We got the House and probably the Senate. Ah, the world looks different. And for the kicker, Rumsfeld resigned. Yippee!
Random election thoughts:
- * I shook the ’04 curse. Although to be fair, I was mildly buzzed at most. Maintain baby, maintain.
-
* Anyone who voted for the independent candidate in Virginia is clearly retarded. You knew going in how tight it would be and that you are one of the few battleground states. To simply piss your vote away is unforgiveable. Your punishment is a 3-day lecture from Ralph Nader.
-
* Rick Santorum ended with a classy concession speech. And he has done a lot of good for Pennsylvania. But sorry, you are the very stereotype of a conservative moralizing idealogue. Out you go! Your punishment is having your family picture roundly mocked.
-
* Allen may not challenge the recount. All kinds of funny tricks with voter turnout and suppression went on. If there’s a recount, all that gets investigated. Hmm… losing control of the Senate, but retiring with some dignity and freedom, or barely possibly tying the Senate at a deadlock and going to jail… tough one. My vote is for gallant concession.
-
* You read it here first. There will be turncoat Rebublicans who suddenly become Democrats. Both at the local and national level. There were already hints Chaffee was going to do this, now he is saying it publicly.
To sum up: I’m looking forward to the next two years.
And per my prediction, a GOP state senator in Montana switched parties to give the Dems the advanatge.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/18/us/18montana.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
POLL DATA UNDERCUT MEDIA NOTION THAT “DEMS DIDN’T WIN ELECTION, GOP LOST IT.”
Here’s some strategy as I see it:
* Follow through on the 100-hours initiatives.
* Where possible, find common cause issues to unite with GOP on
* Beef up ethics. Through some Dems to the wolves also to show it’s serious.
* Feel free to be very aggressive on fighting Bush’s policies.
* Use the newfound power to get media access/control, fight the GOP maching
* Redistrict to remove some of the “structural advantage” that the GOP has enjoyed.
That’s my point, it didn;’t work in 02 and 04, b/c for people to vote for a party b/c they dislike the other party so much, it takes a couple of cycles of the same thing. That’s why they need a new strategy so that they can win anytime, not just after six years of corruption.
(And, for the record, Spitzer is actually da bomb-diggity.)
Ah, quit your whining, ya negative Nancy! We won, they lost.
(And you may have noticed, they messed up just as much in 2002 and 2004, and it didn’t help the Dems that much.)
Agreed on Spitzer, he’s da bomb.
Dems still need to come up with a better strategy than “Wait until the GOP fucks up so badly that people will have no choice but to vote for us.” Even though it always works, I still think a more appropriate title to this post would have been “They (GOP) Didn’t do it” rather than “We did it.”
I echo your sentiment on Homophobe Santorum. Also excited about Spitzer, I say he’s the best Governor in the country two years from now.