Before I begin this blog I want to congratulate the people of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, Missouri, New Mexico, Michigan, Maine and Illinois for having the good sense to change the folks who represent them in the U.S. Congress and their state houses. I left out states like Kentucky and Arizona because these folks already have good sense.
Yesterday’s election showed us several things, the first being the anger of the American people at the present administration. Pundits will claim this was an anti incumbent vote, but I do not agree. If it was, why did so many Democrats lose and only two Republicans were turned out? Also the most dramatic increase in Republicans was in the state houses. The Republicans now have 34 governors and some states like New Hampshire have Republican super majorities in the legislatures.
The second, and even more important, was the quality and diversity of the Republicans who won their races across the nation. Guy Benson writes in Townhall.com; ”After the 2006 midterm elections, many in the chattering class declared the GOP had been reduced to a “regional party” – white, male, and Southern. Since President Obama’s election in 2008, the Leftist mainstream media has worked diligently to paint much of the opposition to his policies as the bigoted and deranged spasms of a marginalized, racist conservative base. The tea party movement represented “racism, straight up” according to political philosopher Janeane Garofalo. Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, Eugene Robinson, and Bob Herbert practically took turns writing weekly columns slandering conservatives using flagrant race baiting, including an embarrassing election-day screed from Robinson. Chris Matthews complained that the political Right was “monochromatic” for his taste. And the Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wondered aloud how anyone of Hispanic descent could possibly be a Republican. Then came the 2010 elections.”
“The midterm election not only busted the myth that the GOP is a regional party – seeing Republican gains in the Northeast, Midwest and West – it also puts to rest the notion that Republicans are a lily white party whose base won’t embrace a diverse slate of candidates. In eight prominent contests, Republicans nominated and elected excellent candidates and fine conservatives who also happen to be people of color:
Nevada Governor – In a deliciously ironic twist, a Hispanic Republican – Brian Sandoval – defeated Rory Reid, son of the very man who suggested that people like Sandoval don’t, or shouldn’t, exist. It wasn’t close: Sandoval dominated Rory Reid and secured a double-digit victory.
New Mexico Governor – Suzanna Martinez became the first female Hispanic Governor of a US State in history – from either party. She ran a disciplined campaign, torched her opponent with one of the most devastating attack ads of the entire cycle, and won by a substantial 8-point margin.
South Carolina Governor – Overcoming nasty rumors about her religion and alleged marital infidelity, Nikki Haley became America’s second Indian-American Governor. (The other, of course, is Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, also a Republican).
SC-01 – After JC Watts retired from Congress in 2002, the House Republican caucus lost its lone African-American member. Until last night. Republican Tim Scott, a strong conservative, won the open seat in South Carolina’s first Congressional District. He pulled off this feat in the deep south, and did so in a romp – winning by approximately 35 percentage points.
FL-22 – Another black Republican was elected to the House last night: Conservative superstar Col. Allen West. The Iraq War hero handily unseated Rep. Ron Klein, who threw the kitchen sink at West, but to no avail. When this race was called, supposedly “racist” tea partiers and grassroots conservatives rejoiced across the country.
WA-03 – Jaime Herrera chose not to highlight her Hispanic origins in her battle against Democrat Denny Heck for the open seat in Washington’s third Congressional District. She ran a very strong, issues-based campaign, and won comfortably.
ID-01 – Raul Labrador, a Puerto Rico-born attorney, pulled an upset victory over incumbent Democrat Walt Minnick in Idaho’s first Congressional District. Minnick tried to boost his bleeding poll numbers by airing a dishonest, racially charged ad during the final week of the race. The tactic seems to have backfired, resulting in Congressman Raul Labrador.
Florida Senate – Two words: Marco Rubio. The most celebrated rising star in the Republican Party after last night is freshly-minted Senator-elect Rubio, a dynamic Cuban-American conservative. There was also an increase in conservative women winning races for Congress and state legislatures (picking up 19 chambers) all across the nation. This is going to be a great strength for the Republican Party in the coming years. The days of the “good old boys” of the Republican Party are over. This will be a major problem for the Democrats.
