Posted on 11/03/2004 4:39:11 AM PST by LS
Here's my early take:
WINNERS
*Obviously, President Bush. He becomes the first president in FIVE ELECTIONS to win a majority of the popular vote---a resounding 3 million vote win. No garbage about who the "people's choice" was here. This is critically important because it stuffs any Dem arguments about "vote counting" and makes it all about a blatant power grab to undermine the "will of the people"---and they all know it. Bush did the unthinkable: he had coattails, adding a handful of House seats and at least three senate seats, RUNNING AHEAD OF ALL THE SENATE CANDIDATES!
*JOHN KERRY. Remember Rush's logic: in the Democratic Party, you advance in stature by losing. Kerry has now joined that pantheon of heroes such as Algore and Mario the Pious. Kerry will return to his senate seat, having done far better than anyone dreamed. Indeed, with his pathetically limited skills and horrible presence, it is a freak of nature that he got that far.
*Evangelical Christians. This election, as best we can find from the always unreliable "exit polling," was about morals more than any particular issue, including Iraq/War on Terror or the economy. Why? Because character counts, and W has it, and Francois did not. And because Americans, I think, sense we are at a moral crossroads and they do not like the Hollywood/homosexual agenda that is being foisted on them daily. This was indeed a blow against "Big Hollywood" in general and gay marriage specifically. Will the Dems now "get" that they cannot obstruct our judges?
*Karl Rove. No, he's not God and he's not Superman. He made some mistakes, probably by not sending Bush to NJ and NH enough. In retrospect, contrary to the claims of many Freepers, both those states were in play up until the end. Bush probably wasted some time in Minnesota and, perhaps, Michigan. But Rove cleverly kept Kerry pinned in OH, where he knew, all along, Bush had the votes, allowing Bush to marginally increase his electoral count. A WI victory would have preempted any talk of "counting" anything, but, alas, it was not to be.
*Karl Rove, again, via the 72-hour program. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but the Republicans had a BETTER GROUND GAME IN ALMOST EVERY STATE than the Democrats. The Dems won't make the same mistake twice of farming out their GOTV to stupid 527s, but I'll take the win.
*Finally, Ohio and Florida. Congrats, guys. We did it. I confidently stated here at every opportunity that we would win OH. It was a little closer than I liked, but I knew our numbers, and the numbers said that in both FL and OH, if we got out our voters, Bush was unbeatable.
*The Swiftboat Vets. When the campaign was flagging, they single-handedly destroyed John Kerry's best claim to being a Commander-in-Chief.
*The U.S. Military. Thank God our troops know that they are under the command of a man who knows and loves them, not an opportunistic medal-hungry pol.
LOSERS:
*The MSM, again: there was no joy in Mediaville---the mighty MSM has struck out. Could it be any more clear that the ability of the MSM to control our lives has been lifted like a Biblical curse? The MSM was perhaps the biggest loser of last night, showing once again that it was incapable of deciphering real information from its own desired results. Its blind parroting of the (WRONG) exit poll data was despicable, and makes the MSM the night's biggest collective fool.
*Drudge/exit polling/pollsters. Most of these people not only had it wrong, but failed to see the evidence in front of their eyes, first when the consistent polls kept showing Bush with a lead throughout the campaign (Kerry NEVER led) and then when they frantically accepted the eraly exit poll numbers. We cannot control information, nor should we, but this kind of debacle must be prevented in the future.
*"Gay marriage" This measure lost everywhere, BIG, and the gloomy CNN pundits had to admit that morals proved an even more important issue than the economy and the war on terror. THREE-QUARTERS of Ohio evangelicals voted for Bush. So much for the notion that this issue "cut both ways."
*The 527s. Quality does count. All of their money could not produce ads that even budged Ohio or Florida voters on moral issues, because they don't GET the moral issues.
*George Soros. All I can say is, "Let's do it again sometime, George. I love taking your money."
*The Democratic Party. Even James Carville (and David Rodham Gergen) had to admit last night that the party was in trouble. Gergen: "The Democrats haven't won a majority of the white vote in 30 years, and they haven't won a majority of ANY election (Pres., Congress) in 25 years." Carville dejectedly admitted that the Party has to take a hard look at itself. He didn't mention that the GOP made further inroads into minority votes, Catholics, and women and retained the HUGE evangelical vote.
*The "Yout" Vote. Rock-the-Vote was rockabye baby. As usual, the kids proved unreliable---except our young DC Mafia volunteers, who worked wonders. I told you not to sweat the Springsteens and the Cameron Diaz's. These people are already has-beens, and kids are notoriously a-political . . . probably as it should be.
*The state GOPs of IL, NV, CA, WA and a few others where a decent senatorial candidate may have gotten us very close to the magic 60 number. We simply cannot afford, in the future, to fail to run TOP senate candidates in every single seat.
*McCain. The morality issue means any thoughts of a candidacy he might have just died. Moreover, the obscene perversion of the "Campaign Finance Laws" (a loser deserving an entire thread) totally disgraced his pet legislation.
*Biggest loser? Ready for this?
She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Whatever plans she and Slick had for 08 are now confronted with the reality that MORAL issues are front and center; that their party CANNOT win a majority of the white vote; that she is even more unpopular than Francois; and even the stupid Dems won't run another Northeastern liberal senator. They may be dumb, but they ain't that stupid.
Actually, I thought if Kerry dragged this out, the best thing Bush could do would be to make a speech saying "After discussions with P.M. Alawi, we have decided to order Iraqi and American troops to eliminate all opposition in Fallujah, and I am personally going there to see them off." Then go to IRAQ while Kerry whines. Can you imagine that scene???
By the way, it's actually kind of sad that the democrats have to resort to deifying the only democrat that managed to win convincingly, although he was running virtually unopposed in a heavily democrat state. I personally see Obama as a John Edwards clone, a good speaker with a pretty face, but not much going on in the mental department.
LOL. Yeah, sign some executive orders, summon some ambassadors for dinner, make a few recess appointments, hold a cabinet meeting, huddle with top advisors to work out nominations to the Supreme Court...
So much to do, so little time to do it.
That goes double for the brain dead CA GOP, where any halfway decent campaign would've taken Boxer's seat IN A WALK.
You forgot al-Zarqawi.
And in WV, the best friend the trial lawyers ever had in this state, Warren McGraw, lost BIG to challenger Brent Benjamin.
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