Posted on 11/06/2008 9:28:18 PM PST by beagleone
A Tale of Two Parties: Myths, Realities and Strategies in the General Election
Now that the shock and disbelief of Election Night have passed (and I must admit, I feel no small relief to finally have the matter decided), I find myself more able to analyze what happened on Tuesday. And unsurprisingly, it isn’t the tale the media told us.
We are all supposed to believe that the Democratic turnout was enormous and unprecedented. The youths and the AA’s came out in droves. It was an outpouring never seen before for the most Unifying and Post-Partisan Candidate Ever! We are also supposed to believe that Obama’s electoral strategy of expanding the map into the South and West through that turnout was successful, and that his Holy Awesomeness was recognized throughout the land. Yea, verily, he is the President of All The People! (Yes, I heard a pundit on MSNObama actually say words to that effect on Election Night.)
Yet, in fact, none of these things are actually true. All the assumptions above are based on nothing but pretty stories - indeed, I might say, with a hat tip to Bill Clinton, “fairy tales.”
Commenter Cognitive Dissonance mentioned this yesterday, but I had already seen bloggers State of Disbelief and Edgeoforever mentioning it on PUMA sites during the day. From EOF’s site, let’s take a look at the actual turnout numbers this year, compared to the numbers in 2004, the election between the Worst President Ever and Senator John Kerry, a man for whom I gladly voted.
2004
62,040,606-Bush
59,028,109-Kerry
411,304 Nader
2008
63,507,800 - Obama
56,151,859 - McCain
Youth voters only ^ 1%
AA voters ^ 2%
So, this enormous and unprecedented turnout for Obama was only unprecedented for a Democrat. It amounted to 4.5 million more votes than John Kerry, and only 1.5 million more than Bush. The PUMA factor is being estimated at between 2.7 million and 2.9 million, and we must not forget the role of the much-investigated ACORN in registering all those new voters, some as many as 72 times each. As usual, stories of election fraud will be suppressed by the corporate media, since their favored candidate has won once again; but I suspect that ACORN contributed greatly to those surprising numbers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. In any case, the PUMA numbers were very close to matching the “massive turnout” numbers for Obama.
One myth down.
The second myth is that Obama could win without PUMAs because he was going to “expand the electoral map.” He felt he even had a chance in deep red states like Kansas, but counted on states like North Carolina, Iowa, Colorado and Virginia to make up for his possible losses in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Obama’s map held up, and even improved in the General Election (although many of the red states Obama thought he would win stayed red).
However, in the primaries Hillary Clinton disputed that map, and so did we. The numbers were simply not there for Obama. But we didn’t realize that he would have a lot of help - not just from ACORN, but from…Republicans.
As we know, Barack Obama is the most scandal-ridden Democratic Party nominee in recent memory. He is our Rudy Giuliani, whose mob ties, failures of judgment on 9/11 (putting the emergency response center in the World Trade Center so he could see it from his bachelor pad) and inveterate and classless womanizing caused him to self-destruct in the primaries. Yet where were the 527 ads against Barack Obama this year? They wouldn’t even have had to lie this time, the way they shamefully did in 2004 about John Kerry’s military service. Obama repeatedly insulted working-class voters, cementing his elitist creds in a way Al Gore and John Kerry never did or could. Obama really DOES hang out with domestic terrorists. Obama’s pastor, mentor and friend of 20 years is an unrepentant, America-hating misogynist and racist, who is close friends with renowned anti-Semite and whackjob Louis Farrakhan. Obama’s associates in Illinois are being investigated and indicted. His birth, his education and most of his life are shrouded in mystery. The slightest bit of investigation uncovers a mountain of dirt and doubt. In addition, his choice for Vice President made Dubya look well-spoken. So why did the Republicans not do what they do best, and destroy the opposition?