Finally the election showed the growing strength of the tea party. Candidates like Rand Paul, Michele Bachmann and Allen West received strong backing from the tea parties. Yes, there were a few losses such as Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell, but overall tea party backed candidates did well.
“This is an organic movement. I don’t think that they can be characterized as anything other than having had a very dramatic effect,” said Rep. Steve King, (R-Iowa), who won his election handily last night and has emerged as a national tea party favorite.
Marco Rubio has tempered his early primary message as well, and managed to earn widespread appeal among those who don’t even associate with the tea party. But it’s clear the tea party put him in office. His early appeal to conservative media and his impeccable grassroots outreach was made possible because of the movement, which came about at just the same time that Rubio hit the national scene.
Sean Duffy and Allen West were two House races that emphasized tea party support; Duffy solidified tea party support in Wisconsin’s 7th district after a fractious primary — the same can almost be said of Republican Senator-Elect Ron Johnson, at the top of the Wisconsin ticket. Allen West won because of grassroots support in Florida; his defeat of Democrat Ron Klein in Florida’s 22nd district was a push towards the right that will be an interesting fit for independent Sunshine State voters.
Rubio is the person feared most by the liberals and mainstream media. Democrat Latino, Alicia Menendez (daughter of the ex-senator from Florida) began race hustling her party's latest target, Marco Rubio. On the one hand, liberals complain that the GOP is "all white men," but if a female, a black, a Latino, etc. identifies themselves as a Republican, they are, as Alicia Menendez says here, not the "real deal." In other words, if you are not a white male and choose to freely identify as a Republican, you are a betrayer to your sex (females); you are an Uncle Tom or you "act white" (blacks); you are "white washed" or not the "real deal" (Latinos).
President Obama smacked his lips repeatedly and declared his love for Slurpees in a wide-ranging press conference on Wednesday that highlighted his charisma and unwillingness to compromise.
The fact that he even held the conference was ridiculous, but he was asked some tough questions and fielded many of them well. Ultimately, however, he refused to budge on a number of key issues that will face the next Congress.
Obama stated bluntly that he had failed on earmark reform, at the expense of shoving through his policy agenda. When asked how it felt that his party was routed in the House and governorships, and in many state-level races, he said coarsely, "It hurts."
But he dodged a question about Republicans winning last night because of health care, saying that the election was not a referendum on the bill. When asked about fiscal reform, he defaulted to his stock answer that his "deficit commission" would answer it. Spending bills are passed by Congress, not by Obama's deficit commission, and it's been reported again and again that the Republicans on that commission have no voice whatsoever. Their report is an easy way for the President to simply kick the ball down the field and shirk responsibility.
Obama said; "I think that the other thing that happened was that when I won election in 2008, one of the reasons I think that people were excited about the campaign was the prospect that we would change how business is done in Washington," said Obama. "We were in such a hurry to get things done, we didn't change how things got done, and that frustrated people."
As far as I am concerned Obama’s cry for cooperation and bipartisanship falls on deaf ears. I can’t get over his “back of the car” and “punish your enemies” remarks. Also who can forget that during the joint House-Senate conference on the health care bill his response to John McCain, when he challenged Obama on the cost of the bill, the President responded with; “John, the elections over” or Nancy Pelosi’s famous “We won last night” statement — So much for cooperation and bipartisanship.
As Michelle Malkin writes in Townhall.com; “Here is an ironclad certainty: It's too little too late for the antagonist-in-chief to paper over two years of relentless Democratic incivility and hate toward his domestic "enemies." Voters have spoken: They've had enough. Enough of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner's rhetorical abuse. Enough of his feints at bipartisanship. Whatever the final tally, this week's turnover in Congress is a GOP mandate for legislative pugilism, not peace. Voters have had enough of big government meddlers "getting things done." They are sending fresh blood to the nation's Capitol to get things undone.
