What a night. Two big wins in NY-09 and NV-02.
Quote of the night: “It’s a very difficult district for Democrats,” said Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, noting its Democratic margins there tend to be the second lowest of all the districts in New York City.
Well yes, if you define “difficult” as having a 3-1 registration advantage, being held by Democrats since the 1920s, being the seat formerly held by Geraldine Ferraro and Chuck Schumer, and being in New York City. With odds like that, the Democrat didn’t stand a chance.
Actually, the race turned out to be more of a national referendum than expected, as Democrats poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the district in the end to try to salvage the race, and mounted a “ground operation” with over 1000 people in a GOTV effort.
In a time of rising pressure, with the Turkish buffoon trotting around the globe making threats, with thugs having ransacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo, with Palestinians pushing for a state with borders that are indefensible for Israel, with Israel seemingly isolated in a sea of despair, the people of NY-09 answered the call and sent a message to Washington and the world.
Your thoughts?
Update: From Bob Turner’s victory speech in NY-09:
We have lit one candle today. It’s going to be a bonfire pretty soon. We’ve been asked by the people of this district to send a message to Washington — and I hope they hear it loud and clear: Mr. President, we are on the wrong track. We’ve had it with your irresponsible fiscal policy which endangers the entire economy and every one of our social safety nets. We have had it with your treatment of Israel… We are unhappy. I am the messenger. Heed us.
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Comments
Weprin was hanging on to Weiner’s weiner.
I wonder if Carney will stick to the same delusional spin as Wasserman-Shultz or come up with something more imaginative?
I suspect that there are a number of Dem Party members who are secretly happy to see this result, as they are aware that if Obama doesn’t drastically change directions and soon, they’re finished along with him in ’12. Personally, I think its too late for the whole sorry lot of them. NY last night was simply the headwinds of the shitstorm that’s coming.
Woo-hoo! Thanks for the coverage, Professor, and for the pointer for donations. Since I can’t afford to donate to everyone who wants it, I appreciate people like you whom I respect giving me recommendations. Money well spent. 😀
I think the key thing left to success in 2012 is entitlement reform. If the SuperCommittee or Dems get any kind of even minor entitlement reform through it will take their last issue away. As opposed to helping Obama pivot to the center, it will destroy the only issue left that they can demagogue successfully.
I could be wrong … but I think that is the straw they are clutching too. Otherwise, look to Dems to pivot against Obama to save their own skins soon, and that will limit their losses.
Let’s also hope in the pursuit of wonderful victories like this one we take some time out to primary a few of our own as a reminder.
http://www.redstate.com/russvought/2011/09/13/house-republicans-ram-highway-bill-through-without-a-vote/
Anything is better than Obama and the Dems we have in place now. But let’s not settle for a little bit better … I’m ok if guys like Turner aren’t as reliably conservative as we would like given the D+5. But we still need more backbone in the House.
That’s hilarious! I don’t recall the exact numbers, but as I recall the 3-1 registration advantage isn’t the half of it. I’m pretty sure NY-9 has more registered Democrats than Republicans and Independents combined. It’s something like 59D/12R/29I. Even Massachusetts is less lopsided.
For a Democrat to lose in NY-9, most registered Democrats who voted have to have voted against him.
What Debbie said, of course, was the truth. She just didn’t tell the complete story.
It is a very difficult district for what the Democratic Party has become in the age of Pelosi and Obama.
So exactly why should I disbelieve Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz ?
When a district that has given Democrats less than 60% for the past couple of decades goes Republican, every district is now a “very difficult district for Democrats.”
Obama is about to unleash the great political paradigm shift in living memory.
I think this is a symbolic catastrophe for Democrats, and Obama specifically.
The probability that Obama gets primaried, while still small, just went up.
“When a district that has given Democrats less than 60% for the past couple of decades goes Republican, every district is now a “very difficult district for Democrats.”
I think all of America is becoming one big district.
I loved Turner’s comments. “We are unhappy. I am the messenger. Heed us.”
Since the president is a radical idealogue who is smarter than everyone else and knows what the American people truly want, he probably won’t heed the messenger. Let us hope that the rest of the country does.
“It’s a very difficult district for Democrats,” said Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz …
You can put lipstick on a pig, but if the mud hole is too muddy, she’ll just wipe it off along with the mascara and curl up in a fetal position of denial clutching a big, overstuffed pillow on a clean couch instead (after giving her head-spinning spin).
Maureen Dowd very recently wrote a column which might be considered a bit of a warm-up for what we can expect to hear from her after this victory in New York . . . New York City, to be more precise!
Think about that for just a second. This one was a direct hit on the home of the New York Times. This was a an open breach, folks, a willy-nilly torching of the firewall. It literally burst into flames!
Dowd’s recent column, in which she accused the President of having had periods of “lying doggo”, noted that while the tone of his jobs speech was certainly an improvement (“WOW, what a relief.”), she also openly questioned, going forward, which Barack Obama we would be more likely to witness:
“Do we get Energizer Barry or Enervating Barry?”
I think the much more interesting question right now is, which Maureen Dowd will we see after this humiliating defeat in New York City?
Will it be a kind of skinny Ed Schultz in drag, teeth bared and foaming over?
Will she finally go after Barry and openly suggest that the time has finally come for someone, or some thing, to seriously primary the guy?
Or, will she defend him with “tough love” and just offer more pointed advice on how to this time set up a non-flammable firewall for 2012?
Now that most anyone with any sense recognizes that Enron Paul Krugman has flipped his lid for good, she will be desperately groping into the quiver for something or some way to pierce the veil of group-thinkers around Barry, and seize the attention of larboard-leaners everywhere.
Grab your popcorn, folks. I think were in for some real entertainment!
Bob Turner’s victory speech in NY-09: Hear, Hear!
Great comment from Turner. We can curse the darkness that Obama, Pelosi, etc., have brought upon us, or we can light a candle. Light a Candle 2012!
[…] from one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but seems apt in light of a quote from Bob Turner, winner of NY-09′s special congressional election last night: We have lit one candle today. It’s going to be a bonfire pretty […]
“(Jews) feel they want to protect their wealth, which is why a lot of well-off voters vote for Republicans.”
Henry Waxman (D) US Congress
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/181073-dems-peril-in-ny-seat-sparks-fear-for-nov-12
Aw, poor David. For the first time in his life he had to (sort of) work for an election, having been groomed and hand selected to carry on the family business- politics.
I’m a Queens resident and it is heartening to see voters used their heads for once. Weprin’s luck ran out, or maybe it was the widespread general realization that his name is synonymous with ‘democratic hack’. When it’s too much for even Ed Koch, Queens residents knew Turner would win.
[…] Professor Jacobson laughs at DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s asinine assertion that it was “difficult” for Democrats to hold Anthony Weiner’s old NY seat: Well yes, if you define “difficult” as having a 3-1 registration advantage, being held by Democrats since the 1920s, being the seat formerly held by Geraldine Ferraro and Chuck Schumer, and being in New York City. With odds like that, the Democrat didn’t stand a chance. […]