There is nothing else to conclude other than this: the Party hung McCain and Palin out to dry. They threw the election. Influential conservative commentators pulled their punches, and some even backed Obama openly. KKKarl Rove was on the teevee saying that an Obama win was inevitable. The media leaked stories of chaos within the campaign regarding McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. The Republican Party allowed Governor Palin to be savaged in the press (and it is still happening), despite the brave statements of a few Republican women when she was first introduced to the public. Senior Republicans snarled that she was not ready, inexperienced, an embarrassment. Key Bush figures like Colin Powell and Scott McClellan endorsed Obama. The evangelical base never supported McCain, despite the addition of a Christian conservative to the ticket. This behavior was a shocking departure from the Party of the past, which had always followed Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment.
The effect of all of this undermining was undeniable: 56 million voters came out for McCain, and 62 million voters came out for Bush. We don’t know what the PUMA factor was, since a lot of PUMAs voted third party, left the top of the ticket blank, or wrote in Hillary. Some even stayed home in protest. Those PUMA votes would neither have gone to McCain nor Obama. However, if we assume for theoretical purposes that about a third of PUMAs voted McCain, that means that at least 7 million fewer Republicans voted for McCain than Bush.
The short-sightedness of these voters astonishes me, for John McCain and Sarah Palin were the only shot the Party had at redemption. They were rebranding the Party as the Party of feminism, tolerance, government oversight and responsible spending. That brand is now lost to the Republicans. The Democrats will never regain that brand either, because they trashed the person who exemplified it, Bill Clinton, in order to gain Barack Obama. The Republican Party Leaders found themselves a Democratic George Bush, and they did everything in their power to help him win.
Some well-meaning Republicans think they can rebuild the Party by going “back” to conservative principles. Sorry, but wow! Get a clue, guys: Republicans never govern the way they say they will. George W. Bush was beloved by the base, and he was completely anti-conservative. The government grew huge under his Administration; spending was out of control; and he all but destroyed the Constitution with his faith-based initiatives and unprecedented seizing of executive power in the name of “National Security.” Of course, he “kept us safe” too; that is, if you forget that 9/11 happened on his watch and so did the anthrax attacks, and that he created thousands of NEW terrorists by instigating two invasions and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Well, if Bush is what you love, oh Republican voters, have no fear: Barack Obama seems poised to continue smoothly in the tracks laid so deeply by George W. Bush. There will be no oversight of anything, with a one-Party government in power; out-of-control spending will certainly continue; and faith-based initiatives and warrantless wiretapping are both enthusiastically supported by the Senator from Illinois. Oh, and Joe Biden promises us death and destruction within six months, so you may get your terrorist attack too. Well-done, folks! And I feel so lucky, living in New York! Golly gee, I sure hope I live through Obama’s first term, unlike 3,000 of my compatriots in Bush’s first term, and so many, many thousands more in his second. But hey, what does it matter as long as you all get what you want?
Poor John McCain and Sarah Palin. Poor Bill and Hillary Clinton. They are career politicians without a Party. Both Democratic and Republican Party Leaders teamed up with the media to elect Barack Obama this year. No one else ever had a chance.
I am sure that within a few months of Barack Obama’s inauguration, we will know a lot more about what he intends to do to, er, for, America. One thing we know for certain is that the media never, EVER likes the candidate that is good for our country. They liked Reagan. They liked Bush. How’d those guys work out for us?
As I said before, I understand the joy that so many Americans are feeling. But if you look at the reality of what happened on Tuesday, you will see that it was a very ominous sign. Yesterday, Russia felt emboldened to announce a very aggressive move that they had been threatening to make for months. The stock market fluctuated wildly yesterday, but ended up down 145.44 points - an extremely unusual event on the day after an election - and today, it is plummeting further. I fear that things are going to get worse for Americans before they get better.
I do have faith that our democracy will survive, however; but only if enough of us are willing to discard our party loyalty and work together to make it happen. I invite everyone of all political stripes to join us in the effort to become more than hopeless pawns of the corporations that run our media and our political parties. I will have an updated blogroll soon, which will provide more information about things you can do to help.
In the meantime, while we organize and focus, stay strong, my fellow Americans, and remember this quote:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
US anthropologist & popularizer of anthropology (1901 - 1978)
PUMA POWER!!!
