Howard Dean: The Bet's Off on Incumbency

American Thinker ^ | April 10, 2010 | David Pietrusza

[neverdem]

Liberal propagandists are very good at changing the subject, their task made all the more easy thanks to their firm grasp on both the channel and volume controls of the mainstream media remote control device.

>p>Take for very good example, the current election cycle.

Democrats are in trouble. Big trouble. We know that. They know that.

But it is also very handy to provide excuses, excuses that will disguise the real reason for rising voter discontent.

So the story becomes not that the public is outraged with Democrats or liberals or those who rammed the stimulus or the health care/student loan nationalization bill through the Congress. It becomes that the public is dissatisfied with incumbents.

Now, that might explain Jon Corzine's loss in New Jersey, but it does not explain earth-shaking Democratic setbacks in Virginia and Massachusetts. In fact, incumbent Corzine scored a higher percentage than failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds in Virginia.

Yet, the meme continues. It's not Democrats who are in trouble. It's incumbents.

As the Gallup poll recently reported: "A record-low percentage of U.S. voters -- 28% -- say most members of Congress deserve to be re-elected. The previous low was 29% in October 1992. . . .  Additionally, 65% of registered voters -- the highest in Gallup history, and by far the highest in any recent midterm year -- now say most members of Congress do not deserve re-election."

Yup, it's incumbents. That's the problem. No, it's not -- and even folks who say that they believe that really don't.

Case in point.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and former Bush Administration guru Karl Rove have recently taken an act out on the road, debating and joshing each other at stops along the college campus route, as did G. Gordon Liddy and Timothy Leary years ago.

The results have been illuminating but never more so than in Albany, New York on April 8, when Dean, while conceding that Democrats would indeed lose seats in the fall, went on to alibi that the problem was incumbency rather than ideology.

Some further background. For his part, Rove has recently noted that the sample congressional generic polling now favors the GOP at a much higher rate than in did in the watershed year of 1994. The GOP is now ahead by three percent. In April 1994 it still lagged by behind Democrats.

And the congressional anti-incumbency of April 2010 actually breaks down rather interestingly. Democrats, oddly enough, are not all that anti-incumbent. In fact, they're not anti-incumbent at all. They favor incumbents by a 46 percent-41 percent margin. And, again, not surprisingly, Republicans now really loathe incumbents. They want them out by an 83 percent-13 percent avalanche. But the real number of interest -- as always -- involves independents. They align themselves with Republican thinking, hankering to throw the rascals out by a huge 72 percent-25 percent factor. Look to them to be nearly as selective as Republicans in regard to which incumbents they choose to toss into the ash heap of history.

Now, back to Mr. Rove and Governor Dean.

Rove is no Pollyanna on matters electoral. He studiously refuses to yet predict a GOP majority in either house in 2011. The highest he is willing to go in Senate, at this point in time, is 49 Republican seats, with, perhaps a majority. if the party wins two out of four seats in Washington (Murray), California (Boxer), Wisconsin (Feingold), and New York (Gillibrand). He predicts, again at this point in time, only a thirty-five pick-up in the House, a figure insufficient to separate septuagenarian Nancy Pelosi from her speaker's gavel.

Yet, onstage at Albany, listening to Howard Dean's incumbency shtick, Rove finally had enough.

Before an audience of 2,500, he called Dean out on his assertion regarding congressional incumbency, daring him to put his money where his mouth is -- challenging him to a $1,000 bet (the proceeds to go to a University at Albany scholarship fund) that there would be three times as many Democratic incumbents defeated as current GOP officeholders.

Dean looked ill. His smile broadened artificially. His brow furrowed genuinely.

He wouldn't bite.

A frustrated, but still confident, Rove raised the ante.

Make it four -- four times as many, he challenged.

Still no response, beyond Dean's pasted-on grin and a waggle of his eyebrows meant to convey something or other.

"I know you're a cheapskate Howard," Rove goaded the former Vermont governor.

"Democrats are always much more careful about their money," Dean responded, merely providing Rove an opportunity to skewer him and his co-religionists.

"It's other people's money they're free with," said Rove.

Dean kept his silence because there is other people's money and there is your money -- and other people's incumbent's and your incumbents.

David Pietrusza is author of a forthcoming book on the 1948 election, is also the author of 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Democrat poll numbers started going down when Obama took office.

If it were just about incumbents then it would have been up and down then up and down down.

But all they got was down.

