1 STOP. LISTENING. TO. DICK. MORRIS. He was wrong because he was just pulling stuff out of his ass in order to get on talk shows. That's not useful and we shouldn't encourage him by listening to his drivel.

2 Bah. Sockoff.

3

Which is why we need to ditch Steele at the RNC.  How can you skip the 72 hour plan?  (oh yeah, because you don't have money because no one wants to contribute to an organization headed by a spendthrift moron).

Barbour and the NGA picked up some of the slack.  But guess what - very few governer's races in 2012.

4 Perhaps the Tea Party could stay the hell out of WA state next go around mkay.

5 There's a lot of that funny "counting" going on, too. Seems to always favor the Dems. The apparatus is still in place. We need ID's and voter rolls purged.

6 >>>STOP. LISTENING. TO. DICK. MORRIS. He was wrong because he was just pulling stuff out of his ass in order to get on talk shows. That's not useful and we shouldn't encourage him by listening to his drivel. I don't think so. The numbers were the numbers. Gallup's numbers were eye-popping at the end, and, as Jay Cost noted, gallup had an *extraordinarily* good track record of predicting vote-share in midterms. But, alas, the incorrect assumption that the remaining undecided voters would either stay home and not vote or split, more or less, between the parties. That last assumption shouldn't have been made. that said, Morris wasn't that far off. His efforts to elect 100 new Republicans didn't mean he was PREDICTING such a sweep. I applaud those efforts. I don't know what his final prediction was. I'm not sure he actually made one. I would imagine he was on the high side of like 75 or so -- which is not that far off. Many people were further off on the low side.

7 >>>Which is why we need to ditch Steele at the RNC. How can you skip the 72 hour plan? (oh yeah, because you don't have money because no one wants to contribute to an organization headed by a spendthrift moron). They skipped the 72 hour plan?!?! What is your source? I had not heard this.

8 meh I dunno. Dems LOST the union rank and file vote this time. Per the exit polling posted here a ways back.

GOP didnt fund the 72 hr GOTV foot brigades per RedState

THATS a HUGE problem

Dems lost Seniors, union workers, lost ground with women, Catholics, Hispanics

if the GOP shows some True Grit we are in nice shape for 12 esp with Pelosi, Reid and Obummer contnuing their failed policies

but pls cont appoint the light bulb banner to energy cmte, that kind of thing will not fly IMO. again from RedState

Ill be there to fight for the votes in 12!

9 Well, it also helps that their GOTV efforts are simply voting fraud masquerading as GOTV.  An example in MA from Big Govt. 

10 I predict an ocean liner, the QE2, will have a very strong effect on turnout in 2012.

11 I'm not so sure the "enthusiasm gap" was as big as we all believed in the first place.  As some have mentioned, phone polls are becoming less reliable as more people move to the cell-only lifestyle.  As a part of that, lefty hipsters are kind of leading that pack.

I don't doubt there was an enthusiasm gap, I'm just not convinced it was ever as big as people thought.

As far as Dick Morris goes, doesn't he basically get pimped on Hannity and Fox News because he's a former Democrat?  Isn't that something like what the Left does when a Republican goes liberal (and for the same reason)?  I'm not terribly concerned by what he has to say.

He does try to get out and actually do things, which I appreciate, but he seems to get far more air time than he really deserves.

12 Posted by: ace at November 10, 2010 11:32 AM (nj1bB)

Where have you been, Ace?  I've seen comments to that effect here a couple of times, and I think there was a link to the same thing in the Side Bar either late last week or just in the last couple of days.

Apparently they decided to focus on Mailers and Robo-calls instead of actual Street Canvasing (which works far better than either of the other two) in the last 72 hours.

13 I'm beginning to think that universal suffrage is not all it was cracked up to be.

14 I don't doubt there was an enthusiasm gap, I'm just not convinced it was ever as big as people thought.

I guess another way to look at is that there was a lot of determination to try to stop Obama and his agenda, but determination to stop something bad is not really as powerful as enthusiasm to do something good.  On an off-year election like this one, there was no one face of the Republican party (naturally), so Republican voters (or Indies voting R) had to be motivated in different ways to get out and vote.   Not as easy a task as rallying everyone behind a presidential candidate. 

