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Morning Joe: Georgia Election “Unmitigated Disaster” for Dems

Morning Joe: Georgia Election “Unmitigated Disaster” for Dems

“This was a winner take all and it was a huge win for Republicans and a big loss for Democrats”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOssmq8iZZo

If Dems were smart, they’d watch and learn from the opening segment of today’s Morning Joe.

In his item of last night, Prof. Jacobson noted how Dems were taking the wrong lesson from the election, claiming that a close loss was a win. The message from Morning Joe was starkly different.

As Mark Halperin put it this morning, this was an “unmitigated disaster” for the Dems.

Joe Scarborough said that “all the chips were pushed to the middle of the table here. This was a winner take all and it was a huge win for Republicans and a big loss for Democrats.”

In analyzing the loss, the panel pointed to the failure of Dems to nominate candidates who reflect the district.

Joe once again broke out his line about Ossoff looking like a walk-on in the movie “Reds,” about American Communists during the Russian Revolution. But Halperin made the point that party leaders don’t control the process. They might want to choose more moderate candidates, but in the primaries, the very liberal base of the party will tend to nominate one of its own.

Joe and Mika had another warning for Dems: participating in marches, being out there singing and chanting with people who agree with you, might make you feel good, but it’s the hard work of knocking on doors and listening to others that wins elections.

Note: I’d call attention to the very beginning of the clip, where we hear Ossoff in his concession speech.

After months of claiming to be a centrist, of saying the election was not about Trump, etc., Ossoff revealed his true colors, claiming in apocalyptic terms that “darkness has kept across this planet  . . . at a time when politics has been dominated by fear and hatred and scapegoating and division.”

I have a feeling that the voters in Georgia saw through Ossoff’s claims of moderation, and understood that he was indeed the Nancy Pelosi liberal that Handel depicted him to be.

And is it just me, or can one hear some of Barack Obama’s cadences in Ossoff’s speech?

JON OSSOFF: The more than 12,000 of you who, as darkness has kept across this planet, have provided a beacon of hope for people here in Georgia, for people across the country, and for people around the world . . . At a time when politics has been dominated by fear and hatred and scapegoating and division, this community stood up, women in this community stood up.
[ Cheers and applause ]

. . .

JOE SCARBOROUGH: All the chips were pushed to the middle of the table here. This was a winner-take-all and it was a huge win for Republicans and a big loss for Democrats . . . If you have a young guy like that without a family, he’s not been in the community, he doesn’t live in the community, he doesn’t teach Sunday school or go to the synagogue every Saturday. If he doesn’t coach baseball, if they don’t know who he is, then it’s a lot easier to stick a picture of Nancy Pelosi next to Jon Ossoff and say, oh, if you’re voting for this guy, you’re voting for Nancy Pelosi.

If you get a guy or a woman that’s from the district, that people have seen in worship services for 30 years, that know their families, they’re at the PTA, you know, you get a guy who is a banker, a small community bank that talks, oh, come on now, Jim, you know me, I’m going to represent you, I’m not going to represent that Nancy Pelosi. You know, not even trying to be funny here, it just the truth. And I think that’s one of the Democrats’ biggest challenges coming off the last night.

. . .

MARK HALPERIN: It’s an unmitigated disaster for the Democrats who are about an eighth of the way through Donald Trump’s term. We’re an eighth of the way through and to paraphrase Pauline Kale, most of the people in the liberal wing of the party think of course Donald Trump is a disaster, everyone in the country hates him, of course everything is going to be a referendum on him.

This, there is not a perfect test. I don’t think Ossoff was that bad a candidate. I take your point about not being a perfect fit for the district. But it is one of the most educated districts in the country. And he wasn’t running against the best political athlete of all time in the new congresswoman-elect.

The reason I think this is such a disaster for Democrats is they put everything in, as you said. This was a race that they could have won and they came up short. And you talk about candidate recruitment. Could they have recruited a better candidate than Ossoff? The problem is, it’s easy to say if you’ve got a strong party, we’re going to recruit candidates to match the districts.

But the liberal wing of the party is ascendant. And so in a lot of the primaries that are coming up that will determine who their nominees are, they can’t recruit, and be sure they’re going to get nominees who are the perfect fit.

. . .

JOE: Marching in the streets, great pictures, makes you look good.

MIKA: Exactly.

JOE: Does not win elections.

MIKA: Well here’s what I said to one of my best friends who took part in the Women’s March. And it’s to your point. They’re great, you’re shouting in the street, you’re chanting and you’re singing with people who agree with you. So going out and knocking on doors, as you talked about, gets you listening.

