Call It A Comeback
Was already written by the Trib so I don’t have to bother. Nothing you haven’t read here.
Do you think home schooling and abortion won 26 years straight? Or tolerance and fiscal restraint? I’m a proud Democrat, but I fully recognize the importance of a two party system that checks the extravagance of the parties’. The Hari Kari the Illinois Circular Firing Squad Team is about to committ is bad for the State of Illinois.
Did I mention this already? I miss Illinois. And at least the natives in Illinois can pronounce their state’s name correctly.
Is still drunk, but jolly and a much better sight this time around.
A friend predicted Barnes would have a hard time 2 months ago. He was right. It also means it is time to tell Zell Miller to take a hike. He couldn’t get two proteges through an election.
There are two camps amongst Democratic strategists. One is Celinda Lake who is pushing NASCAR dads. The other camp, led by Mark Penn, is pushing for the strategy in the Emerging Democratic Majority. Penn is right, Lake is wrong. Move forward. There are even signs in recent months that John Edwards is moving towards Penn and that is a good thing.
Several issues have come-up with the results of these elections.
1) Terry McAuliffe is an evil man who has stolen and sold the soul of the Democratic Party. I hated him when he became party leader, I hate him more now. Install Carville and Begala. Principle over cash. If Ralph Reed is going to be the Republicans street-fighter, let’s get ours in the game.
Update: And apparently Ramesh at NRO agrees with my assessment of McAuliffe on strategic matters.
2) In the west the consensus movement between environmentalists and ranchers has produced a win in the Wyoming race. Environmentalists need to think about how to pursue a conservationist agenda that includes those not traditionally considered environmental allies. I’ve been thinking about this a lot for several months and the surge in Wyoming and the Hog Farm issues in North Carolina and Iowa has crystallized my thinking on the issue. I’ve been waiting for the election to see if it produced a win. This will be one of the themes of this blog for a while post-election.
3) Rod Blagojevich has a hell of a learning curve ahead of him. Lisa Madigan has a hell of a future ahead of her. Birkett goes home and tries to fry more innocents. Jim Ryan makes a lot of money and enjoys life.
4) Peter Fitzgerald was a nice side-show with a close Senate. He did all sorts of things that Illinois needs like P Fitzgerald and Miquelon. Those are luxuries we no longer can afford. First, clear out Mosely-Braun. Then cull the herd of Hull, Obama (an emotional favorite), Hynes, and Chico. Get behind the strongest challenger and encourage a business challenge in the GOP to primary Fitzgerald, AKA light the match to the civil war.
5) McBride lost, class size won. Mark Russell has long had a bit about America being ideologically conservative, but operationally liberal. Florida seems to demonstrate this quite well. What does this mean for Democratic candidates?
6) Reallignment is real and clearly occurring. Democrats are starting to make serious inroads into the Northeastern Republicans. How can we speed this process up? How can we make 1994 happen in a region hospitable to us? Part of this is related to Judis-Texiera, but also to some real political science work going on that demonstrates the rotating pattern between social and economic issues since 1896. If you pay close attention, you might get a preview of some political science work coming out in the top journals that is related to the Emerging Democratic Majority.
7) Lots on how the median voter theorem relates to our system. Some discussion has broken out on various blogs. I hope to add to it.
8) Replace McAuliffe. Oh, I mentioned that already. Did I mention get rid of McAuliffe? How about Davis? Torricelli is gone, let’s get rid of the rest of the unholy trinity.
And so does Betty Sims. It may not be this year–well it certainly isn’t this year, but social moderates win. Social conservatives lose. Tolerance is good. I can write declarative sentences.-
Talent loses St. Louis County and Kansas City. Clearly there are two states here–let’s let St. Louis City and County go to Illinois and Kansas City to Kansas.
When I wake up in the morning Simon will be toast. I will predict that.
Ahnold is on and largely avoiding the entire Simon issue. Trying not to piss off the base and trying not to tie himself to Simon.
To prognosticate on anything, but Illinois races from now on. I did get Dart wrong, but I’m relatively close otherwise. I expected a bit more suppression of Republican voters and Ryan came back a bit.
I’m looking at at 30,000 vote difference for Carnahan-Talent and only 100 precincts left in the city. Senator Jim Talent. Given it rained today for half the day, I figure I was half right on my prediction.
I’m moving back to Illinois. Or New York or some Northeastern state. Or maybe Canada.
But in a bright spot, it looks like Jim Leach will be in the House. Hopelessly marginalized in the House, but he’ll be there.
Of interesting notes, Henry won in Oklahoma. Apparently because of cock-fighting. Note to self: Never move to Oklahoma.
It sounds like Frost and Pelosi are lining up. I much prefer Frost. Pelosi is far too focused on money and not enough on attracting a pragmatic progressivism. Frost is moderate and certainly can
I noticed that Kos pointed out that the losing candidates were often to the right of the DLC and that the DLC isn’t progressive. I disagree though. The DLC may not be left, but I think this agenda is very progressive. It stresses equality and tolerance and opportunity. Many interest groups are threatened by the DLC’s ideas, but that shouldn’t concern one as much as results. Sure, we need to listen to unions and other interest groups, but they shouldn’t define us. For those who are fans of the Emerging Democratic Majority, I believe the DLC strategy will be the winning strategy for Democrats.
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