15 Gee, what happened to all the support from Hillbuzz? 

Voted ID has to be a requirement.  Sadly, the Reps will not push this.

16

Great New Guys

Mark Kirk will not be seated immediately. The state of Illinois needs more time to certify the election and do paper work.

17 He shoulda stuck with the 9-Lives commercials.

18 Posted by: Nighthawk at November 10, 2010 11:36 AM (02uN6)

Talk about a third rail... but correct.

There's a reason that only "Land Owners" were originally allowed to vote, and it had nothing (or, mostly nothing) to do with any form of repression.

The magic of turning 18 (or even 21) does not mean you're paying enough attention to be allowed to have a say in what Federal Policy should be.

Poll-Taxes and civics exams are out, but there should be some limit on the Franchise, so that only those who really are paying attention should be able to vote.

19

Apparently they decided to focus on Mailers and Robo-calls instead of actual Street Canvasing (which works far better than either of the other two) in the last 72 hours.

red state covered it fairly well. They depended too much on the RGA, which in turn screwed them in Colorado because there was no real republican candidate for governer in Colorado. As a result, Ken Buck didn't get the GOTV support he should have.

20 The important point is is that conservatives outnumber liberals by a significant margin. There just never was a strong enough reason to get them (cons) to the polls. That is until last Tuesday. Liberals are being marginalized like never before. Old people, Hispanics, young people who have seen the light and all those formerly politically uninvolved conservatives have swung right. As the statists/progressives become even more open about who they are, these numbers will continue growing through 2012 and beyond. The Dems only hope will be the union strong arm tactics seen in Nevada and massive fraud. But... WE - SHALL - OVERCOME! (Heh)

21 Will the GOP learn that Hispandering doesn't work? (Nope, Rubio doesn't count, he's Cuban)

22 Posted by: Y-not at November 10, 2010 11:36 AM (UcOiF)

I'm prepared to accept that interpretation, too.

23 I go on Hannity's show because my contract has a rider that will provide me a hooker who will suck on my toes under the desk while I'm on the air.

24
I've made many predictions in my life, and most have been reasonably accurate, and as with all prognostication's, some fall short of expectation.

I accurately predicted Rachel Corrie was an accident looking for a place to happen when I heard her flat speaking style,  more accurately described as a pancake address,  at a 'Fuck the Joo's' symposium.

25

They skipped the 72 hour plan?!?! What is your source? I had not heard this.

Posted by: ace at November 10, 2010

Yeah, like AllenG says the article was in the sidebar on AOS.  If anybody can dig it up or remembers where it came from, that would be great.  Assuming it's true, that's an outrage that should be grounds alone for Steele not to be retained.

26

Also, to add to my post at 17,

Joe Manchin and Chris Coons will be seated immediately!

What are the odds of that, 2 of the 3 special election senators will be seated but the third won't.  And the third just happens to be a Republican. Go figure!

27 Old people, Hispanics, young people who have seen the light and all those formerly politically uninvolved conservatives have swung right.

Well, not really. Of course we should encourage that Talented Third (just like we should encourage that Talented Tenth of African Americans), but the numbers are still 2 to 1 against us.

28 Also, to add to my post at 17, Joe Manchin and Chris Coons will be seated immediately! What are the odds of that, 2 of the 3 special election senators will be seated but the third won't. And the third just happens to be a Republican. Go figure! Posted by: Ben at November 10, 2010 11:42 AM (wuv1c) The suckers of cock aren't even bothering to be subtle anymore.

29 @22 - Hopefully.  I heard the first actual anti-illegal-immigration words from Rick Perry today on a radio interview that I'd ever heard from him.  Apparently he takes a pretty firm stand in his new book- and not just over the "violence on the Border" thing, but illegal immigration in general.

OTOH, I heard a Hispanic Republican on the radio last night (lost a Judge race in Dallas County) talking about it, and he seemed firmly in the "Enforcing Immigration Law is Racist" camp, so maybe not.

30 Great New Guys Mark Kirk will not be seated immediately. The state of Illinois needs more time to certify the election and do paper work. Posted by: Ben They ran out of the forms you need to order more forms.