And we’re seeing the same problem that we’ve seen all along, the same problem we saw when we had the second-in-command of the DNC [Keith Ellison] on the show, who just seemed to be going off and spouting, come on, men, we’re good, we’re going to be good, we’re good.

No! What’s the message? What is going to bring people in. I think, Willie, the mistake that Democrats make is to think the president is at 36%, there are some obvious problems with the Republican party and his presidency. Of course people are going to come to us! No. We’re not inevitable. This isn’t ours: we have to work for it!

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Comments

Im just gonna sit here and enjoy a deliciously wonderful day…hahahahahahahhahahahaha!!

buckeyeminuteman | June 21, 2017 at 8:29 am

It seems the only thing Dems can win at is baseball. And even then only after they take out their opponents before the game.

What is this, 1,004 losses in a row now? Face it Democrats, nobody wants you.

The Commie Libs thought it would be about Trump. Instead it is still about them.

It doesn’t matter how moderate the candidate is…or seems. They will follow the direction on Democrat leadership and DNC. Think of Schumer, Pelosi, Perez… theses are the voices and ideology of the Democrat party. We would all do well to remember that.

    Just take a look at Tim Kaine, the anti-abortion Senator from Virginia.
    Hillary called and he gave up his anti-abortion stance in a minute.
    It was all posturing.

casualobserver | June 21, 2017 at 8:47 am

Maybe the media made this more about Trump. For a lot of outlets, the more frequently his name is uttered or written the more viewers and readers they get. I’m told by someone in the district that after primaries there wasn’t much mention or focus on Trump. It was only a media obsession.

I sit here amazed that a National Party would push this one single election, for a House Seat!!!, as a referendum against Trump in the first place. Its an open seat in the House, it would barely move the bar, yet the leftists, who poured millions into this race from outside the state, were acting as if this would shift the power from the GOP to the Democrats. And the left are still making out as if this loss was a win because it was close. It shows there is a mentally unbalanced mindset that the Democrats and the Media have. They are driven by the hate they claim to be opposed to. Their masks are being ripped off, and people are seeing the left is unhinged.

    Whitewall in reply to oldgoat36. | June 21, 2017 at 9:13 am

    The Dems are barely a proper American political party right now. They are insurrectionists going about “resistance” as if that is noble. It isn’t. They have more in common with the losing side in a Honduran election or somewhere like that.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to oldgoat36. | June 21, 2017 at 2:57 pm

    Did you see where Limbaugh pronounced the “Democrat Party” the world’s largest HATE GROUP yesterday?

What Election? The Russians Did It.

Ossof came in second, Handel next to last.
Handel should have won by more as this is a red district so Trump is a loser.

Down is up Up is down Russia Russia Russia

[OH, and Trump is above 50% … sucka’s ]

The Democratic party is now Monty Python-esque. You lose but win.

smalltownoklahoman | June 21, 2017 at 9:11 am

I can’t help but wonder if Ossof might have fared better if so much outside money and pressure hadn’t been poured into his campaign. As has been pointed out before this was a special election to replace a Congressional representative. These elections don’t normally receive this much attention and typically have lower turnouts. However this time with such a hyper focus thanks in large part to the media eager for any AntiTrump victory to crow about I think there was at least some backlash from the people in the district against it all. Nobody likes living under a microscope and when a choice is supposed to be yours nobody likes having it made for them. I believe with all the media attention and outside money pouring in that a lot of people living in that district felt like people outside their district were trying desperately to make their choice for them. I can see where a lot of people voted for Handell not just because they liked her more but also as a means of flipping the bird right back at all of these outside forces that were concentrating on the election.

    I agree 100%; some percentage of that vote was based in resentment for the swarm of Hollywood/Bay area locusts imported from my home state. I think if you were to ask GA06 to kick California out of the union, it would be a landslide.

    …when a choice is supposed to be yours nobody likes having it Made for them.

    Perhaps it is moreso that nobody likes having it Taken from them.

    This thinking may pertain to the Ossoff election as well as to those who voted for Donald Trump. The feeling that the Democrats, the media, and the GOPe do not have to right to Take their choice from them.

… poor thing, back to his girlfriends apartment to sulk while she goes to school.. he was the poster boy of the left… aka panzy… with apologies to pansies

    Grandpa in reply to jmt9455. | June 21, 2017 at 10:00 am

    Pajama Boy is living unmarried to a gal who supports him. He has no visible means of earning an income. He doesn’t live in the district and can’t vote there.

    Could the dims found a better candidate by pulling a random name from a phone book?

    Old0311 in reply to jmt9455. | June 21, 2017 at 11:03 am

    He does look a bit like the chicken necked nancy boy from Kenya. I bet Handel could beat him 10 out of 10 at arm wrestling too.

