The Lesson Learned: Palin And Limbaugh Don't Win Elections

[ordinary guy]

The Lesson of Doug Hoffman: Palin And Limbaugh Don't Win Elections















Doug Hoffman lost his election last night. He was supported by a plurality of talk radio entertainers, and a majority of former half-term governors of Alaska, but it wasn't enough. An obscure quirk of constitutional law says you also need votes from voters. This is the same cruel hurdle that tripped up three of his other biggest supporters, Gary Bauer, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani, all of whom ran for President of the United States, but failed the "getting votes" test, because everyone hates their guts.

With their help, and a million dollars from the Club for Growth, Doug Hoffman lost a part of New York State that had voted Republican since the best way to get from Albany to Buffalo was by canal.

Not bad for a first try.

Doug Hoffman didn't just have money to burn and the staunch support of Facebooking frost bunnies, Fox News and the Ghosts of Vanity Campaigns Past. He also had coots on the ground; an army of volunteers from the tea bag movement, the 9/12 Project and the fanatic anti-choice fringe. The problem was, they could shout at the polling places as loud as they wanted, and they did, but they didn't live there, so they weren't allowed to vote.

There's probably a lesson to that. Something about politics being local.

And beyond that, about the people who do live there resenting being told what to do.

Rush Limbaugh predicted that Hoffman would win. In fact, Hoffman's victory was such a foregone conclusion yesterday that Rush had already moved on to mocking Democrats spinning their loss.

[gi joe]

Apparently neither does Obama
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In 230 years the federal government of this country has NEVER required the American people to purchase any consumer item or service. There's more of that change you can believe in. Happy?

[Mary S]

This election was THE true test of the ultra conservative versus a liberal. thankfully they choose the liberal, and I heard herb say a true hero

[gi joe]

careful, you'll get dizzy
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In 230 years the federal government of this country has NEVER required the American people to purchase any consumer item or service. There's more of that change you can believe in. Happy?

[Mary S]

prove me wrong gi joe

[gi joe]

[RLK]

I'll bet good money his total vote get would be much lower if he wasn't talked up by the two of them. Besides this seat is up in 2010 anyhow and it will go red.

Nice try though
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This is the Hope era, folks. Idiocy and amateurism at its best.

[herb]

i heard the daily kos and other extreme libs were trashing the dem. don't know if that is true or not. also don't know the dems. stand on the healthcare issue or the trillion issue. if anyone has anything definite on this let me know.
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"i don't tell the truth, i tell what ought to be the truth"

[robert]

[RLK]

This has been just one of the phases of the 1,000 cuts jihad on America folks. The demorats are likely to still try and make a fast move nobody expected to force socialized medicine through
Before the celebration goes too far......COPENHAGEN looms. I expect Obama is sitting behind the scenes much amused at those that believe he and his agenda is much defeated. The globalist/demorats have thought this scenario through and this dire threat to America isn't over by a long shot. Socialized medicine is to gut America EXTERNALLY, The global enviro Treaty is to gut America from WITHOUT. The global enviro treaty will make socialized medicine look like penny annie politics in its effects to America.
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This is the Hope era, folks. Idiocy and amateurism at its best.

[Herbie]

Politics: After their rout Tuesday in key state elections, Democrats would be wise to take a lesson from history. No, we're not talking 1994, when the GOP took back Congress after two years of Clinton. We're talking 1938.

That little-remembered year during the depths of the Great Depression was one of the most edifying in electoral history. With FDR in the White House, and still very popular, a rogue Congress with radical ideas embarked on a series of legislative initiatives that helped push a recovering economy back into depression.

The result: Democrats lost 80 seats in the 1938 election, after gaining seats in 1930, 1932, 1934 and 1936.

How did this happen? As Amity Shlaes notes in her history of the Depression, "The Forgotten Man," Roosevelt believed less competition and high wages would heal the economy. Aided by Congress, he went about engineering those two things with a vengeance, trebling the size of the federal government in less than a decade.

At the time, such drastic action may have seemed warranted. Within three years of the 1929 crash, GDP had fallen nearly a third and a fourth of the U.S. work force was idle. Even so, the economy appeared to stabilize in 1934 and 1935, and in 1936, Democrats won landslides in both Congress and the presidency.

What happened next is a tale of overreach and hubris — one that holds lessons for today's Democrats.

It starts with a series of far-reaching changes to the economy that FDR initiated after entering office in 1933. They included the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which slapped new taxes on farm goods and forced prices to go higher, and the National Industrial Recovery Act, which created business cartels, set prices and imposed more than 500 "codes" governing prices, wages and workweeks.

