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[Shinra]

As much as I'd like to blame everything that happened today on an unfair media, the reality is that we had a majority in congress and a democratic president and managed to accomplish virtually nothing in the last two years. The economy remains in shambles, and our only legislative victories have been largely unpopular ones. Health care reform isn't the bill it could have been or should have been, and even if it was, it not taking effect until 2014 just means nobody will notice how good it is until the republicans retake the presidency in 2016. I'm still confident on an Obama re-election, if only because Romney will never win a republican primary and the most likely primary victory at this point in likely-to-runs is Palin.

I just don't understand why we can't have an efficient operation like the republicans did during the Bush years. Even if we'd lost the same number of seats today, if we'd had a unified party and leaders with the balls to get the party in line, we'd at least have accomplished some legislative victories. Democrats like to pretend that we're different from the republicans in that our party is a 'mix of ideals', but that's bullshit - the republicans have always had far right nutjobs like Coburn and just right of center types like McCain, but when an important bill came up, republican leadership was willing to resort to blackmail just to get everybody to agree on things. If the democratic leadership thinks they're above this, this may explain why we've been the minority party for the majority of the last fifty years.

The next six years are going to be a long, miserable slog. Can't get shit done now? Just imagine how it's going to be now that we only have a slim lead in the senate and a minority in the house. At least we finally got rid of those fucking Blue Dogs.

[McDohl]

Hey, Constantine.

*tequila bottle*

Here's to four.  more.  fucking.  years.


http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/02/cuomo-wins-new-york-race-for-governor-texas-gov-rick-perry-wins-re-election/

[Brentai]

My stepfather believes this is actually the best thing that can happen to Obama, as Presidents who see their party lose power early in tend to become extremely successful as they work to compensate, while the ones who get an easy ride basically become, well, George W. Bush.  Reagan and Clinton are his recent examples.

He's the kind of guy who's almost completely independent (slightly democratic on account of being a New Englander), doesn't vote, and treats political players and stats the exact same way he treats football players and stats.  He usually seems to be on the money about this sort of thing, so we'll see.

[Shinra]

Brent, for all of our sake, I really hope your stepfather is right about this. As things stand right now, Obama is looking a lot like Jimmy Carter.

[Burrito Al Pastor]

I'm honestly uncertain how I feel about the rest of Obama's administration - or, for that matter, a second term. On the one hand, "better the devil you know"; on the other hand, the devil I know has unilaterally appropriated the right to assassinate United States citizens without due process or legal oversight. And I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of things that anybody else could do as President of the United States that would be worse than applying "if the president does it it's not a crime" doctrine to assassination.

Health care reform isn't the bill it could have been or should have been, and even if it was, it not taking effect until 2014 just means nobody will notice how good it is until the republicans retake the presidency in 2016.

You're actually fairly optimistic about this; I know of people who believe that "takes effect in 2014" is Washington-speak for "you have four years advance notice to figure out how to circumvent everything in here."

[Shinra]

If I'm not optimistic, I feel like killing myself over the whole thing.

Joking aside, it's not like most of us have the option to move to Canada. If things with this health care bill don't pan out, we're all fucked, so the only thing anyone can do to stay sane is keep hoping for the best.

For all his charisma, Obama really is not a great leader, and I regret that he got into office over the alternatives in the democratic party. Having said that, we're not going to primary challenge him in 2012, and like I said - I don't see the Republicans fielding the one candidate who has a prayer on the grounds of too moderate and a filthy savage mormon. A Palin ticket would please the tea partiers, even if it's completely unelectable. She's still anathema to the moderates, and if anything she'd energize democrats enough to put down their bongs and their cocoa butter long enough to go out and vote, which is another big part of the reason we lost today, by the way.

[Brentai]

Clinton vs. Palin 2012 plz.

[Rico]

I am completely against a Palin ticket because oh god what the fuck do we do if she gets elected

[Brentai]

By then we'll have a good 12 years of experience being thoroughly embarrassed about what plot of land we happen to be situated on.

