Democrats ecstatic at Bush not kicking their ass
Kinda funny how maintaining the status quo is viewed as signaling trouble for Bush. I guess given how the 2002 and 2004 elections were quite the ass-whippin’ for folks with Ds after their names, some would view it as a good thing. But, as Dave says:
So let me see if I understand this correctly. New Jersey and Virginia remain as before. California shows itself to be just as liberal in 2005 as in 2004. Texas proves just how conservative it really is. And San Francisco is still the liberal enclave of the West Coast.
So we’re left with the status quo. And this is a cause for Democratic glee? Talk about lowering the bar.
November 9th, 2005 at 5:39 pm
Good point. My first reaction to watching three much-needed reform bills (union extortion control, state budget control and legislative redistricting) and two pretty good ones (parental notification on abortion & 5-year teacher tenure) fail. My second is to notice that in the end, California is no worse off than it was yesterday; it’s just not any better, either.
November 9th, 2005 at 6:05 pm
I think the NY Post summed it up nicely:
“Now, it’s true that George W. Bush won Virginia by 8 percentage points in 2004, while Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore appears to have lost by 5 points. But if you think Kilgore’s loss reflects Bush’s weakness and a nightmare for the GOP in 2006, consider this:
“Bush won Virginia by eight points in 2000, too–and the following year Democrat Mark Warner became governor with a 5-point margin of victory. The next year, in 2002, Republicans won a stunning midterm victory, taking four Senate seats and expanding their majority in the House of Representatives. . . .”
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/57065.htm
November 9th, 2005 at 6:19 pm
Here’s an article that digs a little deeper into the Virginia results. According to Kos, the Democrats also gained in the Virginia Assembly. Beyond that, a Republican won the Lt. Gov race and the AG race is too close to call. All-in-all, I don’t think its all that meaningful to 2006.
On the other hand, the California results deal a blow to Arnold as he’s constantly threatened to go directly to the voters has won him concessions in the past. Its likely that he won’t be able to play that card again.
November 9th, 2005 at 9:08 pm
should that be “ass” or “asses”?
November 9th, 2005 at 9:22 pm
ass = donkey = democrat.
Besides, they’re sort of into this ‘collective’ nonsense.
November 10th, 2005 at 12:48 am
“Democrats ecstatic at Bush not kicking their ass”
Hey, you’ve got to crawl before you can walk, right?
In the Virginia governor’s race, what’s more important is not who won but how he won. He successfully deflected the sort of culture war attacks the Rs have been using to win elections for some time now — and he did it not by shying away from them but by standing up to them. Further, for the first time in recent memory, a mostly positive campaign defeated a bitterly negative one.
November 10th, 2005 at 3:27 am
Good point. The more I think about it, the fact that a guy named “Kill Gore” couldn’t get himself elected in Virginia may mean the Repubs are in deep doo doo after all.
November 10th, 2005 at 1:36 pm
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2005/11/get_yer_gop_tal.html#more
GOP talking points. “Status quo” is one of the first.
November 10th, 2005 at 1:39 pm
Wow! That was posted at 6pm. Mine, at about 3:30ish. I confess, I write their talking points now.
Say, isn’t parroting this huge victory that isn’t also, what’s the phrase, where, you know, you get a whole group of like-minded folks with an agenda to repeat the same thing. It’s on the tip of my tongue. 😉
November 10th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
I agree. This election was pretty much a wash.
How do I know? The MainStreamMedia have pretty much stopped talking about it.