Just two short years ago, Obama campaigned as the transcendent unifier. "Young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans have sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of red states and blue states," he proclaimed. "We have been and always will be the United States of America." It's been an Us vs. Them freefall ever since.
"We don't mind the Republicans joining us," Obama taunted a few weeks ago. "They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back."
"They're counting on young people staying home and union members staying home and black folks staying home," the fear-mongering agent of hope and change jeered on the campaign trail last month.
"You would think they'd be saying thank you," he sneered last April, when millions turned out for the nationwide Tax Day tea party protests.
"I want them just to get out of the way" and "don't do a lot of talking," he scoffed in response to prescient critics of the federal trillion-dollar stimulus boondoggle.
As voters who have been maligned by the ruling majority as stupid, unwashed, racist, selfish and violent headed to the polls Tuesday, Democrats released "talking points" attacking Republican leaders who "are not willing to compromise." But "no compromise" is exactly the message that un-American Americans delivered to Washington this campaign season:
No more compromising deals behind closed doors. No more compromising bailouts in times of manufactured crisis. No more compromising conservative principles for D.C. party elites. No more compromising the American economy for left-wing special interests. No more compromising transparency and ethics for bureaucratic self-preservation.
Let us be clear, in case it hasn't fully sunk into the minds of Obama and the trash-talking Democrats yet: You can take your faux olive branch and shove it. Thank you.
Yesterday’s election showed us several things, the first being the anger of the American people at the present administration. Pundits will claim this was an anti incumbent vote, but I do not agree. If it was, why did so many Democrats lose and only two Republicans were turned out? Also the most dramatic increase in Republicans was in the state houses. The Republicans now have 34 governors and some states like New Hampshire have Republican super majorities in the legislatures.
The second, and even more important, was the quality and diversity of the Republicans who won their races across the nation. Guy Benson writes in Townhall.com; ”After the 2006 midterm elections, many in the chattering class declared the GOP had been reduced to a “regional party” – white, male, and Southern. Since President Obama’s election in 2008, the Leftist mainstream media has worked diligently to paint much of the opposition to his policies as the bigoted and deranged spasms of a marginalized, racist conservative base. The tea party movement represented “racism, straight up” according to political philosopher Janeane Garofalo. Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, Eugene Robinson, and Bob Herbert practically took turns writing weekly columns slandering conservatives using flagrant race baiting, including an embarrassing election-day screed from Robinson. Chris Matthews complained that the political Right was “monochromatic” for his taste. And the Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wondered aloud how anyone of Hispanic descent could possibly be a Republican. Then came the 2010 elections.”
“The midterm election not only busted the myth that the GOP is a regional party – seeing Republican gains in the Northeast, Midwest and West – it also puts to rest the notion that Republicans are a lily white party whose base won’t embrace a diverse slate of candidates. In eight prominent contests, Republicans nominated and elected excellent candidates and fine conservatives who also happen to be people of color:
Nevada Governor – In a deliciously ironic twist, a Hispanic Republican – Brian Sandoval – defeated Rory Reid, son of the very man who suggested that people like Sandoval don’t, or shouldn’t, exist. It wasn’t close: Sandoval dominated Rory Reid and secured a double-digit victory.
New Mexico Governor – Suzanna Martinez became the first female Hispanic Governor of a US State in history – from either party. She ran a disciplined campaign, torched her opponent with one of the most devastating attack ads of the entire cycle, and won by a substantial 8-point margin.
South Carolina Governor – Overcoming nasty rumors about her religion and alleged marital infidelity, Nikki Haley became America’s second Indian-American Governor. (The other, of course, is Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, also a Republican).
SC-01 – After JC Watts retired from Congress in 2002, the House Republican caucus lost its lone African-American member. Until last night. Republican Tim Scott, a strong conservative, won the open seat in South Carolina’s first Congressional District. He pulled off this feat in the deep south, and did so in a romp – winning by approximately 35 percentage points.
