House Voters Progress Backward.

Voters across the country have put a rubber-stamp on Obama's socialist economic policies when they elected Democrat Bill Owens defeated Conservative teabagger nutbag Doug Hoffman in NY-23 despite the support of Republican luminaries such as Fred Thompson, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (and the fact that a Democrat hasn't represented that district since the 1800s. Literally!). Meanwhile, voters in California elected Democrat John Garamendi to represent the 10th district in an open race. This represented a clean Democratic sweep of every single House race up for grabs this election day. Incredible!

I personally think this might reflect, for people who are eligible to vote for members of the House of Representatives at least, frustration with Republican attempts to stop democrats from enacting heath care reform, cap and trade and economic reform to help ordinary folks.

Kinky.

Overall a wash tonight, with two Democrats picking up House seats and two GOPers winning gubernatorial races - although no doubt the split will somehow be framed as 'a harsh rebuke of Obama.'

I was most interested and most emotionally invested in the Maine referendum on gay marriage, where unfortunately it seems at the moment that marriage equality is in danger of suffering another narrow loss, although results are still incoming.

Oh bummer. It turns out that the Democratic win here was actually a "huge" Conservative victory.

My mistake everyone! Sorry.

Soooooo don't want to talk about this. Ugh.

Bloomberg's win in NYC was shockingly close.

and so the GOP gets further and further away from reality. Can't see how this helps them. Denying reality only works to enthuse the faithful. I suppose they might be hoping that disillusionment with Obama's "failures" will mean small turn outs at the mid terms.

"The faithful" is LITERALLY the only people left who will call themselves Republican in public. They aren't on a quest to win elections, they're on a quest for ideological purity.

And I say: best of luck to them!

I think it has less to do with larger national issues and is more of a "fuck you" to the "Republicans" who stuck their national noses in a local election. When the Conservative candidate doesn't even live in or know jack shit about the district he's running in it's a bad sign. When the people endorsing him are obviously doing it to further their own goals it certainly doesn't help.

A few things: As silly as Hoffman's ideas were, I will say that it's my understanding that Hoffman used to live in the district but was at least somewhat recently gerrymandered out of it. IIRC he lives 10 miles outside the (heavily gerrymandered) district, so it's not like he's Hillary Clinton or Alan Keyes here.

Secondly, this election in truth means almost nothing about national politics. I'm just piling onto the mound of stupid that is SergeantPsycho's abortion of a thread.

The living outside the district thing seems less important than the "not knowing dick about what's actually going on there". The one interview I heard with him seemed to indicate that he didn't know a single important issue going on in the district he was foolishly hoping to represent. Having bullshit opinions about national politics is okay if you're running for national office. Doesn't really help when a pothole needs fixed or a town needs new road signs.

That said, I think it's fantastic that the conservative wankfest has led to a Democratic victory in a district that has been Republican friendly for over a hundred years.

This is great!

Now come spend money in Ohio's casinos!!!

Fun times in Cleveland today! STILL CLEVELAND!!!

"We're not Detroit!"

aaaaand.....you can probably pick up tickets real cheap to see our professional football team.....

Sounds like somebody needs a hug. XD

Looking at the NY-23 numbers, i'm impressed that a third party candidate got that close. Not bad, actually.

HA!

You guys have a football team?

They do, but I wouldn't call them very professional.

Not necessarily, it could provide an indicator for the 2010 elections. It might make some in our political establishment stand up, take notice, and act in ways they have already been acting.

Hoffman had nearly every bit of the Republican party machinery behind him in a district where being from the Democratic party has been toxic for over a century. He was not a typical third party candidate.

Make no mistake, this is a TOTAL AND COMPLETE rebuke of everything that you (as a self-professed conservative or libertarian or whatever the hell you claim to be but really aren't) stand for. Sorry dude. Science.

i wouldn't call that football

There's also this.

ipso facto, QED, res ipsa loquiter... EVERYONE LOVES THEM SOME SOCIALISM.

I got dizzy from the spin.

So Sarah Palin is political poison now?

What do you mean NOW?