31 Dick Morris is incredibly right 50% of the time.  Which half to trust is anyone's guess.

32 Sept MSNBC article about no 72 hr plan...  is this what you guys are talking about?

33

They may not be able to claim a connection to anything even remotely resembling convictions, but dems know one thing with absolute certainty,

they aren't a Republican.

34

While I'd like to think that we'll be in better shape come 2012, my gut tells me that we should have done better last week in terms of numbers of seats won.   Obama was at his weakest and we still couldn't pull out NV(!), WV or CT.  And if we can't win hugely (and we did make no mistake) in 2010, I don't see how we can possibly knock Obama out in 2012 unless there is some scandal/economic meltdown ala Watergate that negates the Dems GOTV efforts.  I guess it was Reid's win that demoralized me the most - I mean if we can't win NV given it's current state, then I don't know how in the world we'll pull out 2012.   

35 That matches with what I saw here. We had a good turnout with the Republicans but the Dems did as well. In fact, the turnout for the mid-term was just as high as the turnout for the last election.

I think nationwide it was probably the same, but the difference is that the base for the Republicans got out to vote because there was no McCain dragging them down.

That is why we did as good as we did. It could have been much worse.

36 Turnout is what it's all about. We need to remember this in 2012. Yep. And I think we also need to remember how best to get that turnout. People are usually energized by either voting for someone good or voting against someone extremely bad. I think 2004 is a prime example of this. Those who supported President Bush in 2004 were energized to re-elect him. On the other side, John F'in Kerry was a horrible candidate, but Democrat-voters were energized not to vote for Kerry, but to vote against President Bush. In 2008, there were many ignorant sheeple energized to vote for Barry, in addition to voting Democrat simply, because they were voting against Bush and the GOP. On the other side, the GOP put up a lousy candidate in McCain, so GOP-voters were not energized to vote for him. However, there were many who foresaw the radical future under Obama, so they were energized to go vote not so much for McCain, but against Obama. In 2010, I think the GOP could have done much better if it was an election about both voting against Obama/Democrats and for the GOP. Instead, people were only energized to vote against Obama, as the GOP didn't really have much of a strong conservative message to give people a reason to vote for them. If we want to win in 2012, we need to give the nation a reason to vote for our candidate(s). That means that the GOP over the next two years needs to (1) be a conservative Party and (2) put forth true conservative candidates to give the nation a true alternative to the radical socialism of Obama. That will energize people to both vote against the radical Democrats and for the conservative Republicans. However, if the GOP continues its wishy-washy ways and puts forth wishy-washy candidates, it will be difficult to energize turnout on our side. When I go out with my GOTV efforts, I can convince many more people to vote for someone, rather than telling them "well, yeah, the GOP still sucks, but, come on, you have to go vote just to make sure we get rid of the radicals in charge now, right?" When they respond with "what's the difference, they're all the same, they all screw us, who cares". If I can't come back with "well the GOP is different now, it is putting up great conservative TEA Party leaders, their leadership over the past 2 years is now actively fighting the socialists and putting forth conservative legislation, etc", then they're not going to bother. Put simply, turnout is a lot easier when there's a good candidate. So if the GOP wants turnout, it needs to give us good candidates for whom to GOTV.

37

#35

I mean if we can't win NV given it's current state, then I don't know how in the world we'll pull out 2012.   

All we need is an I.D. that works as well as an ATM and there will be no problem

38 Well - turnout and photocopied ballots.  Don't forget the photocopied ballots.

39 BTW, I wopuldn't classify this as "Obama" turnout efforts. From what I have seen anytime he gets into it lately he hurts the candidates.

40 Poll-Taxes and civics exams are out, but there should be some limit on the Franchise, so that only those who really are paying attention should be able to vote. Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at November 10, 2010 11:38 AM (8y9MW) It's probably too complicated to be implemented, but I think everybody's vote should be "weighted" as follows: You start off with a weight of +2 You get +1 if you pay income tax You get +1 if you pay property tax You get +1 if you have served (honorably) in the military You get -1 if you are currently receiving any form of public assistance. So a job-holding, property owning, veteran's vote would have a weight of 5 while the slacker on welfare who lives in his parents' basement would have a vote weight of 1. Hey, I can dream can't I?