[unkus]

Democrat poll numbers started going down when Obama took office.

---

I think buyer’s remorse for some set in almost immediately.

Democrats are in denial but deny they are in denial.

They will do absolutely anything to avoid showing their true colors.

[notdownwidems]

It’s nice that all these voters have had second thoughts and, er, come to their senses.
However, I have to seriously question the judgment of anyone who voted for these charlatans in the first place!

[unkus]

However, I have to seriously question the judgment of anyone who voted for these charlatans in the first place!

---

Scarier yet is the number who would vote for them again.

[Fresh Wind]

"It's other people's money they're free with," said Rove.

LOL! Great comeback!

[unkus]

The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to an electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.” — Author Unknown

[unkus]

“It’s other people’s money they’re free with,” said Rove.
LOL! Great comeback!

---

A Pet Rock is brighter than Dean.

[Neanderthal]

"However, I have to seriously question the judgment of anyone who voted for these charlatans in the first place!"

It was the work of the MSM, with a lot of help from the government schools. The MSM can't die fast enough for me.

[Kellis91789]

I’ve noticed this “incumbents” spiel from Fox’s resident liberals, Juan Williams and Shepherd Smith, as well.

How much is wishful thinking and how much is intentional propaganda is hard to tell. That Howard Dean wasn’t willing to wager at such high odds as 4 to 1 makes the latter much more likely.

Personally, I can’t understand why anybody would vote for any Dim incumbent in November. They might be talked into a different Dim, but that would have to happen in the Primary. If their incumbent wins their Primary race, I can’t see them beating the GOP or Independent in the General election.

[Bernard]

Democrat poll numbers started going down when Obama took office.

Obama voters seem to be like Sandra Bullock. "Oh, my gosh. Just because he's got all sorts of tattoos and cheated on his pregnant porn star wife, why would I expect him to be a jerk when I married him?"

[lentulusgracchus]

[Article]
"Democrats are always much more careful about their money," Dean responded, merely providing Rove an opportunity to skewer him and his co-religionists.

"It's other people's money they're free with," said Rove.

OOOOOH, killshot!! Well done, Karl!

[ripley]

“Scarier yet is the number who would vote for them again.”

And there are lots of them. (A boon for all those psychiatrists out there.)

IMHO

[Grut]

The Dems may be the problem squared, but incumbent ‘pubbies are the problem, too. It’s not the Democratic or Republican parties, or incumbency itself that’s unpopular, it’s the big-government (and especially big-government-for-sale) philosophy that infests all three camps.

So yes, can them all.

[bushfamfan]

“They will do absolutely anything to avoid showing their true colors.”

The problem is the mask is off. The myth is dead. They have shown there is nothing but radical nature when they are left to themselves and they cannot be trusted. The proof is there that the left-wingers are much more of a threat than supposed ‘right-wingers’. They are a party that is consumed by a disingenuous, sleazy politician nature. The enemy within.

[Tamzee]

excellent post, thanks!!!

[Theodore R.]

Exactly, and we can’t trust them to switch side in 2010. If they do switch sides in 2010, they may go back to Obama in 2012.

[FrankR]

"They have shown there is nothing but radical nature when they are left to themselves and they cannot be trusted. "

Sort of like the Eddie Haskell of politics.

[Liz]

Democrat propagandists say its NOT about those who rammed the stimulus and health care/student loan nationalization through Congress. No. Dems will lose seats b/c the public is dissatisfied with "incumbents" which might explain Jon Corzine's loss in New Jersey.......

W-R-O-N-G. Here's how the WH Dem strategy worked last Nov in solid Democrat-union-latino New Jersey....with a wealthy incumbent Dimo Governor who spent $185 million of his own money to buy elected offices.

OBAMA WAS DESPERATE FOR NJ's INCUMBENT GOV CORZINE TO WIN. HE KEPT CALLING CORZINE HIS "PARTNER." Ohaha was heavly invested in the NJ gubernatorial race. His carefully-laid plans----for installing a permanent Dem majority went haywire. Pulling out all the stops for NJ made Ohaha a VERY good target for voters disgusted with Ohaha’s policies.

The NY Times reported:
(a) every TV ad Corzine put on the air was screened by Obama's WH team.
(b) Corzine's aides gave the WH daily briefings.
(c) Obama’s pollsters took over for Corzine’s polling team,
(d) White House operatives were on the ground for internal strategy sessions,
(e) White House operatives were orchestrating obscure pep rallies with Latinos (kept secret from voters),
(f) Ohaha campaigned in the state three times, Biden was there twice.
(g) Ohaha TV ads ran relentlessly in costly NY media markets.
(h) The crooked NJ Democrat Machine was also running at warp speed.

