their party says, no matter how nonsensical (e.g. climate change denialism).
The only people who will ever listen to any Democrat’s message are Democrats and Democratic leaners. And they got turned off both by bashing a guy they know is a genuinely good President, and by the blatant disingenuousness of an Obama delegate saying she might not have voted for Obama.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Fair Economist: Meh. I don’t think ALG’s “gaffe” made a difference, other than giving the talking heads something to talk about other than the issues. There were fewer votes separating ALG and Mitch than separated BHO and Rmoney, after all…
I did some more thinking overnight. I just sent Mary $50. Here’s hoping she puts it to good use. Those of you who won the lottery recently, kick in some too, if you can. :-)
Thanks OO.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jack Hughes
The Democrats are not a real political party. They just pretend to be one when they’re begging for money — which they waste on TV commercials that insult the voters’ intelligence instead of shaming the Republicans for their gross dishonesty.
Real political parties have “leaders” that execute ‘strategy” and enforce “party discipline” in order to achieve an “agenda.” The Democrats do none of these things.
The Democrats are apparently willing to write a Democratic senator off — even after the drubbing they just took.
Amateurs.