41 Posted by: volfan at November 10, 2010 11:44 AM (mhKJJ)

Meh.  Somebody posted the article showing what Percentage of seats we won, and it's pretty impressive- especially in the Senate.  You can't win them all.

For Nevada, people may hate Harry Reid, but a) Sharron Angle had (or was displayed as having) consistency issues and b) Reid can pull in the pork with the best of them.

WV we "lost" to a very popular (as I understand it) Governor who ran as a Republican, and in CT... it's CT.  Lots of factors there, far too many to get into.

If Republicans stick to their guns, start really impacting the corrupt appropriations process (Inhoffe was apparently interviewed by Ed Morrisey (I haven't listened) and Ed says his argument isn't that earmarks should be done away with, but that DeMint's plan doesn't actually go far enough.  I'm willing to wait and see on that one, in that case), really try to reduce the budget (not just its rate of growth) and block ObamaCare wherever possible, I think we'll be in good position for '12: especially if Obama is as obstreperous as we expect.

42 We lost NV for two major reasons, unions and women. That is per the exit polls.

43 38 #35 I mean if we can't win NV given it's current state, then I don't know how in the world we'll pull out 2012. All we need is an I.D. that works as well as an ATM and there will be no problem Didn't the Republican win the Gov. seat in NV? That's more a candidate problem more than anything.. The Voting for a person rather than against them. It's not a turn out issue.

44 Morris is a hack, He predicted Big Gains so we would go to his website and make donations to hes PAC...

45 I guess another way to look at is that there was a lot of determination to try to stop Obama and his agenda, but determination to stop something bad is not really as powerful as enthusiasm to do something good. Posted by: Y-not at November 10, 2010 11:36 AM Bingo. My thoughts exactly. There is a difference between enthusiasm to vote against someone/something and enthusiasm for vote for same. I think 2004 was a prime example of that. Dubya was re-elected because while the Left was extremely energized to vote against President Bush, they were not energized to vote for Kerry. 2010, in my opinion, was more of the same. People were energized to vote against the Democrats, but not for the GOP.

46 40 BTW, I wopuldn't classify this as "Obama" turnout efforts. From what I have seen anytime he gets into it lately he hurts the candidates. Tell me about it.

47 As for 2012, unless we run another McCain, I fully expect to take even more Senate seats because there will be more Dem seats up during that election.

That is provided the Republicans don't back-slide into crap again.

48

Meh, Morris might be partially right but most of the voters he is talking about showed up in already blue urban areas that we weren't going to win anyways. They may have swung some senate/gov races but not as much as the candidates we ran.

If Obama was a factor he wouldn't have lost his own senate seat in his hometown. Finegold, Sleestack et al would have won.

Rossi proved for the third time he's a lousy candidate and still came pretty close. He didn't campaign in King County and lost it by a bigger margin than his previous two races.

Angle was terrible, Buck was marginal and was held down because of terrible governor candidates, Ressie didn't even live in the state he was running in. O'Donnell was terrible. Whitman and Fiorina had big problems.

GOTV is important but not as much as good candidates.

49 Posted by: Nighthawk at November 10, 2010 11:49 AM (02uN6)

It also fails the "secret ballot" test, since you'd have to know that demographic information about someone (since you couldn't "weight" the vote until it had been cast).

I kind of like "If you paid a positive amount of Income Tax" you get to vote: then you could set that up at time of registration (a copy of your 1040, or some such thing) and that's it.  If you don't pay a positive amount of Income Tax (that is, you pay no taxes, or you actually get back more than you paid), you don't get to vote.

That wouldn't happen either, but, as you said, its nice to dream.

50 Wingnuts missed the newsflash: PROGRESSIVES WON!

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, the largest caucus in the House Democratic Caucus at over 80 members, emerged from the election virtually unscathed, losing only three members. In constrast, the conservative Blue Dog Democratic caucus was more than sliced in half from 54 members to only 26.

PROGRESSIVES WON!

51 PROGRESSIVES WON! The GOP in general needs to step up and start to target some of these races.. If only There was an Example of boots on the ground And there might be an easy victory or two.

52

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, the largest caucus in the House Democratic Caucus at over 80 members, emerged from the election virtually unscathed, losing only three members. In constrast, the conservative Blue Dog Democratic caucus was more than sliced in half from 54 members to only 26.

