If this keeps up, we’re in for a lot of political porn, of the what-this-means-for-America variety. Today was a twofer at Kaplan, with Broder and Mark Penn wanking eloquent about the elections before they even took place.
Hung parliament
by DougJ| 33 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Good News For Conservatives
beltane
This is exciting stuff, complete with polling place confrontations and everything.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Man you talk about mind meld. I just put this on my clipboard to post when your post showed up.
coolest title in a while.
stevie314159
I consider it an overwhelming vote for a National Health Service.
Lev
I don’t really get the Kaplan thing. Is there really a need to demean the WaPo after the past few years they’ve had? Their name itself is pretty much crap already. I get that they’re just a corporate asset of Kaplan, but I don’t have any particular resentment at the test prep people. So it doesn’t do much for me.
I don’t mean to be a hater. I’m just saying I don’t get it.
DougJ
@Lev:
Yes.
Lev
@DougJ: Fair enough.
Lev
Here’s some other good news for Republicans: nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/05/06/2010-05-06_former_senate_majority_leader_joseph_bruno_gets_…
Warren Terra
I’m just hoping that the Tories and the DUP don’t add up to a majority. Because I’m not a fan of the Tories, and I can’t abide the DUP – and if the Tories need the Lib Dems to stay in office, electoral reform might actually happen.
P.S. Is anyone else as sick of the “hung/hanged” jokes as I am?
DougJ
@Lev:
That’s more of a New York State thing than a Republican thing, truthfully.
cat48
Accidently read Penn so skipped Broder today. “Hung parliaments” are excellent!
Comrade Kevin
@Warren Terra: The DUP are indeed slime. It’s unfortunate that the saner parties in Northern Ireland are in such a minority.
Calouste
@Warren Terra:
According to a guy I know from another internet forum who is well versed in NI politics, the DUP is not going to do much more than vote with the Tories on an issue-by-issue basis. The UUP will go with the Tories, but they are only going to get one seat most likely.
Martin
I blame ACORN.
taylormattd
Oh, the wankery won’t only be in the Post editorial pages.
Just you wait.
I’m quite sure the firebagosphere will start screaming “Scott Brown! Scott Brown! The Labor Party lost because they didn’t pass a public option! Democrats are doomed unless they use reconciliation to immediately elect Halder in the Arkansas primary!”
Comrade Kevin
@Comrade Kevin: And, of course, after that, I see that Alliance have taken a seat away from the DUP. Awesome.
DougJ
@taylormattd:
In fairness to the Firebaggers, that is exactly what Bush would have done.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Well, I just heard this one today, so it has another few hours of shelf life for me. Disgusting ain’t I.
Amanda in the South Bay
Its inevitable that Labour won’t be able to stay in power forever-I mean, 13 years (and for the conservatives, the previous 18 years) is a pretty damn long time for one party to be in power.
IDK, maybe I’ve drunk too much Cameron kool aid, but I don’t see this as being as catastrophic as it would be if a Republican won the presidency in 2012.
SiubhanDuinne
@DougJ: you have outdone yourself with “wanking eloquent.”
MikeJ
@Warren Terra:
What, like every day on the Vote Now Show?
DougJ
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thank you. I liked it.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@Amanda in the South Bay:
I don’t know. Based on their nasty-party pedigree, I’m not inclined to believe Cameron represents the consensus of opinion among Conservatives so much as a cool new marketing effort. It’s too similar to the Bush “compassionate conservative” marketing effort for me.
Mumphrey
I saw both the Penn thing and the Broder thing. I really don’t understand it; Penn is (or was) a big-time poller, so you’d think he would know something about how American politics work; Broder is the wisest and most seriousest guy ever, so you’d think he’d know a bit about how American politics work, too. And yet…
Jeez, I’m just a guy who studied American history in college, so I don’t have the best credentials next to those 2 bigshots, but it would seem that I know how our country’s politics work better than those 2 clowns, which is sad, as they can get pieces run in the Post and I can’t…
Anyway, there’s no chance their wet dream is going to come true and a third party will rise and we’ll have a 3 party system. By now, I would say there is some likelihood that a third party might rise, but it will do so only over the dead body of one of the 2 major parties in the U.S. today, which, as far as I can see it, is far likelier to be the Republicans than the Democrats. The U.S. political system is not set up to have more than 2 stable parties at a time–though I would hedge a bit and leave room for the Republicans to hang on as a purely regional party with no real clout.
I’ve brought this up before, but in 1912, William Howard Taft, a Republican, was the sitting president, and wound up coming in third in both the popular vote and the electoral vote. He won Vermont and Utah, and picked up 8 electoral votes. His third-place showing still stands as the worst electoral vote showing by a major party candidate since the Civil War, and is the worst loss by a sitting president ever.
So why do I keep harping on this? Well, it’s that even though Theodore Roosevelt, who ran as a Progressive that year, came in second, and even though a fair number of Progressives won governors’ seats and Senate and House seats that year, the Progressives were gone as a force in American politics by 1916. Almost all of the Progressives switched either to the Democrats or (more often) to the Republicans within a few years. There just wasn’t room enough in our system for 3 parties, and the Progressives withered and died.
The only third party that ever amounted to anything in our history was the Republican Party, that sprang up in the middle 1850’s, and which even by 1856 or 1858 had taken the place of the Whigs, who died and left an opening. Unless the Republicans die off, there won’t be any lasting third party here, and if they do die off, the third party still won’t last as a third party: it’ll become one of the big 2 parties.
As I said, I’m no genius; I’m just a former American history major; and George W. Bush was a history major, too, so that should tell you that having a degree is no guarantee that the holder has learned or understood much. And yet, I know this stuff. How can Penn and Broder not know it? And how is it they get paid to spout this shit? I could spout shit, and it would be better and make more sense than their worthless blather. How do I get a nice, easy job like that?
Batocchio
Since they consistently ignore reality after events actually occur, why bother waiting?
Warren Terra
@MikeJ:
Yes, exactly.
Amanda in the South Bay
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason:
I guess I just assume that most European conservative parties are somewhat sane, with some exceptions (Thatcherism, crazy ass East/Central European fascist antisemites). IOW, we as leftists may not like it when they win, but the results won’t be as catastrophic as a Prez Palin and VP Huckabee.
But still, 13 years is just too long.
And Another Thing...
It’s an interesting ritual that Brit candidates all stand together in their constituency and listen to the results without knowing beforehand. Kinda cool. Also liked listening to the Welsh election judge speak in Welsh. The anchors/interviewers are quite feisty.
Jeff Fecke
Clearly this is good news for John McCain.
Jeff Fecke
@Warren Terra:
At least it’s not connected to a rump parliament.
Texas Dem
Well I hope the Brits have a well hung parliament.
Cynicor
One of the commentators on the BBC broadcast said that this result holds “bad news for all three parties.”
Kyle
Larry Craig is buying a plane ticket as we speak.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne:
Agree.
Wanking eloquent belongs under the Balloon Juice logo, and might get stolen as a blog name.