Ditto that. I lurked a lot over at hillaryclintforum.net, they had no love for O, and many over there still reject him fervently. A few volunteered for McCain. They are not at fault here, they were just as shocked as I was when some exit polls showed Clinton voters going overwhelmingly for Obama. They're strongly centrist with some liberal ideas. They're not flag-burning Marxist scum (like some of Obama's voters).
On Election night, FNC(Britt Hume?)reported 87% of Puma in Texas voted Obama.
I'm not confusing anything. They said PUMA and explained it as an acronym for "Party Unity My A... and let it trail off. Then reported that 87% of them in Texas had voted for Obama.
You can blame the people who stayed home all you want, and keep on doing it, and see where it gets you.
Republican/Conservative voters are the people who focus their time on work and family. They don’t hang out on the internet for their news. So they don’t really know that much about Obama.
I can flat out tell you that once McCain was selected as the candidate, a lot of conservatives just tuned out the election. I know because I WAS ONE OF THEM. Without Sarah Palin, I would have stayed TUNED OUT. But obviously, a lot of people stayed tuned out even with her on the ballot. They weren’t PUNISHING the GOP. They were just tuned out, and I’ll tell you, the MCCAIN campaign wasn’t doing anything, couldn’t do anything to get them engaged.
Keep blaming them, rather than offering them a choice they can really believe in. That’s a winning strategy.
Look, I know how you feel, but frankly I am tired of the talk out of both sides of your mouth libs give to us. It’s like they are always the one with the last word. The article was more than two faced. And the results are usually the same that come out of libs mouths. It’s all the conservatives fault. I don’t need a lecture from these people period.
Well, it isn’t. If you love your country don’t vote for socialist pimps and that is who Bill and Hillary are if truth be told. They are every bit as bad as Obama is. Saying they aren’t is like splitting hairs. Hillary and Bill Clinton committed one of the biggest csmpaign frauds in history. Where are they now? Sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars; instead of a jail cell where they really belong.
The next election we had better decide if we want to go the way of Rome or Huey Long. And we better think hard. I know there are cycles in history; but I never thought I would live to see the day, a man who may not even be an American sit in the chair of the highest office in the land. A man and his wife who hate America. Who are so selfish and sick; they want to see the destruction of it.
From looking at the results, it would appear that the Obamacans were more powerful than the PUMA’s.
Thank you and I agree. Put principled people in office and you have my attention.
Bush has presided over one of the most uninspiring insipid group of political appointees ever appointed by an administration. For the party that is supposed to know how to run things they knew how to run nothing. There job is to make public policy choices - what will be done and what won't be done. They didn't. They just sat there and let the bureaucrats do their thing. Harriet Miers nomination as a SC justice was not one of his worst choices. It was one of his best, very sadly. Fortunately, in that case we had folks who said not good enough, Mr. President. We needed to say the same for about 1000 other political appointees.
Thanks for your reply. I agree with you. We are all going to pay the price for the Republicans that stayed home. Obama’s number one priority is to take steps to strengthen his grip on power. He will not be easy to dislodge in the next election. We are going to have to drive every last Republican to the polls with a cattle prod if we have to.
I think it’s clear that the who concept of PUMA power was a complete myth. It wasn’t anything more that a bunch of sore loser Hillary fanatics wrapped up in their own self-importance.
A woman I know has a son that is mentally disabled. In order to afford to care for him, she turned her home into a group home and now cares for four young men in their early 20s.
She proudly proclaimed that she took them to vote for Obama. None of them could read or write and one of them doesn’t know his name most of the time.
In return for voting for Obama they got a button that said I voted for Obama. They would have voted for Dr. Spock if the were offered a button.
Goes to show that if you set about registering the infirm, elderly, poor and minorities, and babysit them until their vote is secured you can win. Course it takes close to a billion dollars.
I know that I learned a lot about them. Seems many of them are looking for a new home and we darn sure hold real hope for America... the America of Washington, Jefferson and the Founders ALL! True Reaganism is the answer that many of them have been seeking in the "satanic party". Like I said... Conservatism holds ALL of the answers and like a Church... our door is always open to those that want to believe!
LLS
LLS
Yeah, well, nobody was expecting them to win the election for us.
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