Jim Talent summed it up in his concession speech when he said his defeat "was not for lack of effort. There was just a very, very strong headwind this year." To wit:
In Pennsylvania, about half of those who said in exit polls that they voted for Casey characterized their votes being primarily against Santorum rather than a vote for Casey. Casey also got a boost from one-third of voters who said they were angry with Bush. One-fourth of them said they were mad at GOP leaders in Congress.
Ohio voters expressed similar views. About six in 10 Brown voters said their vote was intended to register opposition to Bush. Two-thirds of Brown voters said they disapproved of the way Congress was handling its job.
All candidates had to do was oppose Bush, that's it, and that was enough. What a weird campaign season.
Things looked a lot better when I went to bed than when I woke up. Allen was up 29,000 votes in VA with 96% in, and Talent was up 61,000 votes in MO with 41% in. Those seemed like comfortable margins at the time, but it all depended on which precincts were still out.
And now the lawyers.
I was listening to The Michael Reagan Show on Monday and a caller asked Reagan a good question that Reagan did not answer well. The caller said We Americans are impatient and self-centered and have short attention spans. Just tell us what's in the Iraq War for us? What are we, America, getting out of it? Just tell us how we benefit. I agree that that has been much needed and sorely missing. The closest we have gotten is "We are taking it to the enemy there so they don't bring it to us here," and that's true, and good, but Joe Missouri doesn't see how that benefits him personally.
Which brings us back to the larger question of whether we as a nation have the will to wage war, and the returns seem to indicate that we do not, which will bring a whole new host of problems that may end up restoking our will after all. Fire safety is abstract, but putting out burning cities will require our immediate attention.
4 comments:
I guess the good news is that our new Democratic leaders will finally snuff out Osama and solve our pesky terrorism problem once and for all, and the redeployment will make Germany very safe.
Good one, E. The Dems are posed to dig their own graves if we just be quiet and let them explain their vision of America. Although they certainly didn't try that risky move in the campaign, they'll have no choice as they try to govern.
I heard Delay say this morning that it's still a conservative country, but the Republican Congress didn't govern conservatively. A year ago when Delay defended the pork laden budget by saying that there wasn't an ounce of fat left to cut out.
DeLay was the ounce of fat.
E is on a roll. Where's the rimshot?
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