Mark Steyn: A catastrophic night for the Democrats (corrected)

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 11/06/04 | Mark Steyn

[kitkat]

EXCELLENT! Thank you, Pokey.

[You Dirty Rats]

Clark County - that's Springfield -- is the one they tried to hit. Stark County is Canton.

[Egon]

Excellent analysis by Stein, as usual.

[maica]

But I still say that those fraudulent "exit polls"


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I just heard a voice from the left when I strayed to CSPAN for a few minutes.

Essence of accusation: the scientific professional exit pollers were getting the truth, and the Republicans have done something to all the voting machines to steal another election.

This must be what passes for logic on moveon, Michael Moore, Indymedia, DU, etc websites today. How long will it take for DanPeterTom to echo the charge?

[whd23]

Rockingham and Hillsborough county, two of the southern counties adjacent to I-93 and infested with Masshole refugees, went for BUSH.

Sorry to reply to myself, but here's the map:
NH county results

[livius]

That being said, I'm sure there will be flames re: Mark of the Beast, Big Brother, etc. at this suggestion.

LOL, that's what I thought, too.

[kitkat]

There will be no Big Brother claims from me, peyton, if we have to prove who we are in order to vote. Heck, you can't even reserve a hotel room or an air flight without giving your credit card number or sending in a check and waiting for it to be cleared. Since when is a hotel room or a plane ride more important than voting?

[cyclotic]

I would also add that all voter rolls are to be purged. Every American who wishes to vote must re-register. This is to be repeated every ten years.

[aculeus]

The moulters’ willingness to abandon the long-term goal because of a nickel’n’dime jailhouse scandal and a rate of combat fatalities that any earlier generation of Americans would have regarded as the blessings of a merciful God speaks very poorly for them.

Bingo.

[dennisw]

thanks for posting!

[pgyanke]

But he’s very poor at selling them to the American people, and what seems obvious to him isn’t necessarily that obvious if you’re in one of the many cities with a reflexively anti-Bush monodaily. It should have been a bigger victory, and Republicans need to examine carefully why it wasn’t.

>>True.

I disagree to a certain extent. I think President Bush has done a very good job articulating his positions and plans... I know I have a pretty clear vision. The problem is the mainstream press. After every word from his mouth, they recharacterize and summarize and call on the Democrats to respond. I blame the media for the muddled messages.

(In fact, that sounds like a new tagline...)

[KarlInOhio]

And toss on top of that some type of indelible marker when you vote. Afghanistan felt the need for it and their ballot box stuffers don't have the years of profession experience the Dems have.

[Lou L]

After we're all done with a little gloating, we should take a long hard look at ourselves to figure out why this election had to come down to a single state...

I hope that long, hard look is at the media. Were it not for a complicit mainstream media--the media that gave Kerry such a free ride from any real, in-depth scrutiny throughout the campaign, the media that fabricated stories and evidence against the President (see Rathergate), and the same media that reported negative stories about the President 70% of the time in October. Do you think that had anything to do with why President Bush couldn't capture states like PA, MI, and WI?

[Huck]

I think he's been as clear as he can about his priorities, strategies, positions. What he hasn't been is persuasive. IMO, he was awful in the first debate. He did a horrible job of explaining the vision for Iraq and the middle east. He won, I'm happy. But I agree with Steyn on this one.

[NZerFromHK]

Here in New Zealand whenever an election comes up our registration (all computerized and since we are a unitary country, there is only one registration) needs to be confirmed each time. If you don't you basically can't vote.

[NHResident]

I'd be careful of predicting and representing NH as returning to the 'R' column. A LOT of the votes for Granny Demented and Kerry came from 'north of the notches' and along the western fringe (borders where Vermonsters live) - yes there are the mASShole enclaves in Keene, Peterborough, Nashua and Manchester but a lot of the south voted for President Bush. Some 38% of the state voted for Granny Demented and ousted Governor Benson in favor of an unknown, unproven Shaheen wannabe who is a crypto-pro-Tax addict. I am afraid we are seeing the demise of conservative New Hampshire. There has been galloping expansion of RINO's up here!

[Psalm 73]

"It should have been a bigger victory, and Republicans need to examine carefully why it wasn’t."

Ann Coulter puts the blame on Rove for this (in today's column, 11/4/04).
I would tend to agree with both Styne and Coulter on this - it should have been a Republican landslide - it was close not because of Rove's "genius" but in spite of his miscalculations.
In 2000 Gore was sunk by guns and the NRA - in 2004 Kerry was sunk by gay activism/abortion and the conservative Christians.
The Left STILL does not get it, as they continue to lose large sections of the country to those "knuckle-dragging" Christians and/or gun owners.

[expatpat]

that the Democrats and the media reinforce each other’s delusions

Incest is not a constructive activity for the long term.

[NZerFromHK]

As a foreigner who supports Bush to the base, I agree he lacks persuasive power. Hopefully the 2008 candidate will have as radical as policy, as firmly Christian as foundation, but with more tact and persuasive abilities to sell thee ideas.

[Max Combined]

"Even as an armchair warrior, I wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with these guys."

Especially Andy. It would not do to turn one's back on Randy Andy.