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Democrats sift through the debris
The Hill ^ | November 5, 2014 | Jessica Taylor and Alexandra Jaffe

Posted on 11/05/2014 6:50:55 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

Democrats on Wednesday morning began sorting through the wreckage of disastrous midterm elections in which losses eclipsed even their worst fears.

The scale of the defeats, taken together, was breathtaking: a Senate majority lost, over a dozen House seats swept away, and Democrats ousted from governors’ mansions across the country.

The drubbing is sure to spark a round of soul-searching as Democrats ponder whether President Obama is to blame — or whether something deeper has gone wrong in the party that could threaten its chances of retaining the White House in 2016.

“This is where the administration has to take a real honest look at its decision-making and its management. Between the Veterans Administration, the health care website…it was a lot of things for the last two years that kept feeding this concern that Democrats aren’t able to manage this government,” said one Democratic strategist who requested anonymity to speak freely.

Finger-pointing had begun between Senate Democrats and the White House even before every race had been decided. The blame game is sure to get worse in the coming days.

“The president’s approval rating is barely 40 percent,” David Krone, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told Washington Post reporters. “What else more is there to say? ... He wasn’t going to play well in North Carolina or Iowa or New Hampshire. I’m sorry. It doesn’t mean that the message was bad, but sometimes the messenger isn’t good.”

Democratic losses were staggering in the Senate. The hopes of party strategists that ominous final polls might have been overstating the Republican advantage proved hollow.

If anything, the reverse proved true: In Iowa, Republican Joni Ernst defeated Rep. Bruce Braley (D) by almost nine percentage points; in Colorado, incumbent Sen. Mark Udall (D) went down to Rep. Cory Gardner (R) by about five points. Even North Carolina, the battleground state about which Democratic strategists were most confident, fell: Sen. Kay Hagan (D) lost out to the GOP’s Thom Tillis there by about 50,000 votes.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s (D) achievement in holding off former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R) in New Hampshire was the only significant bright spot for the party. In the House, longtime incumbents such as Reps. John Barrow (D-Ga.) and Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) were swept away by the GOP wave.

Losses in governors’ races — which the White House had touted last week as a better barometer of a successful evening — were even more shocking. Republicans prevailed in states that are normally considered solid blue, including Maryland, Massachusetts and Illinois.

According to national exit poll data, most voters said they were frustrated with Washington gridlock and with the performance of both parties. But President Obama’s approval ratings were particularly dismal.

Fifty-five percent of voters said they disapproved of his job performance; 42 percent strongly disapproved. When asked to describe their feelings toward the Obama administration, 60 percent said they were “angry” or “dissatisfied” versus just 40 percent who declared themselves “enthusiastic” or “satisfied.”

However, 78 percent also said they disapproved of the job Congress was doing, and 60 percent characterized themselves as “angry” or “dissatisfied” with GOP leadership.

“People point to the president's unpopularity in these states, and that was an issue, but in many cases the congressional Republican and Tea Party brand was equal or worse,” said Democratic strategist Doug Thornell.

“But, give them credit, Republicans were able to outperform their brand by running smart races and they had an incredibly simple message.”

Much like in 2010, the midterm electorate tilted toward Republicans — 37 percent of voters self-identified as conservative, 40 percent said they were moderate and only 23 percent described themselves as liberal.

When all those dynamics were fed into the mix, the results were grim for Democrats.

“I won’t sugarcoat it — we always knew tonight would be a challenging night, and it was for Democrats at every level,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

Israel rationalized House losses, arguing that “an avalanche of outside spending” had moved seats the GOP’s way at the end of the campaign. But other Democrats suggested that the party’s message had missed the mark — and that the White House bore at least some responsibility for that failure.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a frequent critic of both the Obama administration and the Senate leadership of outgoing majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said that the president’s policies, specifically on energy, had taken a toll.

“It doesn't make sense that we have to fight so hard against our own government and our own administration and our president to try to find a balance,” Manchin told MSNBC Tuesday night.

