(This is crossposted at my site,
http://www.brassmask.com/news.php)
Election Rundown '06
on Thursday 09 November 2006 - 12:02:40 | by Brassmask
My reactions to the elections were varied so I wanted to take a day to absorb it all and let the feelgoods sink in. Here's where I wound up.
*This is going to jump around a bit. My apologies*
The Winners
Steve Cohen - Hands down, the happiest I've been to see someone elected in Memphis ever. Total class. Played along with the Ford machine and let them hang themselves. I never heard one negative word out his mouth about his opponent (Mark White) and the loser (Jake Ford) that showed up to all the debates and made himself an ass before Memphians. While others were busily spending millions to try and make rednecks love them, Steve Cohen just came out, spoke the truth and brought people together. His last ad was probably the only advertisement by a politician that ever worked on me. I think it had something to do with the way he was actually sincere. Absolutely brilliant.
Memphis - Other than Ophelia's landslide, no surprises there, the Fords lost. Without their solid power within the local Democratic Party, it may be possible to enact change and really set Memphis on the path to political recovery and effective leadership.
Democrats - Well, that's really a no-brainer, right? The Senate and the House. Governorships across the country. Statehouses across the country. What did Bush say? "It was a thumping". Yeah, that sums it up.
Howard Dean - I had a snippet post yesterday. Rahm Emanuel is acting like he was the Democrats Karl Rove and that he did it all. But behind the MSM, there is an overall consensus that Chairman of the DNC, Howard Dean is the person who deserves nearly all the credit. His "50 State Strategy" called for Democrats to leave no seat unchallenged and it paid off. In spades. By actually targeting states like Idaho, Montana and Virginia and not just writing them off as Schumer and Emanuel wanted to do going into it, the Dems rocked the nation's vote. It will come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I think Dean hung the moon ('cause I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that, in fact, he actually DID hang it. Maybe on Wikipedia), but I really can't articulate how proud I am of his accomplishments and level-headed leadership.
The Weasels - They keep showing this clip of Schumer, Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid holding each others' hands in the air and doing a victory dance. It makes me want to vomit at times. The four of them held Dean at arm's length and actively worked to continue the lie that he was a loudmouth who didn't make policy and was indicative on the fringe left's growing power. Now, they're reaping benefits he had a huge hand in sowing. And what's they're thanks for him? Not one mention of his name that I've seen. Yesterday, The Today Show spent 8 minutes talking to a jubilant Emanuel at the top of the show.
Pelosi gets to be first woman speaker of the house. Good for her. Reid gets Majority Leader. (I think that's what it is.) Good for him. And that's if Lieberman and Sanders actually caucus with the Dems like they promised. We'll see.
Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos - The activism on that site had a huge impact on the Democrats. He called a lot of the races correctly.
Bloggers (including me) - The Ford/Corker race was the topic for me in the last few months. It boggled my mind that progressives were going to sell their souls to put a guy in office who actively decried them and held little to no consensus with them on the issues. The idea those people had was that any D was better than any R. Fair enough. The whole thing could be boiled down (and was by some of us) as Substance vs Strategy.
We all got lucky. The Dems took back the Senate without Ford. Personally, I think we all win. Those who feared not winning the Senate back because of strategy and those of us who feared that Ford would not vote with us on the important bills. Win/win. (There will be those, I'm sure, when we're done cuddling, that will say we could have had one more seat or something, butthat's neither here nor there today.)
The other win was that bloggers found that politicians, whether they will acknowledge it or not, pay attention to the buzz of the blogosphere. I remember well-known bloggers saying they would get phone calls from people about posts. That never happened to me, of course, but I know it did to others. But the fact that they do listen and get angry proves that we have influence. That's a good thing.
America - Yay, us! Bush kicks Rummy out after "thumping".
The Losers
Harold Ford, Jr - And here's why.
(5%)Racism - Do I think racism lives in TN? Of course, I do. I don't have to look any further than members of my own family. Do I think that Tennesseeans just couldn't bring themselves to vote for a "colored"? Some yes. Overall, no way.
(20%)His family - I don't know the numbers for Shelby County but I bet that HF Sr and Jake Ford shaved a lot of votes off of Jr. Racism is an ugly thing. Stupidity and ignorance are ugly. Corruption is ugly. And the idea that a seat belongs to one certain family is just crazy. Add in John Ford's corruption and you have a situation where everyone is going to be wondering Jr is like his family and they're going to watch for him to appear to be a "Ford".
