Posted on 11/12/2006 7:05:11 AM PST by joesbucks
Remember back to 1994.
Watching the network pundits faces grow long as the nights results were codified and the control of the house and senated shfted for to the Republican Party for thhe first since the early 50's.
A man from the media was brought to congress, then dubbed the "Ditto Head Congress", to be toasted and to be made an honorary member of Congress in recognition of his support during their efforts.
Until the results of the 2006 mid term elections began pouring in, Rush and the newer entrants to the conservative Jaw Bone Media were largely expressing the vibrado that was so common in 1994. Rush was joined by Sean Hannity, the whole Salem Radio block of talent like Medved, Hewitt and Bennett, Bill O'Rielly and others continuing on with the Karl has this all in hand, the democrats are bankrupt, the democrats are the party of corruption and demonizing the democratic leaders much as they did when a different set of democratic leaders were the target of the ribbing and ridicule. Hey it worked in 94, why not now?
Never once did they say republican control of congress was in peril because of the drift from conservatism.......until Wednesday morning. Day after day, week after week they told republicans to ignore the polls, because they were commissioned by the MSM. They suggested that while there my be a few seats in play due to local issues, that cotnrol of Congress would not change.
They preached, crowed and touted that this President would beat the historical odds and still have a congress from his own party.
They talked of congressional districts that have been drawn so exacting to favor Republicans due to having a majority of Republican governors in control that that task after the last census. The did the same for the well touted Karl Rove GOTV machine. The mocked and ridiculed the democrats and Howard Dean as inept and not up to the task in getting voters to turn out. So few seats in the House are in play these days as competitive districts. And the Senate, by any measure simply wouldn't change hands.
They said the public would ignore the scandals of DeLay, Foley, Abramoff, and the hurt the revelation of Ted Haggard would have.
They said the public really knew that Iraq was being won and that the right team was in place. Any of the retired generals saying different were only trying to become part of the paid pundit class. They suggested the Presidents popularity and Iraq policy numbers were being manipulated downward rather than reflect the general populations mood by a media that hates the President.
The bottom line is they either knew better and mis-represented what they knew (hey 98% of the truth is still a lie) or they simply had lost touch with the population at large and the concern they had for the direction of foreign and domestic policy and the ethics of those who represented them. Were they no longer were connecting with and representing the true position of the likely voters? Have the demographics shifted from 1994 when talk radio could greatly influence public opinion and agitate the listeners to react? Has the anger of the independents and moderates shifted no shifted to favor a change in direction?
Whether intentionally mis-representing what they really knew or falling out of touch with the population, the Jaw Bone Media not only missed it the shift, but lost the ability to rally listeners to their political position.
Will You Tube be the next honorary member of Congress?
So, now you want to blame the cheerleaders too?
We have to stop pointing the finger and asking who let us down. Each and everyone of us has to ask ourselves what part we played and could we have done more. If we think we can sit back, be passive and expect things to turn out according to our fantasies, we have another think coming.
Participate. Contribute. Do something.
This year they heard from both the Junk Media and the Conservative Media the same "The GOP sucks and are going to get creamed" message. So they went right back to the Dems who promised them "Hey, I am just a good old boy. I will go to DC and make everything perfect for you". Now the Democrats will just open the Domestic Spending floodgates wide open and buy those districts for another 2 decades.
Given how hard it is to unseat an Incumbent. From finding good candidates to getting enough financing to finding ways to offset the Democrat cheerleader media, very few seats change hands year in and year out. We won in 1994 mainly based on a whole bunch of Democrat opens seats in play.
That is not going to come around again any time soon. Basically we are right back to where we were in 1952. The Democrats are simply going to buy those rural districts forever now. Add how much harder CFR makes everything, it will probable be even longer this time. We are pretty much screwed for a minimum of 20 years in the US House.
You can keep lying to yourselves that it will not be so bad. Don't try to lie to those of us who know better.
this is so easy and my 5th time writing it but once more here goes..........................
........the left this year was the extreme left, the right an unmoveable strenght of religion respecting men and women and then there is that middle........the squishy middle............the Maddrassa media did a two week 24/7 democratic pep rally and effected that squishy middle.We did not.
We can't blame Rush et al for this loss. For weeks, Rush has been telling his audience to get out and vote; to stay home out of protest would just bring a worse Congress (dems) than the poorly performing Republicans that we already had.
