Posted on 11/10/2012 5:22:01 AM PST by Evil Slayer
My post of this morning was published with a couple of Senate races not finally decided. But the Republican candidates (Rep. Denny Rehberg in Montana and Rep. Rick Berg of North Dakota) have now conceded to the victorious Dems. (incumbent Sen. Jon Tester in Montana and Sen.-elect Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota).
This nets out at a two-seat pickup for the Dems and a 55-45 majority heading into 2013 (assuming that, as expected, the Senate's two independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen.-elect Angus King of Maine will caucus with the Dems). The net gain is especially impressive since the Dems had to defend 23 of the 33 seats that were up in 2012.
If you can stand to look ahead to 2014, it turns out that once again, the Dems will have to defend a much larger portion of the seats that will be on the ballot. Assuming that no deaths, resignations, special elections or party switches occur, 20 of the 33 Senate seats that will be up in 2014 are now held by Dems. And, if you look at the map of where those seats are located, it appears that there are more Dems in generally red states than vice versa. Minnesota will also have a Senate race and freshman incumbent Al Franken is likely to face a tougher challenger than Kurt Bills. It will be some consolition to the Dem planners that they will head into that cycle with a five seat margin in the Senate and, since the vice presidency (with its potential as a tie-breaking vote in case of 50-50 ties in the Senate) will remain in Dem hands through 2016, the Dems would have to make a net gain of six seats to gain control that year.
If you are wondering how it can
(Excerpt) Read more at minnpost.com ...
This was not the fault of Romney the candidate. It is the failure of the RNC, asleep at the switch, to realize that the 'rats had been in full tilt campaign mode since 2008, while they had all been basking in the sun in Cancun, working on their tans until about eleven months ago.
We weren’t going to defend the ground, because we were pretty certain to lose Maine, which we really didn’t have anyway. And it’s hard to be surprised that democrats won back the Mass. Senate Seat.
But it’ amazing that we lost Indiana? Richard Lugar’s old seat?
And North Dakota, Missouri, and Montana should have been easy pickups.
If Kerry is made SOS there will be a special election in Mass & Brown will run for that seat next year. Without Obama on the ticket Brown might get that seat back.
Good point. And an object lesson in the hazards of trying to twist religion into politics. If these two well meaning but ill-advised guys had just played it straight they might well have won--with major consequences we shall discern down the road when Congress starts attacking America again.
Just imagine what the current crop of bums and vagrants and whores and scoundrels would do if given the power to write a New Constitution de novo. Makes my skin crawl.
Romney has a pretty good track record of losing states he should have won. He actually lost Michigan in the primaries.
“This was not the fault of Romney the candidate.”
Like I said, pointing fingers everywhere but at Romney. Making excuses for Romney’s poor performance.
“Our candidate could have been Ronald Reagan at his best”
John McCain, after a collapsing stock market, 8 years under Bush, still managed to attract more voters than Mitt Romney, despite FAR more favourable conditions for Romney. Why?
Because (as hard as it is to believe), McCain was the superior candidate. As terrible as McCain was - Romney was worse.
The democRats set a trap for them and they both fell for it, Murdock fell for it AFTER the whole Akin debacle - which is even more mind blowing.
If they were Tea Party candidates, they should have stuck with the basic montra - “Taxed Enough Already”
I fail to understand how a “true conservative” would prefer Obama over Romney.
Akin was definitely NOT the tea party candidate. Palin and tea party express endorsed, Sarah Steelman was, and Brunner had a bit of tea party support, but not Akin.
I had thought he was the Tea Party candidate.
“Missouri, a bastion of the tea-party movement, has been shifting right in recent elections. The Tea Party Express and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin endorsed former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman in the GOP primary. Self-financing businessman John Brunner had the backing of FreedomWorks, a national tea party umbrella group.”
I fail to understand how a vote for Cruz + Goode is considered a vote for Obama. Had everyone who voted for Romney voted for Goode - Goode would have won.
That statement was total blasphemy.
In fact, it could be argued that both idiotic statements contributed to the defeat at the top much more so than the other way around.
I agree with you. But there are extreme Calvinists who would argue that it was predestined. Thus, the revulsion of voters to such a suggestion.
I'm no fan of John Calvin. Martin Luther, on the other hand, managed to contribute a great deal to Christian thinking without having anyone beheaded or burned at the stake for theological disagreement.
How does that explain away losses at the top of the ticket in Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia?
How does that explain away losing senate seats in North Dakota, Montana, Virginia, Florida and Massachusetts?
Romney suppressed turnout, and the turnout was enough to cost the GOP 5 states and 5 senate seats. He doubled down on stupid by feeding conservative Christian candidates (Mourdock and Akin), to the wolves.
I personally know three people who said they were done with Romney when he backstabbed Akin and Mourdock by cutting off their funds. I had been warning that Romney wasn’t our friend, and he proved it better than anything I could have said.
“Martin Luther, on the other hand, managed to contribute a great deal to Christian thinking without having anyone beheaded or burned at the stake”
Luther executed Mennonites.
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