I think you have to give the Georgia voters a ton of credit here. Democratic donors, almost all out of state, showered the district with anti-Trump ads. Then on top of those millions, add the constant media anti-Trump messaging that passes as news, and you’d think that the only way a voter would choose a Republican would be if they had been in a coma for a year or so.

Yet the Republicans raised the same question that every smart voter did – i.e. where do you think all of this Democratic campaign money is coming from? And when it became obvious to every voter that the Democrats were trying to buy the election with advertising or steal it with bad press and stuff another Obamacare / open borders rep in the House in their name, they said turn around and go back the way you came. Good for them.

In 2003 former US Senator Zell Miller (D) released the book, “A National Party No More”. Almost fifteen years later not a single Democrat at the DNC or with any of the satellite groups that orbit them have read or heeded what Sen. Miller tried to say.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to WillS68. | June 21, 2017 at 3:04 pm

    Thanks for the tip.

    A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat

    “With the growl of the Marine sergeant he was, Senator Zell Miller leaves no doubt that he believes his own Democratic Party is badly out of step with most of the country and needs to shape up or ship out. As part of a stinging critique of the Democratic Party…”

    Amazon

They still haven’t come around to the realization that the true “unmitigated disaster” for their party was re-electing Barack Obama.

They’re getting warmer, but they still haven’t figured it out.

After predicting a momentous win for the Dem and a “referendum on Trump” the day before, Huffington Post could only manage two articles on their home page and one was title: “Another Narrow Loss Shows Why the GOP Could Be In Trouble”???? Give Ossoff, Pelosi and the Dem establishment a participation trophy. The other article was pretty balanced except they felt compelled to point to the assassination attempt on the Republicans in D.C. as a possible turning point. When the polls were close I knew Handel would win handily. The polls don’t work anymore. A couple weeks ago they had Ossoff winning by 7 and he lost by 6. i call that a 13 point swing and a devastating loss no matter how much lipstick HuffPo puts on it.

    Granny in reply to DanJ1. | June 21, 2017 at 11:19 am

    Losing by 1000 votes or 1% is a narrow lose. Losing by 6 means the other guy got a pretty good win.

The last line of your transcription has Mika saying, “This is an arse [sic], we have to work for it.” I see the joke, but for the record, she said, “This isn’t ours, we have to work for it.”

    Mark Finkelstein in reply to melanerpes. | June 21, 2017 at 10:56 am

    Thanks for the correction. I didn’t mean it as a joke: my ears just aren’t the greatest and that’s what I heard. But now, with your help, I’ve gone back and listened again and you are absolutely right. I’ll make the change!

kenoshamarge | June 21, 2017 at 11:31 am

As John Daniel Davidson over at the Federalist said, Ossoff is the Wendy Davis of 2017. Throwing blue state money into a red state isn’t a good idea – people tend to resent that.

Having read that Joe Biden is the favored choice for 2020 I wonder if the left simply cannot find good younger candidates.

The left and the media laughed at the huge field the GOP had in 2016 – maybe they should look around and get rid of the retreads.

Trump was the oldest of the bunch but he wasn’t a retread.

    Rs have a huge advantage in the coming years since good, young people are gaining experience in city and state offices. Once you have that experience, then moving up to the higher state and federal offices is easier. Better resume growth….

I live outside the US, in a city that receives a modest flow of tourists from the US. One of them, a retired university professor who just arrived here yesterday on a tour, was telling me this morning that the Republicans are well on their way to losing big in the mid-term elections. Also, that “more and more keeps coming out about Trump”, who will either resign or be impeached within a year.

We shall see, what we shall see. But methinks the Prof has been getting his news from a source that’s even more delusional than the MSNBC talking heads.

    Tom Servo in reply to moonmoth. | June 21, 2017 at 12:59 pm

    I’d bet good money that this professor you mention was one of those who devoutly believed that Hildabeast had a 97% chance of winning last November.

    And his current beliefs are an extension of his inability to accept the fact that he was wrong. He and democrats like him already have the delusional beliefs; they watch outlets like CNN and MSNBC just for the emotional reinforcement they feel when someone officially attempts to create a supportive public framework for what is simply their private lunacy.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to moonmoth. | June 21, 2017 at 3:07 pm

    Moonmoth, that was NO professor. That was an Ass.

    As in Democrat Party ass……..

Democrats, most Republicans, and virtually all press pundits take completely wrong lessons from GA6. The race was won because of Trump. The race was closer than prior elections in that district because of Trump.

They fail to notice how the Handel room of supporters broke out in large and loud cheers of Trump, Trump, Trump when she thanked the President for his tweet support. The loudest cheers by FAR from her audience. Compare the volume and enthusiasm of the Trump cheers to the much more restrained applause for Pence when she thanked the VP for his support.

