Suitable for litterboxes, birdcages, and kleenex.
*PING* to be added to or dropped from the list.
This is a great analysis. This belongs in the FReeper Hall of Fame.
Nice post. I will celebrate taking the House.
Now that we’ve identified our second opponent, i.e. the Establishment Republicans, we can further tighten our aim next time. Could you add me to your ping list?
Cheers!
I truly feel bad for you man, I got that as a kid where it felt like an ice pick on the eardrum every time my heart would beat. Thank the Lord for decongestants.
I use menthol afrin for such things.
Also a good ENT can give you some good stuff.
Excellent analysis. Sarah has no problem taking on the PTB (Powers that Be) and she’s taken plenty of heat for it. But we know what she’s done, and thank her.
IMHO, Sarah and Beck are the leaders of this landslide. And the proof is in the flak they take.
John Dingell (D-MI)*
118,117 Votes
Winner
57%
Sorry but he hung on.
Ach, sorry about the plugged tube, Grey Whiskers. Had that happen a couple times when I was little and it is no fun at all (not that you need me to tell you that, of course).
As for the analysis...great job! I think you really nailed it.
Second, while we should not blame "Tea Party" candidates too much, neither should we pretend that many (O'Donnell, Miller, Angle) didn't have serious flaws as candidates. This is not something you can't overcome, but it is something that typically the PARTY helps you overcome, and if you're going to run against the Dem AND the Republican, well, you have to be just about perfect, as Rubio was.
Third, some of the winners, let's face it, were NOT "Tea Party" backed candidates. Portman in OH, a great guy and someone who will be a good senator, did not have exceptional support from the Tea Party; neither did DeWine for SoS, who appears to be winning. Neither did Kasich, who had a lot of conservative opposition but won anyway.
The message of this election is, if anything, that CONSERVATISM tended to do pretty well. Rubio, Toomey, Paul, Johnson, Portman---they are ALL orders of magnitude to the right of the person they replaced, Dem or Republican. That cannot be overstated. Pretty much across the board we ran conservative candidates. So we can't pretend that conservatism always wins, but we do know that when you combine conservatism with a really good candidate, DING DING DING you have a winner!!
House districts are usually more homogeneous, allowing the candidate to focus more. I think in a lot of the senate races, the inexperience (yes, there's that word) of the Tea Party candidates probably hurt them. Like it or not, there is a certain amount of polish---learning how to avoid gaffes, for example---that comes with holding office a couple of times. We saw it with Toomey, who won in a blue state. Portman made NO serious errors in OH. On the other side, you had Linda McMahon, who ran a closer race than anyone thought in a deep blue state, but who nevertheless had that WWF baggage.
Now, if our side wants to crush the Dems in 2012, it must not only nominate conservative candidates, but GOOD conservatives with some experience. And it helps if the damn party elites get on board with the candidates.
Make yourself a bowl of soup, chicken noodle is best, and load it up with black pepper. Lots and lots black pepper. Or, tomato soup loaded with a heavy dose of Tabasco; several table spoons. Trust me, your sinus will open, drain and your ear with open too. Sip a little milk to cool your tongue.
Hope you feel better soon.
(BTW, I was 19 before I learned one didn’t have to be sick to eat chicken noodle soup. It was my momma’s homemade penicillin.)
Yes, the state houses look even better this morning. (Update: Dingell ended up pulling out a narrow victory in Michigan, still leaving him as the longest serving Democrat in the House.)
Feel better and get some rest - great post!
Good discussion. Have you tried inhaling a *really* hot curry?
I’m sorry O’Donnell and Angle didn’t win, but I don’t believe the alternative Republican candidates would have won, either. We get enough of those GOP squishes in NC: “Vote for me! I’m a lot like the Democrat, really I am!”
Thanks for your analysis grey_whiskers. I read it before any other postings on FR this morning, and it heartened me. I was sad about Alaska, Nevada and Delaware, and pissed off at Rove - permanently (what an ass he is) - but your piece gave me some ammunition to face a lib friend of mine who is going to throw it in my face this morning that we lost those states. Even so, WE WON BACK THE HOUSE - and contrary to what Rove says, who has apparently declared war on the Tea Parties - WE THE PEOPLE did it - the frigging Republican Party had NOTHING to do with it. So they can spin it all they want. We need to stay FOCUSED and concentrate our efforts on 2012 and cleaning out the rest of the Marxists and rinos. ONWARD AND UPWARD!!!
P.S. I hope you get over your cold quickly!
Gret_Whiskers, I love your analysis AND I urge you to drink a LOT of hot broth with pepper and/or hot sauce, bury yourself under the covers, and sweat. This may work.
Take care of your innards, my whiskery friend.
Yes, on the money.
And, as I have said on other threads, Rove is toast. He has a reputation as a brilliant political handler, but in point of fact he screwed up the 2006 election, he stuffed Arnold into California after conservatives recalled Gray Davis. He backed Arlen Specter and Rick Chaffee. He pretended to take charge of the liaison with Evangelical conservatives, and then kicked them in the teeth and lost millions of votes for the party.
Rove will continue to have backing from the media, including Fox News. But people should clearly understand that he is a man of no principles and a political loser.
We knew this was going to happen. The Tea Party won, but the regulars will try to suborn them, buy them off, and keep them in line. They cannot be allowed to succeed, as they have grown so used to doing.
Sarah Palin and the TEA Party voters won about 700 Republican seats in the US House, US Senate, state legislatures, and governorships, and probably a thousand or two more seats in county and municipal races in the 2010 midterm elections, making 2010 the biggest election win for Republicans in 80 years, and the greatest conservative win in the history of the USA.