Why do you people always make a big deal out of these things before the voting takes place, talking about how they're "important bellwethers," "will reflect the public's mood," etc etc etc...

...when you routinely lose? First it was your hack Paul Hackett running against Jean Schmidt, now it's whatever GOP guy just gave an electoral beatdown to his Democrat opponent to take over Duke Cunningham's seat.

Next time, overexaggerate the importance of a special election in a predominantly Democratic district. Or you could even be adventurous and try keeping your mouth shut until you actually win

[Edited on June 7, 2006 at 10:18 AM. Reason : Or just stay the course and let the GOP continue running America ]

6/7/2006 10:16:04 AM

Miss the governors' races last fall?

6/7/2006 10:20:09 AM

oh, did that include the races in Virginia? the ones where the GOP candidates for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General won elections that should have been cakewalks for their Democratic opponents? and teh L3ft had a net gain of -1- seat in the legislature?

I already said in October that Virginia would probably be a decent indicator for 2006. I haven't seen anything yet to make me revise that statement...

Quote :

"TGD: At this point I expect the GOP will hold the House by a sizeable margin and gain 1 to 3 seats in the Senate..."

[Edited on June 7, 2006 at 11:00 AM. Reason : unless you were talking about a Democrat winning in New Jersey... ::shock::]

6/7/2006 10:58:46 AM

"Electoral beatdown?" Methinks the gentleman protests too much.

Let's talk about cakewalks...the CA-50th and the OH-2nd should have been cakewalks. The fact that they were even remotely close is a problem for the GOP. That's just fact.

6/7/2006 11:09:00 AM

^

Quote :

"Kay_Yow: Let's talk about cakewalks...the CA-50th and the OH-2nd should have been cakewalks. The fact that they were even remotely close is a problem for the GOP. That's just fact."

how is that?

OH-2nd: a Democrat campaigning as a a) military veteran, b) photogenic, c) red-state conservative, runs against a Republican who's 1) unpopular, 2) liberal, 3) ugly and 4) voted for one of the biggest tax increases in Ohio's history -- and still loses 52%-48%, in a state George W Bush himself almost lost just a year before

CA-50th: a liberal Republican (who only got 15.27% of the vote in the primary, to Busby's 43.74%) wins an election over unified Democrat opposition to replace another Republican -- jailed for being one of the most corrupt Congressmen in the past 20 years. with a Republican President polling just above 30%.

Don't hate just b/c your people are inept at capitalizing on huge electoral opportunities

---

Quote :

"Kay_Yow: "Electoral beatdown?" Methinks the gentleman protests too much."

[yes], 50%-45% is an electoral beatdown. the Bush-Kerry "Slaughter of '04" was closer than both races  

6/7/2006 11:19:30 AM

Quote :

"TGD: Don't hate just b/c your people are inept at capitalizing on huge electoral opportunities "

Says the man that works on state issues with the NC GOP.

What were Bush's numbers in the OH-2 and CA-50? Not approval ratings, because those things don't really dictate voting habits, but the voter tallies in 2004?

[Edited on June 7, 2006 at 11:56 AM. Reason : add]

6/7/2006 11:35:23 AM

Quote :

"TGD: Or just stay the course and let the GOP continue ruinning America"

Fixed it for you.

6/7/2006 7:18:43 PM

Quote :

"Kay_Yow: Says the man that works on state issues with the NC GOP. :p"

I haven't worked with those incompetents for a good couple years now

but touché just the same

---

Quote :

"Kay_Yow: What were Bush's numbers in the OH-2 and CA-50? Not approval ratings, because those things don't really dictate voting habits, but the voter tallies in 2004?"

I don't think your people's pundits got the memo on that underlined part...

but here are the comparisons:

OH-2: 38.5% Kerry (D) - 61.0% Bush (R)
(vs 48.4% Hackett (D) - 51.6% Schmidt (R))

CA-5: 43.9% Kerry (D) - 53.2% Bush (R)
(vs 45.5% Busby (D) - 49.3% Bilbray (R) - 1.5% King (L) - 3.7% Griffith (R as I))

so... judging from these results -

1) the Ohio election highlights the shittiness of the Republican candidate and damn-near perfection of the Democrat candidate... and Democrats still couldn't win (despite all the pre-election hype from teh L3ft)

2) the California election highlights the district is hardly a "cakewalk"... and the Democrat still couldn't outperform Kerry by more than 2%, despite running against a non-incumbent trying to succeed a convicted member of the same party (and all the pre-election hype from teh L3ft)


yeah, California in particular is looking like a foreboding anti-GOP bellwether to me...

