Posted on 05/25/2011 6:57:28 PM PDT by Kaslin
Politics: By scaring voters about Paul Ryan's Medicare reform, Democrats won a solidly Republican New York congressional seat. But the Ryan plan can and should be a political winner — because it saves Medicare.
Medicare wasn't the only issue in the come-from-behind, 47% plurality victory of populist Democrat Kathy Hochul in New York state's 26th Congressional District on Tuesday.
After all, the district's GOP congressman had just resigned over sexual misconduct, and a supposed Tea Party candidate nearly got a double-digit percentage of the vote, possibly spoiling the race for Republican Jane Corwin, who lost with 43%. What's more: Hochul, as Erie County clerk, had fought disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to give illegal aliens driver's licenses.
As a town lawmaker in the 1990s, Hochul even led a movement to remove toll booths on the New York State Thruway. So this is no Barack Obama or Chuck Schumer winning in the economically battered Buffalo/Rochester suburbs, forgotten and abused by Albany for decades. Hochul came off as a woman of the people running in a distressed region against a businesswoman whose personal assets may total over $150 million.
Still, there's no denying that Hochul pounded and pounded the Medicare issue with the mantra that "without a doubt, the Republican budget would decimate Medicare." But the truth is, House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan's budget saves Medicare, whose unsustainable status quo leads to certain fiscal destruction.
Republicans have long had serious communication problems, it's true. But the failure in developing clear, compelling, repetitive sound bites, which Democrats do so well, is a symptom of something more serious: recurring GOP skittishness in committing to private-sector-friendly solutions.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
It goes to show how effective demagoguery is. Americans are increasingly unable or unwilling to focus on a subject long enough to actually study its aspects and form an informed opinion. As a result, the dems will reap the benefit of voters’ ignorance.
We are all Greeks now.
I think Republican voters punish themselves and their party when the previous Congress-critter turned out to be more interested in preening half naked and looking available.
And all this time, after 7 years of listening to the idiot-ridden Dems, I thought it was Bush who was the only one to use fear-mongering and scare-tactics....go figure. /s =.=
The choice for voters in 2012 couldn’t be more clear, you can choose Obamacare, Medicare and serfdom or you can choose liberty and self-determination.
Unfortunately, those who choose the latter will continue to be taxed to support the former.
The GOP has a lot to learn from this election, such as how to deal with another potential "Ross Perot" type situation.
It may cause the GOP leaders AND grass-roots to hunker down (I think it's up to both...not just the DC pols) and now start the hard work of selling Ryan's bill to the public.
This was far enough in advance of election '12 to not have a real impact on the Pres race, but yet nerve-racking enough to really cause those who care to really dig in and SELL THE MESSAGE.
New York is all democrats, and many are not very bright.
I don't think that's true. The problem is that the voters are so damn dumb and gullible.
Easy, son.
I just read another article here that came from AP. It claimed the Republican committee did not make any spend to combat the medicare lies. Not sure if true or not, because I am not close to this campaign, but if so, it does show a problem with communication. If they ran no ads, then that needs to be made clear in the aftermath that the party did not participate in this election while the Dems spent millions. Either way, it shows a weak communication effort on our behalf.
Greetings phn102:
Agreed the GOP has much to learn. But blaming this Congressional seat loss upon the fake TEA Party candidate reminds me of an addict blaming everyone else for their situation.
From what I understand, Jane Corwin was just another squishy “pro-choice” democRatpublican. And given her campaign website doesn’t clearly identify her as pro-life, that’s probably the case.
Cheers,
OLA
From Paul Ryan Himself, Get this 4 minute Paul Ryan Talk out there,
http://www.breitbart.tv/rep-ryan-gives-the-facts-about-medicare-and-gop-budget-plan/
I wasn't aware of this, but if it is indeed true that the GOP establishment ran yet another RINO then yea, it is definitely their fault too.
The GOP establishment seems hell bent on us losing as badly as possibly, how do we get rid of them?
So true. I read this morning that that candidate (who had run three times for that spot as a Dem) got 9% of the vote.
Greetings T. Buzzard Trueblood:
From what I’ve read, turnout was light; but nobody supplys the raw data to confirm that claim. The winning democRat ran as a conservative, opposed to 0bombacare medicare cuts. The loser RATpublican runs as a pro-abortion liberal not certain why she is supporting Paul Ryan’s proposals.
Cheers,
OLA
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