FL-22 – Another black Republican was elected to the House last night: Conservative superstar Col. Allen West. The Iraq War hero handily unseated Rep. Ron Klein, who threw the kitchen sink at West, but to no avail. When this race was called, supposedly “racist” tea partiers and grassroots conservatives rejoiced across the country.
WA-03 – Jaime Herrera chose not to highlight her Hispanic origins in her battle against Democrat Denny Heck for the open seat in Washington’s third Congressional District. She ran a very strong, issues-based campaign, and won comfortably.
ID-01 – Raul Labrador, a Puerto Rico-born attorney, pulled an upset victory over incumbent Democrat Walt Minnick in Idaho’s first Congressional District. Minnick tried to boost his bleeding poll numbers by airing a dishonest, racially charged ad during the final week of the race. The tactic seems to have backfired, resulting in Congressman Raul Labrador.
Florida Senate – Two words: Marco Rubio. The most celebrated rising star in the Republican Party after last night is freshly-minted Senator-elect Rubio, a dynamic Cuban-American conservative. There was also an increase in conservative women winning races for Congress and state legislatures (picking up 19 chambers) all across the nation. This is going to be a great strength for the Republican Party in the coming years. The days of the “good old boys” of the Republican Party are over. This will be a major problem for the Democrats.
Finally the election showed the growing strength of the tea party. Candidates like Rand Paul, Michele Bachmann and Allen West received strong backing from the tea parties. Yes, there were a few losses such as Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell, but overall tea party backed candidates did well.
“This is an organic movement. I don’t think that they can be characterized as anything other than having had a very dramatic effect,” said Rep. Steve King, (R-Iowa), who won his election handily last night and has emerged as a national tea party favorite.
Marco Rubio has tempered his early primary message as well, and managed to earn widespread appeal among those who don’t even associate with the tea party. But it’s clear the tea party put him in office. His early appeal to conservative media and his impeccable grassroots outreach was made possible because of the movement, which came about at just the same time that Rubio hit the national scene.
Sean Duffy and Allen West were two House races that emphasized tea party support; Duffy solidified tea party support in Wisconsin’s 7th district after a fractious primary — the same can almost be said of Republican Senator-Elect Ron Johnson, at the top of the Wisconsin ticket. Allen West won because of grassroots support in Florida; his defeat of Democrat Ron Klein in Florida’s 22nd district was a push towards the right that will be an interesting fit for independent Sunshine State voters.
Rubio is the person feared most by the liberals and mainstream media. Democrat Latino, Alicia Menendez (daughter of the ex-senator from Florida) began race hustling her party's latest target, Marco Rubio. On the one hand, liberals complain that the GOP is "all white men," but if a female, a black, a Latino, etc. identifies themselves as a Republican, they are, as Alicia Menendez says here, not the "real deal." In other words, if you are not a white male and choose to freely identify as a Republican, you are a betrayer to your sex (females); you are an Uncle Tom or you "act white" (blacks); you are "white washed" or not the "real deal" (Latinos).
President Obama smacked his lips repeatedly and declared his love for Slurpees in a wide-ranging press conference on Wednesday that highlighted his charisma and unwillingness to compromise.
The fact that he even held the conference was ridiculous, but he was asked some tough questions and fielded many of them well. Ultimately, however, he refused to budge on a number of key issues that will face the next Congress.
Obama stated bluntly that he had failed on earmark reform, at the expense of shoving through his policy agenda. When asked how it felt that his party was routed in the House and governorships, and in many state-level races, he said coarsely, "It hurts."
But he dodged a question about Republicans winning last night because of health care, saying that the election was not a referendum on the bill. When asked about fiscal reform, he defaulted to his stock answer that his "deficit commission" would answer it. Spending bills are passed by Congress, not by Obama's deficit commission, and it's been reported again and again that the Republicans on that commission have no voice whatsoever. Their report is an easy way for the President to simply kick the ball down the field and shirk responsibility.
