Posted on 10/30/2009 7:13:00 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
On Friday’s Situation Room, CNN forwarded an idea proposed by The New Republic’s Peter Beinart- that Democratic losses in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey this year would result in the reelection of President Obama in 2012. An on-screen graphic during a discussion of Beinart’s hypothesis read, “If The Dems Lose Next Week: How it might help them in the long run.”
Anchor Wolf Blitzer read the New Republic contributor’s idea during a “Strategy Session” panel discussion with Republican Mary Matalin and Democrat Paul Begala 53 minutes into the 4 pm Eastern hour: “Peter Beinart, writing in The Daily Beast, says...it might be good for the Democrats if the Republicans win both Virginia and New Jersey, the governors’ races next Tuesday. ‘Let’s imagine,’ he writes, ‘that Democrats lose next week because the GOP’s conservative base flocks to the polls while liberals stay home. For Obama, that wouldn’t be so terrible. The more confident right-wing Republicans become, the more likely they will nominate a Palin-like zealot in 2012.’”
Beinart sounds like he’s channeling ABC’s Clare Shipman, who, after President Obama’s trip to Copenhagen failed to secure the Olympics for Chicago, bizarrely argued that this loss was actually good for the Democrat.
Both Matalin and Begala didn’t buy this hypothesis one bit:
BLITZER: You like his [Beinart’s] logic there?
MARY MATLALIN: It’s an argument supported neither by logic nor data. He argues that off-year elections are not predictive for mid-terms or subsequent presidential elections unless there’s a Republican victory which portends a negative impact on the next election. That’s illogical on its face, but it’s not supported by data either. These are not conservatives of any ilk, either, of his description, ‘kooky’ conservatives or [unintelligible] common sense conservatives. It is independents that are flocking away from the Democrats because they do not like the - those very voters that swept Obama in and expanded the Democratic majority- they do not like the aforementioned expansive government.
BLITZER: Paul?
MATALIN: They do not like the debt. In New York 23 [the New York 23rd congressional district race], there wasn’t a run on conservative social issues. It was on the debt, and that’s why Hoffman got in and that’s why independents are flocking to him.
BLITZER: All right. Very quickly, Paul- go ahead.
PAUL BEGALA: Well, the debt, of course, was created by the Republicans, and Bill Clinton, who I worked for, left the White House- he handed President Bush the greatest surplus in American history. But the interesting- I think Peter Beinart is wrong. He is a very smart guy, but he’s wrong. Mary is correct about that. It’s never good to lose, and Democrats shouldn’t think it’s good if they lose.
I’m watching Virginia, because it’s a test run of what a lot of Democrats like to do. They seem to believe in the politics of differentiation: ‘Oh, I’m different from Obama.’ Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia, says- would not say that he’s an Obama Democrat. He, in fact, then came out and said if the public option is passed and states can opt out, I would probably opt out. So he’s running away from Barack Obama, in a state Obama won by six points. Let’s see how that works out for him. My guess is he loses by ten points or more by trying to separate himself from his party’s president.
Neither Matalin nor Begala addressed the second part of Beinart’s theory, which concerned the viability of a “Palin-like zealot,” or, more plainly, a conservative presidential candidate for the Republican Party. But it’s certainly interesting to watch the two of them throw cold water on the hypothesis CNN seems to be forwarding.
—Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
Then why did they even run candidates?
This is a laugh
Truth is...they will be.....better off.
CNN already spinning their probable loses haha.
How about if they lose NJ, VA, NY, and CA?
They’re desperate to spin Tuesday’s election results.
Gotta love it. They are already waving the white flag
Exactly right...it's not the Republicans, but the Independents, who are more knowledgeable on the issues and are upset.
Deeds ran away from Obama only insofar as the polls told him to. Begala is a thoroughly dishonest snake.
Please stop by the FReepathon thread and give it a bump. If you haven’t donated yet, please give it some thought.
Thank you!
The debt exists to fund the Unconstitutional Federal spending advocated and demanded by Democrats (and by socialists, but I repeat myself.) Eliminate all such spending (at least 80% of the Federal budget) and existing tax receipt far more than cover what remains.
CNN's drinkin' a big ole batch of Kool-Aid ...
Nobody is talking about it, mainly because it is miniscule compared to the state elections on Tuesday. But Albuquerque elected a Republican Mayor and a Republican City Council a few weeks ago. This in a city which has had Democrats running it for many years and in a state which threw out the Republican candidate for the Senate and the three Republican candidate for the House in the last election. We went from three Republicans in Congress to zero.
So here is hoping that was just the start of a massive trend over the next three years.
A debt the forehead forgot to mention, the Messiah tripled in six months.
Those were probably sour grapes anyway.
It will all be blamed on racism, that is my first choice.
That is all the left has remaining in their skulls full of Xanax left for an excuse.
This is priceless!
CNN has the witch doctors out reading chicken entrails.
Who will win the third race at Arlington..abracadabra!
