There's a runoff for the U.S. Senate tonight in Georgia -- a weird vestige of the old days in the Deep South when a candidate needed 50 percent to win an election, just to make sure no trickery upset the white Democratic (in those days) power structure. And you would think the Dems might have some momentum, even in the Deep South, what with Obama's victory and his early high approval rating (until he actually, you know, does something) and the confirmation that we've been in a recession for over a year now.
But no -- it looks like Saxby Chambliss, the Republican who became a senator with vicious smears on a disabled war hero, is well on his way to keeping the seat for the GOP.
What gives? Probably several factors (I'm sure Sarah Palin, who campaigned for Chambliss, will claim some credit) but I suspect you'll find new evidence of how remarkable Obama's victory last month really was, that it was fueled by higher-than-average turnout among young voters, new voters, and among blacks and other minorities. Those are exactly the voters you would NOT expect to show up in a less publicized one-election runoff. Plus they probably weren't getting all the text messages, and what not, that they got for Obama.
The result also raises the question of why Obama didn't campaign in person for the Democrat, Jim Martin (he did record a radio ad). Clearly, Obama didn't want to risk his new prestige and campaign overtly for a possible loser. Obama, we're seeing, is not a risk-taker.
On the other hand, the Democratic push for a 60-senator "filibuster proof" majority is a greatly overhyped story. One of those 60 would have been Joe Lieberman. Do you honestly think he would vote with the Democrats on Iraq? Getting to 51 was critical for the Dems because it meant picking a majority leader and committee chairs; filibusters depend on the issue as much as the party.
Posted by Will Bunch @ 9:05 PM
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57 comments
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Isn't there a reason when any candidate wins or loses? Look, Ga. is a Republican state, yet on 11/4 Chambliss only lead by 3 points. I think Obama attracted a lot of voters who weren't motivated to turn out tonight. But I could be wrong. Maybe they just all swooned for Sarah Palin.
Rich Lowry on this so-called "smear" of Cleland: “This is trumped-up mythology based on the idea that Republicans "questioned Cleland's patriotism" in 02. …Of course, nothing remotely like this ran. The case for foul play rests on a tough anti-Cleland ad that Chambliss broadcast featuring Osama bin Laden & Saddam Hussein. The ad didn't morph Cleland into either of these figures or say that he supported them. It noted at its beginning that the United States faced threats to its security as the screen was briefly divided into four squares, with bin Laden & Saddam in two of them & the other two filled with images of the American military. It went on to explain that Cleland had voted 11 times against a homeland-security bill that would have given President Bush the freedom from union strictures that he wanted in order to set up the new department. The bill was co-sponsored by his Georgia colleague Sen. Zell Miller, a fellow Democrat. Bush discussed details of the bill personally with Cleland, & Chambliss wrote him a letter prior to running his ad urging him to support the Bush version. Cleland still opposed it, setting himself up for the charge that he was voting with liberals & the public-employees unions against Bush & Georgia common sense. If you can't criticize the Senate votes of a senator in a Senate race, what can you criticize? Throughout the race, Cleland tried to hide behind the idea that his patriotism was being questioned. A columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted in June 02 that "this 'how-dare-you-attack-my-patriotism' ploy, replete with feigned outrage...is a device to put Cleland's voting records off-limits." It didn't work. CHAMBLISS WON THE CRUCIAL ENDORSEMENT OF THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS, WHICH MADE ITS NOD ON THE BASIS OF THE TWO CANDIDATES' DIFFERING RECORDS ON NATIONAL-SECURITY & VETERANS ISSUES. THE VFW WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN COMPLICIT IN A GUTTER CAMPAIGN BASED ON SMEARING A VIETNAM VETERAN.
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I listen to Senate hearings so I am familiar with the fact that now that George Allen is out, Saxby Chambliss is the next-to-dumbest member of the U.S. Senate (think Bunning), so I was disappointed but not surprised that he was re-elected. Obama can count votes, so of course he did not become too involved with the Georgia run-off. Besides, he is apparently quite busy in Chicago.
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"Send Biden down for a day." Oh yeah - that would have helped. I mean nothing rallys the base like an idiot making stupid gaffetastic remarks everytime he opens his mouth. Stand up Chuck!!: youtube.com/watch?v=SRV5Y1JCGRI
Why is Chambliss winning? Simple. It's GEORGIA people!!! God, gays, guns, commies, nigras, you know the deal.. Must be weird to live in a land that time forgot. Are they wearing shoes down there yet?
And you know, I'm kinda OK with Republican filibusters as long as Harry Reid and the Democratic majority actually MAKE them filibuster (instead of having a tacit "gentleman's agreement" to simply not try to push legislation if they don't have 60 votes). If the American people are forced to watch troglodyte Republican'ts like Chambliss reading the phone book on the Senate floor on the news every night, while the economy is tanking and they still can't afford to see a doctor, they'll get the message pronto and vote in a serious Democratic supermajority in 2010!
Here it is a week later and Bunch still has nothing to say about Mumbai. One of worst terror incidents since 9/11 and Bunch is silent. ////MSNBC Anchor Wonders Why Obama's Election Didn't End Terrorism - Not just drinking the Kool-Ade, but eating the concentrated powder, too: ALEX WITT: You know, John, and it’s interesting because there are many who had such an optimstic and hopeful opinion of things, and you certainly can’t expect things to change [snaps fingers] on a dime overnight, but there are many who suggested that with the outgoing Bush administration and the incoming Obama administration there would be something of a lull in terrorism attacks. There had been such a global outpouring of affection, respect, hope, with the new administration coming in, that precisely these kinds of attacks, it was thought — at least hoped — would be dampered down. But in this case it looks like Barack Obama is getting a preview of things to come. ......JOHN YANG: He’s — it’s a rude awakening, a very, sort of, sober reminder of what he’s going to be facing in just a few weeks. And there is some concern also, there had been some concern, that during this period, during this, the transition period, between Election Day and Inauguration Day, that the enemies of the United States, those who don’t care for the United States no matter who’s leading it, would try and test the United States, would try to take advantage of this period, and I think that may be one thing that we’re seeing right now.
Boy, there's a shock. Sloboat defending the smearing of an American war hero as a supporter of terrorism. Why does sloboat hate American war heroes? Oh right, it's only Democratic war heroes he hates. My bad.
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I think what Will is saying here is that young, new, and minority voters didn't come to vote because they like liberalism, or Democrat ideas, they just got caught up in the Obama hip, text-messaging personality machine. In other words personality trumps ideas.
I think that this idea that Obama didn't get more personally involved in the GA runoff because he read the political winds (and I've heard it a lot among the chattering class) might miss the mark. Maybe he didn't get more involved because he's made a conscious decision to move out of political mode and into governing mode and that means an arms length relationship with election campaigns. Imagine that, a US President who's primary focus is on governing, not just on winning elections. Now that's change I can believe in!
If you don't get behind the President Elect you are Un-American
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Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
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