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Wake-Up Call for Democrats
It can be dangerous to over- or under-interpret Tuesday’s election results. While Politico said that neither the Virginia nor the New Jersey race could be called a referendum on Obama, Democrats' loss was "humiliating" and "emphatically not in Obama's favor." Democrats with formerly Republican congressional seats who are up for reelection in 2010 ought to pay close attention, because many of their districts—located in the southern and border states, or the Ohio River Valley—have political conditions similar to Virginia. Overall, independents jumped ship from the Democratic Party, but rather than revealing a partisan verdict, the elections, particularly the Democrats' consolation prize in New York's 23rd House district "revealed a deeply aggrieved electorate" that is "ready to rough up incumbents of all varieties." The electorate's sea-change may have repercussions for current political debates—Obama could have a tougher time convincing moderate Democrats to support liberal priorities such as an expanded government role in health care.
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The Dem's control DCyet they are unable to lead so unless the start to use the power we gave them it will be 1994 all over again in 2010
such a shame ... there goes obozocare and cap-n-tax thank gawd ... can't wait for 2010/12
Its a lot easier to read a teleprompter then to run the government and the economy. Obama's incompetence on the economy is something that the democrats can't hide and the press can't avoid reporting. People tend to vote their pocketbooks, and under Obama the deficit is exploding, the dollar is sinking, and unemployment and poverty are growing to never-before-seen levels.
The wake up call for democrats is michaelslevinson.com
I have noticed these past couple of years that the young voters don't vote the party. They vote for the person, which I find odd, since the person running promotes the issues of a paticular party. However, I think this might be very healthy for the political system, and we may have to think differently in the future.
Hey newswoman... what you're noticing of late is a phenomenon going as far back as I can remember. Some would say younger voters select a candidate the same way they chose their favorite rock star. Do you now suggest older voters emulate a part of the electorate that can't see past the special effects?
LOL Well if Obama actually did fight for liberal causes that might be a problem but since he sold them out for Olympia Snowe, I'm not worried that "Obama could have a tougher time convincing moderate Democrats to support liberal priorities such as an expanded government role in health care".
Poor Obama, I thought all he had to do was read his teleprompter and the magic would happen. Let the blue dogs walk the plank for obama and see what happens in 2010. Healthcare reform is one story but being taxed to death is another and that is what this healthcare bill does. We are taxed first, then maybe in 2013 the healthcare kicks in. What is that? 1,900 pages of taxes, regulations, all from our nice old grannie pelosi.
lachica6:
We got it. You're cute and sarcastic. Great.
Seriously though. No one wants to be taxed. I know I don't. But...isnt health care reform a worthy pursuit? There are millions of people without it who think it is. And if that means taxes are raised for the sake of it, isnt it worth it? I mean, is there a better plan-- a fool proof plan to fix healthcare, or the economy for that matter? Things were really bad a year ago, thats why Obama got elected. But do you really think there are quick and easy fixes?
Lets just hope this will kill the current health care bill.
Nothing will kill the health care bill. People were voting for governors in NJ and VA. They were not voting for health care reform. Now do you understand?
Do you understand the Blue Dogs see these elections results and aren't going to walk the plank for an unpopular bill?
Harry announced it won't get to the floor until 2010 if then. If this thing was going to pass, Obama had to pass it in the first 90 - 120 days. Blue Dogs on the fence aren't going to vote for this in an election year then around and defend it to the voters.
Not 100% sure about the 90-120 days part, but there was a good bit of political capital squandared on the stimulus.
Why do I get the feeling that Obama wants health care reform to die on the vine? Why is Reid backing down? Obama promised that it would be passed before the end of August. Well? Are people disappointed?
Well everyone knows these off-year elections mean nothing. Huffington said so. I wonder why Obama wasted his time like he did.
Hey Rogue.... I like when I hear folks like you say that ...you and the rest of your pals need to keep on believing in "Ariana the D.P."..... Her's is the model you all should embrace...... One more thing Rougue, just for the hell of it, get up and go ask Obama "why" his crew wasted all that time and money on "meaningless" off-year contests.
Who the hell is Huffington?
Obama wouldn't have been there if he thought it was a waste of time. The penny might have dropped now though. Robert Gibbes didn't do Obama any favors by dismissing these results as unimportant. White House arrogance knows no bounds. Most administrations don't develop such an attitude until their last term.......
African-Americans had no stake in the NJ and VA gubernatorial elections. The contests drew nothing near the numbers of Black voters who turned out for Obama. However, the novelty has worn off and the 2012 election will be even tougher for Obama without the African-American, liberal, and independent voters. Gov. Pawlenty is looking better all the time unless the Dems can dump Obama for Webb or Feingold.