The New Jersey race was considered a "squeaker" that would go on till all hours. But two hours after the polls closed, the Repub was declared the winner with a comfortable 4-point margin (would have been higher were it not for Dem voter fraud).

Other pertinent facts:

>> Incumbent Dem Jon Corzine (the wealthy loser) outspent the Repub winner about 4-1.
>> New Jersey has a huge Democratic registration.
>> Corzine bragged he had 20,000 paid union helpers on the ground election day to get out the vote.
>> There was a third party candidate siphoning off Republican votes.
>> Corzine had the power of incumbency.
>> Corzine had the power of a crooked Democrat Machine cooking the vote.
>> Ohaha hid $17.5 BILLION stimlulus in New Jersey.....for Corzine's reelection campaign.

And still Corzine lost decisively.

>> White House operatives were orchestrating obscure pep rallies with Latinos (kept secret from voters).
>> Corzine had a "Peruvian Pac" endorsing him.
>> Corzine promised to give illegals driving credentials & in-state tuition.
>> Corzine sucked up bigtime and REFUSED to enforce current immigration laws.
>> Corzine formed a Blue Ribbon committee of latinos and other hypenates who were using tax dollars to mine votes for Corzine.
>> Also sucking up to illegals was Democrat US Sen Robert Menendez, a Spanish-speaking Corzine campaigner.
>> Corzine appointed latinos to the Supreme Court and other high-profile state jobs.

And still Corzine lost decisively.

============================================

NEW JERSEY IS "IDENTITY FRAUD CENTRAL" FOR LATINO IDENTITY THEFT

Two Texans busted in bogus ID operation in NJ NORTH BERGEN, NJ -- July 21, 2006 -- Pelcastre brothers, Angel and Jorge, Dallas, Texas, were a walking threat to US national security, expert document forgers who, for a few thousand dollars, could give anyone a new identity, authorities said. The Texas brothers turned a NJ hotel room into a business office and were readying a massive cache of fake Social Security cards for delivery to a local NJ identity broker.

The Texas brothers were a "one-stop shop" for a myriad of fake US documents, including birth certificates, Social Security cards, driver's licenses for any state in the US, passports and resident alien cards, said state police. Officers happened upon two cars bearing Texas plates in a NJ hotel parking lot. Authorities wouldn't identify the NJ hotel by name for fear it would spark retribution. The Drug Interdiction Task Force, regularly runs checks.

The Texas brothers were followed to a NJ office supply store nearby where they purchased computer supplies. Officers then followed the Texans to a NJ storage facility in Secaucus, NJ, where the Texans loaded several boxes into a car. One of them stood lookout. Authorities approached the Texas brothers when they returned to the NJ hotel and questioned them separately. The Texas brothers consented to a search.

Police recovered laminating sheets with built-in security features, pages of blank documents waiting for fake names and information, finished documents, computers and software to create the fake IDs. All told, the haul was worth about $500,000 on the street. Police also recovered $6,000 in cash, which was the first payment from a NJ fake document broker for a shipment of 500 Social Security cards.

And still Corzine lost decisively.

============================================

The Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate (who won), was publicly lacerated by organized latino groups. A County Sheriff, she had applied for the federal 287(g) program, to question every inmate coming to the County jail about his/her immigration status, regardless of the offense for which they are incarcerated. The Sheriff had sought to ensure that "criminals" are not unduly released for fear of further harm to the community. The 287(g) program would provide the Sheriff with personnel and tools to punish individuals being held at the County jail (this was in contrast to the criteria set forth by candidate Corzine). illegals. Illegals lacerated the Sheriff for political pandering and for scouting incidents of indictable offenses such as driving under the influence by undocumented immigrants.

And still Corzine lost decisively.....conceding 2 hours after the polls closed.

THE UPSHOT According to Ohaha's slimy Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, Ohaha was "busy with other matters" election night and "wasn't really concerned" with election results...an indication the WH is sucking up valium and vodka in order to anesthetize themselves from the aftermath.....trying to convince themselves the election was not a referendum on Obama.

The tsunami is ahead---in 2010-12.

[unkus]

The problem is the mask is off. The myth is dead

---

I think that is a good thing.