Posted on 12/20/2016 12:06:11 PM PST by xzins
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was surprised on election night: He didn’t see President-elect Donald Trump winning or the Senate staying in Republican hands.
“I honestly thought we wouldn’t hold the U.S. Senate,” the Kentucky Republican told Kentucky Educational Television’s ... “I thought we’d come up short, and I didn’t think President Trump had a chance of winning.”
The Senate victories were “really something,” McConnell said, “but it never occurred to me he (Trump) might be able to win as well.” ...
“It was a lot of feeling among just ordinary people...that the current administration didn’t care about them,” he said, “and Trump was able to convey, ...a message from a billionaire who lives in Manhattan a genuine concern (to those) who feel kind of left out.”
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
That’s why you play the game Mitch..
Both Ryan and McConnell are very popular in their district and state. And they are very popular in their caucus as they got reelected to their leadership posts for the next two years. People seem to be in denial of that fact. But it is true and they are going no where despite the temper tantrums here.
Bonehead &Cantor were popular too.
Those three you mentioned were not Senate material and lost. All three made major mistakes during their campaigns and that is why they lost. Those three are responsible for their loss and no one else.
Kirk from Illinois was going to lose regardless. His situation was hopeless. In NH, Kelly A. got 7,000 more votes than Trump. She almost pulled him across the finish line. They both lost NH and since she got more votes than Trump, your post is wrong.
That is a good point about the rural vote. I think it is common for down ballot races to receive less votes than the presidential contest. Everyone comes out to vote for president and leave the other races blank. The NH race still bugs me, especially Kelly A. I think she lost by less than 1,000. I know she is not perfect, but was a good fit for NH.
Thanks.
they both ran away from Trump and that’s a fact.
I agree Kirk was probably toast before he was toasted, though running hard against Trump couldn’t have helped.
I disagree about Ayotte. There were 5156 less voters for senate than president and a repub won the governorship.
Ayotte embraces Trump early and hard and I believe she wins by more than the 1017 she lost by.
We’ll never know.
FreeeRegards.
Everyone misspeaks now and then; does that make it an automatic disqualifier? Should Trump have dropped out after his first gaffe?
The states are entitled to send whomever they want; it's not up to an elitist in DC to accept them or not. Mcconnell should have supported their runs for office because he needed the seats.
Mcconnell didn't reject them because of their supposed lack of qualification; he shunned them because they were Tea Party and he and Boehner Were fending off a surge from their Right.
-PJ
I am proud to say I thought Trump would win from very early on.
What did it for me was watching his rallies. I would ask my wife and my brother - How does he do it? How does he get such big crowds? All the news outlets are so negative, all the celebrities put him down, all the late night “comedy” talk shows call him a clown. The Republican Party is doing nothing for him. What is his connection? Where do all these people hear about him?
Someone said Twitter and Facebook but the question was still - how did he get this big following?
Was it the apprentice? I am still a bit mystified - I had FR and Hannity and Lew Dobbs and I’m kind of an independent thinker, but I was really surprised when all the blue collar people I knew were pro trump.
Anyway, when I first saw the crowds at his rallies and how enthusiastic they were in every corner of the country, I realized he was going to win it all.
I must admit when the pussy gate tape came out I had a few days of doubting he could survive it - but then I was back to being sure he was going to win. I made lot of $1 bets (and a couple $100 ones) but I’ll never collect because people just don’t remember betting against him.
I was surprised it was this close - I thought it would be a real landslide - but democrats are still convinced everything bad said about Hillary was a lie.
Mitch, anything else you thought you would like to say? Why not say, ‘I, Mitch McConnell, is a loser’?
“REMINDER:
Trump’s win is only ONE HALF of why we won’t have a liberal Supreme Court for A LONG TIME.
Mitch McConnell is the other half, and frankly, his winning gamble of holding off the Obama nominee will prove one of the most profoundly influential choices of all history.
We dislike much of what he has done, but make no mistake about it. THIS reversed it all. He was under tremendous pressure to proceed with Obama’s nominee. He said no.
And won.”
I also loathed McConnell for a long time and was certain that he would cave on Garland. As Election Day approached and the propaganda ministry’s pressure of everyone thinking Hillary would win built I was admittedly pleasantly surprised, in fact almost pleasantly stunned, that McConnell did not cave.
I have to admit he earned a restart from me anyway just for this one act of courage. BUT it is very wise to keep an eye on him that he doesn’t resort to his RINO history.
You signed up today to pimp for the RINO Mitch? Freepers are not as dumb as the general population so no sale.
You are right, of course. God is in control! And I believe that God chose Donald J Trump for such a time as this. From the time he announced, through the primaries, and through the general election campaign, my wife and I believed Trump was destined to be POTUS 45.
What you don’t realize is that both Trump and Ayotte would’ve won NH had Ayotte not repudiated Trump.
I used quotation marks around someone else’s words and you are responding to me as though I made them. I don’t agree with it being an influential choice of all history, but I do appreciate the fact that Mitch didn’t cave into voting for Obama’s nominee.
Am I to take it that you would prefer Merrick Garland had an up or down vote?
This.
But, it is true we will never know and, no doubt her endorsement, then unendorsement and then sort of endorsing again hurt her.
You may be very correct that both may have won, otherwise. I think this will haunt her for a long time.
Maybe. Maybe not. You will never know. But I do know that Ayotte got more votes than Trump. That is not in dispute.
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