House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tonight rejected numerous polls predicting a Republican landslide among House candidates and defiantly predicted that Democrats will retain control of the House of Representatives.
“The early returns and overwhelming number of Democrats who are coming out – we’re on pace to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives,” Pelosi told reporters during a photo op in Washington.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tonight rejected numerous polls predicting a Republican landslide among House candidates and defiantly predicted that Democrats will retain control of the House of Representatives.
“The early returns and overwhelming number of Democrats who are coming out – we’re on pace to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives,” Pelosi told reporters during a photo op in Washington.
Sometimes, usually on Tuesdays, God gets bored. This is when he does his polling. Naturally, God is able to read everyone’s mind simultaneously. This only takes a minute or two and He finds the results very useful in planning natural disasters. These are of course for thinning purposes. This past Tuesday God decided to analyze economists due to the number of complaints He has received lately (profane blasphemies). What God decided to check for in this particular poll was whether there were any economists who actually believed, genuinely, that the US Government was not devaluing the dollar intentionally. God has a fondness for the ‘almighty dollar’ and so… He had been following this issue on CNN. As it turned out, when God looked into the minds of all economists there was only one exception: Tim Geithner. This meant that a natural disaster would be unnecessary and so this pleased God, natural disasters are not as easy as some might think. And so, being relieved, He decided to give Tim a second chance. God then looked into Tim’s mind exclusively. Fortunately for Tim, God discovered that the Economist Geithner was merely repeating the words: “The US is not deliberately devaluing the dollar”, over and over again. Which is exactly as he had been instructed to do by Ben Bernanke; and what Tim had done each morning before reporting for duty for the past few weeks. Tim knows full well not to make Ben Bernanke angry. God pitied Geithner-the-Economist but mostly God was concerned about the almighty dollar, but He couldn’t remember if the words IN GOD WE TRUST were still in play or not, and He remembered that there had been some related controversy, so, having more important things to do, God decided to let it all go. “Economists”, He said while shaking his head in disgust, “I should probably deal with them the next time they congregate in some comprehensive way.” And for a moment He considered checking His weather plan for Jackson Hole and for Davos but then He noticed what time it was. It was 10:00am and God cursed thunderously for not having accomplished anything of substance that morning, and, as a result of the thunder, there was some minor flooding in one of the areas inhabited by Heathens. God glanced down and saw people scrambling for high ground and this amused God for a fleeting moment, and this took God’s mind off of economics and all was good again. Then God turned on His gigantic TV and watched His favorite morning programs.
Read Geithner’s bio. Kissinger Assocs, IMF and Federal Reserve. He is in the heart of the most powerful eco/political players on the planet. I can’t find any clear explanation as to why he had been annointed for his role given a not too wealthy personal background. Maybe that’s good planning on the part of those, like Kissinger, that sit in the bowels of power. Who is elected seems not to be significant. Peterson, Kissinger et al since the days of Nixon have found a new and personally more rewarding way to combine politics with individual wealth development. They remain in control of key decision making organizations and propagandist publicity mills. Obama, Boehner, Geithner, etc, they only do what is expected of them.
Well, my guy lost. Big! My prior prediction was for, IIRC, 70+ House wins and the Senate to stand at 48R, 50D and 2I. Those seem somewhat reasonable, albeit a little high. My surprise prediction also lost. Hoyer won handily.
I’m interested in hearing the view in other states about whether the election results in their own states were good or bad ones from their perspective.
Results in Massachusetts were about what I’d hoped for. I voted for question 3 on principle, but it failed to pass (not a shock, the backer of that question has been putting tax repeal questions on ballots for years and hasn’t succeeded on their own question once yet, question 1 was backed by distillers and retailers). Question 2 going down is a good win, especially at the margin it took. I’m actually surprised that the number of people answering that question was so high. The questions on the Massachusetts ballot are summaries of the legislation proposals written by the AG, and the SUMMARY on this issue was half a page long on the ballot (add another half page for the Spanish translation that showed up at least in my neighborhood), and the summary read like the executive summary in a legal journal article, very high grade level needed for comprehension IMHO. Total respondents for 2 (change state laws permitting single permits for housing projects that have affordable housing units but requiring that when there are project cost overruns, the developer must still provide those affordable units; 2,069,402 from the Globe website) were lower than for 1 (put alcohol back on the sales tax exclusion list with food and clothing under a luxury limit among other items; 2,133,610) or for 3 (reduce sales tax rate from 6.25% to 3% or the lowest rate above 3% permissible by law and bond covenants; 2,162,342). The high response on 3 is a testament to the get out the vote activities on behalf of schools and other local services that would have had big problems if local aid was cut in the state budget (which it would have had to be, so they would have needed to fill those budgets some other way, probably a lift on local property tax restrictions, and the necessary rate hikes might have made them impossible to pass at town meetings or local elections).