Obama said; "I think that the other thing that happened was that when I won election in 2008, one of the reasons I think that people were excited about the campaign was the prospect that we would change how business is done in Washington," said Obama. "We were in such a hurry to get things done, we didn't change how things got done, and that frustrated people."
As far as I am concerned Obama’s cry for cooperation and bipartisanship falls on deaf ears. I can’t get over his “back of the car” and “punish your enemies” remarks. Also who can forget that during the joint House-Senate conference on the health care bill his response to John McCain, when he challenged Obama on the cost of the bill, the President responded with; “John, the elections over” or Nancy Pelosi’s famous “We won last night” statement — So much for cooperation and bipartisanship.
As Michelle Malkin writes in Townhall.com; “Here is an ironclad certainty: It's too little too late for the antagonist-in-chief to paper over two years of relentless Democratic incivility and hate toward his domestic "enemies." Voters have spoken: They've had enough. Enough of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner's rhetorical abuse. Enough of his feints at bipartisanship. Whatever the final tally, this week's turnover in Congress is a GOP mandate for legislative pugilism, not peace. Voters have had enough of big government meddlers "getting things done." They are sending fresh blood to the nation's Capitol to get things undone.
Just two short years ago, Obama campaigned as the transcendent unifier. "Young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans have sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of red states and blue states," he proclaimed. "We have been and always will be the United States of America." It's been an Us vs. Them freefall ever since.
"We don't mind the Republicans joining us," Obama taunted a few weeks ago. "They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back."
"They're counting on young people staying home and union members staying home and black folks staying home," the fear-mongering agent of hope and change jeered on the campaign trail last month.
"You would think they'd be saying thank you," he sneered last April, when millions turned out for the nationwide Tax Day tea party protests.
"I want them just to get out of the way" and "don't do a lot of talking," he scoffed in response to prescient critics of the federal trillion-dollar stimulus boondoggle.
As voters who have been maligned by the ruling majority as stupid, unwashed, racist, selfish and violent headed to the polls Tuesday, Democrats released "talking points" attacking Republican leaders who "are not willing to compromise." But "no compromise" is exactly the message that un-American Americans delivered to Washington this campaign season:
No more compromising deals behind closed doors. No more compromising bailouts in times of manufactured crisis. No more compromising conservative principles for D.C. party elites. No more compromising the American economy for left-wing special interests. No more compromising transparency and ethics for bureaucratic self-preservation.
Let us be clear, in case it hasn't fully sunk into the minds of Obama and the trash-talking Democrats yet: You can take your faux olive branch and shove it. Thank you.
I would like to close with some comments about my California. As I have said and written about I came to California in 1962 when the state was considered to be the greatest in the nation — opportunity and optimism ruled. Yesterday we took backward step of three decades with the election of Edmund G (Jerry) Brown Jr. as governor. A tarnished, old has-been liberal has been given the reins to once again take this state down the road to more takes, more spending, more regulations and less business and jobs. Businesses will begin fleeing this state at even a faster rate than it has for the past several years.
What is so discouraging is the low turnout California had in yesterday’s election. According California’s Secretary of State there are 17,285,883 registered voters in this state. Yesterday only 7,502,529 (43.4%) of them cast ballots. In Riverside County, where I reside, the percentage was only 37.6%. The highest was Sierra County with 81.9% and the lowest was San Bernardino County with 32.4%. Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties had 43%, 38.9% and 46.0 respectively.
With 97% of the precincts reporting of the 7,502,529 votes cast: 4,009,280 (53.6%) were for Brown and 3,088,070 (41.3%) for Meg Whitman. It is clear the impact that the over 1.5 million public sector union members had on the election. I guess the old adage that you get the government you deserve holds true in California
Here are a few county totals for Governor and Senator with 100% of the precincts reporting. You can view an interactive GIS map by clicking here.