Both the NIRA (1935) and AAA (1936) were found unconstitutional. But they set the tone for economic tinkering. In a 2007 landmark study, economists Harold Cole and Lee Ohanian calculated that without these restrictive policies, the economy would have recovered in 1936 — seven years before it actually did recover.

Conditions only got worse in 1936 and 1937. Worried about budget deficits and the possibility of inflation, the Fed contracted the money supply. As it did, the newly enacted Wagner Act raised labor costs, encouraging many companies to lay off workers. Those who still had jobs noticed that their paychecks had shrunk, as Social Security withholding kicked in for the first time ever.

The Roosevelt Democrats also unveiled a 5% tax on corporate dividends, and raised the top income tax rate to 90% from 63%.

As today, anti-business rhetoric was rife. FDR called businessmen "economic royalists." Congress imposed new taxes on corporate earnings and put more restrictions on the stock market.

By 1937, notes the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's study "Great Myths of the Great Depression," the economy had scored a first — a "depression within a depression." Real output fell in 1938 by 6%, as business investment shrank by a third.

Democrats are following the same playbook today, spending wildly, trying to raise taxes and imposing government control over vast swaths of the U.S. economy. They'd be wise to back off. If they don't, 2010 could turn into a repeat of 1938.

[ordinary guy]

Right-wing big mouth talkers go down in defeat in NY congressional race







Right-wing media figures enthusiastically endorsed and boosted the failed Conservative Party candidacy of Doug Hoffman in the race to fill a vacant seat in New York's 23rd Congressional District, with several of them hosting Hoffman on their radio or television shows. Media figures who boosted Hoffman include Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Huckabee, Michelle Malkin, and Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com.





Sean Hannity to Hoffman: "I hope I'm on the air this time tomorrow night and I'll be able to declare you the winner." On November 2, Hannity hosted Hoffman, former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) and Jeri Thompson, who said, "[W]e haven't won yet. So everybody's got to get out to the polls. We've got to vote tomorrow, vote, vote, vote, vote. Vote in Virginia, vote in New Jersey, and vote in New York-23." Moments later, Hannity said to Hoffman: "I think this is a referendum on a lot of what's been going on in the country, which is moving radically to the left. And I think this election is going to be watched. I hope I'm on the air this time tomorrow night and I'll be able to declare you the winner."

Glenn Beck to Hoffman: "You seem like the kind of person that we need in Washington." Hosting Hoffman on the radio on November 2, Beck said: "I like you. You seem like a normal guy. You seem like a nice guy. You seem like the kind of person that we need in Washington, which is just a regular person."

"Mr. Independent" Lou Dobbs declared NY-23's Hoffman "change I can believe in." On November 2, Dobbs said to Hoffman, "You know what's the great -- what the great thing is about the Dem -- the Conservative candidate running for Congress, Doug Hoffman? He's neither a professional politician; he's a guy who's just disgusted with the system, turns out he's an accountant." Moments later, Dobbs added: "It's hard to believe, but it looks like he just might win. Now this is change I can believe in. If we can get some accountants, and teachers, and carpenters, and some plumbers, and some electricians, some truck drivers, some people who know how to work for a living in this country, I think I'm going to be one of the happiest guys in the entire nation."

Rush Limbaugh: We can say Scozzafava is "guilty of widespread bestiality; she has screwed every RINO in the country." Discussing former Republican candidates Dede Scozzafava's endorsement of Hoffman's opponent, Bill Owens, Limbaugh said: "Scozzafava has screwed every RINO [Republican in Name Only] in the coun -- we can say that she's guilty of widespread bestiality. She has screwed every RINO in the country. Everyone can see just see how phony and dangerous they are. You know, 2010 might be a nightmare for PETA. Two animals may become extinct; RINOs and Blue Dog Democrats. Pelosi's gonna kill off the Blue Dogs, and the conservatives are gonna finally get rid of RINOs. The American people have had enough."

Breitbart's BigGovernment.com: "New York 23: When a nation calls." Breitbart's website BigGovernment.com posted a piece written by stlouisteaparty.com editor Bill Hennessy titled "New York 23: When a Nation Calls." The post discussed people who had traveled across the country to volunteer for Hoffman and gave people tips on how to help Hoffman themselves




... what have we learned from this






.

[gi joe]

[herb]

you're getting to be a real comic gijoe. i'm getting jealous. anyway og, all that spinning is going to make you dizzy. you lost big time, realize that and make adjustments to your agenda accordingly. blindly shouting, like pelosi, we won, we won, is a recipe only for further losses. i give you this advice as a friend. btw, glen is in the hospital i heard. that should be worth a thread or two.
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"i don't tell the truth, i tell what ought to be the truth"

[ordinary guy]

and the winner is...



Democrat Bill Owens New York's 23rd Congressional District





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