Posted on 11/05/2009 7:50:00 AM PST by yongin
After losing Virginia's governorship for the first time in eight years, some Democrats are trying to console themselves that Virginia is at its core a "red" state. This ignores not only that they won back-to-back governorships but also that Democrats defeated a sitting senator in 2006, took control of the state Senate in 2007 and won an open Republican Senate seat and three House seats in 2008 while carrying Virginia's electoral college votes for the first time since 1964.
Some in the White House are trying to deflect blame for the defeat by saying that Sen. Creigh Deeds lost because he didn't embrace the president and his policies. This ignores how much the Obama administration's support for cap-and-trade, organized labor's agenda, government-run health care and rampant spending hurt the Democratic nominee with independent voters.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
— Use language voters want from their elected leaders. When asked to comment on the president campaigning in Virginia for his opponent, McDonnell responded that “the president of the United States is always welcome in the commonwealth.” In addition to citing the litany of issues on which they disagreed, he noted his agreement with the president’s support for charter schools.
When a GOP candidate for the House of Delegates referred to the Obama administration as “domestic terrorism at its worst” and said that if Republicans fell short at the ballot box, we might have to resort to “the bullet box,” McDonnell made clear that her comments were not representative of Republicans he’d been talking with and that he would not campaign for or with her.
McDonnell was critical of his opponent’s policies, but Deeds’s attacks frequently were harshly personal. Voters expect the former but reject the latter.
— Match the left’s use of technology. The Obama campaign blazed electronic trails in 2008, and the McDonnell campaign sought to adapt to the new contours, beginning with an online announcement of his candidacy and a message to “Text VA to GOBOB” on banners and yard signs. Between social media networks, texting and e-mail, the campaign was regularly in direct contact with more than 200,000 voters — impressive, especially given the low turnout on Election Day. In addition to the campaign’s efforts, the Republican Party of Virginia did an excellent job of driving coverage and perceptions of Deeds through creative Web videos.
— Back strong candidates. Elections are ultimately choices between two people vying for the same job. Bob McDonnell was, hands-down, the superior candidate. Virginia’s next governor proved to be a principled, disciplined, energetic, idea-driven, articulate and personable candidate — characteristics that will serve the commonwealth well over the next four years.
Ed Gillispie offers sound advice for creating a GOP surburban revival. During the campaign, McDonnell was constantly referred to as “Taliban Bob” or the “Pat Roberston candidate”. Yet he carried Fairfax County. The first Republican candidate to do so since Bush in 2000. The lesson to be learned is that strong social conservatives can compete in affluent suburbs as long as they talk about the issues that concern voters.
I noticed Ed did not touch on the smear campaign waged by his own WaPo for the benefit of Deeds. I wonder why? Otherwise a well reasoned and written piece.
You got that right. Even SW Virginia went GOP this time around. Cap & Trade didn't go over too well in coal mining country.
November 4, 2009 | Vol. 4, No. 44
A Bad Day for the Obama White House
A Good Day for the American People
By Newt Gingrich
A bad day for the Obama White House but a good day for the American people
That’s the easiest way to summarize the collapse of the Democratic candidates around the country yesterday.
In Virginia and New Jersey the Republican victories last night were bigger than they were in 1993. Sponsored Content
Voters were clearly unhappy. According to Mike Allen of The Politico, network exit polls showed that 85 percent of Virginia voters and 90 percent of New Jersey voters were worried about the economy.
Governor Haley Barbour put it best: “It’s not about the President personally...the President’s policies are unpopular.”
It will be interesting to see if any congressional Democrats get that message or if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is able to push through the massive leftwing health bill this coming Saturday.
The Biggest Winner? Bob McDonnell in Virginia
The biggest winner last night was Bob McDonnell and his campaign for governor in Virginia.
McDonnell is so attractive and effective as a candidate, and so knowledgeable after years in the state legislature and four years as Attorney General, that he should be a model for all Republicans to study.
He is a solid conservative who knew how to appeal to suburban voters, how to deflect the Washington Post’s attacks, and how to appeal to minority voters.
The results were overwhelming in Virginia. Republican enthusiasm was up, and after a year of the Obama presidency, Democrats were demoralized.
The result was a turnout in which 47 percent of voters identified themselves as Republicans and 36 percent identified as Democrats. This is an enormous change for a state which one year ago gave President Obama 53 percent of the vote.
The Fallout in Virginia: Four Democratic Seats are Now at Risk
Four Democratic congressmen from Virginia are now at risk because their districts went for Bob McDonnell last night.
