It’s come to this
Susan Estrich writes that the people of Nevada should re-elect Harry Reid because of his ability to bring home the bacon. And that’s about the only reason. A more crass and cynical political column I don’t think I’ve ever read.
And in other not-so-great media moments, the WaPo’s David Broder doesn’t believe the projected resounding Republican victory would mean that the country is turning to the right. After all, the House will probably only gain a bare Republican majority, and the Senate is likely to stay in Democratic hands.
Many people predict a greater House turnover than even that, however, which would be of hugely historic proportions. And on the issue of a Senate turnover, Broder seems to conveniently forget that only a third of the Senate is up for re-election in any one year. In 2010, by my admittedly quick calculations, if every single Republican incumbent won re-election (a feat in and of itself), and every single previously and currently Democrat-held seat turned over into Republican hands (a virtually impossible one, even in a tsunami year), the largest number of seats the Republicans could possibly gain would be 19. So gaining even eight or perhaps more, as they are projected to do, would be huge.
Also—have you noticed a lull in the news for the past couple of days? It’s almost as though the nation and even much of the world is holding its collective breath to see what will happen on Tuesday.
Colorado?
Oopsies! Will fix immediately.
All those big ole Western states look alike to me :-).
David Broder probably voted for Waldo.
From the Susan Estrich article on Harry Reid:
After all, government “help” has been very useful in getting the economy going once again. Nevada could use more of that “help.” [More Stimulus money went to Democratic-voting states.]
I was reminded of Ted Kennedy’s campaign slogan in 1962 when he ran for the Senate the first time: ”He can do more for Massachusetts.”
Maybe they should hold a special election in Nevada and elect the Senator most likely to “do more” for his home state. Make Robert Byrd a resident of Nevada, and vote him in. I’m sure that Roberty Byrd would be up to the challenge to “do more” for Nevada, if we asked him.
should re-elect Harry Reid because of his ability to bring home the bacon
That’s what got us in this current spending situation: what can my representatives bring home to me now? Historically, we’ve failed to consider the consequences of that.
Now, not so much. As it was famously said: our chickens are coming home to roooooost.
I’m of two feelings:
I’m happy for the country but disappointed in Californians.
I am in disbelief that Jerry Brown even has a chance let alone that he is ahead in the polls.
Too much pot smoking, sports watching, celebrity stalking, etc going on here.
It’s the same attitude with everyone I know – they don’t like Meg ‘personally’ as if they know Meg. Can’t they understand that she is portrayed by the media in a light that really doesn’t matter – what matters is her policies which are better for Californians…
Jerry has successfully characterized the capital gains tax cut as “FOR RICH PEOPLE” – most people here are dense and don’t realize it’d be good for the private sector…
There are 37 Senate seats being contested in this election. 19 of those are currently held by dems. Most current projections have the repubs gaining 8 of those 19 seats or just over 42%. There is still a possibility the repubs may gain as many as 11 seats. That would be well over 50% of the seats currently held by dems that are in this cycle.
Only an idiot could see anything but disaster for the dems from such an outcome.
Furthermore, as I stated in an earlier post, the NY Times has virtually every demographic except for blacks moving to the repubs in this cycle. There is a real possibility that repubs might have a majority of women voters for the first time since this data was tracked in 1982.
And in 2012, kaba, I believe over twice as many Democratic seats as GOP seats will be up for election. I hope people still will be angry about the last two years.
Right you are OandW. If I’m correct they’ll be 22 dems and 9 repubs plus two supposedly independent seats.
Obama has been campaigning to eliminate the senate filibuster rule. I don’t think he REALLY wants that given the likely result.
She is a feminist, feminists are first progressives, and progressives are communists, and so she supports statism as a way to impose feminist orthodoxy, and voila…
a paper that totally pushed the only thing they push, and not any alternative, as there is no alternative to totalitarianism… is there?
This type of statement infuriates me.