Ultimately, Democrats feel a number of races started to slip away from them in the final days. The pattern was apparent even in Virginia, where Sen. Mark Warner (D) — considered safe by just about everyone — remained locked in a too-close-to-call race against Republican Ed Gillespie as dawn broke on Wednesday.

“You can't only count on a ground game,” said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who is also a columnist for The Hill. Mellman described the political environment as “toxic” for his party, and asserted that this was something for which Obama could not be held solely responsible.

Ultimately, Democrats feel they had just too much to overcome, including a rapidly shifting news cycle that veered away from their preferred topic of economic fairness, and unexpected crises ranging from the resurgence of Islamic militancy in the Middle East to the Ebola outbreak.

“Over the course of the last year, Democrats’ message on the economy, fighting for the middle class and Republican dysfunction either hasn’t broken through or [has] been drowned out by outside events,” said Thornell.

“Republicans have been effective in pushing out a pretty simple message that the president has been a failure. It doesn’t help party enthusiasm when you have a small but vocal group of Congressional Democrats running away from him.”

Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson may have put it simplest when he touted the Democrats’ victory in New Hampshire.

“The fact that we got our butts kicked up and down the block only makes it *more* hilarious that Scott Brown lost,” he tweeted.


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2014; 2014electionanalysis; 2016; midterm; senate
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To: Texas Eagle
At least they kept Caliphornia. The center of the universe of stupid.

I am a Californian, born and bred. We're not ALL stupid.
My husband was a Republican too.

However, with Hollyweird in our midst, Boxer and Feinstein, we sure appear to be stuffed with stupids.

We DID produce Ronald Reagan, so we can't be all bad.

21 posted on 11/05/2014 7:08:25 AM PST by cloudmountain
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To: Texas Eagle

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dre/politics/election-results-2014?office=house&state=48

At link above is a great interactive map. You can switch between governors, legislature, senate.

Re Calif: Run your cursor over some of those southern coastal blue districts and notice how close it was between the D. and the R. Encouraging.

Also notice in the “toss up” and “narrow victory” columns in the above link off the polls were.

Then check this out.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/392038/polls-were-really-really-david-french


22 posted on 11/05/2014 7:09:05 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Steely Tom
And complaining about a "do-nothing congress."

YEP.

23 posted on 11/05/2014 7:09:06 AM PST by cloudmountain
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To: NorthMountain
Fine. Let him.
Send him a whole bunch of stuff he hates, beginning with a repeal of 0bamacare. Let him sign it or veto it; tell HIM to 'eat his peas'.
Have the Republicans the guts to do that?

Who knows. I hope so.
I'm pretty sure that you don't think do, but I am a TAD more hopeful.

24 posted on 11/05/2014 7:10:51 AM PST by cloudmountain
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To: Lazamataz
...And Obama is furious and ready to punish America for its insolence.

It's what he does. He hates this country.

We'll get an even bigger WAVE in 2016.

25 posted on 11/05/2014 7:10:55 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

A political party roundly devoted to death and taxes is bound to encounter some resistance once in a while. They really don’t belong in the voting both, much as they are wont to undermine the fundamental rights inscribed and to be enforced according to our Constitution.


26 posted on 11/05/2014 7:11:12 AM PST by Fester Chugabrew (Even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

This was clearly a victory for hate.
Hail Koch!
Hail Hydra!
Muahahahaha!


27 posted on 11/05/2014 7:12:05 AM PST by papertyger (Those who don't fight evil hate those who do)
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To: cloudmountain
I am a Californian,

So am I. Not born and REARED but still a Californian.

We're not ALL stupid.

Heavens to Mergatroid. I was just making a.....forget it. Some people just live to be offended.

28 posted on 11/05/2014 7:12:41 AM PST by Texas Eagle
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To: Steely Tom


29 posted on 11/05/2014 7:12:44 AM PST by Iron Munro (Legacy of 'Obama The Divider' - Racial Revenge)
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To: blueunicorn6
Marquis of Queensbury Rules

SOMEONE has been watching the QUIET MAN.
GREAT movie. I never miss the opportunity to watch it.

