The Drive-by Defeat (Je$$e alert)

Rainbow/PUSH ^ | 11/10/2002 | Jesse Jackson

[HassanBenSobar]

In South Dakota, Democratic Senator Tim Johnson won re-election in the face of everything the White House could throw at him. The President recruited his opponent, helped raise him all the money in the world, and visited and revisited to galvanize Republican voters in a state that Bush carried easily in the 2000 presidential race.

But Johnson won. He survived in part because he ran a remarkably populist campaign on corporate scandals and kitchen table issues like protecting Social Security and standing up for small farmers. People who listened to the debates -- and in South Dakota people do listen to debates -- could hear a clear difference between Johnson and his opponent. But key to his razor thin victory - he won by 528 votes - came from an unprecedented drive by South Dakota Democrats to boost voter registration and turnout on the state's Native American reservations. Turnout at the Pine Ridge Lakota Indian reservation nearly doubled to 48%, and 90% of those voters backed Johnson. He won by the margin of his effort to reach out to a neglected minority.

Contrast that to Maryland gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, an attractive Democrat running in a Democratic state. Following the playbook of the Democratic Leadership Council, she chose an unknown military man to join her ticket as Lt. Governor, and did so without even consulting with the African American leadership in the state. Her opponent, an aggressive conservative, pounced immediately, picking a relatively unknown African American as his running mate. The symbolism helped him prove that he was a "different kind of Republican." Meanwhile, she suffered from a campaign that seemed perversely unwilling to connect to her own base until it was too late.

Senator Max Cleland lost his seat in Georgia, victim of a gutter campaign by a shameless challenger who impugned the patriotism of a man who lost his legs in service to his country. But Cleland lost not to the poisonous campaign of his opponent, but because black turnout was down in Georgia. Like former Democratic Senator Wyche Fowler before him, he was too worried about not offending the yahoos to forge the relationships needed to rouse his own base. Senator Jean Carnahan in Missouri suffered the same fate because of low minority turnout in St Louis. And Mary Landrieu in Louisiana was forced into a runoff for the same reason.

Across the country, Democrats seemed to forget the lesson that diversity is their strength. Minority voters can't be inherited. They have to be informed and inspired to vote. As former Gore campaign director Donna Brazile put it, too many Democrats engaged in "drive-by campaigning," driving by the urban areas to focus on white, suburban swing voters. In an off year election, when mobilizing and inspiring the base is crucial, too many Democrats neglected theirs.

The message that might mobilize that base was also largely absent. African Americans and Latinos don't need racially based appeals to get inspired to vote. They are the first and worst victims of the rising unemployment and declining wages of the Bush recession. They wanted to hear a strong message about how to create jobs, get the economy going and put people back to work. The president and Republicans had nothing to say about that. But neither did Democrats. In nasty campaigns filled with negative ads, this was an easy election to skip.

Now the turnout results are in. Nationally turnout was up slightly to a paltry 39.3%. But, as Curtis Gans of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate reports, "Republicans got their vote out better than the Democrats. The Democrats lost votes nationally and the Republicans gained votes."

With margins close in race after race, it seems apparent that Democrats lost by the margin of minority voters who were uninspired or uninformed. Consider Broward Country, Florida, with its significant minority population. In 2000, the NAACP and other groups ran voter turnout efforts that contacted voters up to 17 times, and informed them of the Bush failures on civil rights, hate crimes and other issues. In 2002, the McBride campaign expected those voters to be furious from the 2000 presidential debacle, in which many African Americans were denied the right to vote. But this year, the NAACP program was starved for funds. And the McBride gubernatorial campaign did little to replace it. The vote in Broward County plummeted from 45.6% to 34.5%, the lowest turnout in three decades.

This is not rocket science. The President's popularity rose with the "rollout" of the Iraq campaign. That made him all the more effective in rousing Republicans to go to the polls. Democrats had to make special efforts to inform and inspire their base of union, minority, and women (particularly single women) voters. They had to speak boldly to their concerns, reach out to their leaders, and stump their communities. But instead, in too many cases, Democrats were so focused on winning swing voters that they were hesitant to rouse their own base. Now we will all pay the price for their failure.

[HassanBenSobar]

So, Jesse thinks that southern white voters are 'yahoos'? Next he'll be singing with Belafonte.

[Mr. Silverback]

The President recruited his opponent, helped raise him all the money in the world...

All the money in the world? Dang, no wonder my checking account was empty...

[Tribune7]

In South Dakota, Democratic Senator Tim Johnson won re-election in the face of everything the White House could throw at him.

Has Thune conceded, the recount be completed and the vote fraud investigation, stopped?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

If we compare the DemocRatic party to that of a slave plantation, it's fair to say that Jesse is the field manager, the one who reports progress to the slave owners and tries to negotiate for more lunch breaks and shorter work days.

[Bahbah]

And the lunch breaks and the shorter work days are only for him.

[dead]

Contrast that to Maryland gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, an attractive Democrat running in a Democratic state.

Check out Jesse, angling for a future booty call with that horse-faced, out-of-work, misfit Kennedy.

Any port in a storm, right minister?