Which only goes to show that it's a Commiecrat Party now.

53 If the libs want a nanny state they can move to Europe, ungrateful socialists.

54 Test

55 Posted by: archie bunker at November 10, 2010 11:54 AM (7+pP9)

Please tell me this is a sock...

56 GOTV is important, but not as much as good candidates. Posted by: robtr at November 10, 2010 11:52 AM This.

57 How'd that whole "Hillary vs. Condi" thing work out, Dick?

58 13 Apparently they decided to focus on Mailers and Robo-calls instead of actual Street Canvasing (which works far better than either of the other two) in the last 72 hours.

Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at November 10, 2010 11:36 AM (8y9MW)

Idiotic call on their part. I don't know anyone who responds well to robo-calls. They seem to be generally, if not universally, regarded as a nuisance. We got several every day and night - many repeat calls, like the one from "Pat Boone" - during the final week, and they were nothing but a waste of our time and their money.

When I see mass mailings and robo-call campaigns, I visualize a "consultant" steering candidate's money to companies with whom he has a financial interest.

Frankly, if I was a candidate, I'd rather pay to have live callers (supplemented, where possible, by volunteers), and a system sophisticated enough to ensure that there would be no repeat calling. 

You can't replace a human being with a recorded message.

59 The biggest leeches on the carcas of the RNC are the mailing vendors.  Direct snail-mail was a great idea in 1978, maybe not so great in 2010.  Even if I had any interest in reading it I'm so frickin overwhelmed by all of it.

60

Effectively, the best way to minimize your opponents' turnout at the polls is to focus on negative advertising.  Hopefully, our friends in the (serious) Republican establishment are crafting a campaign for 2012 against the primary targets.  It must be continuous and relentless. 

Negative campaigning early in the cycle will undermine fundraising and create permanent cognitive associations with criminality/incompetence/corruption/malfeasance for the "enemy" (used in the same sense as our President).  Beyond that, it's a matter for studying your enemies' key voting demographics--if Dem voters' are turned on by whatever it is that Dem voters love, like pederasty, organ stealing, and necrophilia, then you turn the focus on the candidates' negative affiliations.   

 

61

When I see mass mailings and robo-call campaigns, I visualize a "consultant" steering candidate's money to companies with whom he has a financial interest.

Posted by: Josef K. at November 10, 2010 12:00 PM (7+pP9)

Bingo. There's a whole group of consultants tied at the hip to senior people at the RNC.  Even before Steele turned out to be a disaster, a friend who used to work at the RNC said those people would suck every penny they could, regardless of whether it actually helps the cause.

62 Don't forget us dead voters!! We're very low information, very downscale, and we ALWAYS vote Democrat!

63 I'd be careful about counting on NC in the GOP column...

64 Is Barry going to win Ohio next time?  Florida?  Indiana, Virgina, or North Carolina?  I think not.

Probably not, but that won't be enough.  We need to be able to win Nevada and Colorado again, and those states are looking worse for us all the time.  Pennsylvania would make up for those, but we kid ourselves about PA every four years.  I think the GOP's best chances of breaking through are in Wisconsin and Michigan.

65 I thought it was all Christine O'Donnell's fault?

66 On the other hand, we may be able to punt all of the purple states depending how the reapportionment comes out.

67 Voted ID has to be a requirement.  Sadly, the Reps will not push this.

In 2008, Obama loudly and gloatingly warned Hillary about his "ground game." What the fuck more do Republicans need?

68 The nearer we came to Election Day, the more I had a nagging feeling that the GOP had peaked about two weeks prior to that day. Nevertheless, having a solid GOTV ground game could have mitigated matters. This needs to be addressed for 2012.

69

The nearer we came to Election Day, the more I had a nagging feeling that the GOP had peaked about two weeks prior to that day.

Exactly this.  There was an underpinning of arrogance going into the election.   

70 Someone get Dick some used Women's shoes and he'll calm down.

71 Every precinct in the country needs a Republican precinct captain, and at least two co-captains.  They need to be familiar with the names on the rolls, and a way to get face to face with every single R, I, whatever, registrant.  I'm waiving the need to get in the face of any Ds.