It was good strategy by the dems to put forth relatively conservative candidates, instead of the "Michael Moore" crowd we'd seem in prior years. While Sherrod Brown of Ohio is described as quite liberal, dems like Webb of VA and Casey of PA were relatively conservative. People like Allen and Santorum probably lost not because of their ideology, but just because the "R" next to their names indicated to many people that we had a "do-nothing" Congress. Unfortunately, Santorum and Allen were NOT part of the problem; instead, it was the RINOs that we've all discussed on this site. The fact that these two men who consistently sided with making our country better were voted out of office is very sad for our country.
The Jaw Bone Media is not quite a strong as the rest of the media which has pounded a different version of events and theories into the heads of the poor confused rudderless people who buy the Blitzer, Matthews and Oberin line. An example is corruption. Jefferson, D. La, was the highest vote getter in his race. Mitchell (D. AZ, elected to replace Hayworth) has been "in your face" corrupt. The Main Street Media doesn't talk about Democrat Corruption but lets all discuss how much Denny Hastert knew.
I swear I believe that heart and soul.......#'s were to congruent when needed.
The problem is that you then have to turn around and say, "But vote for them anyway." Apparently, people were convinced that the targets of these attacks weren't conservative enough, and, apparently from turnout in some states, including mine, they stayed home.
I'm glad you posted this...I DISTINCTLY remember Rush chiding callers that had reservations about this president and the direction the party was going...Rush said to don't worry callers, I have the inside track and this man is the one to carry us conservatives into the future...i remember this very well, so if anyone wants to come on here and say that i am not telling the truth then go ahead, i know what i heard...he did the same back in the 2000 election...Rush and Hannity were either duped or deep down knew the truth...if the latter then they have not been honest...many solid conservatives were betrayed back in 2000.
They TALK........YOU DECIDE!!
No...the jawbone media held its tongue for too long...years in fact and then all of the sudden they get a conscience.
We are not "mind numb robots" that do what ever our so called influential talk show hosts tell us to do. The left thinks that but this election proves otherwise. Hugh Hewitt and Rush were wrong. Their rosy scenario proved to be wrong, especially Hugh who always misinterprets things. Hugh's post election analysis was right on the money but why didn't he see those problems before hand? Isn't he the political expert?
The bottom line is that this election proves that talk show hosts are influential in helping to explain our ideas and positions but NOT INFLUENTIAL in getting republicans elected. But, don't expect the left to admit this.
I am keeper of the Rush Live thread. You claims about Rush are utter and total nonsense. They are simply an error or a lie. Totally with out any base in fact.
Want to know who cost us the election? Democrat Campaign Contributor Mike Savage and his 100%er Choir of rabid know nothings who spend all their time sticking knives in their own sides back
Go join the Democrats. You Always Whining types brought this on us. We would be far better off if you all just hit the road. You do nothing but snipe our own side all the time. You are utterly usless to us in battle.
Never once did they say republican control of congress was in peril because of the drift from conservatism....
Untrue
But please address the core question.
I would criticize the jaw bone media but not for what you are blaming them for. It was the President for not adequately defending his policies early on and the congress for being more concerned with padding their campaign warchests and in some cases personal accounts, then they were in taking care of the people's business. All we got from the last congress was posturing on issues, but essentially nothing of value unless you are excited by flag burning ammendments which will never have the force of law, bridges to nowhere, out of control spending and pork, and attacks on horse meat and internet gambling, and creation of an unfunded 700 mile fence along a 3000 mile border. The only thing worse than the candidates we fielded were the candidates that won. It was the Republican congress that let us down more than the conservative media.
Given the closeness of many races, its possible that if they hadnt put on an optimistic face and got you guys motivated to go out and vote, we might have lost 40 or more seats in the House and perhaps seven Senate seats. On the other hand, a little positive news (firing of Rumsfeld a few weeks earlier) we might have kept both the House and Senate. Besides conservatives turned out. What was suprprisng was that independents fed up with Republican behavior and lack of progress on winning the war in Iraq actually showed up at the polls and voted by some twenty percentage points in favor of Dems. I doubt independents are much affected by talk radio.
If the Jaw bone media has a fault, it is that it reinforces the belief in congress that posturing and forcing their opponent to take a position on issues framed the way they want is more important than taking care of business. Pragmatism and finding practical compromises to enduring problems is to be avoided because it is unpure according to the mouthpieces.
PUll your head out of the sand. You sound like a 2004 Democrat.
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