Today's Elections
Posted in Elections by Peter W. Schramm
Because I was on the road yesterday I was able to listen to a lot CNN (should I curse XM radio, or praise it?) and was amazed how they spun the upcoming elections, especially focusing on the New York-23. Their main point--driven home the whole day and evening--was to try to prove the White House line that the GOP candidate "forced off the ballot" was a sign of a civil war within the party and/or already a right-wing take-over. (This
L.A. Times article is as good as any of that view.) The fact that the Republican cnadidate was actually to the left of the Dem, made no difference in their calculations, and hardly came up in conversation. The drumbeat is that the GOP is being taken over by the far right. I predict that this view will not settle into the American political psyche, especially after the defeat (by moderate Dems) of health-care as currently proposed by the Democrats.
This
New York Times article on Iowa and the "sense of disappointment" that has settled in regarding Obama may be more revealing of the true problem. The Dems will lose in Virginia and NY23, and if they can't get the vote out in NJ--where Corzine has attached himself to Obama rather explictly--then Corzine will lose and today's votes will have to be seen as a referendum on the Obama administration. This is why we don't study physics.
9:06 AM / November 3, 2009
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Totally anecdotal evidence, I understand . . . but it's difficult to imagine that it is a coincidence: at least three of my long time girlfriends who voted for Barack Obama (and surprised me in the doing of it) have now told me privately that they regret the decision and that I was completely right about him. That didn't take long.
Vote for fatso, it's important.
A "surprising number" of NJ suburban voters have not made up their minds yet, according to this NY Times report: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/nyregion/03jersey.html?_r=1&hp
There's nothing surprising about it. HUSSEIN Obama has a fake polling service that wants to find out how Americans are voting in these races. If you're dumb enough to tell them on the phone that you're voting for a Republican you get hit with an IRS audit. My advice is to get caller ID and don't answer when they call.
"The fact that the Republican candidate was actually to the left of the Dem..."
Sorry, but that's a dubious assertion, at best. This article gets into the nitty-gritty of the devilish details, and, I think, shows your assertion to be false:
https://themoderatevoice.com/50319/dede-scozzafava-the-real-record/
Thanks. I will read it.
Despite hearing for weeks that Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate, was of the far-right, he must had been acceptable to enough moderate voters for Scozzafava to look too far left for re-election. The politically centrist position in that district made her "moderation" seem too far to the left, which may be a problem for the Republican Party in many areas of the US.
Perhaps what seems like "Far Right" to some folk is merely conservative moderation to others? Happily for concerned conservatives, we could modify "others" into "many others".
"This article gets into the nitty-gritty of the devilish details, and, I think, shows your assertion to be false."
How can it do that when it doesn't say anything about Owens? My understanding is that he's a Blue Dog Democrat.
Here's another very good explanation of Scozzafava's true location on the political spectrum, quite interesting:
https://bshor.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/scozzafava-is-a-conservative-republican-in-new-york/
I can see where Scozzafava is to the left of conservatives, conservative Republicans, or even most other Republicans, but that hardly makes her left-of-center. And I can easily concede that Owens is right-of-center, but I think the evidence is slim that he's actually to the right of Scozzafava. And here I mean center as true center, not the median center of the American electorate, or the delusional center of the right-wing fringe (the Goldbergs, the Becks, etc.)...
and "...he must had been acceptable to enough moderate voters..." ???
Kate, I had to do a double-take on that one - don't you teach English???
Craig, I am sorry about the slip of the verb tense. Aside from that, I probably shouldn't grin and type at the same time on some days. Mostly, I didn't think Peter Schramm was too far off in his characterization of Scozzafava.
What the heck is the "true center" in American politics? I'll bet if any political scientist could actually define that position effectively a lot of politicians would be right on it. I'll also bet that said politicians would not win elections. Really, I think the "true center" is something like true north as in when you get there, you find you are facing the opposite direction, i.e. south. That "true center" has to be a slippery thing.
Kate, see this for a better idea of true center:
https://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008
and this:
https://www.politicalcompass.org/usstates?ak=on&az=on&il=on&ny=on
and this makes for an interesting comparison:
https://www.politicalcompass.org/canada2008
That was funny, Craig. Now pull the other one.