The Dems and the left are truly deranged lunatics. They are scared to death of Palin and the conservative movement. They want to try to extinguish it now because they know the Dems are in big trouble in 2010 and 2012.
Clinton’s surplus was smoke and mirrors. The biggest surplus left by one President to his successor was probably in 1837 (allowing for inflation since then), when Martin van Buren succeeded Andrew Jackson. Shortly afterwards the Panic of 1837 hit.
The federal debt has never been paid off. Closest they came was 1837 or so — down by less than $50K as I recall.
Midterm elections are surprisingly uncorrelated with Presidential reelection chances. The correlation is almost zero (statistically independent).
Notice how CNN reflexively posits only upon how news affects Democrats, not how it might benefit Republicans or Americans in general. It’s all about what’s good for Democrats.
All the Dems had to do was stay out of the way.
Democrats also made sure to stay out of any war during that time and we had the "peace dividend" to spend. When Republicans took control of the House in 1994 and continued through the rest of the decade, the House had enough discipline to not spend like drunken sailors.
Unfortunately, most of the economic boon was lost when the "dot.com bubble" burst and many of the PC manufacturing jobs moved overseas. The effects of 9-11 also killed momentum. Once Bush was in the White House, the Karl Rove strategy was to spend like Democrats to prove Republicans were not mean old misers. Unfortunately, that and the Iraq War grew the debt.
The chief source of the expansive federal debt today, however, aside from entitlement programs, is the abuse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as vehicles to put people in homes who clearly didn't have the net worth to pay for them. That problem traces back to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd who sought to expand "affordable housing".
Back during the Clinton years, the Democrats trumpeted a "budget surplus" which was largely a smokescreen. Their economic policies had little to do with our prosperity in the 1990s and it is insulting for them to suggest that their leadership created that boon.
“Truth is...they will be.....better off.”
Exactly
It's a little early for a victory lap, don't you think?
excellant points OH...
and remember ALL the Clinton budgets submitted had deficits planned as far as the eye could see. only Repub Congress reining in some of the spending made the budget (without the off-budget items) seem balanced. I’ve always wanted the drunken sailor Repubs to “freeze spending”, which the voters don’t know would defund the left as a freeze would actually CUT 3% + from the baseline budgeting each year!!
ymmv
Begala's revisionist history. If it wasn't for the Republicans taking control of Congress in 1992, forcing Clinton to balance the budget, and stopping the passage of the 'HillaryCare' socialized medicine, we'd be exactly where we are now - way back then!
And a few other items "the Forehead" didn't mention -
(1): Clinton cut the budget by decimating the military (remember the "peace dividend?")
(2): The fight over the balanced budget gave us the federal government shut down, which in turn gave us Monica Lewinsky delivering pizza in a blue dress and thong!
No, I’m talking about them. They are already conceding before the election results come in. Virginia is a lock, but New Jersey, it can go either way
And Clinton gave us 9/11—prosecuting terrorists in the courts like your typical lawbreaker, and decimating the intelligence community that should have picked up on what the 9/11 terrorists were planning....
And the greatest tech bubble in American history due to the free money they were printing.
“he handed President Bush the greatest surplus in American history.”
And the greatest organized terrorest network in American History.
LOL
Begala lies, lies, lies......
I understand. I was just trying to express my distrust for the Dems and everything they say or do. Bunch of dirt bags!
If we’ve got them on the ropes, now’s a perfect time to hit ‘em across the head with a baseball bat!
And rememmber, election day is when we have to stand up to them, and get in their faces if need be! It’s when they’ll try to intimidate, lie, cheat and bus in out of state voters!
I like your take on Begala; however consider his huge forehead—he is an alien!
Here’s to the dems benefiting from many many election losses.
We should be so lucky. We'll probably get stuck with Rudy McRomneybee or something. God forbid they run a conservative that energizes the base and connects with middle America.
Oh, come on. Begala is about the most normal looking pundit those guys have. I saw a picture of him once with Car-vile, and I commented that it looked like a scene from "Aliens Invade the CPA's Office" and Begala wasn't the alien.
Headline: Democrats lose VA and NJ
Democrats: “We Meant to Do That”
I guess when they lose they’ll claim victory too.
Clinton left Bush a surplus on paper. And he left President Bush a country vulnerable to exactly what happened 9 months.
The only “surplus” handed Bush was on paper. It did NOT take into consideration any recessions that may occur and certainly did not include 9/11 and the subsequent Afghan war.
Figures lie and liars figure
It’s just like saying “Global cooling is a result of global warming” or, “My house de-valued by 50%, so the government stimulous must be working”, or “Govenor Corzine balanced the state’s budget, so now we’re gonna raise every tax there is”.
Sure it makes sense.
http://www.bobmcdonnell.com/ for Governor
http://www.billbolling.com/ for Lieutenant Governor
http://www.cuccinelli.com/ for Attorney General
Down to the final days. It’s get out the vote time.
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