[Shinra]

She wouldn't. Palin is unelectable. It's a complete impossibility. She's a really weird figure, as she's incredibly strong with the republican base, esp. the teabaggers, but is strongly disliked by independents and utterly hated by Democrats. She's too far right from center to appeal to independents, and is so far right from center that she guarantees a strong Democrat turnout. The biggest flaw of the Democrat base is that a lot of our recent elections rely on youth voters and blacks to turn out, two groups that traditionally aren't known to go out of their way to exercise their right to vote.

I honestly think Romney has a good shot of winning as he's the anti-Obama. He's a white, charismatic businessman from a straight-laced family in a working class town. But he's too moderate and too Mormon to win a primary. It's hard enough to win a primary or election as a Catholic in this country, let alone a Mormon. His opponents, if they viewed him as a real primary threat, would seize on this at every opportunity to discredit him. Not directly, of course, but I could definitely see his opponents imply he supports Bigamy or some crazy shit like that, and the Republican base eating it up.

[PhilosopherDirtbike]

I pretty much predicted this before it even happened. When I went to vote in the morning there was maybe a thirty second wait (as opposed to the Obama/McCain vote where I was thirty eight minutes late for work). Not a single person under the age of thirty there besides me. I normally vote pretty moderate and independent but based off bumper stickers alone I would say I was the only one there who wasn't marking "All Republican Candidates" on my ticket. I guess with odds like that I can see why young people get disillusioned and don't even show.

That aside, I hadn't read that Obama assassination thing until now: that is pretty fucking terrifying. I was under the impression that Obama was supposed to be one of the "good guys" and we were past the Carl Rove Dick Cheney Patriot Act cloak and dagger stuff. Between this and that Wikileaks video of American soldiers gunning down a bunch of reporters and civilians guys I used to disregard as complete nutcases like Alex Jones are starting to make more and more sense.

Time to learn a couple new languages and start saving money for potential escape. Think I will go with Mandarin and French. Keep my options open.

[Norondor]

For all his charisma, Obama really is not a great leader, and I regret that he got into office over the alternatives in the democratic party.

Definitely keep secretly hoping he will be assassinated and the VP will be less obsessed with being """"bipartisan"""""

[McDohl]

I love seeing the knee-jerk reactions to "OMG REPUBLICANS AND TEABAGGERS ARE TAKING OVER"

[Royal☭]

I look forward to a few months of House investigations into the last two years of the Obama administration, plus bills that are initially opposed by the Senate and Obama before they finally aren't.

[Royal☭]

Also, Reid managed to hold Nevada.  Which is mixed, because on the one hand I hate Reid.  But on the other, I really didn't want Sharon Angle to become a Senator.

And thanks to eventual wins in Colorado and Oregon, the Senate stays at 53.  We lost Russ Feingold, the best Senator in the chamber, but if it were 51-49, I wouldn't have placed any faith in Lieberman caucusing with Dems.

[Smiler]

Don't worry though, Wisconsin elected a guy who worships Ayn Rand to replace Feingold. Everything is A-OK!

 

[Catloaf]

In related news Canada was overrun last night with 50000 Americans asking to immigrate.  Apparently most of them are from Kentucky and Florida and were sobbing uncontrollably.  I suppose I'd probably do the same if I learned I was to be represented by Rand Paul.

[Pacobird]

Don't worry though, Wisconsin elected a guy who worships Ayn Rand to replace Feingold. Everything is A-OK!

 

The irony of Russ Feingold being unseated by a guy who spend $8,000,000 of his own money is pretty great.


Harry Reid holding on to his seat is a huge moral victory, however, regardless of what you think of the guy.

[Royal☭]

Moral victory?  The GOP simply picked a person who was far more unpopular.  Reid has been ineffective as leader, and in fact his leadership pretty much cost Pelosi and the Dems in the House.

[Pacobird]

It's a moral victory because both sides threw everything they had in to that race.  To pull in the kind of DNC support Reid was getting and to ultimately lose to Sharron Angle of all people would have been absurd.