This is probably good news for the Democrats, strangely enough. Stupak was going to be a top priority target in the next election, then couple the factors of Stupak being in an R+3 district in a Republican-leaning environment with the massive hatred by pro-life voters who would normally support him, and you’ve got all the ingredients for the sort of high-profile clobbering the Democrats would very much like to avoid.
They’ll almost certainly lose the seat, but this was the best way for it to happen.
The first of the next wave of Dems to decide against running in 2010.
In my corner of the country, Stupak is like our very own Ben Nelson where actions speak louder than words and in name only a “conservative” Democrat and “advocate for pro life”.
I’m still saying Nelson will decide not to run in 2012 for the landscape in Nebraska is ugly for him. We are a tolerant people to a fault but play us for a fool and we will never forget.
rodneysays
I think as Serenity said: it’s much better for Nancy to push him out now than to give a major boost to the opposition in having him fail. ANY Dem running now stands a better chance in that seat. I hope they put the polish on Benishek ASAP! He seems a good guy and likely communicates well one-on-one (he’s a physician), but his on camera delivery and interactions in groups or with distractions about…is lacking.
Gene in Pennsylvaniasays
Liberal Democrats are such chickens. Instead of facing the wrath of voters, explaining their unpopular beliefs and votes, they QUIT.
Dodd was gonna get hammered in CT, Stupack in MI, look for Reid to quit in NV before he loses in a landslide. Chickens….good riddance.
This is the Democrat strategy to RETAIN control of congress. They are already working to change the narrative from an “anti-Democrat” year to an “anti-incumbent” year.
Call it the Lautenberg strategy. At-risk Democrats are retiring left and right so that the party can run a fresh NEW candidates the way Democrats replaced unpopular New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg on the ballot with John Corzine and kept control of that senate seat instead of losing to Republicans.
Notice also the press has already stopped talking about anger at Democrats and is instead talking about anti-incumbent anger.
Look at it this way. If 2010 is an anti-Democrat year, then Democrats lose every race in a landslide. IF however, they can succeed in convincing Americans that INCUMBENTS are the problem, convince people that Washington is the problem, not Democrats, then Democrat challengers can beat Republican incumbents, painting them as part of the problem. And Democrats instead of losing in a landslide, pick up a bunch of Republican seats and perhaps even retain control of congress.
But it’s worse than that.
At-risk Democrats are retiring ON PURPOSE, so that the party can run fresh new “outsiders” and retain as many seats as possible, and retain control of both the house and senate.
This is also why, as they have made clear, they plan to run against Bush. Polls show a plurality of Americans still wrongly blame Bush for the economy. And conveniently for Democrats, our incompetent leaders never did anything to correct or combat that lie.
So while in these at-risk seats, BOTH the Democrat and the Republican candidates will be fresh new faces, Democrats will be saying that Republicans got us into this mess, and if you re-elect Republicans, they’ll just do it all over again.
Its a very devious strategy, and it may very well work to keep the congress in Democrat hands. If that happens, America is done.
Republicans need to RECOGNIZE the Democrat strategy immediately and come up with a plan to counter it.
I would start by running some “are you better off than you were” ads to set the record straight — reminding people that when Republicans lost control of congress to Democrats in 2006, and handed it over to them in January of 2007, the economy was GROWING and continued to grow for another year. That it wasnt until Democrats had been in power for a full year, promising to end the Bush tax cuts, promising additional tax hikes, promising massive new regulation that caused the economy to grind to a halt and go into recession a FULL YEAR after they took control. And remind voters that it wasn’t until Democrats had controlled congress for TWO YEARS that the financial crisis happened, and that Democrats blocked Republicans attempted reforms that would have prevented that crisis.
It would also help to point out that under Republicans the GAO said the defecit was DECLINING and was on track to be eliminated by 2012, and that the only reason the defecit went back UP in the 2008 budget is because Democrats in congress were so sure of victory that they HELD the budget over so Obama could sign it instead of Bush vetoing it.