[BobFromNJ]

Hey Jessie--get Over it--Your style is going down the tubes--All the ranting and raving and blame and anti-white screaming is losin ouT --'cause A BIG SWING IS STARTING TO SHOW UP AMONG YOUNGER, UP-AND-COMING, BETTER EDUCATED BLACKS. MOTIVATED TO HAVE THEIR OWN LIFE AND HOPEFULL FOR THE FUTURE, THEY ARE LEAVING THE PLANTATION WHERE YOU PUT TMEM THRU ALL YOUR YEARS OF HATE-MONGERING.

[blackdog]

Jesse had better watch his pampered limo driven arss. Johnson won by 500 questionable votes. To villify the losing party's voters is like one hundred mice pissing off ninety nine foxes. I don't think the margin of numbers provides a comfortable environment for the mice.

For every one of these divisive attacks the democrats launch, they piss off a lot of silent foxes. The same o'l "social security stealing, dog food eating, wheel chair over the cliff" bullcrap is really wearing thin.

[KellyAdmirer]

I love it, push the Dems left, Jesse, push 'em left!

[cardinal4]

But Johnson won. He survived in part because he ran a remarkably populist campaign on corporate scandals and kitchen table issues like protecting Social Security and standing up for small farmers.

That and recruiting dead Oglala Sioux for a politcal Ghost Dance.

[dead]

In 2000, the NAACP and other groups ran voter turnout efforts that contacted voters up to 17 times, and informed them of the Bush failures on civil rights, hate crimes and other issues. In 2002, the McBride campaign expected those voters to be furious from the 2000 presidential debacle, in which many African Americans were denied the right to vote. But this year, the NAACP program was starved for funds. And the McBride gubernatorial campaign did little to replace it. The vote in Broward County plummeted from 45.6% to 34.5%, the lowest turnout in three decades.

In that little paragraph, he manages to greedily wave his tin cup under the Democratic party noses, concludes that a significant percentage of “the minority vote” needs to be reminded up to 17 times or they forget to show up, and he pretty much acknowledges that they will vote in mind-numbed uniformity if they only manage to drag their lazy asses to the polls.

Not much of a spokesman for any race, is he?

[stainlessbanner]

many African Americans were denied the right to vote.

Liar!

[TC Rider]

It's important to remember, that for all intents and purposes, Jesse lives in Bizarro World.

For example, in Bizarro World, Terry McAulife says, "At the beginning of the day, it looks like huge wins for Democrats."

When Jesse says, "Turnout at the Pine Ridge Lakota Indian reservation nearly doubled to 48%, and 90% of those voters backed Johnson. He won by the margin of his effort to reach out to a neglected minority.", it means, "We bought their votes, and when that wasn't enough, Johnson reached out to dead Indians.".

Of course, that puts a whole new Bizarro World spin on the old Western movie adage, "The only good Indian, is a dead Indian". Because in Jesse Bizarro World, they get 100% of the dead Indian vote.

[nothingnew]

Contrast that to Maryland gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, an attractive Democrat running in a Democratic state.

Watch out kathleen, I tinks he wants ta bed ya, and have a 1/2-1/2 dark white chile!

FMCDH

[Mr. Silverback]

Johnson won by 500 questionable votes. To villify the losing party's voters is like one hundred mice pissing off ninety nine foxes.

Let me be frank and say what no analyst (especially a Dem analyst, and especially-especially Je$$e) is going to say about this race. If one small thing were changed, we would have known who the Senator from SD was on 6 November, and his name would have been Thune. Unfortunately the thing that would need to change is that Libertarians would have to get a clue.

Libertarians in SD had the following choices on election day:

A) A Socialist, oops...Democrat who is Daschle's puppet, and a key part of the Dem "keep the Senate" strategy.

B) A Republican who would go to Washington and fight socialism for the next 6 years.

c) A Libertarian who had zero chance to get elected and would spend the next 6 years in SD whining about socialism.

Libertarians chose option C. They might as well have chosen option A, since the votes for the Libertarian candidate exceeded the margin between Thune and Johnson.

[FLCowboy,]

The vote in Broward County plummeted from 45.6% to 34.5%, the lowest turnout in three decades

The cause of this lower turnout is the result of new voting machines, and observers making sure people didn't vote more than once. After the Reno - McBride fiasco in the primary, Oliphant was warned to keep it clean, or she would face jail time.

[rdb3]

• Across the country, Democrats seemed to forget the lesson that diversity is their strength.
• Minority voters can't be inherited. They have to be informed and inspired to vote.
• As former Gore campaign director Donna Brazile put it, too many Democrats engaged in "drive-by campaigning," driving by the urban areas to focus on white, suburban swing voters. In an off year election, when mobilizing and inspiring the base is crucial, too many Democrats neglected theirs.
• African Americans and Latinos don't need racially based appeals to get inspired to vote.

Jesse, give it up. You've been played, which shows you that you never had game to begin with because true playaz can't be played.

Feel that boot on the back of your neck? Get used to it. A new day is dawning.

No mercy.
Coming soon: Tha SYNDICATE.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[TopQuark]

This is not rocket science. WE know, Jesse, we know. If it were rocket science, you wouldn't be delivering the speech.

[dead]

Oh you "blame-somebody-else" whiners just never quit.

The Libertarians managed to get out of bed that day and vote for the candidate they most agreed with.

If you're looking to blame somebody, blame the 60,000 registered Republicans who didn't even bother to show up on election day.