Posted on 10/14/2006 4:34:21 AM PDT by johnny7
REPUBLICANS and conservatives, brace yourselves! Strategists and consultants of both parties now believe the House is lost and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi will become speaker. At best, Republicans will cling to control of the Senate by a single seat, two at most. For many election cycles, Republicans have been the boys of October, using paid media and superior campaign skills to make up lost ground and win in November. This year, they were the boys of September, rallying strongly until that fateful day, September 29, when the Mark Foley scandal erupted. October has been a disaster so far. A strong finishing kick for Republicans, minimizing Democratic gains, is possible. They pulled one off brilliantly in President Bush's first midterm election in 2002. But recovery will be harder this time, a lot harder.
The press is fixated on the so-called generic ballot--Do you want a Democratic or Republican Congress?--as an indicator of Republican setbacks on November 7. But that gauge has rarely been predictive. Two others are more reliable: presidential approval and party enthusiasm. And they tell an ominous story for Republicans about the difference between 2002 and 2006.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
DOW up....Gas down.....dims discombobulated.....GOP wins.
NOT.
Here is some proof:
Wash Post, Oct 9, 1994: "WHEN DEMS CRY":
...Mitchell's exit is another nail in the coffin of the Democrats. He is considered an ornament of his party. The Democrats may even lose his seat; who his successor in the Senate will be is up for grabs. A post-election internal fight is precisely what the demoralized -- and possibly decimated -- Democrats do not need.
_____________________________________
Wash Post, Oct 30, 1994: "HOT HOUSE"
....Even if in the Nov. 8 midterm elections Democrats survive a Republican onslaught and retain their numerical majority, the victory will be one of the most hollow in the history of the House of Representatives. Others like Cook are forecasting a blow-out of as many as 35 seats.
Those citations are not "proof" of your assertion about polls. You are simply incorrect.
Sure, a mess for Pelosi and the rest, IF the Rats only win by a few seats.
But if they win by 10 or more, they'll be favored to hold the House in '08. If they win by 15 or more, it will be very hard to get a functional Republican majority elected for a long time, unless we're lucky.
We need to fight tooth and nail until the polls close on the evening of November 7. And no defeatism. Any Republican who doesn't participate in this campaign, by which I mean contacting voters if they have the physical ability to do this (and who can't at least make phone calls?), is betraying their country. It's that simple this time.
Unfortunately, one person's experience rarely counts as hard evidence of anything more. Your story is nice, but doesn't mean much. If we hear the same thing from many other FReepers, I'll consider that. I think all we need to know at this point is that the situation is threatening but not hopeless. What we need to do is ACT, not SPECULATE. And that goes for positive as well as negative speculation. We can share hopeful anecdotes and hopeful poll results with each other. But let's not get into predictions that everything will be just fine. There is too much evidence of danger, and complacency will kill us
just as surely as doom and gloom.
They'll impeach Cheney first, THEN impeach Bush, without appointing a VP.
There's a lot of denial around here. When every single poll shows things are bad it means things are bad. I personally think we're so far behind it's hopeless, but I'm going to vote, I'm going to volunteer for our local GOTV, and I've already contributed to some candidates I like and I contributed to some candidates through Rightroot and I'll give some more. There is a big difference between losing the House by 1 or 2 seats, which we can easily win back (we're going to lose DeLay and Foley, both safe seats) or losing by 15, which will make it impossible. Facing reality doesn't mean you sit on your hands, you can lose a battle and win the war.
So? Who cares if they impeach them both? Without the 67 votes to convict...Bush remains the president and Cheney remains the VEEP. Where are they going to get 67 votes?
51+ from the Democrats.
The remaining 16- from Hillary Clinton's FBI files and the "gaymail" strategy that the Foley shills used.
No, it means that every single poll shows things are bad. You are making a presumption that the polls reflect reality, and that's not necessarily the way to bet. When you look at the polling methodology, you either find that the methodology is flawed (massively oversampling Democrats, for example), or the methodology is not disclosed (which usually indicates that the methodology is so screwed up that they'd die of embarrassment if it came out).
To blackmail someone to vote for conviction with an "FBI file" would be the dumbest political move possible...because if it got out that this happened...and it would (nothing in DC stays hidden for long)...Hillary's chance in '08 would be finished.
You don't actually believe what you are typing...do you?
And we call the DUmmies paranoid? We have our fair share right here in Freeperland.
Of course they are. How else do you think liberal Wash. Post columnists like Mary McGrory and others were arriving at these conclusions and using phrases like "Republican onslaught" and "nail in the coffin"? From their dreams and fantasies? Don't you see, they were simply opining based on the pre-election polls in 1994.
The problem is that the moneybags groups for the Democratic Party want it to happen, and no Democrat is willing to court the ire of their campaign financiers. Rule One: never annoy them who sign the checks.
and second, if they did, there are not enough votes....even with blackmail....which wouldn't happen.
There would be at least 51 votes for conviction if the Democrats hold the Senate, possibly as many as 55 if the disaster scenario is true.
Let's assume the latter. All they would need is 12 RINOs, opportunists (Howard Baker turned his trip to Nixon into a meal ticket for almost 20 years--so McCain might decide to go for the kill to burnish his "Straight Talk" credentials in '08), and vulnerable targets to vote for conviction.
To blackmail someone to vote for conviction with an "FBI file" would be the dumbest political move possible...because if it got out that this happened...and it would (nothing in DC stays hidden for long)...Hillary's chance in '08 would be finished.
And Hillary's minions in the press would spend their time pushing the story that a few "right-wing extremists" were behind the blackmail rumors, and in the meantime the "right-wing extremist" websites would be targeted for "hacktivism" and legal harrassment.
Also, never underestimate the chances of another Perot coming along to split the center-right vote, especially if the Clintons are involved--Perot was going to make a fortune off of Hillarycare, for example.
Well, yes, I am. Look, even if you exclude newspaper and tv polls, which are pretty much worthless, even reliable folks like Rassmussen are showing us getting a shellacking. I'm not saying you don't keep fighting, as somebody in this thread said, until the polls close at 7 pm, but you'd think somebody would be showing us doing well.
And I don't see the RNC or NRCC or NRSC saying "wait, our internal polls are showing us kicking tail!" which they've done in the past. They're saying "it's a tough year, but our turnout machine will save us" which means their internals show them losing also -- and I have to believe the party committees at least would make sure their pollsters aren't using secret sauce or skewing the results.
I will say if you're right, and we do signifcantly better than expected, something is clearly fundamentally wrong with polling. I find it hard to believe a critical mass of people have either stopped talking to or are lying to pollsters to make polling worthless. I'd love to be wrong, but I just don't see there is some huge group of folks that pollsters aren't able to sample.
bunch of C-BS from DemonRat Freddie
This is just like all those people who said Clinton would never leave office...he would declare marial law...etc etc...name the conspiracy theory of your choice.
Didn't happen. So...if the dims take both over...look me up and name a price...I'll take this action. Matter of fact...we can make two bets....1) Impeachment and 2) Conviction.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.