Patrick’s overwhelming win is pretty staggering, I was sure he was dead in the water six months ago. He even carried western towns that Coakley failed in last January (because she didn’t run a proper campaign). His team worked tirelessly to get him reelected, and it was an amazing feat in such tough economic and budgetary times.
WBUR (NPR radio affiliate) had a great quip at the end of a story this morning that Massachusetts voters were still willing to tolerate taxes and government regulation, but that they needed a drink, and wanted it to be tax-free.
Republicans picked up very little in the state legislature. Their four senate seats (10%) included three unopposed candidates and an incumbent. They picked up some house seats, but no where near enough to be much of an influence on legislation. The key battles will still be intraparty duels between the governor’s ideals and the priorities of the leaders of the house and senate.
Biggest issues for the next year for me personally are non-citizen immigrant access to MassHealth, resort casino gaming (for it, I live in Orient Heights and Suffolk Downs is a proposed site, we can use the jobs especially after Wonderland in Revere shut down), and mail order alcohol from out-of-state (for it, allowing import by mail is becoming a national trend, and it is nice to be able to support American wineries and distilleries around the country instead of just those in my backyard, seems like there isn’t much opposition, but the bill has was sitting unscheduled in the senate for a while, they had bigger fish to fry).
i find it amusing that you just assume the rest of us will know what you are talking about. surely not all of us are political junkies and know what question three on the massachusetts ballot is.
but solipsism is after all the issue in this election.
i would also note that in oregon the ballot summaries are written in legalese… has to be that way. but usually there are groups arguing for or against an issue that “explain” what they think it means to you. i think you have no excuse not to understand, even if only by comparing the lies of the different sides.
then of course, if you were an intelligent voter… which the Republic relies on your not being… you could have researched the issue and found out what it meant.
I did explain what question 3 was further in the post. The Massachusetts official website is also required by law to post summaries written for and against each question on the ballot by partisans.
Question 2 was not widely discussed in the runup to the election, the media coverage was mostly on Q1 and Q3, as a result, I was surprised that more people didn’t just skip the question having not expected it on the ballot. It was, in my experience, unusually long and complicated reading for a ballot question in this state.
The link following has the text as it appeared on the ballot:
If I recall, Oregon also has all mail-in ballots, so you get time to read, consider, re-read, reconsider, sleep on it, re-read, reconsider, and then finally make a decision. Many people try to stay informed via the media and if there is inadequate coverage of a question, they end up reading and puzzling it out in the ballot box.
If you want to be a dick about it, that’s your right though.
I don’t know that it’s the mail in ballot as much as the voters guide which we still get in spite of efforts to save taxpayer dollars by not printing it, and leaving us to rely on the ever so reliable media.
my point about solipsism was not directed at you personally… though feel free to volunteer… as it was at the general inability of people to imagine that there are other people out there who don’t have exactly the same information… true or false… that they do. it seems to me to be a Sign of our times. In your case it was probably just not having the tenth grade writing teacher that i had.
and, yes, i was suggesting that we do it better in Oregon. not as a way of putting you down, but as a way of suggesting you could do it better even in Massachusetts.
I live in Sussex County, Delaware. Although Christine O’Donnell (of I’m not a witch, I’m you fame) ran well in this county and actually got slightly more than 40% of the total votes in the state, she was defeated as was Glenn Urquhart, the Republican Tea Party candidate running to take Michael Castle’s seat in the House. Castle was the fellow Republican who went down in defeat to O’Donnell in the primary, a very unexpected outcome here in Delaware. So the upshot is that the state has two Democratic Senators which is no change and a Democratic representative which is rather a big change. Mike Castle has been the representative for a long time.
As far as I could tell, most of the campaigning revolved around taxes and big government and misspending of ‘our’ money. There was far less talk about ‘values’ this time around. The amount of money spent on the campaigns meant that I got an amazing number of robocalls. I really wonder at the efficacy of this as a campaign tactic. Don’t most people simply hang up, if they take the call at all? Or am I being naive, and the hoped-for effect is to annoy you so much you decide not to vote for whoever is calling you at such an inconvenient time and so often??