30 posted on 11/05/2014 7:12:55 AM PST by cloudmountain
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To: Iron Munro
DISGUSTIN' photo. Ugh.
Reluctant amusement from here.
31 posted on 11/05/2014 7:13:39 AM PST by cloudmountain
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To: All

the strategy for 2016 will be employed by March.. They now realize they need shinny objects to get the black and unmarried, single mother vote.


32 posted on 11/05/2014 7:14:28 AM PST by newnhdad (Our new motto: USA, it was fun while it lasted.)
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To: Texas Eagle

That may be, however, besides Governor, all the other races were closer than previous...a good sign to be sure.

In my Assembly district, we turned out a Rat for Republican and we were 60%-40%, in some cases, 70%-30% against any of the Rats running for any office in the state.

But thanks for the generalization anyway...I’d be disappointed if at least one FReeper didn’t take a shot on a daily basis.


33 posted on 11/05/2014 7:15:04 AM PST by SZonian (Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Yesterday was not so much a wholesale embrace of the GOP as it was a complete and total repudiation of Barack Obama and the gang of criminals he brought to Washington in 2008.

In the last 2 decades, it became clear to me that we were losing that struggle as those major institutions gained ground among the growing class of those either employed by or dependent upon the expanding welfare state. My way of emotionally coping with that was to tell myself that if the majority did, indeed, lust after a socialist welfare state, well then, let’s bring it on and let them have it good and hard. Rub their noses in it. Shove it down their throats!!

At the same time, I continued to tell myself that there were still enough honest-to-God adults out there who, once they had a taste of a totalitarian command state regime, they would reject it. I refused to consider that so many citizens (and I use the term loosely) would come to love and embrace the thing enough to sustain it and prolong the economic and personal agony history teaches always attends such despotic systems.
Yesterday, I THINK we began to come to our senses!

I’d analogize what happened yesterday to what an otherwise healthy human body does when faced with an existential threat. Just as our bodies are complex organisms, nations are complex organisms. Faced with ISIS, ebola, the invasion across the southern border and Obama’s criminal neglect of those threats, and on and on and on we STILL have the resolve and character to rally and turn back the threats and deal with the SOURCE of the threats.

All that said, we’re not out of the woods yet.
Now it’s up to the Pubbies to set out a serious and freedom oriented AGENDA and be RESOLUTE in repairing the damage this renegade regime has done over the last 6 years!

Obama and Valarie Jarrett are NOT going to go gently into that good night. As an egomaniacal malignant narcissist, this guy will dig in his heels. Just as a wild animal is most dangerous when cornered, Obama is now in a corner from which there is little chance escape. Ted Cruz was asked last night by if the Pubbies would take up the matter of Obama’s “lawlessness” and he stated rather emphatically that they would.
I’ll be watching to make sure that happens! I’m sure Darrel Issa and Trey Gowdy are licking their chops. I’m doubling my popcorn order for THAT show!

The only event that would please me more than what happened yesterday would be the sight of Barack Obama leaving the White House in manacles and leg irons with Eric Holder right behind him. If he and Eric are smart, they’ll spend today booking air travel to some non extradition country. I’m sure Lois Lerner would like to go along!
And speaking of air travel, tell these new Pubbies to take the keys to Air Force One away from Obama. It’s time to halt his endless taxpayer funded world apology tour!

Now comes the hard work of keeping all these new folks honest in the toxic and corrosive atmosphere of Washington, D.C. . it’s up to these same voters to watch all these new folks like the proverbial hawk and keep them within Mr. Jefferson’s “chains of the Constitution.” When you see them beginning what is the inevitable drift into the D.C. Swamp, CALL AND LET THEM KNOW WE’RE NOT GOING BACK TO “BUSINESS AS USUAL”. The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121! Write it down.
You should call just to hear the world’s worst “Music on Hold”.

The massive wins by in the statehouses MAY mean that at least SOME voters believe the 10th Amendment will be the most important tool to roll back the growth of fedzilla and return the states to the status of “LABORATORIES OF FREEDOM” the Founders intended them to be.

In that vein, the new national Pubbies need to start taking apart the federal bureaucracy, starting with the Department of Education, the EPA, the IRS and on and on.