Riverside: Brown 42%, Whitman 52%
Orange: Brown 38%, Whitman 58%
San Bernardino: Brown 47%, Whitman 46%
San Diego: Brown 43.9%, Whitman 50.5%
Ventura: Brown 45.1%, Whitman 49.8%
Los Angeles: Brown 63%, Whitman 41.3%
Santa Barbara: Brown 48.6%, Whitman 46.4%
Kern: Brown 36.7%, Whitman 55.9%
Alameda: Brown 72.9%, Whitman 23.7%
Marin: Brown 70.1%, Whitman 27.5%
Sacramento: Brown 56.4%, Whitman 39.1%
San Francisco: Brown 79.3$, Whitman 17.3%
For Senate the results were slightly different, but not by much. Click here for GIS map
Statewide: Boxer 3,850,106 (52%), Fiorina 3,155,681 (42.6%)
Riverside: Boxer 40.3%, Fiorina 53.8%
Orange: Boxer 36.3%, Fiorina 58.7%
San Bernardino: Boxer 42.7%, Fiorina 50.1%
San Diego: Boxer 43.2%, Fiorina 51.4%
Ventura: Boxer 44.5%, Fiorina 50.4%
Los Angeles: Boxer 62.6%, Fiorina 32.6%
Santa Barbara: Boxer 48.8%. Fiorina 46.3%
Kern: Boxer 30.0%, Fiorina 61.9%
Alameda: Boxer 72.8%, Fiorina 23.2%
Marin: Boxer 68.9%, Fiorina 22.9%
Sacramento: Boxer 50.1%, Fiorina 43.9%
Fresno: Boxer 37.4%, Fiorina 57.2%
San Francisco: Boxer 80.2%, Fiorina 15.9%
In the districts covering my residence I did fairly well. For Congress Mary Bono Mack (R-D45) beat Steve Pougent 52% to 42%. For State Assembly Paul Cook (R-D65) beat his Democrat opponent by 59% to 40%. My state senator was not up for re-election this time. Bill Emerson (R-D37) was elected in June.
So what does all of this mean for the State of California? I think we should have a ballot imitative to separate the state like West Virginia and Virginia did during the Civil War. We could take all of the counties along the coast from Orange to Marin and they could be called the Peoples Republic of New California, The remainder of the counties could be called Old California and we could live our lives without the socialist progressive tyranny and taxes imposed from New California. They could go broke or annex themselves to China so they could maintain their exorbitant spending and regulatory policies. We could drill for oil off the coasts of Orange and San Diego counties and sell it to them at inflated prices so they could fuel their SUVs that they like to drive while asking the rest of us to drive Smart Cars. We could also supply them with their meat, dairy products, fruits and vegetables.
I know this is tongue-in-check Jonathan Swift rhetoric, but we need to do something to counter the massive public sector unions and urban liberal voters of the coastal counties. Nothing is going to change in this state unless we take the power from the public sector unions.
So what does all of this mean for the State of California? I think we should have a ballot imitative to separate the state like West Virginia and Virginia did during the Civil War. We could take all of the counties along the coast from Orange to Marin and they could be called the Peoples Republic of New California, The remainder of the counties could be called Old California and we could live our lives without the socialist progressive tyranny and taxes imposed from New California. They could go broke or annex themselves to China so they could maintain their exorbitant spending and regulatory policies. We could drill for oil off the coasts of Orange and San Diego counties and sell it to them at inflated prices so they could fuel their SUVs that they like to drive while asking the rest of us to drive Smart Cars. We could also supply them with their meat, dairy products, fruits and vegetables.
I know this is tongue-in-check Jonathan Swift rhetoric, but we need to do something to counter the massive public sector unions and urban liberal voters of the coastal counties. Nothing is going to change in this state unless we take the power from the public sector unions.
No comments:
Post a Comment