6/7/2006 8:40:43 PM

Quote :

"boonedocks: Fixed it for you."

[/thread]

6/7/2006 9:18:21 PM

see originally I was gonna play along, post something like "oh no doubt" etc etc etc

but then I remembered I put more faith in the American people than teh L3ft, I don't think the country's going to hell just b/c the party I dislike is in power...

6/7/2006 9:33:57 PM

TGD you're the perfect politico.

6/7/2006 9:36:27 PM

no I'm dead serious. Americans are fundamentally libertarian, they always have been. the government has always been an infinitesimally small part of the fabric of America -- but even if it weren't, voters will recoil when things get too far out of hand, be it from decades of quasi-Communist rule (1930s-1980) to decades of far-right domination (1980-whenever Democrats get their act together or die off and get replaced)

this country's in pretty damn good shape, and it has been for the last 25 years I've been alive. and the fact that its institutions are still intact after 200+ years is a testament to the fundamental wisdom of the voters in aggregate over time. this "omg woe is me America sucks and it's [insert party here]'s fault" shit is idiotic, whether it's coming from boonedocks or EarthDogg... 

6/7/2006 10:33:48 PM

Quote :

"TGD: this "omg woe is me America sucks" shit is idiotic."

Tack that to your cork-board at work and date it for me. We'll revisit that when the paper starts yellowing (after the retiree boom) and see how you feel about that.

The fact that we're not living on bugs and rainwater today doesn't mean we'll be the pre-eminent superpower twenty years from now. With all the infinite wisdom of the founders that we all like to acknowledge or ignore at our discretion, the sample you're talking about represents only about 12.5% of our nation's history and the most prosperous 12.5% at that. (Talk about selective data...)

Quote :

"TGD: and the fact that its institutions are still intact after 200+ years is a testament to the fundamental wisdom of the voters in aggregate over time"

And about a billion other factors that sound very significant when mentioned alone.

6/7/2006 10:47:28 PM

[Edited on June 7, 2006 at 11:20 PM. Reason : n/m]

6/7/2006 11:18:40 PM

Quote :

"Gamecat: The fact that we're not living on bugs and rainwater today doesn't mean we'll be the pre-eminent superpower twenty years from now."

And who exactly is going to change that?

---

Quote :

"Gamecat: With all the infinite wisdom of the founders that we all like to acknowledge or ignore at our discretion, the sample you're talking about represents only about 12.5% of our nation's history and the most prosperous 12.5% at that. (Talk about selective data...)"

good 'ole Gamecat -- no matter how busy you get, you're never too busy to play The Semantics Game™

I should have put "at least" in my earlier statement, my mistake. This country's been in pretty damn good shape since well before I was born, just didn't want to comment to that effect and have someone ( ::cough:: ) argue that I couldn't possibly claim that since I wasn't alive then...

---

Quote :

"Gamecat: And about a billion other factors that sound very significant when mentioned alone. "

Such as?

6/8/2006 2:38:43 PM

yet more trolling from this "expert"

6/8/2006 3:42:38 PM

someone sounds like an embittered lib...

6/8/2006 4:07:07 PM

Quote :

"Americans are fundamentally libertarian, they always have been. the government has always been an infinitesimally small part of the fabric of America -- but even if it weren't, voters will recoil when things get too far out of hand [...] this country's in pretty damn good shape, and it has been for the last 25 years I've been alive. and the fact that its institutions are still intact after 200+ years is a testament to the fundamental wisdom of the voters in aggregate over time. this "omg woe is me America sucks and it's [insert party here]'s fault" shit is idiotic, whether it's coming from boonedocks or EarthDogg..."

Haha, fair enough. Let me fix it again.

Quote :

"TGD: Or just stay the course and let the GOP continue ruinning America to the extant that any American politician would be capable of."

[Edited on June 13, 2006 at 12:29 PM. Reason : .]

6/13/2006 12:29:24 PM

what do you mean YOU PEOPLE

6/13/2006 1:03:07 PM