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Why Bayh Is Quitting the Senate
WSJ Online ^ | 2-16-10 | John Fund

Posted on 02/16/2010 8:37:28 PM PST by chickadee

"Mr. Bayh knows something about high-water political floods. As a 24-year-old law student he helped run his father's 1980 Senate re-election and saw him go down to defeat under the Reagan landslide. In 1994, Mr. Bayh was governor of Indiana and thankful he wasn't before the voters when they revolted against Bill Clinton. "Every 14 or 16 years we seem to have to relearn this lesson," Mr. Bayh said. "I do have a sense of deja vu, and the movie doesn't have a happy ending."

He isn't the first observer to note the misfortune that befalls modern Democrats when they gain control of the presidency and both houses of Congress. After Jimmy Carter won the White House, Ronald Reagan assembled a group of his former aides in Los Angeles in early 1977 for a pep talk about how the GOP loss would only be temporary if they learned from the party's mistakes and returned to first principles. He quoted from a John Dryden ballad memorized as a youth: "I'm a little wounded, but I am not slain. I will lay me down for to bleed a while. Then I'll rise and fight again."

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Indiana
KEYWORDS: 111th; bayh; democrats; evanbayh; johnfund; liberals
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To: The Cajun

That’s an interesting thought. The timing of Bayh’s resignation is somewhat mysterious.


61 posted on 02/17/2010 4:12:17 AM PST by chickadee
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To: Slyfox

I am a social conservative. Having said that, I think the most promising way to achieve the kind of society I wish to live in is to return decision-making on these kinds of issues to the states.

I know how I feel when I contemplate having my life and future “owned” by Democrats with the power of nationalized health care and cap and tax . . . I’d describe it as a mixture of horrified, terrified and rebellious. I presume liberals feel the same way when thinking about social conservatives calling the shots in their lives. None of these issues should be federalized. I don’t think our FF intended for either side to have that kind of power. Allowing the states to decide these issues for themselves creates a more balanced and open society. People can move from state to state, if they wish, to find the company of those with whom they are comfortable.


62 posted on 02/17/2010 4:20:20 AM PST by chickadee
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To: genghis

I guess I meant FDR when I was citing the Dems of our parents/grandparents. I dislike FDR, but the working people did not. They elected him 4 times. You are right about the Democrats, but there was a real imbalance between the lives of the average worker and moneyed classes before the changes of the 30’s and 40’s.


63 posted on 02/17/2010 4:23:36 AM PST by chickadee
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To: madamemayhem

actually there is evidence that he truly understood that there was not a chance in hell of him getting re-elected. does that count? ;)


Well, it’s something. LOL


64 posted on 02/17/2010 7:03:10 AM PST by PaleoBob
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To: Arthur McGowan

Quayle was a good guy. Really underrated.


65 posted on 02/17/2010 7:04:08 AM PST by PaleoBob
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To: Frantzie

2. He knows the USA is going to go bankrupt fairly soon. No joke. He does not want to be in office or town when it implodes.


Wow. Never thought about it that way.


66 posted on 02/17/2010 7:04:47 AM PST by PaleoBob
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To: Arthur McGowan

Interesting - I didn’t know that.

By extension libs hated Nixon because he went after the commies in the 50’s.

And John Edwards got a Senate seat beause the clinton’s sponsored him to go after Lauch Faircloth (NC) who had opposed the clintons on Whitewater.


67 posted on 02/17/2010 8:38:59 AM PST by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: fortheDeclaration

At least he is doing something right!


68 posted on 02/17/2010 9:15:02 AM PST by ABQHispConservative (A good Blue Dog is an unelected Blue Dog. Ditto Rino's!)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
If he doesn’t want to be part of the losing team he could switch parties.

Oh come on HTRN.. we don't need any more RINO's!

69 posted on 02/17/2010 9:24:53 AM PST by AFreeBird
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To: Frantzie
2. He knows the USA is going to go bankrupt fairly soon. No joke. He does not want to be in office or town when it implodes.

Bingo. I hope conservatives have long memories and go looking for him.

70 posted on 02/17/2010 10:10:48 AM PST by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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To: chickadee
"the kind of society I wish to live in is to return decision-making on these kinds of issues to the states. "

The lefties know that their perveted morality cannot be legislated. People know the difference between right and wrong.

Long ago, socialist deviates knew they needed socialist courts to validate their agenda.

yitbos

71 posted on 02/17/2010 5:14:28 PM PST by bruinbirdman ("Those who control language control minds.")
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To: chickadee

I’ve never in my life seen such a political environment. The Democrats are really underestimating how very bad they could lose. There are several factors that make this election something we’ve never seen before. It combines several things we have seen with a new dynamic.

1. We have single party control of all branches of government. We have a President and a Congress that have government further to the left than ever before. They make Jimmy Carter look like small potatoes. They are governing as open liberals and haven’t even tried to be moderate.

2. We have an economy and a job situation which is either flat or worsening.

3. We have skyrocketing and debt.

4. We have a Tea Party movement which is aligned with conservatives, independents, and libertarians. It is a true grassroots movement that is helping to turn independents into true conservatives. We are seeing more people identifying as conservative which is the most popular political label I think largely because of the Tea Party Movement.

5. The economic collapse highlighted how totally wrong big government solutions and good intentions are. Most citizens do not want new bigger government. They see it as a failure. The President and Congress has positioned themselves between their base an everyone else. They in turn have disappointed their base and in their attempt to please them fueled an anger in the citizenry that we have never seen before.


72 posted on 02/18/2010 9:03:48 AM PST by Maelstorm (We are umbilicaled to a parasitic beast that feeds off one man so to enslave another to dependency.)
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To: ntnychik

ntnychik, thanks for the pings - I am called to several projects and can’t get here as much, so you help me keep up!


73 posted on 02/20/2010 11:35:17 PM PST by bitt (One if by land, Two if by sea. Three if by CRIMINALS from Washington, D.C)
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