Will GOP's control of the South play significant role in 2016 races?

FoxNews ^ | December 08, 2014 | Unknown

[maddog55]

The defeat Saturday of Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu was essentially the final act in the Republican Party’s control this fall of the South -- a transition expected to have a significant impact on the 2016 White House races.

The victory by Republican challenger and Louisiana Rep. Bill Cassidy means that Democrats in January will be left without a single U.S. senator or governor across nine states -- stretching from the Carolinas to Texas.

And GOP runoff victories Saturday in two Louisiana House districts ensure the party of at least 246 seats, the largest Republican advantage since the Truman administration after World War II.

Furthermore, Republicans in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas will control nearly every majority-white congressional district and both state legislative chambers.

[Soul of the South]

“Americans are totally revulsed....and showed it at the voting booth on November 4. Obamacare has proven to be the Democrat Party’s death knell.”

Only if the GOP takes advantage of the situation. Today it appears Boehner and McConnell have no backbone for the type of hardball politics and public relations campaign required to repeal Obamacare.

Obamacare is simply a step on the road to single payer, taxpayer financed healthcare controlled and administered by the federal government. The Wall Street banks and multinational corporations funding the GOP, through the Chamber of Commerce and PACs, want to offload their financial participation in the funding of employee healthcare onto the federal government. The women and men in the executive suites of these corporations understand the game to achieve their long term objective which is the same as the Democrats.

The real wakeup call in the 2008 election for the GOPe was not the loss of their faux conservative candidate McCain to Obama. it was the shift in what had been reliable corporate campaign contributions to the Democrat Party. Obamacare passed because big business wanted it to pass, not because Obama and his leftist associates wanted it to pass. Business opposed Hillarycare in the 1990’s and it lost. In 2009-2010 business stood aside or actively supported the ACA while it was going through Congress. Even big pharma and the medical insurance companies funded public ads in favor of O’care.

If the GOP truly wants to defund O’Care it is possible in early 2015 for the Republicans to pass a bill repealing the ACA. If they pass a repeal bill with mechanisms for dealing with preexisting conditions while creating a national competitive market for insurance there are enough wavering Democrats in the House and Senate who are concerned about their electoral prospects in 2016 to override an Obama veto. Both McConnell and Boehner understand how to add a little pork to sweeten and secure a backroom deal.

I suspect big business predicated its funding of the 2014 GOP congressional races on amnesty passing, ACA not being repealed, and the conservative wing of the party being silenced on social issues. With respect to the ACA the backroom deal has been made. The Republicans will pass a straight repeal bill over the vocal objections of Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and the mainstream press. Until the President casts his veto we will be treated to stories every night on television about children with leukemia who would not have been treated had their parents not purchased a policy on the exchange. We’ll also see diabetics and cancer patients who would not be receiving medical care if the ACA hadn’t eliminated restrictions on pre-existing conditions. Obama will save them all with his veto and he will be heralded for fighting for the little man. McConnell and Boehner will tell the base “we tried”, and then go to work doing what big business is paying them to do — spread the pork around in the form of direct subsidies, grants, and lucrative government contracts.

Boehner and McConnell are not national leaders. They are party hacks and administrators. They also lack vision, patriotism, and empathy for their middle class voting constituents. These men are at the peak of the power pyramid. Their joy and ego gratification comes from exerting power over other people, not from preserving the blessings of individual liberty for the population.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

2016 Senate races (to know who needs to be primaried)

Alabama Richard Shelby (R) Running
Alaska Lisa Murkowski (R)(write-in) Running
Arizona John McCain (R?) Not yet announced (NYA)
Arkansas John Boozman (R) Running
California Barbara Boxer (D) NYA
Colorado Michael Bennet (D) NYA
Connecticut Richard Blumenthal (D) NYA
Florida Marco Rubio (R) NYA
Georgia Johnny Isakson (R) Running
Hawaii Brian Schatz (D) NYA
Idaho Mike Crapo (R) Running
Illinois Mark Kirk (R) Running
Indiana Dan Coats (R) Running
Iowa Chuck Grassley (R) Running
Kansas Jerry Moran (R) Running
Kentucky Rand Paul (R) Running
Louisiana David Vitter (R) Leaving Office
Maryland Barbara Mikulski (D) Running
Missouri Roy Blunt (R) Running
Nevada Harry Reid (D) Running
New Hampshire Kelly Ayotte (R) Running
New York Chuck Schumer (D) NYA
North Carolina Richard Burr (R) Running
North Dakota John Hoeven (R) NYA
Ohio Rob Portman (R) Running
Oklahoma James Lankford (R) NYA
Oregon Ron Wyden (D) NYA
Pennsylvania Pat Toomey (R) NYA
South Carolina Tim Scott (R) NYA
South Dakota John Thune (R) NYA
Utah Mike Lee (R) NYA
Vermont Patrick Leahy (D) Running
Washington Patty Murray (D) Running
Wisconsin Ron Johnson (R) Running

Thirty-four seats are up for election in 2016:

Four Democrats are seeking re-election.
Six Democrats may seek re-election.
Fifteen Republicans are seeking re-election.
Nine Republicans may seek re-election.

[Hessian]

Don’t you just love how the mainstream media assume that since the R’s have more seats to defend, they will LOSE more seats? Like it’s just a numbers game and ideas don’t matter.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I wish it was a numbers game, because it would be more just.

For example, John McCain, censured by the AZ Republican party, but his beer heiress wife is so rich that anyone who challenges him will be professionally and personally destroyed. It doesn’t help that McCain has a furious temper and sees anyone disagreeing with him as an enemy.

The last person to try was former congressman J.D. Hayworth. Popular in the state, by the time of the primary, McCain had ruined him.

Truthfully, the only way to beat McCain is with a Democrat. And it would be worth six years of that to be rid of McCain.