I’m sure the new Republican Congressional leadership will be claiming a mandate within moments. I hear that Rand Paul has already proclaimed the midterms a referendum on Hillary Clinton which is battlespace preparation if I’ve ever heard one.
Not only do I think that this election gave the Congressional Republicans a mandate I think it’s given one to President Obama, too: to work together on the people’s business.
The voters have spoken. Not that I think that either side wants to listen.
“I hear that Rand Paul has already proclaimed the midterms a referendum on Hillary Clinton which is battlespace preparation if I’ve ever heard one.”
I did happen to hear several of the guest pollsters last night speculating on results from certain counties where the Clinton’s campaigned and what it means. Candy Crowley had one of the better lines of the night observing that “the 2016 election starts tonight, in fact we are late.”
Obama is quoted as saying that he does not feel repudiated because the Senate losses were in red states. This is apparently said without irony by the man who launched his national career by giving a speech about no red and blue states, just the United States of America.
@Guarneri- yes, Candy had better get busy figuring out how she can be helpful this time around.
From Donna Brazzile on Twitter:
Thank you @SenatorReid for #THE REID RULE.
Yahoo! News has a story up about Hillary! being the big winner last night.
PD, glad my unrelenting negativity inspired. And it is NEVER wrong to vote for the hollow earth candidate. On the off chance they win they’ll be so marginalized they won’t be able to do anything.
Science, bah humbug.
I think every incumbent and every proposition on my ballot succeeded, except the Governor. And now we’ll see if a political neophyte can govern a state with a Democratic legislature he spent the campaign attacking.
Still skeptical about that pickle & lemonade….
Rand Paul is a pathetic sellout of his dad’s libertarian non-interventionism.
As the results cemented, Ron tweeted sadly ‘boots on the ground’ coming as the neocons have won.
Asked about this, Rand simply ignored the question, saying the GOP should recruit more gays blacks and Hispanics.
Rand and parasite Soros should get along well, Cold warrior big government hawk Rand voting for sanctions against Russia and appeasing the Zionist Lobby every chance he can.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-05/europe-under-threat-russia-george-soros-warns-europe-take-action-freedom-isnt-free
Query- This was a mandate, but 2008 was not? Why is that? Just FTR, I don’t really buy the whole mandate idea. Everyone who is still in office won their own election. They care about their own issues, not some “national mandate”.
Also FTR, I still think the Congress will now pass stuff too radical to get signed for the most part, with a lot of stuff getting filibustered. I suspect that the Senate Dems will remember this.
” as articulated by Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell at a GOP retreat just prior to Obama’s 2009 inauguration. Most new presidents are granted a “honeymoon.” McConnell set out to destroy the new president on Day One. He first observed that there were enough Republicans in Congress, despite their being in the minority at the time, to block Obama’s agenda “so long as we march in lockstep.” Then came the punch line:
As long as Republicans refused to follow [Obama’s] lead, Americans would see partisan food fights and conclude that Obama had failed to produce change.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/us/politics/17mcconnell.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Steve
Mandates are post-election creations. You build to it during an election by laying the groundwork for what you want to accomplish, but it actually happens after the elections are over, when you actually get to govern. Whether the Republicans actually have a mandate will be established in the next 10 months or so, when we see what they do with their majority.
As for the Republican intransigence and unwillingness to cooperate, steve is forgetting the infamous “I won” comment that the President dropped on Republicans at first opportunity. Just like he completely forgets that Obama ran up deficits that dwarfed anything Bush ran up. Bad things only count when Republicans do them.
And other than realizing I could have written in William James Myers yesterday, I’m more satisfied with my non-votes yesterday than I have been with any votes I cast in a long time.
One more thing: Given that Obama hasn’t been willing to work with members of his own party, I think the idea that he tried to reach out to Republicans and was rebuffed is a little bit of a fallacious argument. A lot of the votes were still being counted last night when the first stories came out about Reid and other Dems on the Hill being furious with Obama for his complete intransigence with them. Obviously written ahead of time, and with open comments from staffers on the Hill, it’s obvious that Dems were waiting for the chance to stab Obama in the front.
Incidentally, a couple of the reports mentioned that Reid had been holding up bills that had bi-partisan support but that would have been embarrassing to the President. It may well be that Obama starts off by showing how extreme he is by vetoing bills that have a fair amount of bi-partisan support.
Elipses, Charlie Cook made this interesting observation about Reid:
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in shielding these and other senators from having to cast tough votes, also prevented them from having the chance to break with President Obama on high-profile issues. As a result, each racked up what have been perceived as very high Obama support levels that were often used mercilessly in negative ads against them.”
I find the irony here interesting. Reid’s tactics make superficial sense, but appear to have helped doom many of the senators being shielded. Reid’s role in yesterday’s losses deserves at least as much attention as Obama’s. We’ll see if McConnell will have a national strategy for Republican Senators that give Sen. Kirk a chance for re-election in two years.
@Icepick
I rarely vote, but with a Republican controlled Senate, I may vote for Sen. Mary Landrieu. The Republican looks like he has a dead possum on his head, and I prefer looking at the female form (all shapes & all sizes). Besides, the kegstand is enough to get my vote. If she had done one herself, I would have voted for her … several times.
What can I say? I am shallow and sexist.
McConnell’s wife is surprisingly attractive isn’t she?
steve: McConnell set out to destroy the new president on Day One.
It’s called scorched earth. It happens because it works.
Ebola! Ebola! Ebola!
…: Just like he completely forgets that Obama ran up deficits that dwarfed anything Bush ran up.
Bush’s last budget had a $1.4 trillion deficit, primarily due to plunging receipts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_United_States_federal_budget
PD, that was one of the articles I saw.
And I have infinite faith in McConnell’s incompetence as majority leader.
Elipses, I don’t know, the rumblings appear to be that McConnell is the greatest political mind of our time.
PD, he made some good moves this election season. But that’s different than governing.
Reminds me of a story I once heard about Moshe Dayan. When asked to what he attributed his success as a general he responded “I fought Arabs.”
I’ve never been a fan of any of the leaders — majority or minority, D or R — in the current Congress. But, I have to admit to being encouraged by both McConnell’s acceptance speech last night, and the one he gave at the news conference today. He was plain spoken, tempered and not overly jubilant, gracious to his opponent and to the President, and seemed geared to undo the stagnation of the Reid Senate by allowing debate to commence on bills, rather than squashing them upon delivery from the House to the Senate.
I don’t know if this is simply polite political talk or if he means to act on what he said. Nonetheless, I was relieved to see the Senate go into other hands, and out of Reid’s. I hope the dems have enough wisdom to not select him for minority leader.
Sounds like Dayan had an easy path to success. McConnell had to sell his charisma to the devil behind the Piggly Wiggly.
@jan
In order for Sen. McConnell to get anything done, he will need to make deals with Democrats, and these deals will be RINO deals. I doubt the Cruz wing will have any of it, and if it gets to the president’s desk, I doubt he will sign it.
President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Reed had the attitude that “we won”. Which is properly translated as, “shut the f*ck up, and sit down.” I suspect many Republicans will have the same attitude.
Others: Please spare me your whining Wikipedia links about how it was the mean Republicans fault. Grow up, and grow a pair. I do not give a flying f*ck about your politics.
LMAO, PD!