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Posted on 11/06/2002 6:16:08 AM PST by KLT
An old-fashioned ass whipping
By DOUG THOMPSON
Nov 6, 2002, 07:48
Did anybody get the license number on that truck that mowed down the Democrats last night?
Voters around the country gave the party of the Donkey an old-fashioned ass whipping in the midterm elections, returning control of the Senate to Republicans and giving the elephants a larger margin of control of the House.
In Minnesota, Republican Norm Coleman handed replacement candidate Walter Mondale his first-ever statewide defeat in a race that wasn’t called until after the sun came up today.
“I keep looking for a way to spin this but I can’t find one,” a dour-looking Democratic hit man James Carville admitted on CNN shortly after midnight.
“We got our butts kicked,” said Democratic strategist Arnie Wilton. “In some ways, this is worse than 1994 (when Democrats lost control of both the House and Senate).
According to the polls and pundits, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Little would change, they predicted, and the Dems would pick up a seat or two in House and dominate the governor’s races around the country. Voters, they said, would stay home. Minorities, they claimed, would give Democrats an edge.
Didn’t happen that way. White, middle-class voters turned out in droves in many states, tipping the scales towards the Republicans. Minorities, who may have felt the Dems were taking them for granted, stayed home. Only in California, where the voter turnout may be the lowest in history, did the Democrats score big victories.
Every once a while, the voters have to remind the pollsters and pundits that they, not them, hold the power in a Democracy. In the end, it’s always the voters who decide.
President George W. Bush gambled big time that his popularity would help Republicans in key races. It did. Democrats gambled they could offset that popularity with the usual scare tactics on the economy and social security. It didn’t work.
“We lost sight of the simple political fact that in order to win elections, you’ve got to stand for something,” Carville said. “We didn’t have a message.”
The voters, however, did have messages for the Democrats: Stop stonewalling a popular president when it comes to homeland security, stop blocking his judicial appointments and stop trying to confuse the real issues and dangers that affect our country.
They also had messages for pundits and pollsters: Don’t take us for granted, don’t presume to tells us how we will vote and don’t assume that you can sit in Washington and New York and accurate judge the mood out in America.
There’s one other message, a subtle one for Republicans.
They got a second chance to prove they are ready for prime time, ready to hold absolute power on both the Hill and down the Mall at the White House.
The message is simple.
Don’t blow it.
© Copyright 2002 by Capitol Hill Blue
Now Mondale has lost in all 50 states. What a loOser!
I suspect this euphoria we're all feeling will wear off and reality will set in RSN [Real Soon Now]. (I hope I'm wrong.)
Hope, he remembers how well the RATS shared!
I have no doubt, this was a referendum on Clintoooon politics....As soon as we can get rid of the fat ugly hitlery, life will be better here in the Socialist Republic of NY...
God Bless America!
Karen AKA KLT
In addition, Illinois and Pennsylvania are huge losses overriding the superficial "victories" elsewhere.
Senator Dole (R-NC) will take away your Second Amendment rights as quickly as Senator Schumer (D-NY); though she may be counted upon to "advise and consent" well (usage?), regarding judges.
The losses in Illinois and Pennsylvania, are evidence of how well the Democrat Party (read William Daley of "Gore 2000," "Evercore Partners - N.Y.C./American Media - FL," and now boss of bosses at S.B.C./AmeriTech +++ Hillary Clinton) Machinery of "Knock and Drag" worked there, AGAIN.
IT'S IMPORTANT BECAUSE: While all the Republican gloating went on after the 1994 election, the Republicans overlooked the leftist/socialists' testing of such Democrat Party Machinery, which worked with dramatic results FOR DEMOCRAT VICTORIES in those areas of the country where it was tested.
The result of that "test marketing" was to use it 1996 and 1998 for even greater results for the Democrats --- especially in places like Palm Beach County, FL!
The reason that the Democrats were all in a huff about "losing Florida to G. W. Bush in the 2000 election "cycle," was because their "Knock and Drag" and other mechanisms had previously proved to work so well, there. In other words, they "owned" certain precincts around the country; yet when this area of Florida "went south," it drew their bitter attention because they had thought their machine worked well, and they were confused by it's not performing up to expectations --- what drew the "higher-ups" of Democrat-dom to Florida, was the need for failure analysis.
Well, unfortunately for the Republicans, the results in Illinois and Pennsylvania have proven the Democrat Party Machinery working well.
Don't expect the giddy Republicans to failure analyze this.
It's all too easy to underestimate Hillary Clinton.
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