Such precinct captains and their staff need to pore over those rolls, and figure a strategy and campaign to get every single R and every single non-D to the polls in November of 2012.

Such an organization does not exist in my district, which is NY-20.  We have to find a way.

The 2012 campaign waged by the Ds will be the loudest, most vicious thing we have ever seen or experienced.  They will be voting the dead, the imprisoned, the illegals, and many will vote more than once.

I have said this before here.  We need the R equivalent of Jersey City's Frank Hague.

72 They were and are scum; they know they're scum:  They know they're leeches who do not deserve the money that other people earn and are somewhat embarrassed to keep taking it, but

they'll keep taking it ( and rewarding the Demos ) until we turn off the spigot

73 This election was about fear. Fear of the tea parties kept the megawave from happening. Media delenda est.

74 Related: Dem GOTV.

75 First, I never expected us/Tea Party candidates to bat a thousand in the election. Second, you have to remember, the Dem machine is going to steal all the close races.

76 the republicans promised to do what exactly if elected?  i'm not sure.  i think some suggested repeal of obamacare if they could...or something.  i got out to vote, and i was excited to see what would happen, but wasn't especially optimistic knowing that the GOP had an epic opportunity to explain how it would govern differently and didn't.

i also think the GOP didn't go negative enough when the union money started flowing to the democratic overlords to inundate the airwaves with negative ads.

77 The California GOP is a disgrace- I got 1 lousy mailer 2 days before the election. Say what you will about Rove, but in 2000 and 2004 I was deluged with info. Any GOTV by our worthless Republican leadership could easily have turned 2 congressional races we are probably going to lose by a few hundred votes. Don't even get me started on our Attorney General race that is too close to call.

78 This get out the vote thing really cracks me up. Look, everyone hates political phone calls, people knocking on the door telling you to vote, and mailers telling people to vote. Hates. Not "gosh this is a little tiresome" but hates.

Your argument is if only we did more of that people would be more likely to do what we want? Huh?

79 Seriously I just don't get it. What do you think is going on out there? You really figure there are people sitting around saying "well I didn't realize how much the overspending and bills like that health insurance takeover act pissed me off until that nice young man from the Republican Party called me!"

Look, it isn't always bad when people don't vote. If someone is so clueless about what's going on they don't care to even try to vote, do you really want them doing it?

80 You don't go after the clueless people. That'd be idiotic.

If you go after people who won't otherwise vote because they don't know enough or care, that's exactly who you are going after. The clueless. People don't vote for a lot of reasons other than "we didn't try hard enough." In fact, I'd hazard a guess that almost nobody fails to vote because some jackass didn't interrupt their dinner. They were sick, they were out of town, they were in a car wreck, they don't live there any longer, they were dead (yeah, not all those people on the voter roles are actually alive or even living in that area any longer).

The assumption by Ace and some of you is that if only we tried harder, those lousy jerks who sat home on election night would have voted and we'd have taken over the world! That's just infantile.

81 O'Dumbo's line plays well with the stupid.

82

Apparently, one thing the Dem GOTV machine forgot to tell the dim bulbs was to vote for state legislature office.  This might explain the disparity between blowout for the ages losses for state legislatures and blowout for the decades losses at the national level

I also suspect that many of our fellow African American electors voted only to support Obama at the national level and failed to understand the national significance of the state races.

83

BTW, the Dem's losses are the worst for them in 80 years.  Yes, they lost 71 seats in 1938 seats, but seeing as how they started with an alltime record of 333 House seats and finished with a supermajority figure of 262, the effect on their power was nil, so this defeat was worse.

On the other hand, Repubs lost 75 seats in 1948, which overturned their strange victory of 1946 where they picked up 55 seats and re-established Dem dominance -- so that one was the one electoral defeat that was worse than Judgment Day, November 2, 2010

84 @ #4, How `bout your WA State Senators stay the fuck out of my billfold.

85 The attack adds towards the end hurt Buck here in CO. We needed more than a push in Jefferson county and a push in Adams county to overcome Denver and Boulder counties. Some of the more populated rural counties going for Bennet did not help but was not as harmful as the vote in Jeffco and Adams.

86 ÔÇÊ ÇáØÇÆÝ