Here are two takes on the election that all should enjoy, one amusing, Alexander Cockburn, and one a bit more serious from Franklin Spinney, both on the Counterpunch site, http://counterpunch.org/ Alternative poiints of view from the left of center perspective will do you all some good.
It should interest some of you to know that Orszag is at it again and right on the heels of the changes that have taken place in the Congress. Social Security reform is now possible, according to Mr. Orszag, and of course essential. The evidence of hhis ignorance, or duplicity, is his faith in the integrity of, “Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the co-chairs of the fiscal commission due to report at the beginning of December, have both expressed a desire to restore solvency to Social Security. And Republican leaders have previously expressed a willingness to tackle the issue too.” The entire column, which gives no specifics beyond refence to Orszag’s previous recomendations, is here: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/saving-social-security/?hp. Please go over and drop Peter a word or two.
Taxes help to keep the ratio of investment money to consumption money at the optimum value for maximum economical growth. Too little consumption money leads to unemployment and a downward spiralling economy. Too much investment money leads to wild speculation and boom and bust. We need to get the top tax rate back up to 90% and get the top inheritance tax rate to 90%.
just in case the new congress is reading this, i need to say that i think taxes are to pay the country’s bills. using them to “manage the economy for maximum growth” is a suckers game. at some point… which we are not near… there might be some question whether further taxes and spending will be counterproductive, just as there might be a point at which less taxes and spending will be counterproductive, but within a wide range, looking for that sweet spot is a delusion. just decide what the country needs and can pay for and the economy will take care of itself.
nor am i fond of “soak the rich” tax policies. the rich, bless their little hearts, think they earned their money and don’t like to have it taken away from them. it does turn out that they have essentially all the money in the economy not needed for day to day survival, so the burden of taxes will fall most heavily on them. no injustice there, they are still rich after paying their taxes, and they get most of the benefit out of living in a well regulated country. but the idea we should confiscate their ill-gotten gains smells pretty bad to most people, not only the rich. i hate it when the poor are just as greedy as the rich. they really ought to know better.
To be elected does a conservative black republican running for a major political office need to run in a white district? Allen West won the FL 22nd Congressional district and Tim Scott in South Carolina’s 1st congressional district were elected in largely white districts. Both districts are 82% and 75% white.
MD’s 4th and 5th congressional districts are 57% and ~40-45% black. Both distrrictrs ran black republican candidates, Broadus and Lollar, respectively. Broadus ran against a black female incumbent and Lollar ran against Steny Hoyer, currently Democratic majority leader. Neither received more than 18% of the core black democratic areas.
Allen West received well over 50% of the votes in his predominantly white Florida district. Tim Scott, however, won over 65% of the votes cast in a crowded ballot with five contenders in his predominantly white South Carolina district.
One possible explanation is that President Obama visited MD in the last days of the elections. The visit may have influenced the democratic voters in MD. Where in other races his visits may have had a lesser impact.
Conservative muscles are being flexed. Boehner promised that the Healthcare Bill would never, never, never be implemented. Obama, has a list of legislative goals for the interim session. #1 is passage of the continuation of the Bush tax cuts. What form that takes will again depend on how muscular the Repubs want to be. Boehner also promises to defund any action to move prisoners from Guantanamo to the US.
All of this just within the first 48 hours of the election.
AS is correct, but he forgets that the rate of change will be less than it is today! Let me add that the rate will be showing a clear path to a surplus within a few months/years.
AS is correct, but he forgets that the rate of change will be less than it is today! Let me add that the rate will be showing a clear path to a surplus within a few months/years and no deficits as far as the eye can see.
Let me make this prediction. The economy will be in full recovery and revenues will be up with Fed spending capped at a rate below recovery gain. This was the Bush formula in 2005-2008 that every unthinking voter was unable to recognize because of the democratic media hype re: the then slowing deficit increases.
It will be interesting to hear what Obama, Pelosi, and Reid say tomorrow.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tonight rejected numerous polls predicting a Republican landslide among House candidates and defiantly predicted that Democrats will retain control of the House of Representatives.
“The early returns and overwhelming number of Democrats who are coming out – we’re on pace to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives,” Pelosi told reporters during a photo op in Washington.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/vote-2010-election-results-republicans-seize-control-house/story?id=12003639
Poll Closing Times across the nation
http://abcnews.go.com/politics/2010_elections/page?id=10476449
House, Senate, Governor elections results displayed on a map (continuously updated)
and
Poll Closing Times across the nation
http://abcnews.go.com/politics/2010_Elections/page?id=10476449
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tonight rejected numerous polls predicting a Republican landslide among House candidates and defiantly predicted that Democrats will retain control of the House of Representatives.