But Republicans better get their act together quick, cus they clearly dont, and Democrats are way ahead of them in strategy.
Just to make myself clear, the one thing Republicans MUST do is remind Americans that the reason things aren’t getting better is because the party that controlled congress when everything went to hell is STILL RUNNING CONGRESS.
This is THE most essential point of this election, because the American people dont understand that fact.
If Democrats can continue to convince enough people that Republicans are to blame, they may very well retain control of congress. At the very least they will keep their losses to a minimum.
The same polls that show a plurality blames Bush for the economy proves that Americans dont understand that Democrats were in charge since a year before the economy crashed.
Ooops! I got my names wrong! It was Lautenberg that Democrats picked to replace the unpopular Torriceli. I was worried I was getting that wrong and sure enough I did.
Thanks. I think its vital that Republicans understand it, and right now, I dont see any evidence that they do.
Republicans seem to have no strategy whatsoever, and are flying by the seat of their pants. If they dont get their act together, the Democrat strategy will work and may even work well enough for them to keep control of the house.
Anon387823says
The Stupak debacle means there are no true Pro-Life Democrats. There is no advantage for the Democrats no matter how you ratonalize their chances for the next election.
Im not necessarily talking about an “advantage”. I’m talking about the difference between Republicans winning enough seats to take over the house and winning a lot of seats but falling just short of taking over the house.
There is no question Republicans are going to make gains. But if we are ever going to stop Obamacare, if we are ever going to stop the rest of the radical left Obama agenda we MUST take back control of at least one house of congress. This is how Democrats are going to try to prevent that from happening. (that and massive election fraud)
Yahoo! That is why he changed his vote, he had already decided to leave
Hope Bart got that job with the Obama administration in writing…
This is probably good news for the Democrats, strangely enough. Stupak was going to be a top priority target in the next election, then couple the factors of Stupak being in an R+3 district in a Republican-leaning environment with the massive hatred by pro-life voters who would normally support him, and you’ve got all the ingredients for the sort of high-profile clobbering the Democrats would very much like to avoid.
They’ll almost certainly lose the seat, but this was the best way for it to happen.
Good. Worth every penny I donated to the Republican what’s-his-name to see Stupak tuck tail and run like the lying SOB he is.
The first of the next wave of Dems to decide against running in 2010.
In my corner of the country, Stupak is like our very own Ben Nelson where actions speak louder than words and in name only a “conservative” Democrat and “advocate for pro life”.
I’m still saying Nelson will decide not to run in 2012 for the landscape in Nebraska is ugly for him. We are a tolerant people to a fault but play us for a fool and we will never forget.
I think as Serenity said: it’s much better for Nancy to push him out now than to give a major boost to the opposition in having him fail. ANY Dem running now stands a better chance in that seat. I hope they put the polish on Benishek ASAP! He seems a good guy and likely communicates well one-on-one (he’s a physician), but his on camera delivery and interactions in groups or with distractions about…is lacking.
Liberal Democrats are such chickens. Instead of facing the wrath of voters, explaining their unpopular beliefs and votes, they QUIT.
Dodd was gonna get hammered in CT, Stupack in MI, look for Reid to quit in NV before he loses in a landslide. Chickens….good riddance.
I guess he’s not counting on that wave of support to materialize like Nancy Pelosi promised.
It’ll be interesting to watch for the payoff he’ll receive in the next several weeks for his desertion of principles.
Actually, this isnt good news.
This is the Democrat strategy to RETAIN control of congress. They are already working to change the narrative from an “anti-Democrat” year to an “anti-incumbent” year.
Call it the Lautenberg strategy. At-risk Democrats are retiring left and right so that the party can run a fresh NEW candidates the way Democrats replaced unpopular New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg on the ballot with John Corzine and kept control of that senate seat instead of losing to Republicans.
Notice also the press has already stopped talking about anger at Democrats and is instead talking about anti-incumbent anger.