Pawlenty wont even win his own state if he ran in 2012. He's starting to look like a Romney flip-flopper. Unfortunately for Timmay, not every district in Minnnesota is like Michelle Bachman's. Most Minnesotans completely are sane.
They are all losers. To test drive the Vehicle for World Peace you visit michaelslevinson.com
We clearly need to renew our politics. Instead of platitudes and policies the people cry out for solutions. The two parties are money raising shells. There isn't an actual leader amongst them.
michaelslevinson.com
You are an idiot to think that 12% of the American population put Obama in office. If that were the case don't you think they would have long since put a black man in office? Think about it. I know thinking is painful for you but try. You can do it!!
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I like Tim Pawlenty, but take a look at Haley Barber too. You may like him as well..
Yeah, You take a look at Haley BarBOUR. You'll see the paradigm of the Gravy-Sucking Pig. I must admit though, Chris Christie is poised to give him a run for his gravy.
I don't think Pawlenty is gonna get the GOP nomination...I got a feeling its gonna be Haley Barbour.
No to Barbour, Palin, Huckabee, and Mitt Romney.
There will be one brave Republican to take a chance on supporting health care reform. That person will be the next Republican presidential candidate. Health care reform has taken positive hold. Those Republicans who dare to oppose it, will lose out.
Hey squareyellow .... Are you referring to the Pelosi's Health Care Reform, Recast, Regurgitated and Reassignment Act of 2008 ?
"Reform"...a verb... make changes in order to improve.
"Recast"...a verb... a different form by melting down and reshaping.
"Regurgitated"... a verb... repeat without analyzing or comprehending.
"Reassignment... a verb... allocate or distribute differently.
What we fail to recognize, as a country, is that regardless of party it is who has enough money to run for office. Therefore, all we are electing are people who have enough money. Those people are out-of-touch with the average American. We need to quit focusing on party choices and change our entire system so that we can vote for someone who has more than big business and their personal funds in mind. In this election, the people who voted for Republicans appear to have forgotten who put us into this mess in the first place!!!
Exactly! For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would put the Repugs back into power after the way they ran the country during the Bush years. WTF??? You can thank the corporate owned cable news for all the BS propaganda that is being spewed 24/7 on Fox News.
Americans have short memories. Obama is not a fighter and has let too many Democrats and Independents down. He has attempted to make himself more popular with the center and the Right he was shunned by both! Obama is a very big disappointment for Democrats and the rest of us. He has chosen Geithner and Wall St. over the average American. The Dems must dump Obama for Webb or Feingold.
i voted for obama. i voted for him because i thought he could bring more ideas and energy to the battle against recession/unemployment. i couldn't care less where the economic problem came from and i would have voted for mccain if i thought he had a better shot at fixing it.
well here we are with 10% unemployment (more like 16% if you count everyone who has fallen off the statistical tables) and the dems are fiddling with health care reform instead of concentrating on the economy.
what's their excuse? health care reform will help the economy! really?! maybe long term it would (not everyone agrees) but short term they want to kick up taxes. what kind of an idiot increases taxes when the economy is in the tank?
and what kind of idiot fails to concentrate on getting the water out of a quickly sinking boat. forget the damned rudder, we ain't going anywhere if we sink.
You pick the lesser of two evils.
jus1drun
YOU LIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
djanimaequeen
get a grip. did you just hiccup on an exclamation point?
Yep I hiccuped. Just like Wilson's vodka fueled outburst. You got me. You're so clever. That's why you make the big bucks.
jus1drun: You have stated so well the problem the electorate is having with this administration and Congress. What we know is that the Stimulus bill has added greatly to the national debt. What might be conceded is that it was necessary to stop the bleeding of financial instutions, thereby saving many on main street from losing their savings and investment in 401Ks. What we haven't seen is any of that money helping small businesses, which could help in getting people employed in non government jobs. Lowering the corporate tax rate, I think, would be a good start. We have one of the highest in the world and lowering it significantly might bring companies back to the US.
The economy needs to be the top priority before adding more programs and taxes.