It equates to: “Reid can do a lot more for the people of Nevada by hosing the people of the rest of the country.”
Me too, but I’m not disappointed in Californians — I’m suicidal. How could anyone with an opposable thumb possibly consider that Jerry Brown 1.01 would be less of a disaster than Jerry Brown 1.0? He’s the moron who championed legalization of unions for public sector employees, i.e., the architect of our present catastrophe.
Apart from that, he’s a great candidate.
I want a senator that drives himself in a Ford Taurus and can look me in the eye and say “Sir i wont be offering you a damn thing from Washington”.
As a California resident, it’s a bummer to see Boxer even close and Jerry ahead. I don’t think Boxer will win, but how can one explain Jerry? Is it just something unattractive about Meg?
Frankly, I hope Californians suffer quite a bit more. Followed by Oregon and Washington. To the point where the distaste for liberal politics will be like vomit in the mouth.
Beelzebub before Boxer OR Brown.
California was always said to have been on the cutting edge in America’s direction. The problem being, that was also true of its slide into malignant liberalism. Which explains the state being much farther along in the disease process.
Re California and the blue states: When the train is going off the track, you want to be in the caboose.
Did you read the Stanley Kurz interview at NRO.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/251245/radical-white-house-interview
He thinks Obama has strategic plans to use a Repub win. He gets into this on pages 4 and 5 f the article.
Judging by the high unemployment in Nevada, and the massive National Debt, that “bacon” now-a-days looks like rotted roadkill.
Expat, the Stanley Kurtz article is awesome. His book is going to be a must read. And how about the solution which Kurtz presents; namely, that “simply exposing the president’s lack of frankness about his political past and present could do more than anything to deplete his public appeal.”
This must be the latest meme for Nevada Democrats. Here’s a status message posted this morning on Facebook: “Nevada! Vote for Harry Reid for your own good. He is very powerful and brings it all back to Nevada. Racist Sharon Angle would be a lowly Freshman, which means nothing for you.”
Notice how neatly this collapses several fundamental Democratic beliefs into a few words: that citizens should vote according to what’s in it for them, rather than what’s good for the nation (but remember, it’s Republicans who are greedy); that the ideal political leader is the one who’s best at looting that great big candy store in Washington D.C. and “bringing it home” to buy votes (but it’s Republicans who are corrupt) and that the word “racist” is the best way to express disagreement with a political opponent (and of course, Republicans are all racist — even when you’re defending the unlovely Harry Reid, who complimented Obama for being “light-skinned” and having “no Negro dialect,” and who remarked, “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican.” )
Also, notice the shamelessness — it does not seem to have occurred to this person that, possibly, Senators should not be chosen for such reasons or, at least, that those who have such reasons for choosing them should not admit it out loud.
Broder has not gotten over the “Kennedy Seat” being occupied by Scott Brown.
May he now add the loss of the “Frank Seat” to his funk.
The Estrich column may be crass and cynical, but that’s precisely what motivated some of Nevada’s establishment Republicans to endorse Reid over Angle. Some of them just don’t like Angle because she’s not part of their club–she’s decidedly middle-class, she’s a southern Baptist, she’s not an attorney or a lobbyist, and she could be something of a fringe figure during her years in the state assembly. So they have endorsed Reid because he’s more like them, and also because he has the potential to bring home more pork, which will make it easier for them to fund their pet projects, regardless of whether or not any of it will do anything to help Nevada’s troubled economy.
SteveH is correct: CA leads the way! Be that in politics, economy, environmentalism, entertainment, or ethics and morality, CA leads the way. Thus did the disgruntled Pied Piper of Hameln lead the way for the town’s children….
“Also–have you noticed a lull in the news for the past couple of days? It’s almost as though the nation and even much of the world is holding its collective breath to see what will happen on Tuesday.”
[singing]
… The world in silent stillness lay,
to hear Electors sing …
[/singing]