Dems search for new approach (Democrats have a bad case of the blues after seeing so much red.)

CNN ^ | Friday, November 5, 2004 Posted: 12:54 PM EST (1754 GMT) | AP

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After losing back-to-back presidential elections, Democratic leaders are trying to figure out how to make the party more relevant to mainstream Americans and keep it from slipping into perpetual minority-party status.

And the task is daunting, many Democratic consultants and leaders agree.

Republicans have cut deeply into formerly Democratic areas in rural America, the Sunbelt, and among Hispanics, the nation's fastest-growing minority group. They have made gains on "family values" issues, winning over social conservatives who previously voted Democratic on economic issues, while keeping their advantage on national defense. (Small inroads make difference for Bush)

"We were on a tough playing field," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, suggesting Republicans had made inroads among socially conservative former Democrats by emphasizing "wedge issues" like gay marriage and abortion. (Democrats debate what went wrong)

Ballot measures in 11 states to ban gay marriage also helped boost turnout for Republicans.

Democrats also have no strong leader to pull the party out of the wilderness.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See the link at post #18.

[Dog Gone]

You don't need a concession speech from the losers to know that you've won decisively.

[Timeout]

House Democratic leader Pelosi put it another way. "Quite frankly, I think the table is set for us in the next election," she said. "We have lost just about everything that we can lose."

Sounds like a dare to me.

I want Minnesota and Wisconsin. And Pennsylvania. Let's look at Oregon a little harder next time. And Hawaii looks promising!

[Mr. Silverback]

It came down to God, guns and gays, just like Dean said.

We don't want Osama imposing his "God" on anybody, anywhere.

We don't want the libs to take our guns.

We don't want to be ruled by four people in Massachusetts just so some gays can have the "state-sanctioned" stamp on their anal recreation.

[blackie]

"A start would be to kick the kooks and commies out of the dem party."

The Rats would have only three members if they did that!

[mlocher]

isn't this fun reading all the stuff from msm trying to justify their positions? they just don't realize that they are the enemy, spewing their socialism to america.

[Hendrix]

The Swift Boat Vets were the first big turning point in this election (along with an excellent Republican convention). The Swift Boat Vests did an end run around the media to show Kerry as a traitor and not a war hero.

By the way, I don't think Kerry "won" any of the debates and I don't think he is such a great debater. I did not see him win any arguments on any issue. He trumped out a lot of lies and phony statistics, but any informed person could see right though his weak arguments.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

It is GREAT FUN..... be sure and read the great piece linked at post #18.

Great detail on Dan Rather.....on election night.....

[StJacques]

". . . Then Hispanics learned that catholics need not apply. . . ."

I think this was a real factor outside of Florida, where many Hispanics already have opened up to the Republican Party.

Check out the following which you can "pop up" by clicking on this link:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20041105-9999-7m5latino.html

". . . The preliminary results of a voter turnout study released yesterday by the William C. Velasquez Institute indicate that 7.6 million Latinos voted in this year's election, 1.6 million more Latino voters than four years ago. . . . Nationwide, some exit polls have indicated that Latino voters showed more support for President Bush than they did in 2000, with 44 percent of Latino voters supporting Bush – up from 35 percent in 2000 – and 53 percent supporting Sen. John Kerry. . . ."

Do the math. If Bush received 9% more of the Latino vote this time around and the total Latino vote was 7.6 million then:

7,600,000 * .09 = 684,000

Now do the "flop" on that number, which means you multiply it by two since you subtract the number from Kerry's total and add it to Bush's vote:

684,000 * 2 = 1,368,000

Now take that number as a percentage of Bush's margin of victory in the popular vote nationwide, which is 3,510,358:

1,368,000 / 3,510,358 = 38.97%

So roughly 40% of Bush's margin of victory nationwide came from his increased percentage of the Hispanic vote. And I might add that, when looking at the vote in the individual states, 61% of Hispanics in California went for Kerry, so in light of the fact that California has the largest population of Hispanic voters, Bush's percentages across the rest of the country will be quite a bit higher than 44%. The Hispanics may very well have given Bush his victory and clearly played an important part in winning Florida, New Mexico, and Nevada for him.

I'm hoping George W. Bush will nominate a Hispanic Catholic for the first Supreme Court position that opens up in his second term. Let the Democrats commit political suicide. It'll be fun to watch.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Britt Hume made a comment about them having a 72% name recognition in some survey.... I didn't catch the detail on who did and where the survey was taken.....


That is very high....

[Liz]

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Very interesting!

[mlocher]

thanks for pointing me to this. great piece. to quote the article:

Rather understood the significance of Ohio. Throughout the night, he would say, "Ohio, Ohio, Ohio."

some of us overweight buckeyes (actually i am a displaced spartan) are round in the middle, but hi in morals! hear this rather: O-hi-O.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the great graphic.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

O-hi-O ....OK....ROFL!

[Cicero]

John the Baptist had the right message for them: "John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.' " (Luke 3:7-8a).

In other words, they won't pull out of this mess by hiring new speech writers or talking heads who can communicate their message more clearly. In order to fix their communicating style, they need to fix their message. And in order to fix their message, they need to fix their lives.

It's pretty basic.

[Old anti feminist]

Watch out for Hillary to pull out the religious mantlE! Values will be her core base. We can't let up for one minute

[StJacques]

Liz, thank you for posting this map. let me make a quick comment on its significance for the still-to-be-decided congressional races in Louisiana's third and seventh districts.

I made a post on these races which you can "pop up" here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1269769/posts

Now, both of those districts are in the southern portion of the state, in fact every single parish - we have no counties in Louisiana - in these two districts is predominantly Catholic. I'm going to paste in the table I included in the above post here on how Bush did in the seventh congressional district - where I live - to give you an example of how strong Bush's support is here:

Presidential Vote in Louisiana's Seventh Congressional District*

Parish	Vote for Bush	% for Bush	Vote for Kerry	% for Kerry
Acadia	16,083	64%	8,937	35%
Calcasieu	46,058	58%	32,844	41%
Cameron	3,190	69%	1,367	29%
Evangeline	8,361	58%	5,756	40%
Jefferson Davis	8,064	61%	4,845	37%
Lafayette	57,730	64%	31,205	35%
St. Landry	18,314	50%	18,162	49%
Vermillion	15,069	61%	9083	37%
Totals	172,869	60%	112,189	39%

* There were seven other minor candidates on the Louisiana presidential ballot whose results were negligible in the district, but whose total vote may account for some parish percentages adding up to less than 100%

In this race the Republican candidate Charles Boustany is a Catholic, while his opponent Willie Landry Mount (female) is not. This seat is currently held by Democrat Chris John, who lost to Republican David Vitter Tuesday night in the Louisiana Senate Race. Count on the seventh congressional district as another takeaway for the Republicans after the December 4 runoff vote.

[truth_seeker]

"The one Democrat who, surprisingly in my opinion, seemed to differ was Congressman Harold Ford of Tennessee. I watched Ford state in very plain terms that many of his fellow Democrats have made alliances with groups who espouse a value system that is both alien to his background and to that of most Americans."

A very, very smart young politician. His thinking is in line of the DLC, early 1990s from which came Bill Clinton.

That strategy was to move the democrat party to the center, and co-opt some Republican issues.

Clinton wound up enacting key parts of the Contract With America.

I offer no praise for Clinton, other than to recognise his smarts, as a politician.

Ford is smart. He's not particularly photogenic. He should wind up in the top tier of leaders, in a new democrat party.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Looks like a MANDATE to me......