“The early returns and overwhelming number of Democrats who are coming out – we’re on pace to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives,” Pelosi told reporters during a photo op in Washington.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/vote-2010-election-results-republicans-seize-control-house/story?id=12003639
Now will he fire Geithner?
Rusty,
Tim has friends in High Places:
Sometimes, usually on Tuesdays, God gets bored. This is when he does his polling. Naturally, God is able to read everyone’s mind simultaneously. This only takes a minute or two and He finds the results very useful in planning natural disasters. These are of course for thinning purposes.
This past Tuesday God decided to analyze economists due to the number of complaints He has received lately (profane blasphemies). What God decided to check for in this particular poll was whether there were any economists who actually believed, genuinely, that the US Government was not devaluing the dollar intentionally. God has a fondness for the ‘almighty dollar’ and so… He had been following this issue on CNN.
As it turned out, when God looked into the minds of all economists there was only one exception: Tim Geithner. This meant that a natural disaster would be unnecessary and so this pleased God, natural disasters are not as easy as some might think. And so, being relieved, He decided to give Tim a second chance. God then looked into Tim’s mind exclusively. Fortunately for Tim, God discovered that the Economist Geithner was merely repeating the words: “The US is not deliberately devaluing the dollar”, over and over again. Which is exactly as he had been instructed to do by Ben Bernanke; and what Tim had done each morning before reporting for duty for the past few weeks. Tim knows full well not to make Ben Bernanke angry.
God pitied Geithner-the-Economist but mostly God was concerned about the almighty dollar, but He couldn’t remember if the words IN GOD WE TRUST were still in play or not, and He remembered that there had been some related controversy, so, having more important things to do, God decided to let it all go. “Economists”, He said while shaking his head in disgust, “I should probably deal with them the next time they congregate in some comprehensive way.” And for a moment He considered checking His weather plan for Jackson Hole and for Davos but then He noticed what time it was. It was 10:00am and God cursed thunderously for not having accomplished anything of substance that morning, and, as a result of the thunder, there was some minor flooding in one of the areas inhabited by Heathens. God glanced down and saw people scrambling for high ground and this amused God for a fleeting moment, and this took God’s mind off of economics and all was good again. Then God turned on His gigantic TV and watched His favorite morning programs.
Read Geithner’s bio. Kissinger Assocs, IMF and Federal Reserve. He is in the heart of the most powerful eco/political players on the planet. I can’t find any clear explanation as to why he had been annointed for his role given a not too wealthy personal background. Maybe that’s good planning on the part of those, like Kissinger, that sit in the bowels of power. Who is elected seems not to be significant. Peterson, Kissinger et al since the days of Nixon have found a new and personally more rewarding way to combine politics with individual wealth development. They remain in control of key decision making organizations and propagandist publicity mills. Obama, Boehner, Geithner, etc, they only do what is expected of them.
Well, my guy lost. Big! My prior prediction was for, IIRC, 70+ House wins and the Senate to stand at 48R, 50D and 2I. Those seem somewhat reasonable, albeit a little high. My surprise prediction also lost. Hoyer won handily.
Never. He’s going to compromise more. Neville Chamberland, part deux.
MG,
Why are the Dems keeping her around? Is she that delusional??
Islam will change
I’m interested in hearing the view in other states about whether the election results in their own states were good or bad ones from their perspective.
Results in Massachusetts were about what I’d hoped for. I voted for question 3 on principle, but it failed to pass (not a shock, the backer of that question has been putting tax repeal questions on ballots for years and hasn’t succeeded on their own question once yet, question 1 was backed by distillers and retailers). Question 2 going down is a good win, especially at the margin it took. I’m actually surprised that the number of people answering that question was so high. The questions on the Massachusetts ballot are summaries of the legislation proposals written by the AG, and the SUMMARY on this issue was half a page long on the ballot (add another half page for the Spanish translation that showed up at least in my neighborhood), and the summary read like the executive summary in a legal journal article, very high grade level needed for comprehension IMHO. Total respondents for 2 (change state laws permitting single permits for housing projects that have affordable housing units but requiring that when there are project cost overruns, the developer must still provide those affordable units; 2,069,402 from the Globe website) were lower than for 1 (put alcohol back on the sales tax exclusion list with food and clothing under a luxury limit among other items; 2,133,610) or for 3 (reduce sales tax rate from 6.25% to 3% or the lowest rate above 3% permissible by law and bond covenants; 2,162,342). The high response on 3 is a testament to the get out the vote activities on behalf of schools and other local services that would have had big problems if local aid was cut in the state budget (which it would have had to be, so they would have needed to fill those budgets some other way, probably a lift on local property tax restrictions, and the necessary rate hikes might have made them impossible to pass at town meetings or local elections).