In Rep. Glenn Nye’s (D) 2nd District, McDonnell was winning by a whopping 63 percent to 37 percent with 130 out of 161 precincts reporting.
In Rep. Tom Perriello’s (D) 5th District, McDonnell was winning by 61-39 with over 90 percent of the vote counted.
In Rep. Rick Boucher’s (D) 9th District, McDonnell was ahead 68-32 with 295 out of 336 precincts in.
In Rep. Gerald Connolly’s (D) 11th District, McDonnell was up 56-44 with 68 of 168 precincts reporting.
And not just Virginia House members should take note. Virginia Senators Jim Webb (D) and Mark Warner (D) need to look carefully at the impact of the energy tax in the cap and trade bill on Virginia voters.
Chris Christie’s Victory Margin was Four Times Christine Whitman’s
In a more Democratic state than Virginia, former federal prosecutor Chris Christie’s (R) win yesterday in New Jersey was an equally impressive Republican victory.
Christie won by over 100,000 votes, which is four times moderate Republican Christine Todd Whitman’s margin in 1993.
As for the Democrats, incumbent Governor Jon Corzine’s 44 percent of the vote was a huge drop from President Obama’s 57 percent of the vote in New Jersey just a year ago.
Troubling News From New York 23
The news wasn’t all good last night.
Both conservative activists and Republican leaders need to think long and hard about the only bad result of the night in New York’s 23rd congressional district.
The Democrat beat the conservative candidate 49 percent to 44 percent, with the Republican getting only 5%.
Conservatives can take comfort in having driven a liberal Republican out of the race. But everyone on our side has to be troubled that a Republican seat went to a Democrat and Speaker Pelosi is one vote stronger because of our division.
The National Conservative Movement Has to Be Recognized and Respected
In retrospect it is clear Dede Scozzafava should never have been nominated because she was far too liberal to be acceptable.
Republican leaders in New York must recognize that Mike Long and the Conservative Party in that state have to be consulted before decisions are made. The national conservative movement is a force that has to be recognized and respected.
I certainly heard from enough friends to know that my decision to support the unanimous vote of the 11 New York county chairs was very unpopular with conservative activists.
In New York, after two failed special elections, it is clear the state party has to fight to change the election law so there are primaries in special elections. The insider nominating process is simply unacceptable to grassroots populists and guarantees a sense of illegitimacy.
“When the GOP is United, There Is No State In America We Cannot Win”
However, all of us who oppose the Left need to realize that civil war within the GOP will reelect Barack Obama and make Nancy Pelosi speaker for life.
As pollster Frank Luntz said, “When the GOP is united, there is no state in America that we cannot win — even the most Democratic states like New Jersey. But when the GOP is divided, even the most Republican districts are in jeopardy.”
Building a unified, center-right coalition on a nationwide basis will be the greatest challenge Republicans face in the next three years. But we did it in 1980. We did it again in 1994.
We can do it in 2010 and 2012.
Troubling Big Money Facts
It is an inescapable conclusion that Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) would not have been reelected without having spent $90 million of his own money buying New York City Hall from the voters.
It is also obvious that Governor Corzine of New Jersey would not have been competitive without having spent $30 million (bringing his total purchase of elected offices to $120 million for one Senate and two gubernatorial races).
The current campaign finance rules create the real danger of an oligopoly of rich people buying office.
We need to replace current campaign laws with a simple system that allows everyone to raise unlimited money from individuals as long as it is reported on the internet every night.
This simple system will allow middle-class candidates to raise the money to match rich candidates and level the playing field.
The American People Still Support Marriage
In Maine voters rejected by 53 percent an effort to redefine marriage.
Once again the people rejected the elites in this fight over the nature of marriage.
Good Local Results for the GOP
Generally it was a good night for Republicans in local races as well.
In my favorite race, good friend Barbara Comstock won her state legislative race in Virginia, beating an incumbent Democrat by 192 votes to become the only Republican legislator inside the beltway in Northern Virginia.
As the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund noted, Republicans also won control of New York’s Nassau County legislature, and the race for county executive will go to recount.
Also in New York, the longtime Democratic County Executive of Westchester County, Andy Spano, lost to Republican Rob Astorino by 58 percent to 42 percent.
(Ed Cox, the new and brilliant New York state Republican chair is off to a good start).
In New Jersey, Republicans won control of the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders with John Curley beating Sean Byrnes by a 58-38 margin. Republicans in New Jersey also held their majority on the Burlington County Board of Freeholders, winning two open GOP seats.
