Posted on 11/08/2006 2:10:11 PM PST by rond
Jim Talent's loss wasn't so much a slam-dunk by the Democrats.
Talent WON in 2002 with 49.8 percent of the vote, to Jean Carnahan's 48.7 percent.
Talent LOST in 2006 with 47.4 percent of the vote, to McCaskill's 49.4 percent.
The Dem gains .7 percent; Talent loses 2.4 percent.
A glaring difference: The Libertarian candidate went from 1 percent in 2002 to 2.3 percent in 2006.
Libertarian gains were more pronounced in southwest Missouri's 7th District:
In Lawrence County, McCaskill pulled 35.2 percent -- exactly as much as Carnahan in 2002. But Talent's share dwindled from 62.2 percent to 59.7 percent. The Libertarian candidate received 1.9 percent in 2002 and 3.9 percent in 2006.
In Polk County (home to Southwest Baptist University), Talent defeated Carnahan in 2002, 62.4-35.5 percent. This year, Talent was held to under 60 percent -- 58.7-36.5, with the Libertarian share growing from 1.4 to 3.8 percent.
In Taney County, Talent went from a 64.3-33.9 split in 2002 to a 60.6-34.8 victory in 2006. The Libertarian vote grew to 3.4 percent, from 1.3 percent in 2002.
In Christian County, Talent lost more than 3 percent of his support (63.6 in 2002, 60.5 in 2006). The Democratic share grew only slightly, from 34.6 to 35.3 percent. But the Libertarian vote more than doubled, from 1.2 to 3.1 percent.
In Barry County, Talent was held under 60 percent (59.2, from a high of 63.3 percent in 2002). Dems inched up from 34.8 to 35.5 percent. Libertarians increased their share from 1.4 to 3.9 percent.
In all five counties, Democrats didn't grow their share by more than a point.
No more dues from me.
Talent has no fire in his belly. A nice enough fellow but not somebody people naturally follow. He didn
t do real well with men voters and I think I understand why.
This is the attitude that will kill off the conservative wing of the republican party.
The facts don't matter to the GOP bootlickers who want to blame Libertarians when their RINOs go down in flames.
Talent lost because he's Mr. Nice Guy who wanted to be "bipartisan". In fact, that's exactly why the Republicans lost to begin with, trying to "reach out" to the Dims. Notice that RINOs Chafee and DeWine lost. You didn't see any Dims helping them like the GOP helped Lieberman, did you?
Libertarians Defeated Talent?
So the hairy anti-Americans strike again?
As election day wore on, and we cross checked our list of who DID and DIDN'T vote, we scrambled to get the DIDN'Ts out to the polls.
They wouldn't come.
Mostly, I blame the normally reliable Repub members for falling prey to the day after day after day negative sky-is-falling coverage put out by ABC-PMSDNC-CBS-PBS, etc.
How else to explain a country where we haven't been attacked in five years, the DOW stock market is at record highs, unemployment is at record lows, housing ownership is at record highs, yet THE PRESS PUBLISHED NEGATIVE stories over and over and over.
What that tells me is that Fox News, and the Internet don't have the influence we like to THINK they have.
1. They're too insignificant to have an impact on anything
2. They're more closely aligned with the Democrats anyway (that's why they're called "liberaltarians")
3. They stole enough votes from GOP candidates to impact the election
See any flaws in that logic?
Damned dogs in the manger Libertarians strike again.
LOL!
Exactly!
The cut of your nosers NEVER learn!
Just wait until their taxes go up. Bush can prevent that during the rest of this term. But if a Dem gets the Whitehouse in 2008, the tax cuts get repealed in the first 30 days.
No response when Michael J Fox was slamming him with that stupid stem-cell ad. That really turned off a lot of people. Talent just sat there and took it like Milhous from The Simpsons.
Exactly so.
Not if the sky is blue in their world. :p
OUCH!
So if Stan Jones hadn't run, those 10,000+ votes would have went to Burns? I seriously doubt it, those votes would have probably stayed home.
No, a lack of votes for Republicans in key elections gave the congress to the libs. People voted as they saw fit, and some of those people saw fit to vote for the Republican, some the democRAT, some the Libertarian, and so on. It remains an individual choice.
I don't think I'd blame Burns' loss on 10,000 Libertarian voters when many, many times that amount of people voted for the democRAT or stayed home.
I think we can look at some of the races and see that pro-family & marriage issues passed, but the Republican candidate didn't win. I think that's a clear message that a good number of voters with reasonably conservative values didn't want the Republican candidate for some reason or another. Perhaps some soul-searching is in order rather than lashing out at the Libertarians.
For the record, yes, I voted Republican in nearly all races including the Senate and House.
Like I said, no fire in the belly. Some may like that but it's not my cup of tea.
Tagline.
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