Patrick’s overwhelming win is pretty staggering, I was sure he was dead in the water six months ago. He even carried western towns that Coakley failed in last January (because she didn’t run a proper campaign). His team worked tirelessly to get him reelected, and it was an amazing feat in such tough economic and budgetary times.
WBUR (NPR radio affiliate) had a great quip at the end of a story this morning that Massachusetts voters were still willing to tolerate taxes and government regulation, but that they needed a drink, and wanted it to be tax-free.
Republicans picked up very little in the state legislature. Their four senate seats (10%) included three unopposed candidates and an incumbent. They picked up some house seats, but no where near enough to be much of an influence on legislation. The key battles will still be intraparty duels between the governor’s ideals and the priorities of the leaders of the house and senate.
Biggest issues for the next year for me personally are non-citizen immigrant access to MassHealth, resort casino gaming (for it, I live in Orient Heights and Suffolk Downs is a proposed site, we can use the jobs especially after Wonderland in Revere shut down), and mail order alcohol from out-of-state (for it, allowing import by mail is becoming a national trend, and it is nice to be able to support American wineries and distilleries around the country instead of just those in my backyard, seems like there isn’t much opposition, but the bill has was sitting unscheduled in the senate for a while, they had bigger fish to fry).
Goodwin
i find it amusing that you just assume the rest of us will know what you are talking about. surely not all of us are political junkies and know what question three on the massachusetts ballot is.
but solipsism is after all the issue in this election.
i would also note that in oregon the ballot summaries are written in legalese… has to be that way. but usually there are groups arguing for or against an issue that “explain” what they think it means to you. i think you have no excuse not to understand, even if only by comparing the lies of the different sides.
then of course, if you were an intelligent voter… which the Republic relies on your not being… you could have researched the issue and found out what it meant.
I did explain what question 3 was further in the post. The Massachusetts official website is also required by law to post summaries written for and against each question on the ballot by partisans.
Question 2 was not widely discussed in the runup to the election, the media coverage was mostly on Q1 and Q3, as a result, I was surprised that more people didn’t just skip the question having not expected it on the ballot. It was, in my experience, unusually long and complicated reading for a ballot question in this state.
The link following has the text as it appeared on the ballot:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepip10/pip102.htm
The partisan arguments for the question appear at the bottom of this page:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/ele10/ballot_questions_10/quest_2.htm
If I recall, Oregon also has all mail-in ballots, so you get time to read, consider, re-read, reconsider, sleep on it, re-read, reconsider, and then finally make a decision. Many people try to stay informed via the media and if there is inadequate coverage of a question, they end up reading and puzzling it out in the ballot box.
If you want to be a dick about it, that’s your right though.
Goodwin
I am feeling a bit dickish about it.
I don’t know that it’s the mail in ballot as much as the voters guide which we still get in spite of efforts to save taxpayer dollars by not printing it, and leaving us to rely on the ever so reliable media.
my point about solipsism was not directed at you personally… though feel free to volunteer… as it was at the general inability of people to imagine that there are other people out there who don’t have exactly the same information… true or false… that they do. it seems to me to be a Sign of our times. In your case it was probably just not having the tenth grade writing teacher that i had.
and, yes, i was suggesting that we do it better in Oregon. not as a way of putting you down, but as a way of suggesting you could do it better even in Massachusetts.
I live in Sussex County, Delaware. Although Christine O’Donnell (of I’m not a witch, I’m you fame) ran well in this county and actually got slightly more than 40% of the total votes in the state, she was defeated as was Glenn Urquhart, the Republican Tea Party candidate running to take Michael Castle’s seat in the House. Castle was the fellow Republican who went down in defeat to O’Donnell in the primary, a very unexpected outcome here in Delaware. So the upshot is that the state has two Democratic Senators which is no change and a Democratic representative which is rather a big change. Mike Castle has been the representative for a long time.
