Posted on 11/03/2010 10:56:02 AM PDT by mdittmar
Democrats lost control of the House because health care reform was badly sold and the party has a "chronic serious problem" of talking over the heads of the American people, Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker said this morning.
"It was a calamity for the Democrats, but perhaps it wasn't an apocalypse," because the party held onto control of the Senate, Baker said at a post-election analysis session at Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics.
Unofficial results showed Republicans would hold at least 239 seats in the House next year. Democrats currently hold 255 seats. In the Senate, the Democrats' 59-seat majority was trimmed to at least 51, with elections for the Republican-held seat in Alaska and seats held by Democrats held seats in Washington and Colorado still undecided.
The most significant losses for Democrats came in the Rust Belt, with Republicans picking up congressional seats and governor's offices in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, said Peter McDonough, who was communications chief for former Gov. Christie Whitman.
He said the attention paid to the Tea Party movement was somewhat overblown, because "the nut jobs of the Tea Party lost" and most pivotal elections turned on Republicans winning votes from independents who had overwhelmingly supported President Obama two years ago.
In New Jersey, only incumbent Rep. John Adler, D-Cherry Hill, lost his bid to re-election. McDonough said the victory by former NFL player Jon Runyan was partly due to the district's Republican leanings, which Adler was able to offset two years ago by drawing a large number of votes from Willingboro, a town with a significant African American population.
One Tea Party favorite, Highlands Mayor Anna Little, lost by 12 percent to veteran Rep. Frank Pallone, D-Long Branch. Tea Party backed Senate candidates in Nevada and Delaware also lost.
"I've often said there's usually only one question in an election: Change or more of the same. And for the third time in three election cycles, change won," McDonough said. "The message coming from voters to incumbents was: 'You're going to keep getting thrown out until you get it right.'"
Nevertheless, Tea Party activists are taking credit for the surge of support for Republicans, and the GOP's leadership will have to deal with that energized wing going forward, said Seton Hall law professor Mark Alexander, an adviser to President Obama's 2008 campaign.
"Both Democrats and Republicans have a lot to be concerned about," Alexander said.
“The emperor has no clothes.” We’re not stupid, we just aren’t buying your crummy socialist piece of junk ideas. No matter how much glitz and glamour you slap on it, it’s still a crummy socialist piece of junk.
Whenever progressives are in a hole and in denial as to the reason why, that’s good for America.
So, why is his healthcare policy hated by almost everyone?
Well, he didn't really understand the situation, didn't really think the political implications all the way through, and didn't do a good job communicating all this to the people.
But, you know, he's still brilliant, articulate, and a master of policy.
"I get a kick out of these people who say 'read the bill'."
"We have to pass it to find out what's in it."
yah-- that is just WAY over our heads......
Blah blah blah.
More Democrat “we’re the smarter ones, we didn’t explain how smart we are enough” B. S.
The health care bill was not explained because to explain it would have hurt its chances of passage. It was a tactic, and a good one because it worked for the insurance industry. Even the business cultists think it’s still some kind of Obama trick to get socialized medicine in some future conspiracy theory, so their minds are occupied and distracted.
Repeal it. No “compromise” on individual mandates.
They don’t understand. It wasn’t the sales pitch. It’s the rejection of the Federal Government overstepping their boundaries. Not to mention, $5trillion spent over the past 4 years, and no positive results on the economy.
“Berlin Wall Fails Due To Poor Marketing”
Everytime they lose, they blame the people for misunderstanding, themselves for poorly selling, etc. — as if the packaging is the problem.
They are unwilling to consider the possibility that we got the message, we knew what they were doing ... and we hated it.
SnakeDoc
Democrat mantra:
“We’re smart, you’re stupid for not recognizing that, and to be polite we will say we should have explained ourselves better”
The real smart ones recognize that failure to explain is done on purpose.
“Talking over the heads” is part of the problem, but ACTING over the heads is the real problem. They’re doing stuff we don’t want done.
Sales pitch? I think it was a little more than that. “The Most Transparent Administration Ever” lied, obfuscated, declined to present the bill to the public as 0bama had specifically promised, arm-twisted and bribed its path through Congress, presented the country with a 2000-page bill whose origin and contents were a mystery, smirked and waved a giant gavel at anyone objecting that one trillion dollars really ought to be better accounted for, and then had the nerve to wonder why people were outraged. That isn’t lack of a sales pitch, it’s criminal stupidity.
I would agree they lost total control of the debate, which time will tell if that was a good thing or not.
Badly sold?? We’re not stupid....We gotcha on climate change, too.
This may sound arrogant, but I have never seen, heard, read or spoken to a democrat who was capable of talking over my head.
Now, I HAVE met a fair number of democrats who regularly emit huge streams of bullsh!t from their pie-holes. And I admit that when one of them spews a load of bullsh!t in my direction I will duck so as to avoid getting any of it on me. I suppose that might make it appear to them that they are "talking over my head", but I assure you I am only trying to keep my dry cleaning bill under control.
So you see, it's all a big misunderstanding. I only hope I can find a way to explain it to "professor" Baker wihout risking having him ruin my new suit with his reply.
Mr. Jackson, how many seats are there in the Senate? This author is a twit. It should have been writen as "an 18 seat majority was trimmed to at least 2."
A lot of these articles fail to mention Russ Feingold and Obama’s seat are gone.
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