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It seems like the Dems will be taking both houses of Congress.
Originally posted by Arrian
edit: to Dino. Crossposting...
It would've given the Republicans something to attack, and they're good at attacking. Better than the Dems. That should be fairly clear.
-Arrian
I think the dems just proved that they are superior in the strategy of attack.
"I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you're not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration." - Hillary Clinton, 2003
Happy Nights
Why Democrats won for a change.
By Bruce Reed
Updated Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006, at 12:03 AM ET
Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006
Painkiller: Going into tonight, Democrats had celebrated a grand total of three truly happy Election Nights—1986, 1992, 1996—in the past three decades and three truly miserable ones in this decade alone. So, for Democrats, an election in which we were destined to win back the House and a majority of governorships for the first time in 12 years is more than a good night. It's a new lease on life.
On Election Night six years ago, my long-suffering wife and I stood in the rain in Nashville. I had just broken my shoulder playing touch football, but that was what hurt the least. Two years ago, we stood in the freezing cold in Boston. I'd just lacerated my wrist but had to share all my painkillers with the Kerry-Edwards staff. This year, we skipped the emergency room and spent the evening at the happiest place in town—the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's victory party on Capitol Hill. No painkillers necessary: Democrats were partying like it was 1992.
After six years during which the Democratic Party lost two straight presidential elections it should have won, lost the Senate, and lost ground in the House, tonight's triumph felt like the weight of a giant Rovian albatross finally being lifted off our necks. Democrats are so accustomed to having the football snatched away at the last minute, this year we actually ran a congressional candidate named Charlie Brown—and we still can't believe we finally get to watch the other side kick the dust and mutter, "Good grief."
For a party that had been on such a cold streak, tonight's victory provided clues to two of political life's eternal questions: How come we won this time? And what can we do to make sure it happens again?
In one sense, the answer to the first question is easy: Democrats never had a chance to blow this election because Republicans blew it first. Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel won't thank Bush by name, but they could. The president and his party have dedicated his entire second term to electing a Democratic Congress, from Iraq to Katrina, Schiavo to Miers, Ney to DeLay. It now looks like Bush, not Iraq, is the one who's just a comma—a presidency that was on the brink of failure before 9/11 and in the voters' eyes has now officially found its way back there.
But give Democrats credit. Apart from a foolish summer fling with Ned Lamont and a late Laugh-In cameo from John Kerry, Democrats did just about everything right and ran their best campaign in a decade. Field marshals Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer ignored the virtual industry of self-help nonsense that has paralyzed Democrats' chattering classes and went back to a simple, proven formula: From the suburbs to the heartland, elections are won in the center.
Emanuel and Schumer went out of their way to recruit candidates that could put the party's best face forward in otherwise-hostile territory. Despite pressure from various interests, they refused to impose ideological litmus tests. The result? Democrats did the opposite of what Republicans have been doing (and what losing Democratic campaigns usually do). Instead of shrinking their tent, Democrats made their big tent a lot bigger.
Winners like Heath Shuler of North Carolina, Brad Ellsworth of Indiana, and Gabby Giffords of Arizona are straight out of centrist casting—candidates with broad appeal who have put Democrats back on the map in red districts that the party hasn't won in years. With mainstream Democratic candidates who weren't vulnerable on values and weren't afraid to hit back when attacked, Republican social issues were the wedge that didn't bite.
Against Bob Casey, Rick Santorum spent more than $20 million to lose a swing state by almost 20 points. (Santorum did, however, get one of the biggest cheers of the night at the DCCC party—for his concession speech.)
In fact, the best news of the 2006 elections is the opportunity it gives Democrats to earn the lasting support of the independents and disgruntled Republicans whose votes just dropped in our laps. Tuesday was the death knell for Rovism—the quaint and now fully discredited theory that majorities are built not by expanding support with ideas that work but by mobilizing extreme minorities with ideas that aren't meant to be enacted and wouldn't work if they did.
Ever since watching Rove's success in 2002 and 2004, some on the left and in the blogosphere have been trying to persuade the Democratic Party to follow suit and develop our own smashmouth politics aimed less at persuasion and more at motivating our base. As Lamont discovered, that approach wins primaries—but as Joe Lieberman showed him, that's no match for pragmatic problem solving in a general election.
Today's elections, fought in territory where the Democratic Party needed to expand its reach, showed how many swing voters there are—enough to turn districts, states, and even entire houses of Congress. As Republicans found out the hard way, the elections also proved that parties can't count on any American's vote if they can't solve the country's problems. That's the most important lesson Democrats learned this year: It is better to beat Rove than to join him. ... 11:58 P.M. (link)
"A person cannot approach the divine by reaching beyond the human. To become human, is what this individual person, has been created for.” Martin Buber
Are you a ****ing idiot?! Did you at all read any of the links I provided which proved the Republicans were attempting to supress the vote and block nonwhites from voting? You must either be insane or stupid to have missed that.
Are you a ****ing idiot?! Did you at all read any of the links I provided which proved the Republicans were attempting to supress the vote and block nonwhites from voting? You must either be insane or stupid to have missed that.
Both parties try to depress the vote from their opponents base. Always have.
You are just catching on to that?
"I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you're not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration." - Hillary Clinton, 2003
I think the dems just proved that they are superior in the strategy of attack.
Erm, no. Iraq is a huge, easy target. The Republicans appear able to attack almost anything - important issue or not - and benifit from it. This election they didn't have much to attack, having been the party in power, and had a great big albatross around their necks.
The Dems won because people are angry at the Republicans, simple as that.
Originally posted by Ninot
Oerdin: Indignant since... what, 2004?
It only got this bad in the last year or so. I thought he'd take a God damn chill pill and calm down after Dem gains last night but such is life.
I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio
Erm, no. Iraq is a huge, easy target. The Republicans appear able to attack almost anything - important issue or not - and benifit from it.
Terry Schiavo - Not so much
Eliminate Abortion - Not happening
Social Security Reform - Nada
This election they didn't have much to attack, having been the party in power, and had a great big albatross around their necks.
The Dems won because people are angry at the Republicans, simple as that.
-Arrian
By framing issues of corruption as purely a Republican phenomena
By framing stem cell debates as Republicans unwilling to help those with genetic diseases
By framing Global warming scares as the fault of GOP industrialists
By framing tax cuts for all as helping only the wealthy
By continuing the meme of GOP destroying civil liberties much moreso than any other wartime party evar..
etc.
But no attacks.
"Just puttin on the foil" - Jeff Hanson
“In a democracy, I realize you don’t need to talk to the top leader to know how the country feels. When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that’s the dictator, because he speaks for all the people.” - Jimmy Carter
You misunderstand me, sir. The Dems certainly attacked. I simply maintain that the Republicans remain better at it. Both sides do it, but I think the Republicans are more successful with it.
I wasn't claiming the Dems were all sweetness and light.
The question was why no coherent and well-advertised platform (possibly a-la the "Contract with America" as DD mentioned) and my answer was that it would have presented a target for the Republicans to attack, which would be bad since the Republicans are more skilled at attacking than the Dems. The Dems needed to be the ones on the attack... don't present a target, just talk about the Republican failures and offer vague promises of change. And it worked.
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