As far as I could tell, most of the campaigning revolved around taxes and big government and misspending of ‘our’ money. There was far less talk about ‘values’ this time around. The amount of money spent on the campaigns meant that I got an amazing number of robocalls. I really wonder at the efficacy of this as a campaign tactic. Don’t most people simply hang up, if they take the call at all? Or am I being naive, and the hoped-for effect is to annoy you so much you decide not to vote for whoever is calling you at such an inconvenient time and so often??
Here are two takes on the election that all should enjoy, one amusing, Alexander Cockburn, and one a bit more serious from Franklin Spinney, both on the Counterpunch site,
http://counterpunch.org/ Alternative poiints of view from the left of center perspective will do you all some good.
It should interest some of you to know that Orszag is at it again and right on the heels of the changes that have taken place in the Congress. Social Security reform is now possible, according to Mr. Orszag, and of course essential. The evidence of hhis ignorance, or duplicity, is his faith in the integrity of, “Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the co-chairs of the fiscal commission due to report at the beginning of December, have both expressed a desire to restore solvency to Social Security. And Republican leaders have previously expressed a willingness to tackle the issue too.” The entire column, which gives no specifics beyond refence to Orszag’s previous recomendations, is here: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/saving-social-security/?hp. Please go over and drop Peter a word or two.
Jack,
I couldn’t find a way to drop Peter a word. I have a feeling he doesn’t take input from low lifes like me.
Taxes help to keep the ratio of investment money to consumption money at the optimum value for maximum economical growth. Too little consumption money leads to unemployment and a downward spiralling economy. Too much investment money leads to wild speculation and boom and bust. We need to get the top tax rate back up to 90% and get the top inheritance tax rate to 90%.
peter john
just in case the new congress is reading this, i need to say that i think taxes are to pay the country’s bills. using them to “manage the economy for maximum growth” is a suckers game. at some point… which we are not near… there might be some question whether further taxes and spending will be counterproductive, just as there might be a point at which less taxes and spending will be counterproductive, but within a wide range, looking for that sweet spot is a delusion. just decide what the country needs and can pay for and the economy will take care of itself.
nor am i fond of “soak the rich” tax policies. the rich, bless their little hearts, think they earned their money and don’t like to have it taken away from them. it does turn out that they have essentially all the money in the economy not needed for day to day survival, so the burden of taxes will fall most heavily on them. no injustice there, they are still rich after paying their taxes, and they get most of the benefit out of living in a well regulated country. but the idea we should confiscate their ill-gotten gains smells pretty bad to most people, not only the rich. i hate it when the poor are just as greedy as the rich. they really ought to know better.
To be elected does a conservative black republican running for a major political office need to run in a white district? Allen West won the FL 22nd Congressional district and Tim Scott in South Carolina’s 1st congressional district were elected in largely white districts. Both districts are 82% and 75% white.
MD’s 4th and 5th congressional districts are 57% and ~40-45% black. Both distrrictrs ran black republican candidates, Broadus and Lollar, respectively. Broadus ran against a black female incumbent and Lollar ran against Steny Hoyer, currently Democratic majority leader. Neither received more than 18% of the core black democratic areas.
Allen West received well over 50% of the votes in his predominantly white Florida district. Tim Scott, however, won over 65% of the votes cast in a crowded ballot with five contenders in his predominantly white South Carolina district.
One possible explanation is that President Obama visited MD in the last days of the elections. The visit may have influenced the democratic voters in MD. Where in other races his visits may have had a lesser impact.
Interesting times are about to happen.
Conservative muscles are being flexed. Boehner promised that the Healthcare Bill would never, never, never be implemented. Obama, has a list of legislative goals for the interim session. #1 is passage of the continuation of the Bush tax cuts. What form that takes will again depend on how muscular the Repubs want to be. Boehner also promises to defund any action to move prisoners from Guantanamo to the US.
All of this just within the first 48 hours of the election.
Interesting times are already happening.
Yes President Boehner seems very ambitious.
And I want to get my 2012 prediction in early an easy safe one: On election day 2012 the federal deficit will be larger than it is today.
AS is correct, but he forgets that the rate of change will be less than it is today! Let me add that the rate will be showing a clear path to a surplus within a few months/years.
AS is correct, but he forgets that the rate of change will be less than it is today! Let me add that the rate will be showing a clear path to a surplus within a few months/years and no deficits as far as the eye can see.
Let me make this prediction. The economy will be in full recovery and revenues will be up with Fed spending capped at a rate below recovery gain. This was the Bush formula in 2005-2008 that every unthinking voter was unable to recognize because of the democratic media hype re: the then slowing deficit increases.