Handel won this election because Trump supporters in the GOP are greater in numbers than realized and are more enthusiastic and engaged than any other group.

Handel has run several times for state office in Georgia. She only won once about 15 or so years ago. She is not a great candidate. But she won this time BECAUSE OF TRUMP.

Trump has gained in popularity in the district and the country, outside of the liberal coastal elites, since the election. This despite the universal daily drumbeat of lies and slanders against him.

Republicans would do well to learn Handel won this race because of Trump and his policies and his supporters.

    Paul in reply to garybritt. | June 21, 2017 at 1:12 pm

    “This despite the universal daily drumbeat of lies and slanders against him.” I would argue it is largely BECAUSE of the daily drumbeat.

    People are just sick and tired of the lying elite/media liars in DC, NY, CA, etc. We watched them prostrate themselves at the feet of King Barack for eight years, ignoring the litany of illegal activity and corruption, now they are throwing lie after lie after lie against the wall, anything to take Trump down. It’s disgusting, and people are at the point where they’ll do the exact opposite of what the press says just for the sake of spiting them.

    Michael Moore got it right just prior to the election… electing Trump was/is the “biggest F*ck You!” in the history of the world.

    PhillyGuy in reply to garybritt. | June 21, 2017 at 2:07 pm

    Absolutely Gary. Without the President, she would have lost. MAGA wins elections. She is a RINO – an absolutely terrible candidate. But she served her purpose, she beat Ossoff, now she can slink back into obscurity. Sigh…another useful idiot in Congress.

With all the money that poured into this campaign, you would think that someone would have advised him to get an apartment in the district. That would have eliminated one criticism.

Instead, it was a small point that along with the outside money and voices probably made many people think that this guy was never going to be for them.

And the constant barrage of the calls, visitors, ads,and postcards also turned people off of his candidacy.

During one state senate election, I saved all the flyers. One person always had the same message, until he went negative. The guy who won had fewer flyers but they were all different, informative, positive. It also helped that he and his wife visited on every house and left personal notes at the door. The candidate also called me back when I left a voice mail. I was impressed that he actually listened to my concerns and had good answers for the issues, even the one issue that was not mentioned very much (land restoration when all those wind turbines crash and the companies are bankrupt).

Republicans would also do well to understand that the base if the GOP continues to support GOP candidates SOLELY TO HELP TRUMP. Without Trump in the whitehouse I and a majority of Trump supporters would have no problem helping many Republicans in congress LOSE so they could be purged from the GOP. We would gladly do this even if it meant turning over congress to the dems. They need to understand the Trump base only turns out to vote for these GOP lame’Os in ORDER TO PROTECT TRUMP from dems. When Trump is gone so will be the congressional slugs of the GOP.

Mika: [T]he mistake that Democrats make is to think the president is at 36%, there are some obvious problems with the Republican party and his presidency. Of course people are going to come to us! No. We’re not inevitable. This isn’t ours: we have to work for it!

The Socialist Party of the United States will soon be showing up to confiscate Mika’s membership card.

No entitlement? Having to [gasp!] work to get a win? That’s 100% pure wrongthink, unbefitting a member of The Party.

The Democrats recruited Blue Dogs in the South telling them they could be independent in 2006 and 2008 and those candidates and their voters found out otherwise with Obamacare. Joe’s strategy of recruiting moderate Democrats ignores they can’t recruit a bank president now because of of they treated bank president that ran as Democrats in 2008.

one might say that Ossoff’s use of Obama cadence and dramatic vistas was “cultural appropriation”.

I love that 1st still shot above. It appears Mika is busy digging an ingrown hair out of her face-wart.

Scarby is such an idiot. He said it’s a huge victory for republicans. He cannot bring himself to admit this was a YUGE victory for Trump, as the msm tried in vain to make this a referendum on Trump’s popularity.

Mika said, “So going out and knocking on doors, as you talked about, gets you listening”.

Except that they don’t knock on doors to listen so therefore they never hear.

Maybe they just don’t want to hear? Look at the crew now running the DNC. They have no intention of listening, ever.

    Kid Glock in reply to Y2K. | June 21, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    Exactly. Why should they knock? If it’s a reply they don’t like they’ll ignore it anyway.

Perhaps Jon can run for an MP spot in Canada. He has the same residency credentials that he had for GA 6.

Eastwood Ravine | June 21, 2017 at 9:12 pm

“And is it just me, or can one hear some of Barack Obama’s cadences in Ossoff’s speech?”

Unfortunately, it’s not just you. It was one of the worst Obama impersonations, but we could still tell he was mimicking The Big Zero.