On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 1:28 PM, Jerry Barnes <[email protected]> wrote: > > "So who exactly did the Republicans punish?" > > Who said Republicans? It would be hard for anyone to win a race these days > with the support of one party. You have to get the independents. You know, > those independents who voted for the Democrats and Barack Obama in 2008.
I think you are reading this wrong. The exit polls, at least, indicate that Republicans did a better job of getting their base out (increased percentage of the voters were conservative, white and older) and the Democrats had a massive letdown with their base versus 2008 (plunging youth participation and black turnout). Self-identified Conservative versus Liberal turnout explains the bulk of the difference between 2008 and 2010, not independents breaking Republican versus Democrat. > "Harry Reid was re-elected." > > My only disappointment of the night. Still his power is greatly diminished > since the almost super majority is gone and he doesn't have a house that > will accept whatever crap he delivers. Got to agree here. Well, except that I don't agree that he had much power previously (or at least he wasn't willing to use it). for most all of the big legislation, he handed over the reigns to coalition groups of conservative Dems and potentially amenable Republicans, like Max Baucus and the Gang of 6 with Health Reform. He was a pretty weak leader to start with and I'm not happy that he's back, except in so much as it means that we don't have to listen to Sharon Angle. Maybe Schumer or someone will step up to challenge him for the leader position. > > "Angle lost because Reid got 11 percent of the Republican vote. O'Donnell > lost, Fiorina lost. So why is the Tea Party crowing victory" > > You can't win them all, especially against incumbents. From what I read, > the tea party movement is excited about Rubio, Paul, Haley to name a few. > And even if O'Donnell lost to the bearded Marxist, she was right in my > opinion. Her victory in the primary sent a shot across the bow of the > Republican Party. They can no longer take their base for granted. > > More importantly than these big elections, many states flipped to Republican > Senates and houses. Just in time for redistricting. I understand this line of thinking and it is exactly what I've seen on the left at places like DailyKos. It is straight up partisan, kowtow to the extreme of your party, straight line bull rush push through everything you can and damn the people that will compromise. It's pretty sickening. At least in Oregon, we've got Democratic Congressmen who voted against TARP because there was no accountability and (hopefully) just elected a Democratic Governor who is making public employee union benefits reform a top priority. You know, actual moderates who speak their mind and don't always agree with unions or big busines ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:330938 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