Not to be the skunk at the picnic, but there IS some not so good news: The good guys won this one but the tight margins in many of these races mean that there are STILL large pockets of diehard Democrats who STILL DON’T GET IT!!
If you know any of those folks, spend some time attempting to acquaint them with our history, the ideas of the Founders, our tradition of freedom, the Constitution and why those things are important! There will be another election in 2 years and – unless we somehow reach them – many of these folks will be cocked and locked for payback!

And while he’s a huge improvement over the clearly deranged Harry Reid, I’m very worried about Mitch McConnell’s comments that he would crush the Tea Party.


34 posted on 11/05/2014 7:16:26 AM PST by Dick Bachert (When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. ~ Thomas Jefferson)
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To: cloudmountain
DISGUSTIN' photo.

DISGUSTIN' photo of a DISGUSTIN' person.


35 posted on 11/05/2014 7:16:33 AM PST by Iron Munro (Legacy of 'Obama The Divider' - Racial Revenge)
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To: cloudmountain

LIved there for a little over a year, don’t think all Cali’s are bad, most of the state’s pretty reasonable people... Unfortunately though the state has 2 giant metropolitan centers, that get an insane amount of wealth by happenstance of geography... THe San Fran/Bay area, where huge amounts of imported goods flow into giving the area an insane amount of guaranteed cashflow they can suckle off of and Hollyweird which again is a leech from national economy scales.

These 2 areas have so much cast off cash, that they can fund any rediculous idea that any leftist comes up with, and as such have attracted some of the most leftist folks on the planet and they just overwhelm the state from having any shot at normalcy IMHO.


36 posted on 11/05/2014 7:16:53 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
“It doesn't make sense that we have to fight so hard against our own government and our own administration and our president to try to find a balance,” Manchin told MSNBC Tuesday night.

Joe, what doesn't make sense is your remaining in the Democrat party whose policies are damaging your state probably more than any other.

Switch to the Republican party. West Virginia has turned red on you and you are more a Republican than a Dim.

37 posted on 11/05/2014 7:16:55 AM PST by Will88
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
However, 78 percent also said they disapproved of the job Congress was doing, and 60 percent characterized themselves as “angry” or “dissatisfied” with GOP leadership.

This is the money quote for me--CNN is trying to spin this as puzzling, since they are confused as to why it should be that if people believe this they would vote republican. It's simple -- The senate is controlled by democrats, and they are part of Congress! Obviously, if they were mad at the GOP they would have thrown out the House of Reps instead of the senate . . .

On top of that, people are mad at the GOP leadership because they aren't opposing Obama enough, not because they are obstructing Obama, otherwise it would have been the same result as above. . .

The only conclusion you can come to is that media really believe their own spin and are desperate to believe that this GOP wipe out is somehow good for the Dems in the long run.

Look for lots more pouty faced media people when it dawns in them that regardless of what they are saying now, Obama is faced with a clear choice of compromise or obstruction, my bet is he goes full bore obstruction/destruction and that would lead to an even bigger rout in 2016, unless the Dems force him to compromise or resign to save their hides. Alternatively, if he refuses to save them Dems may start publicly pushing for impeachment to stave off losses, and the GOP will just stand there letting them all twist in the wind . . .

38 posted on 11/05/2014 7:18:43 AM PST by The Enlightener
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“Sometimes the messenger isn’t good.”

That sure sounds racist.


39 posted on 11/05/2014 7:19:48 AM PST by USCG SimTech (Honored to serve since '71)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
It sure would be nice if both political parties got the message. I think that to voters, it's personal. It's our neighborhoods, our financial security, our schools, our futures, our jobs that are being destroyed. I suspect there's a "Ferguson Effect". Except for people in gated communities and other high-end enclaves separated from us little folk, we all depend on law and order in our communities. Republican governors seem to be better at that when communities need help, and they did real well.

It's about US. If either political party actually starts representing people, they'll emerge from this mess, winning elections. Look at the US Senators who won. (ex: Ernst, Cotton, Sasse, even Perdue) They seem to be about making the US a better place, not about enriching their buddies.

40 posted on 11/05/2014 7:21:23 AM PST by grania
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