I don't live in Virginia so I didn't vote in the election, but I did see the campaign ads. What is not being reported is that McDonnell ran as a moderate, not as a conservative. It became a campaign issue after the paper he wrote in college (he was 35 at the time) came out in which he stated that working women are bad for society and that even married couples should have limited access to birth control. He spent the rest of the campaign highlighting how many women he had placed in his previous administrations and that one of his daughters is in the military. Further, it was pointed out that even on his official campaign site it did not prominently list him as a Republican. He had the support of several prominent local Democrats. I believe he politely declined to have Sarah campaign for him. He ran as a centrist, moderate candidate. Furthermore, the GOP seems to be downplaying the fact that the radical conservative candidate in NY-23 lost to a Democrat in a district that hasn't elected a Democrat since the Civil War.
I do hope the Democrats look at the election and see what the Independent voters were looking for in the candidates and the issues. Most exit polls had the economy at the top of their lists. The real question is will the Republicans see that the Independent voters were drawn to moderate candidates, not the extreme conservatives that are taking over the party.
No, it's not a wake up call it's just simply attention whore. There is nothing left to talk about so this is a chance for all the news whore to pretend something is important.
I agree GOP candidates should run as moderates. 2010 will be about the economy not social issues. That doesn't mean they have to betray their core beliefs just don't wear them on your sleeve. Independents are pragmatic not fanatic.
"independents are pragmatic not fanatic" - amen
make it work, spare me the indoctrination!
Independents are extremely immature voters that want everything now. Even worse, they are usually misinformed about the issues.
Democrats lost these relatively unimportant elections during an off year not only because of the changing tide of the Independents, but because Democrats just simply weren't interested going to the poll if there weren't provoking national issues.
there is developing a hard core of informed independent voters that view the incessant banter of partisans as too tied up in gamesmanship. the whole point of governance is the fair and orderly maintenance of a society in which its inhabitants can thrive. there are legit points made by partisans, we are simply looking for reasonable compromises so that we can get on with the real purpose of life (sorry it's not politics.)
People are resigned to bad government after the vote for Obama in 2008 and seeing how quickly he sold us out for the corrupt bankers..!
I think you'll see less and less people bothering to vote, the Obama election did more to expose just how little voting changes anything...than any election in a long long time first Bush steals the White House then we get betrayed by Obama...
We're a government of the bankers, by the bankers and for the bankers..not the people..!
We are a people with short attention spans, zero patience, and zero intelligence. You are proof. I'm amazed we haven't already been invaded. The man has been in office for a year. A year!! It's not the lack of jobs that's got you sitting there collecting unemployment. It's your lack of skills and basic reasoning. No you can't make 50K a year with an 8th grade education. Go back to school chum and learn something!!!
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What can I say?
I hope they fail.
That's all I'm ever going to say whenever the Republicans are elected to anything again. Let them fail, and then get the blame for everything that goes wrong.
Well, at least your rage is consistent.
Shocking discovery that you obviously haven't cottoned on to. All Dims are not alike. Neither are all Reps. Is your mind expanding? Each state elects its own legislators. They have to respond (well, at least theoretically) to wishes, needs, desires of their constituencies.
Forty years ago, the Dims and Reps voted with their own caucuses about 62% of the time. Reps and Dims crossed party lines based on issues not so much politics.
Today they vote with their caucuses about 92% of the time. Issues be damned, it's all politics all the time now.
As someone posted earlier, find the local candidates whose views on the important issues are consistent with your views and work for and vote for them.
Quite the rage and blame game and get involved.
LeftCoastRightBrain: I would consider your post to be reasonable if you had not used "Dims" instead of "Dems".
Intentional slur?
I am forming a new political party: The Independent Party, or The Lev Party. I'm the Lev. This is my own independent idea - The Lev Party will at least be the name of the people's convention I am planning.
On a personal level, forming this party will give me an opportunity to show the world my Vehicle for World Peace; fire it up - set the stage for (in my view) coming world peace and food chain harmony.
But set my giant idea aside as it is only one element in the renewal of our politics. To renew our politics we need to hold a giant political convention with 200,000 delegates. 200,000 delegates X $200 delegate fee / e quills $40,000,000.00 to run the convention.
The $$$ also can cover the cost for Bono, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Bon Jovi, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and so many others to provide Delegate Entertainment every night for a solid four nights.
We will also raise money for our political party convention, and for the entertainment with pay-per-view.
This is my plan.
The delegates will be urged to write our planks; what we belive we should do and how to get it done. When we gather we will conventioneer for four days and four nights, ratify all the planks we wrote in advance and straw voted for on our web site.
Then we also need 434 potential Members of The House of Representatives to step up to the plate and declare their candidacies for public office.