And in Michigan, state Senate District 19 was called with 65 percent of the vote reporting. Republican Mike Nofs bested Democrat Marty Griffin by 64-39. This had been a Democratic state senate seat.
Also Winners: Barbour, Ayers and Steele
Two other big winners last night deserve our congratulations and thanks: The Republican Governors Association (RGA) and the Republican National Committee (RNC).
At the RGA, Chairman Haley Barbour and Executive Director Nick Ayers did a superb job.
At the RNC, Chairman Michael Steele provided terrific support to candidates and campaigns everywhere.
All in all, a good night for the American people.
Your friend,
Newt Gingrich
Cap and Trade = Balloon Boy? - As Senators Boxer and Kerry try to convince the country that cap and trade will create millions of new jobs, we couldn’t help but think of something else: Balloon Boy. Their premise, just like that of the parents in Colorado, is a complete hoax. In reality, a massive energy tax at a time of 10% unemployment will lead to fewer jobs. To make that point, we put together this spoof video
Americano Update - An interesting OpEd in The Americano by Adolfo Franco on whether big labor unions are pushing President Obama into another Mexican-American War.
Rally Thursday Against Obama/Pelosi-care - If you haven’t heard, Speaker Pelosi will try to ram through the House a $1.3 trillion, 1990-page government-run health care bill this week. Some members of Congress opposed to this big government takeover are holding a rally in Washington, D.C., and across the country Thursday at noon.
Obama Election Defeat Termed ‘Astonishing’
The Obama freight train that has been steamrolling American politics ever since his election one year ago ran squarely into a political brick wall Tuesday night, as Democrats suffered stunning setbacks in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races.
The big surprise: New Jersey, a blue state where Obama invested significant political capital by pulling out all the stops to try to put incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine over the top.
The president personally campaigned for Corzine three times, taped “robocalls,” and sent his vice president to make two more appearances.
Yet despite the president and vice president repeatedly putting their personal prestige on the line, and despite a $10 million Corzine advertising advantage, the incumbent was unable to turn back the wave of dissatisfaction with the economy and high property taxes.
“There is a reason Obama went in over and over in Virginia and New Jersey,” Wall Street Journal columnist and author John Fund told Newsmax. “He was worried what this would do to spook blue dog Democrats on healthcare . . . he was right to be worried.”
GOP strategist Roger Stone told Newsmax, “The bloom is off the Obama rose.”
Even Democratic strategist James Carville said the results show the GOP is “all gassed up” and suggested that the Republican sweep may undermine Obama’s legislative agenda, including his healthcare reform plans.
Fox News contributor and author Dick Morris describes the New Jersey result as “astonishing in a core Democratic state.”
“It shows the apathy of the Democratic base, the erosion of the Democratic base, and the intensity of the Republican electorate,” he told Newsmax.
With nearly all votes recorded, GOP challenger Chris Christie, 47, a former corruption-busting attorney general, becomes the first Republican in a dozen years to seize a statewide office in New Jersey.
Christie was declared the winner with 49 percent of the vote to Corzine’s 45 percent. Corzine’s defeat marked only the third time in the past 60 years that a governor in the Garden State lost re-election after serving only a single term.
Morris predicted, however, that the GOP sweep in Virginia of the Old Dominion’s top three offices — governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general — will have an even bigger impact on the nation’s debate over healthcare and energy cap-and-trade.
In Virginia, Republican Bob McDonnell won the election over Democrat Creigh Deeds by a whopping margin of about 20 points. Obama, who carried both New Jersey and Virginia handily a year ago, had campaigned for Deeds as well.
“That sends a message to the 83 Democratic congressmen, who come from red states that [Sen. John] McCain carried, and the 20-plus Democratic senators who come from those states. And that message is you cannot count on Obama to carry you through. If you vote for a healthcare proposal that people don’t like, you are on your own. And if Obama couldn’t bail out Corzine in a blue state, and he couldn’t bail out Deeds in a borderline red state, he can’t bail you out.”
That, Morris said, will have a heavy influence on the debate over the Obama administration’s big-government legislative programs. The will affect the administration dramatically, he said, adding, “In retrospect this really could be seen as the high water mark of the Obama administration.”
The results signal that the entire healthcare package is in trouble, and not just the public-option aspect of it, Morris said.
“Obama until now has not cared what the American people think. His whole approach has been just, ‘Trust me, I won the election, and all the rest of you can get lost.’ I think after tonight he can’t say that anymore.”
© 2009 Newsmax.
Somebody the other day made the below statement in reference to 0bama, but I want to expand it.......
The Democrats are about as popular as a dose of the clap.
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