To me, both of these LA victories are BIG upsets, as the Democrats were favored in both. This shows even more that GWB is an albatross to the GOP. His administration has been a disaster of missed opportunities. Had GWB performed halfway decently and released the border agents, all of this Oprah’s Choice phenomenon might have been averted.
Haven’t you been paying attention, Sarah Palin was the drag on the ticket, not W. His 75-80& disapproval had nothing to do with anything. It was all Palin’s fault.
Ironic that after beating him in 2000, Bush’s huge unpopularity took down McCain in 2008. I don’t think W is getting a Christmas card from John and Cindy this year.
Of course, it also shows what happens when we’re not outspent by unprecedented margins like we were in NC(close to 10-1), IN(8-1), OH(3-1) and other states.
Step One for 2012 is evening out the fundraising. Without that we’ll be in trouble for quite some time. You can’t get outspent like that and expect to win.
That said, LA is a heavily red state, one of only a handful of states where Obama underperformed Kerry’s 2004 results, so it’s not like we started winning elections in CA or NY all of a sudden, or even OH or FL.
The VA gov race is a much bigger deal. Since W won VA in 2004, the dems won the Gov in 2005, the sen in 2006 and the Sen again in 2008. Not a good trend. If we can win the Gov back this year, that will be a good start. If we can win some statewide races in OH, CO, FL, maybe the PA gov in 2010 that will be a better start.
I did an interesting thing and looked at key Bush states that flipped to Obama this year. OH, VA, NC, IN, MO, FL, and NM. In the 2002/2004 elections the GOP was 19-2 in statewide races(Sen, Gov, Pres) in those states. In the 2006/2008 elections we were 2-19 in statewide races. Lost Governorships in OH, MO, Senate seats in OH, VA, MO, NC, NM.
As much as I’d like to say this is the beginning of some nationwide trend, it’s not. But it is a good start, and these wins and the Chambliss win are certainly some positive signs that hopefully a post-Bush GOP can start to regroup. Look at how much ground the dems made up in 2 or 3 years. Things in politics can change pretty quickly.