Look at it this way. If 2010 is an anti-Democrat year, then Democrats lose every race in a landslide. IF however, they can succeed in convincing Americans that INCUMBENTS are the problem, convince people that Washington is the problem, not Democrats, then Democrat challengers can beat Republican incumbents, painting them as part of the problem. And Democrats instead of losing in a landslide, pick up a bunch of Republican seats and perhaps even retain control of congress.
But it’s worse than that.
At-risk Democrats are retiring ON PURPOSE, so that the party can run fresh new “outsiders” and retain as many seats as possible, and retain control of both the house and senate.
This is also why, as they have made clear, they plan to run against Bush. Polls show a plurality of Americans still wrongly blame Bush for the economy. And conveniently for Democrats, our incompetent leaders never did anything to correct or combat that lie.
So while in these at-risk seats, BOTH the Democrat and the Republican candidates will be fresh new faces, Democrats will be saying that Republicans got us into this mess, and if you re-elect Republicans, they’ll just do it all over again.
Its a very devious strategy, and it may very well work to keep the congress in Democrat hands. If that happens, America is done.
Republicans need to RECOGNIZE the Democrat strategy immediately and come up with a plan to counter it.
I would start by running some “are you better off than you were” ads to set the record straight — reminding people that when Republicans lost control of congress to Democrats in 2006, and handed it over to them in January of 2007, the economy was GROWING and continued to grow for another year. That it wasnt until Democrats had been in power for a full year, promising to end the Bush tax cuts, promising additional tax hikes, promising massive new regulation that caused the economy to grind to a halt and go into recession a FULL YEAR after they took control. And remind voters that it wasn’t until Democrats had controlled congress for TWO YEARS that the financial crisis happened, and that Democrats blocked Republicans attempted reforms that would have prevented that crisis.
It would also help to point out that under Republicans the GAO said the defecit was DECLINING and was on track to be eliminated by 2012, and that the only reason the defecit went back UP in the 2008 budget is because Democrats in congress were so sure of victory that they HELD the budget over so Obama could sign it instead of Bush vetoing it.
But Republicans better get their act together quick, cus they clearly dont, and Democrats are way ahead of them in strategy.
Just to make myself clear, the one thing Republicans MUST do is remind Americans that the reason things aren’t getting better is because the party that controlled congress when everything went to hell is STILL RUNNING CONGRESS.
This is THE most essential point of this election, because the American people dont understand that fact.
If Democrats can continue to convince enough people that Republicans are to blame, they may very well retain control of congress. At the very least they will keep their losses to a minimum.
The same polls that show a plurality blames Bush for the economy proves that Americans dont understand that Democrats were in charge since a year before the economy crashed.
Ooops! I got my names wrong! It was Lautenberg that Democrats picked to replace the unpopular Torriceli. I was worried I was getting that wrong and sure enough I did.
AE:
Hey, thanks for cheering us all up! 😉
Seriously, though, yours is an excellent point to raise. And I think I have an idea for a strategy the GOP can use to counter this:
Remind voters that any Democratic Representative’s first vote in Congress is to make Nancy Pelosi (favorability rating, 11%) Speaker of the House.
Thanks. I think its vital that Republicans understand it, and right now, I dont see any evidence that they do.
Republicans seem to have no strategy whatsoever, and are flying by the seat of their pants. If they dont get their act together, the Democrat strategy will work and may even work well enough for them to keep control of the house.
The Stupak debacle means there are no true Pro-Life Democrats. There is no advantage for the Democrats no matter how you ratonalize their chances for the next election.
Im not necessarily talking about an “advantage”. I’m talking about the difference between Republicans winning enough seats to take over the house and winning a lot of seats but falling just short of taking over the house.
There is no question Republicans are going to make gains. But if we are ever going to stop Obamacare, if we are ever going to stop the rest of the radical left Obama agenda we MUST take back control of at least one house of congress. This is how Democrats are going to try to prevent that from happening. (that and massive election fraud)