Election Recap
“Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other possibilities”. – Winston Churchill
“The Democrats may have won the battle, but they have not yet lost the War”. – Me. Last night.
The results of last night’s mid-term election surprised me. My most recent post, predicting the results of the election 3 days in advance, clearly shows this. One note on my (very) Amateur Analysis; I noticed after watching election coverage for 6 hours yesterday that I made a few factual errors in my analysis. Karl Rove is the senior political advisor to President Bush, not the chairman of the RNC. Also, Democrats picked up a few seats in Clinton’s mid-term election of 1998. These weren’t the reasons that my prediction was wrong, but I want to point out the incorrect facts.
Last night was a protest vote against several things, mostly the war in Iraq. Right or wrong, the country sent a message to the Republicans. It isn’t crystal clear what the message was, but in general the message was Do Something Different.
The Democrats will make a fatal error if they interpret this message as Get Out under any circumstances. Victory is still the only acceptable circumstance. Unfortunately, the Democrats have a history of premature withdrawal (and I’m not talking about Monica’s blue dress).
The Democrats have been playing to lose the war ever since they realized that they would get no credit for winning and they would benefit if we failed to win. I really don’t know what they will do now, but I am fairly certain it will be the wrong thing. I see no indicators for them bucking this consistent track record when it comes to military adventurism. The Democrats have been wrong on every decision since WWII when it was their call to either get us in or take us out. For the record, the Republicans haven’t been much better, but their errors in judgment were usually preceded with insistence by the “loyal opposition” of the Democrats.
Fortunately, the Democrats still really have no say in how the war is conducted over the next 2 years. Congress can declare war and the Senate can ratify treaties, but the military answers to the Commander-in-Chief. They can defund the war, but that would be political suicide. Even Nancy Pelosi isn’t moonbat enough to do that.
I’m not delighted with the results of the election, but I’m also not certain it was a complete catastrophe. 2004 was a much more important election and 2008 will be even more important than that. If the Democrats only be themselves, in a brighter spotlight, for the next 2 years, they shouldn’t have control for long. Plus, several Republicans deserved to lose this election. If it weren’t for September 11th, I most certainly would have made a protest vote this year too.
Therein lies the problem with these election results. It shows that most Americans still do not recognize the threat against this country. The key political issues of the September 10th era pale in comparison to the War. There are a variety of reasons for this and we have nearly 2 years to hash them out.
I firmly believe that at least 60% of this country would vote for the party with the best plan for combating Islamic Fascism (aka the War on Terror), if they better understood the history and intentions of our enemy. 20% will vote for the party of their affiliation regardless and 20% will vote for their closest special interests. However, 60% is more than enough to dominate an election. 18 of the seats Democrats picked up last night in the House were decided by less than 5000 votes, which works out to around a 52-48 split on average.
I chose to drop out in 1996 when Clinton won his 2nd term. I had the same feeling this morning that I had a decade ago, but I’m not dropping out this time. You won’t find me working the phone banks or handing out flyers for any politician, but I intend to keep learning, and hopefully teaching, until we either win or I’m dead. I’m not sure which will come first.
“The Democrats may have won the battle, but they have not yet lost the War”. – Me. Last night.
The results of last night’s mid-term election surprised me. My most recent post, predicting the results of the election 3 days in advance, clearly shows this. One note on my (very) Amateur Analysis; I noticed after watching election coverage for 6 hours yesterday that I made a few factual errors in my analysis. Karl Rove is the senior political advisor to President Bush, not the chairman of the RNC. Also, Democrats picked up a few seats in Clinton’s mid-term election of 1998. These weren’t the reasons that my prediction was wrong, but I want to point out the incorrect facts.
Last night was a protest vote against several things, mostly the war in Iraq. Right or wrong, the country sent a message to the Republicans. It isn’t crystal clear what the message was, but in general the message was Do Something Different.
The Democrats will make a fatal error if they interpret this message as Get Out under any circumstances. Victory is still the only acceptable circumstance. Unfortunately, the Democrats have a history of premature withdrawal (and I’m not talking about Monica’s blue dress).
The Democrats have been playing to lose the war ever since they realized that they would get no credit for winning and they would benefit if we failed to win. I really don’t know what they will do now, but I am fairly certain it will be the wrong thing. I see no indicators for them bucking this consistent track record when it comes to military adventurism. The Democrats have been wrong on every decision since WWII when it was their call to either get us in or take us out. For the record, the Republicans haven’t been much better, but their errors in judgment were usually preceded with insistence by the “loyal opposition” of the Democrats.
Fortunately, the Democrats still really have no say in how the war is conducted over the next 2 years. Congress can declare war and the Senate can ratify treaties, but the military answers to the Commander-in-Chief. They can defund the war, but that would be political suicide. Even Nancy Pelosi isn’t moonbat enough to do that.
I’m not delighted with the results of the election, but I’m also not certain it was a complete catastrophe. 2004 was a much more important election and 2008 will be even more important than that. If the Democrats only be themselves, in a brighter spotlight, for the next 2 years, they shouldn’t have control for long. Plus, several Republicans deserved to lose this election. If it weren’t for September 11th, I most certainly would have made a protest vote this year too.
Therein lies the problem with these election results. It shows that most Americans still do not recognize the threat against this country. The key political issues of the September 10th era pale in comparison to the War. There are a variety of reasons for this and we have nearly 2 years to hash them out.
I firmly believe that at least 60% of this country would vote for the party with the best plan for combating Islamic Fascism (aka the War on Terror), if they better understood the history and intentions of our enemy. 20% will vote for the party of their affiliation regardless and 20% will vote for their closest special interests. However, 60% is more than enough to dominate an election. 18 of the seats Democrats picked up last night in the House were decided by less than 5000 votes, which works out to around a 52-48 split on average.
I chose to drop out in 1996 when Clinton won his 2nd term. I had the same feeling this morning that I had a decade ago, but I’m not dropping out this time. You won’t find me working the phone banks or handing out flyers for any politician, but I intend to keep learning, and hopefully teaching, until we either win or I’m dead. I’m not sure which will come first.
posted by BoiseJag at 9:59 PM
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