{RESULTS} 11/4/2014: Does the GOP Take the Senate?

11/4/2014: Does the GOP Take the Senate?


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Diana Hignutt

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i usually wait a day or two to vote in my own polls.

i think the GOP is going to steal a small edge. and it will usher in a sucktastic era of suck.

I'm pretty sure we'll get that sucktastic era of suck no matter who wins...but I'm like that...and I won't be back home in time to vote...
 

blacbird

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For once, the Alaska election might get a lot of attention. It is a tight race. The incumbent, Begich, got there six years ago on a considerable bit of luck, running against aging Senator Ted Stevens, who was under investigation for a variety (and history) of questionable dealings with contributors. Begich won, narrowly.

But Alaska has become a severely Republican state. Despite that, he does have the clout of an incumbent, and the challenger, Dan Sullivan, is an outsider, brought in from Maryland to be Sarah Palin's State Attorney General. And Palin ain't so popular, even among Republicans, up here right now.

So it could be close. And, as we are in a far western time zone an hour beyond that of California, Oregon and Washington, the Alaska race could well decide the balance of power in the Senate. So you benighted Easterners might need to stay up late, if you want to know.

Sullivan is a pretty mainstram Chamber-of-Commerce type Republican, a lawyer and a Marine (he makes a big deal of that military connection in his ads), but not a vociferous social conservative (although he probably will support measures to ban abortion and gay marriage). The Republican primary up here was a three-way race between Sullivan, the bland and forgettable Lieutenant Governor Treadwell, and the social conservative darling of the Tea Party, Joe Miller. Miller, you might recall, actually defeated sitting Senator Lisa Murkowski in the Republican promary four years ago, only to be re-defeated by Murkowski's write-in campaign in the general election. He's an odious jerk who very nearly got me to change my Party affiliation so I could vote in the Republican Primary (the Democratic Primary is still open; anybody can vote in it) against him. I'd have voted for Sulllivan. But the polls at the end indicated Sullivan would win, which he did, so I didn't.

I'm not a huge fan of Begich. He's been wishy-washy on some key issues, IMO. But I'll vote for him, given the national implications of this year's Senate contest.

caw
 
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Don

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Hagan edges Tillis, 46%-43%, while Libertarian Sean Haugh has support from 7% likely voters, according to the poll.
Only 43% of the voters want Tillis to represent them. Seven percent want Sean Haugh to represent them, and by logical extension, do not want either Hagan or Tillis to represent them.

Of course, if you only give them two choices, then they'd have to vote for Tillis, is that the logic? Maybe we should go full China and make the choice even easier for people. The attitude that the Democrats and Republicans "own" all the votes is only a matter of degree from the attitude that the Communist Party owns all the votes in China.

Anybody remember the South Park "Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich" episode?
 
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nighttimer

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i think the GOP is going to steal a small edge. and it will usher in a sucktastic era of suck.

Right. Because things have been all sweetness and light with Humble Harry Reid running things in Washington.

The last four leaders of the Senate have been Reid, Bill Frist, Trent Lott, and Tom Daschle and not a one of them deserves a Statesman of the Year award. Reid has been a disaster as Majority Leader. McConnell will be too, just a better or worst disaster depending on your political leanings.

I once had respect for the members of the U.S. Senate. Now it's a motley collection of clowns in search of a circus.

:partyguy:
 

CrastersBabies

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I hope not. I haven't seen any evidence in my state of Republicans actually learning anything from prior losses (at this level or even presidential). Human interests matter, people, and the more republicans sweep them under the rug and demean them, the more the left will entrench.

Even as a Democrat, I'd be open to voting republican with the right candidate, but the "party line" is either so anti-human rights, or, any attempt to appear otherwise is half-assed and insincere.

I'm with zoombie, I'll do my very best to prevent it.
 

William Haskins

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bump for election night

the suspense is killing me.

watching scumbags waste millions vying for a job where they rob the nation blind. catch the fever!
 

Magdalen

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i usually wait a day or two to vote in my own polls.

i think the GOP is going to steal a small edge. and it will usher in a sucktastic era of suck.

I'm pretty sure we'll get that sucktastic era of suck no matter who wins...but I'm like that...and I won't be back home in time to vote...

If I were a betting man, GoP takes it.

But who the hell knows?

It'll be close, but not enough.

Or not.

Right. Because things have been all sweetness and light with Humble Harry Reid running things in Washington.

. . . Now it's a motley collection of clowns in search of a circus.

:partyguy:


I'm afraid of clowns.

Agree that so far the 21st Century sucks for me, but I'm feeling optimistic about my fellow-folk tonight, so I'll vote for the dying vestiges of democracy with a three point spread.

Or couldn't we have one of those box grids like Superbowl?