Showing up at the opponent's press conference is something a "Ford" would do.
(0.5%)Progressives - I have no illusions that there is silent majority of progressives in TN who just couldn't bring themselves to bother to vote for Ford; but I do think there were some.
(4.5%)Fake Republican - I said it over and over again: "When offered a Repub and a fake Repub, Repub's will pick the real one every time. This was the major point for me but I know it wasn't for some on the left. I bet it was the decider for most Republicans in Tennesee though.
(10%)God talk - Someone pointed out that Jr would say that he was a christian all the time but then rabidly defended his going to a Playboy party. That don't play well with the Jesus freaks. Plus it makes a lot of us liberals think of how the right has used that schtick for the last six years and it sounds like Bush-talk. Yuck.
(30%)Supported Bush - He's on the tv bragging about voting for the Patriot Act (TWICE!) and then saying that he's the agent of change. He told people they needed to support Bush in the "war of terror" and as we all know, this election is shaping up to be a referendum on Bush and his war. Come on, guy.
(20%)Negative Ads - Not from Ford. No, he had agents who did it for him but not directly from him. But also, the negative ads from Corker helped some too. I really forget sometimes that there are people who actually pay attention to ads. There was a woman on the local news last night who said that she thought of a certain ad and it made her vote a certain way when she got to the screen. (sidenote - I didn't make a big deal out of it but I never considered that "Hey, Harold" ad racist. And I think it hurt Harold Ford more than it hurt Corker. The wild-eyed reaction of racism by the Dems reminded me of the way Sharpton and Jackson kind of get crazy about things to make a big deal and try to get some "hand" as Seinfeld would say.)
(10%) Hypocrisy - A lot of this is cumulative from all the other things. It kind of builds up like those percentages of pennies they talk about in Office Space. You don't really see it till it's this gigantic pile of it right in front of you.
GOP - Good enough.
"Moderates" - That's code for the conservatives/republicans who just, for whatever reason, can't make the jump to the GOP. They like Hillary. They like Lieberman. They LOVED Kerry from the get-go in '04 and they thought Howard Dean was just nuts. They believe that "The Scream" proves Dean was nuts. "Moderates" pulled for Ford and talked about being "grown ups" and they thought "strategy" in TN was more important than substance. Well, Ford lost, so what have we learned here?
We'll never know if a clearer choice between Kurita and Corker would have won the seat. Me? I'm thinking that it definitely would but what's the point of arguing it? Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Onward and upward. (yes, I know she was moderate but she wouldn't have had to fight that uphill battle of "I won't let them make me something I'm not!" and she could have gone a little left in the campaign but we're not arguing this.)
Voters - Touchscreens have to go. I check DailyKos Tuesday morning and it was lit up with reports from across the country of the things just screwing everyone. I don't know what the answer is but it ain't these things. My feelings on the election are dampened by the idea that it isn't provable. I don't trust the process implicitly. We can find a better way.
But the biggest loser of all was W - I couldn't be happier to see him having his ass handed to him.
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Personal Overview: My overall reaction is positive. The new blood coming in is exciting and the fact that the Dems are in control of one whole branch of the government makes me a little less afraid. I still have reservations about the Dems though because so many of them were lazy or afraid and didn't do enough to stop the GOP's outrages over the last few years. So, I'm a little wary and a little hopeful.
Locally, as I said, I couldn't be happier that a true progressive is going to take Ford's place in Congress. That's a personal win for me. As for Ford, I feel nothing about that race because a Republican won who was running against a fake Republican. I feel nothing.
It's been a real honor to have bloggers I respect link to my site and allowing me to participate in their comments sections even when I was at my most caustic and ineloquent. My thanks to LeftWingCracker, West TN Liberal, Freedonian, Autoegocrat, Desi Franklin, Egalia at TN Guerilla Women, PeskyFly, Brad Watkins and everyone else who inspire me to be involved by being out there blogging and actually doing stuff .
I look forward to new discussions and new campaigns and new debates and new knockdown-dragouts.
So, anyway, that's my rundown of the '06 elections. On to getting Gore RE-elected in '08*.
*(Don't start with me. I mean it. Now, LOOK! Al Gore speaks for me on nearly EVERY issue! A Gore/Dean ticket would totally rock this country's world! Shut up! He's a god. They both are! And you know it!)
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