The last government shutdown — in reality, Republicans lost big in 1996

Conservative Intel ^ | 9/30/13 | David Freddoso

[The Old Hoosier]

A lot of conservatives are now trying to minimize the damage the GOP suffered after the 21-day government shutdown of 1995-1996. They point out, correctly, that even though President Clinton was re-elected, Republicans held the House (losing just three seats on net) and gained two Senate seats.

What they fail to mention or appreciate is that this was not a good performance for the GOP that year...They narrowly lost four other close contests, and have since managed to gain only one of those four missed seats.

[fortheDeclaration]

Yes, but 2014 isn’t a presidential election year and we won’t have Bob Dole running!

[riri]

And there is no dotcom boom.

[GraceG]

Time to stick our heads between our legs and start crying like Boneless Brainless Ball-less Boone-head Bohner if the government shots down.....

According to RINO’stablishment....

[apillar]

I’m still of the opinion that any harm that was done to the Republicans was due far more to the fact that in the end they caved to Clinton than the fact that then engaged in the shutdown in the first place. The truth is that both the Republicans and Clinton were taking a beating in public opinion during the shutdown and it became a game of who would blink first. Unfortunately, Bob Dole, who had presidential aspiritions felt that the shutdown might be hurting his chances of getting the nomination so he began undercutting Gingrich and eventually made Gingrich’s position untenable.

[noprogs]

This time IS different.

The big three networks no longer control the news.

[jersey117]

That was then. This is now. People don’t want the government running their healthcare. Period.

[Bulwinkle]

Last time it was Christmas, newt was not well liked... It is not Christmas and Harry is not liked and comes across as evil.... We want Harry on TV as much as possible!

[swamprebel]

Gubermint don’t shut down, it slows down.

[SueRae]

Good points!

[sickoflibs]

One thing forgotten by many as Rush wont admit it is that Newt Caved in 1996 and sent Clinton the CR he demanded, equivelent to the Senate Obama-care CR here.

Worse yet that CR back-paid all those Federal employees who took off, and they got another paid week off for the blizzard. That one cost $$$$.

Rush spins it as a grand GOP victory for obvious reasons.

[buwaya]

If the GOP has struggled to get any of those “missed” seats subsequently, isn’t that rather an argument that these were fairly difficult seats for Republicans anyway, and a long shot in 1996 ?

If they were missed in 1996 and easily taken later then thats an argument for a GOP error in 1996 causing election failures that shouldn’t have happened. But its not so.

[autumnraine]

Got my email. Have to call every morning to see if I am allowed to work.

[txrefugee]

With an anchor like Bob Dole dragging the ticket down, the GOP did okay. BO will not be on the ticket next year....but he’ll be scaring the Dependent Class to get them to go vote for their freebies or the mean Republicans will cut them off.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Please, this is complaining about a “margin of error” problem. Republicans didn’t “lose big”, they won. So the article complains that they didn’t have a bigger “point spread” in the win?

And they even undermine their own argument right at the start by saying that the 3 of 4 seats the Republicans “might” have won have stayed in Democrat hands since. Now seriously, doesn’t that indicate that they were trending Democrat, no matter what the Republicans did?

[SunkenCiv]

See? Vote to defund, you lose. Vote to fund, you lose. Listen to the media shills and false-flaggers, you lose.

Thanks The Old Hoosier.