Brilliant Thoughts from Post-Tsunami, Hurricane-Ravaged, Earthquake-Shaken America
Well, at least it must have felt that way is you were a Democrat who just two years ago was being told that you were a permanent majority.
I’m way too tired to write a well-rounded post with a single meaningful theme, and a beginning, middle and end. The Live Event here (in which over 2500 people participated) went on into the early hours of the morning.
So here are my thoughts in semi-random order, to be supplemented as the day goes on:
- There was only one national election last night, and that was for the House of Representatives. While the media is harping on the fact that Republicans picked up “only” 6 seats (maybe more, a couple are not over yet, but likely Democrat)[in the Senate], only 38 seats were up for election. Extrapolate that number, and in a national election Republicans would have picked up 15 or so Senate seats. And the next Senate cycle is looking even worse for the Democrats, as this cycle many of the battles were in deep blue states whereas next time the landscape is not as favorable to Democratic incumbents.
- The Democrats received the feared political decapitation. The Democrats lost, in a single night, two generations of leadership: Numerous members of the old guard, including multiple committee Chairmen, lost, as did dozens of newer members from the 2006-2008 cycles. Because the Tsunami struck in one cycle, there are no young Democratic guns waiting to step into the breach. The Democratic Party in the House is worse than a chicken with its head cut off, it is a chicken with its head and feet cut off.
- The Tea Party movement made this all possible, so disregard the memes that the Tea Party cost the Republicans the Senate. Without the energy and commitment of the Tea Party movement, the Republican Party would remain as moribund and stale as the Democratic Party is today.
- Harry Reid. Surely the disappointment of the night. There is no one more responsible for our current economic mess and the Democrats’ political mess than Reid. He won, so Democrats are happy. Don’t wish too hard for something, you just got it. The poster-child for Democratic Party mischief and malevolence remains on the poster.
- Harry Reid. Don’t kid yourself that Sharron Angle made his win easier. Could Sue Lowden really have stood up to the onslaught by the Reid machine? Nothing against Sue Lowden, but Harry Reid’s team took credit for destroying her in the primary by pushing the “health care for chickens” barter thing and fomenting other attacks. If Lowden could not survive the primary and Reid’s under-the-radar attacks, she would not have survived the general election.
- Mike Castle. Good riddance. Delaware was not the difference as to whether Republicans took the Senate. Non-Tea Partiers Carly Fiorina, John Raese, Linda McMahon and possibly Dino Rossi (still waiting) could not pull it off.
- Mike Castle. Good riddance. If you had manned-up (I just had to use that phrase) and worked to elect Christine O’Donnell, and brought your Delaware Republican machine with you, the results in Delaware may have been different, or at least closer. Since we would not have won the Senate anyway, the elimination of Mike Castle was worth the loss in Delaware.
- Best line of the night. Eric Cantor on MSNBC, with a rather deliberate smirk on his face: “It’s a pleasure to be on MSNBC tonight.”
- Most profound headline: The midterms may have saved a superpower: Americans say no to US decline.
- Best comment by a Live Event participant: “Today is the day the seas began to rise again.”
More to follow ….
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