Wednesday, June 21, 2017

I Feel Good About the Special Congressional Elections

I've seen enough of fellow Dems beating up on the usual suspects for Ossoff's loss last night in the 6th District of Georgia ... blaming Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton herownself, and of course the young whippersnapper Jon Ossoff (whose greatest sin, other than all that money, IMO, was living outside the district). But enough of all that blame.

I feel good about the four special elections we've recently witnessed ... in Kansas, Montana, Georgia, and (also last night) in South Carolina for Mick Mulvaney's vacated seat (Archie Parnell did great, coming much closer than Ossoff in the most dismally Republican district you could ever deliberately draw).

All four Democrats lost, yes, but they lost in congressional districts the like of which Democrats will not have to win in 2018 to take back the House. Those four safe Republican districts -- and dozens of others like them -- will not have to be fought in and successfully challenged for Nancy Pelosi to become Speaker of the House again (and, yes, I wish for someone new in that role).

The closeness of those four races, with previously unknown Democratic candidates coming closer than any Democrat in years -- decades, in some cases -- provides a trend line that might sober up all the Trumpettes who've been celebrating Karen Handel's win in Georgia like it totally settles the issue of Trump's drain on the Republican Party.

But puff pastry gotta puff, forgetting how wholly fragile that particular baked good tends to be.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:05 AM

    Yep! It's a real "win-win"!

    Repubs feel good because......well, we won! Despite Dems spending record money in their pathetic attempt to claim an "anti-trump" backlash....we won by a significant margin.


    And...Dems feel good because, although they are losers, they lost by smaller margins than they usually do.

    5 and 0! Yep, we have a real "win-win"!~

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  2. O Suzannah9:00 AM

    I think we just heard from the puff pastry!

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  3. bettywhite1:45 PM

    Here's a little history lesson: in 2009 and 2010, there were 7 special House elections after Obama was inaugurated. Democrats won them ALL. And then came the disaster of November 2010. Special elections are not good indicators of future success. All of the Democratic wins came in blue seats where the current office holder had gone on to another job, similar to what has happened this year. Go ahead and gloat, Anonymous! And by the way, you're calling 3- and 4-point wins a "significant" margin? Wow. Let me remind you that less than a year ago, the Republicans won those seats by double digits.

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  4. Anonymous7:56 AM

    LOL...Keep on whining! And maybe someone could bring bettywhite up to speed on what the discussion is about.

    Nobody here is claiming that the recent election results are predictive of future results. JW is gloating because Dems lost by margins less than what previous Dems lost by. I guess that is something to be proud of.

    Hey! We're number 2 and we are proud of it!

    Well, at least you came in second! You spent 30+ million dollars! Claimed the election was going to be a referendum on Trump .....and now, you change the argument to contend that second place is really some kind of victory?

    Gotta love you guys!

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  5. Anonymous9:00 AM

    Dems just demonstrate what happens when you give everybody a trophy! Second place in a 2 person race is good!

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  6. Anonymous7:54 AM

    So then, original Anon was right! It's a win-win! Repubs win the congressional seat - Dems win second place and are happy with that.

    I guess they are equally pleased about Hillary's second place finish?

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