Maybe I'm confused?
 
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Don

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Where's the option for "powermongers win, society loses?"
 

nighttimer

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I think he's been a lame duck for a while now......and that won't change even if the Dems rally and hold the Senate.

Gregg, I suspect you've felt Obama has been a lame duck since January 20, 2009.

I'm afraid of clowns.

TwistytheClown_zps3bcc6536.jpg


Can't imagine why. Okay, yes, I can. :scared:

Meanwhile, President Quack is preparing himself for the New Normal.

A rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday night, a trip to Maine on Thursday and weekend appearances in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Mr. Obama is making every attempt this week to show that all is not lost in the Democrats’ efforts to keep control of Congress and the statehouses they hold.

That’s the campaign’s public face. In private, Mr. Obama and his aides are mapping plans on how to deal with a Congress that has Republican majorities in both houses.

Some administration officials are looking for any advantage they can use to crack the wall of Republican opposition over the next two years. One hope is that Republicans who will be vulnerable two years from now might be open to compromise to help their chances at re-election. (The political map in 2016 looks as challenging for the Republicans as it does this year for Democrats.)

Senior officials tick off possible areas of compromise: trade deals, a corporate tax overhaul and infrastructure spending plan – possibly packaged together – and initiatives in education and research and development.

But will the Republicans give way on anything, especially after any big victory next week? Many are angry that Mr. Obama has gone over their heads by issuing executive orders on issues like tax policy and gay rights. Mr. Obama’s vow to do it again to grant a path to citizenship for immigrants living in the country illegally isn’t likely to foster bipartisan cooperation, at least right away.
Oh, I'm certain after six years of cockblocking obstruction the G.O.Tea Party will be more than open to compromising with a Democratic president whose political capital is all spent who is just playing out the string until everyone's attention turns to Fall 2015 and the official start-up of the presidential race.

Like hell. :evil If you like gridlock you're gonna love the next two years. Come for the investigations. Stay for the impeachment.
 

CassandraW

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I think that should just be the "Don" option in every poll.

Maybe Medievalist could program the polls to put in Don's vote automatically and save him the trouble.
 

Don

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Where's the option for "powermongers win, society loses?"

I think that should just be the "Don" option in every poll.

Maybe Medievalist could program the polls to put in Don's vote automatically and save him the trouble.
I've been betting that way every single election since 1970.

I have yet to lose one. It may be a little early to call it, but 44 years seems to indicate a trend.

What's that definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?
 

nighttimer

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I think that should just be the "Don" option in every poll.

Maybe Medievalist could program the polls to put in Don's vote automatically and save him the trouble.

Instead of "Orlando Bloom" substitute "oligarchy" and you're golden.

What's that definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

You forgot "oligarchy." Tighten up your backstroke, playa.
 

William Haskins

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wasserman votes dem

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) predicted Sunday that her party will hold the Senate in Tuesday's midterms thanks to its "superior" ground games in key states.

"I think we're going to hold the Senate," Wasserman Schultz said during an interview with ABC's "This Week." "We have a ground game that I know [the GOP] would take over theirs any day of the week."
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/222582-dnc-chair-were-going-to-hold-the-senate
 

rugcat

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rugcat

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An interesting historical trend -- in the sixth year of every two term president since 1947, at the midterm election, the party of the incumbent President has lost an average of six senate seats.
 

blacbird

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An interesting historical trend -- in the sixth year of every two term president since 1947, at the midterm election, the party of the incumbent President has lost an average of six senate seats.

This. And in a more broad sense, every two-term President in my lifetime, back to Eisenhower, has had deteriorated popularity in that second term. Every one, including Reagan, now so sanctified by Republicans. Makes you wonder about the concept of allowing a second election for a President.

Democrats are going to take it in the shorts tomorrow, and I'm sure the realists in that Party are already planning what to do in that environment, aiming for the Presidential election in 2016. Republicans did a magnificent job, politically, of suppressing expression of their social agenda, which so damaged them in the personages of Akin, Mourdock, O'Donnell and others in the last go-round. But they still adhere to those views, officially, in their Party platform, and we'll just have to see how popular those things prove to be as time passes.

The Alaska Senatorial election, which seems poised to elect Republican Sullivan over incumbent Democrat Begich, is just one example. Sullivan, a personally pleasant, articulate guy, with a background of service in the Marines, including Desert Storm, is also on record as opposed to abortion rights, supporting defunding of planned parenthood, etc. He just doesn't want to address those issues, and prefers to focus on Obama, the GREAT SATAN for Republicans up here.

He'll win, mepredicts, about 53%-47%. Which would be a minor victory for Dems, considering that Republicans outnumber Dems about 2 to 1 in this state.

caw

caw