Posted on 02/18/2018 1:41:19 PM PST by Kaslin
A new interview with Mitch McConnell this week showed the first cracks in the wall of his optimism about the midterms. While not going down a path of gloom and doom, he no longer sounds positive of breaking a long-standing trend of the party in power losing ground in such scenarios. He’s not coming out and saying the GOP’s majorities in both chambers are toast, but he seems to think they’ll be losing seats. (The Hill)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says in a new interview that he expects to see GOP majorities in the House and Senate shrink in November as a result of the 2018 midterms.
The top Republican in the Senate told The New York Times that “the odds are” his party will face net losses in both chambers of Congress this year, the first time McConnell has made such an admission publicly.“The odds are that we will lose seats in the House and the Senate,” McConnell said.
“History tells you that, the fired-up nature of the political left tells you that. We go into this cleareyed that this is going to be quite a challenging election,” he added.
McConnell looks like he’s zigging when everyone else zags. It seemed like everyone was predicting that the Democrats would at least take the Senate back before Christmas, but Mitch was all sunshine and roses. Now that Trump’s numbers have begun to creep back up and some GOP strategists have a bit more spring in their step, McConnell is lowering expectations.
The biggest question is the Senate, of course, and you’d expect the Majority Leader to be more in tune with that. But how many seats are going to flip and which way will they go? The Democrats need at least a net pickup of two now that the Alabama mess is settled. Granted, we’re probably going to lose Nevada because Dean Heller is in a deep hole right now, being attacked from both sides. The #RESIST movement there is strong and Hillary carried the state easily. It looked like we were going to lose Arizona with Flake’s retirement, but if the primary electorate there can settle down and nominate Martha McSally, we could be in good shape. (Nominating Joe Arpaio, on the other hand, would likely turn into Roy Moore Phase Two.)
But let’s say the Dems take Arizona. There’s your flip, right? Not so fast. That means they still have to hang on to all of the more than two dozen of their own they’re defending. And those include:
Granted, they’ll probably keep some of them. But all of them? Particularly looking at McCaskill, Donnelly and Manchin, I’m thinking it’s going to have to be a tsunami and not just a “wave” to go three for three there. As usual, we should remind ourselves that it’s still ridiculously early in the year to pretend that anything is set in stone, and one turn of the news cycle can change any number of things. But as it stands right now, particularly if Trump can somehow keep his nose above water in the mid-forties, it looks like the Democrats have a massive amount of work ahead of them. All the GOP really needs to do at this point is avoid being stupid.
Okay… I didn’t say was a sure thing.
He has been working hard to make certain republicans lose seats.
He doesn’t like leading.
He’d rather go back to sniffing democrats rear ends as he follows them around.
Good long term observation, yet I honestly cannot see one Democrat incumbent Senator going down. A combo of weak GOP candidates, RNC never Trumpism, and fed up GOP voters will likely seal the deal for rats
Unfair comparison. A mid-term election is not the same as an existential war, no matter the passionate hyperbole applied to the former....
I am just curious, do people understand that in...90%(?)of elections the party that is in control of the White House loses seats in off year election? I ask this because in reading the comments apparently many people don’t.
Outgoing Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Illegal Alien)
thinks the GOP should amnesty 30 million new Democrats.
The GOP is doomed if they don’t........../s
Maybe (hopefully?) the Trump Train will keep on chugging and get us through the 2018 elections with a pickup of one or two Senate seats. I sure hope Trump’s planning a nice October Surprise for our Dem “friends”!
If McConnel would resign and let Trump Republicans lead AND get things done, Republicans would win. I think instead McConnell would prefer to lose and let Democrats directly thwart Trump.
We are in an existential war. It’s a silent, secretive war on what makes us free people. Everything that we are, even as human beings is under assault. So no, I don’t believe it’s hyperbole at all.
You’re not the brightest bulb in the drawer, are ya?
RESIGN, MITCH!
PLEASE! GO AWAY!
LET A REAL MAN RUN THE US SENATE!
God I hate that man. And everyone one of his RINO buddies. Run like conservatives, govern like marxists.
What a sack of shiite.
He WANTS to lose seats in the fall.
If only he’d get a stroke or something and have to retire due to health reasons.
You F’in backstabbing POS. You can’t go the way of the Byrd soon enough.
Can the senate vote for lack of confidence?
They sure have plenty of guts when it comes to telling us to go F ourselves, as we advocate for Conservative policy.
I agree with your take on it.
I just want him voted out of the majority leader slot. I realize he isn’t up for election yet.
Do the Democrats get to vote on that also, or is it the majority party who chooses their leader?
We have got to get this obstructionist and worse out of there.
Senate Majority Leader is elected only by the Senate Republican Caucus. Majority Leader currently needs only 26 votes to stay in power, or to be removed.
This is unlike the House, where the whole House votes on Speaker and much more party unity is needed.
What makes you say that?
Yeah, that's what they said during Bill Clinton's second term also.
Bill was going to cancel the elections and continue on as President.
Obama too.
We may not because of what is going on with this inter-govt civil war. This is not the same anymore.
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