DUMP THE 535 and THE 535 MUST GO should be our pre-convention bumper sticker. There can only be one exception to the rule that asll 535 must go. One member of the Senate / one from the House. All the rest MUST GO! In the Senate we retain Bernie Saunders, a true independent stand up guy, and in the House, Marci Kaptor.
As soon as you make the mistake of saying "My congressperson is one of the good ones, then they all stay, so all must go. It is time for a change!
I will prepare the basic Request for Access each of our Independent candidates will place with every PBS station in the country to give a series of three live speeches on behalf of their candidacies. On PBS the air time is free and it doesn't cost any money to listen. People will tune in.
One of your 30 minute speeches could be about this growing marijuana issue. Marijuana has been smoked by people world wide for thousands of years.
Fascist elements in this country decided to make a plant nurtured by Mother Nature into a punishable crime for their own fascist purpose.
Marijuana not only mitigates the side effects of chemo-therapy, easing the nausea and body pain, it is also a mild anti-anxiety agent. Is there anything wrong with that? Is there? Know there is not.
People smoke marijuana and tensions wash away. This is good. Marijuana for some people is a gateway for smoking more marijuana. Even those people, so-called "heads" are able to hold down certain jobs! People smoke marijuana have a better appetite.
People find smoking marijuana extends the time element in a love making experience.
Marijuana is an expectorant. Old saying: "You don't get off until you cough."
People who are heavy tobacco smokers who also smoke marijuana are less likely to get lung cancer, because when they smoke marijuana they cough up all the toxins residing in their lungs.
People who smoke marijuana with a lung tumor put the tumor into remission from the marijuana smoke which travels in their air / oxygen stream and fights the tumor when the smoke gets to the place in tghe lung where ther tumor is!!!!
Marijuana smoke to a lung tumor is like squirting pure amonia on a cockroach. (A way more effective inexpensive roach killer than raid.)
We can adopt the Amsterdam model, and nationwide allow shops to open where someone can purchase marijuana, also hang out, talk, listen to music, have a coffee or sweet drink. Allowing these shops to open will create one half million jobs. A lot of previously unemployable people will become taxpayers, besides the tax on the marijuana.
We can reasonably tax the marijuana and earmark those tax dollars - at least 40 billion dollars, for free medical education for Dr.'s, dentists, nurses, and all related personal, the long term solution to lowering the cost of medical delivery.
A state raises one billion in marijuana tax. That billion is spent on free medical education in that state!
Internationally we can purchase the total marijuana crop from the Afghani farmers which will provide decent income for that poor country and help put the terrorists in Afghanistan out of business.
Does the above sample plank make sense? I hold the view the majority of the American people would agree. One more consideration:
Truman fired General MacArthur for trying to make war policy. We should apply the same principal to our domestic police. The duty of the police is to enforce the law, not tell us what our social laws should be.
Unless you live in a police state where the police are in charge of deciding what you can do. Those who favor the police state are in favor of the police deciding our law. Police Chiefs against the above should be fired or retired, removed from office.
michaelslevinson.com
only a complete idiot would blame Barack Obama for the bad economy. If you think anyone could turn a disaster into a perfect job in nine months
yu are either immature or stupid.
Congratulations to the Republican's for capturing the State Houses in VA & NJ. At the same time, its unfortunate the NY-23 House Seat increases the Democratic Legislative Majority by 2 additional seats; 259/176 (from 59% to 60% - Majority.)
It's also questionable as to the "real impact" of this "off year election." And while the pundits opine and seek to gain notoriety from their "invalidated views." I am only aware that general "voter turn-out" was VERY LOW with minority and younger voters 'failed to show up.'
"Exit Polling" overwhelmingly indicated the voter's believe the election outcome results from; "LOCAL RACES BEING ABOUT LOCAL CONCERNS." And only something less than 20% of the participants felt that the "vote was a referendum on President Obama."
By far the "most pertinent statistic" (which I've spent much time looking for, with not luck) is; "What percentage of the Registered Voter populations in VA, NJ and NY-23 Actually Participated in the Off-Year Election?
Whether the participation level was 30% or 70% is most important....... After all the Teabaggers make-up 10% to 15% of the Rightwing Core Base.
The other major point the Pundits are "floating" is; "Independents are 'running away' from President Obama, because they believe he is tacking too far to 'Right of Center.' I would only suggest to you, members of 'The Left' would seriously argue such a conclusion.
In considering where the MODERATE INDEPENDENT would be on their Political support, I can only say; "I would have extreme difficulty seeing a MODERATE INDEPENDENT sitting down to an extended-cup-of-coffee with a group of OVERLY-ENERGETIC TEABAGGERS.
Thank you.
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