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.
I was in MD when Ehrlich (R) was elected (got to vote for him). On a trip to the MD state house, a state employee stopped us as we climbed the steps and pointed to the governors mansion and said, “We’ve been calling it the Peoples’ House but now I guess it will be called the Governor’s Mansion. Once inside and standing with the tour group gathered around the docent, we almost laughed out loud when she APOLOGIZED to us that the people of Maryland would elect a Republican. May these same two idiots be similarly depressed today.
They can’t be pointlessly confrontational. They need to vigorously confront him, but in ways that actually progress things. There is still a lot of mischief that one who holds the office can do. Recall Clinton. ...though Clinton was at least pragmatic enough to eventually give up on losing fights and claim victory.
You know what ... That’s a very kind post. Thank you.
Right now I have no representation. My Congressman is a certified horse’s ass (pardon my language), my two Senators’ IQ’s don’t add up to room temperature and my Governor is medicated.
Glad for all the happy folks here today but as for me, it’s back to the drawing board. More work to do.
That's what the deceitful, backstabbing 0bammunist bastard wants you to think.
I don’t know that people got their fill of socialism. I think they got their fill of particularly blatantly incompetent socialism. I suspect they’ll want to try it again with different incompetents. It brings to mind the Ted Kennedy/Milton Friedman quotation:
“Senator, socialism hasn’t worked in 6,000 years of recorded history,” explained Friedman. “Why won’t you give up on it?”
Kennedy rose to his feet, according to Nuttle, who attended the hearing, and replied: “It hasn’t worked in 6,000 years of recorded history because it didn’t have me to run it.”
The quote can be found in the book “Moment of Truth” by Marc Nuttle.
attributed to Ted Kennedy, 1995
Sure, do it constructively ... but VIGOROUSLY CONFRONT! 0bama is the enemy.
In WV, he's hemmed in on several issues that put him at odds with the Democrat party, especially the war on coal and fossil fuels in general. There are several issues that might force him to consider a party switch, whatever his true philosophy might be.
His state is turning very red when it comes to federal offices. Not sure what's going on in WV with local and state offices.
The drawn blood must pour forth in an increasing flood till the lifeless corpse is spent
It’d probably actually be pretty safe for him to do so.
And a switch might save Manchin's career in the longer run. It would be political suicide for him to support his present party of the war on coal, gun grabbing, some social issues and other issues.
HIS State????
Bloody Hell!!!
It's MY State, dammit! He's supposed to be serving ME, and he's doing a damn poor job of it.
I don't want Manchin to switch parties. I want Manchin to be DEFEATED. He put on a sorta-conservative act as governor, fooled a lot of people, then went full 0bammunist in Washington. If he wants to be a Republican in office, then let him RUN as a Republican starting with the primary.
Now, as to Federal offices:
All three congressmen are now conservatives. Our other senator, former Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, is more than a bit of a RINO ... but replaces the truly detestable (and retired) Jay Rockefeller. We'll see what she's like as a senator; her conduct in office has been improving of late.
We haven't sent electoral votes to the demonicrats since 1996 (prior to which, WV was a reliable democrap state).
State and local offices are definitely turning Republican ... I haven't tabulated results but it looks like we may have turned both houses of the Legislature Republican.
So we don't need Joe "Benedict Arnold" Manchin, and if he did switch parties, I'd trust him only to stab us in the back.
Manchin has four more years to serve out his current term. The possibility of his switching has been discussed. The Republican party would be stronger and the Dims weaker if he did switch.
And he hasn’t been a full supporter of Obama. And if he’s been the unprincipled pol some here say he is, he wouldn’t have any problem becoming a pretty good conservative when that was in his best interest.
The Republican party would be stronger and the Dims weaker if he did switch.
If he switches, he's truly a RINO, in addition to being a sleazeball backstabbing gungrabbing leftist.
And if he’s been the unprincipled pol some here say he is,
"Some say"??? That "some" would be ME.
he wouldn’t have any problem becoming a pretty good conservative
Horsefeathers. One becomes a "pretty good conservative" by actually having principles ... Munchkin's principle is Munchkin.
Leave the bastard to rot on the dying vine of the WV demonicrat party ... we can do better.
If he's that bad, he'd probably lose in 2018 regardless. He'll either have to become acceptable to WV voters by then or he'd lose. Still better, for the next four years, to have him in the Republican party.
Look ... He is that bad, and the Republic is better off if we DEFEAT the bastard in 2018. That will be easier to do if he’s running as a demonicrat. The 2018 Republican primary needs to be about finding a good, solid candidate ... not about this sleazeball trying to keep his grip on power.
Lol. You DO have a way with words.
What were all the fights about? Food, territory, funny looks? Young boys do fight a lot. But USUALLY there's a dad around to referee so that the fights aren't CONTINUAL and brutal. Just curious, not nosy and you sure don't have to answer. Just being conversational.
My sister and I quarreled all the time until she was about 17 and I was 14. After that we slowly became friends.
She passed away in 1981, WAY, way too young. I still miss her.
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SF is NOW full of old people and Chinese. The former are the relics of folks who were able to buy a home here when it didn't cost and arm and a leg and the latter are here because China is such a PIT HOLE.
The latter pool their money, buy a house, bring EVERY relative in China that they have over here and proceed to live like pigs.
They are filthy. Not personally but their homes are left unpainted and their front yards left unweeded. Those things COST.
They WILL spend OODLES of money on brand new cars and on educating their sons but on anything else? NOT A CHANCE.
What I write does NOT refer to ABC's--American Born Chinese. THEY are 100% American. You would know them because they actually have bodies: chest/boobs, butts, some muscle. They dress like it's 2014. They dress like it's America and not Hong Kong (saggy, baggy, haggy).
The Chinese I refer to are the FOB's (Fresh off the Boeing) and CIA's (Chinese in America). Those latter may have been here two months for 82 years. They may have always stayed in their Chinese enclaves, never learned English and never wore any clothes but the tacky, saggy, baggy, cheap stuff they buy in Chinatown.
The Chinese have cash all right but they sure don't spread it around in THIS country. It IS their right to do what they want with their hard-earned cash but, in my opinion, they sure don't make good neighbors. Their hearts and wallets are/will always be back in China.
The Chinese are the most CLANNISH people on the planet ON THEIR OWN ADMISSION, and I have traveled and lived out of the USA. We even went to China in 1981 when it first opened to the West.
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As for L.A. change the word "Chinese" for "Hispanic" and you will find some similarities. The Hispanics also WORK like horses...AND send their hard earned cash south of the border.
They DO NOT spend much time or money on education, not even to learn English so they don't advance very much in whatever they do. They can NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER afford a home in California. At best they speak "Spanglish."
However, they are INFINITELY preferable to me since they WILL mingle, intermarry, be good neighbors, VOLUNTEER to help anyone who might need it, DON'T ignore us "round eyes" (a derogatory term the Chinese have for whites), treat us gringos like human beings instead of cash-cows, be friendly, help old people who aren't Hispanic...etc.
THEY are the work horses of California. They also DON'T want to be American citizens and are only here because the politicians south of the border keep most of the money for themselves and force their own people to seek money else where. They often work under the table and DON'T pay income tax, which they should do if they have their "green card."
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It's not a perfect world here in California but I wouldn't live anywhere else...ONLY because of weather. The rest of the country is either TOO hot in the summer or TOO cold in the winter. BRRRRRR!! I don't know if I could deal with the MONTHS of snow. We lived in Chicago for a year when I was young and all I do remember is the COLD!
We lived in a REALLY HOT country for five years but I won't mention it as one poster says I always bring it up. :o)
Don’t forget Sebelius.
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