Barry? Guess the peons don't like the "change" they got left in their pockets. Now I ain't say'n the Repubs are better....just not many like where this country is headed

Election '09 tests don't well for Obama

Republicans win Virginia, New Jersey governorships from Democrats
The Associated Press
updated 9:19 p.m. CT, Tues., Nov . 3, 2009

WASHINGTON - Republicans surged to victory in governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday, wresting control from Democrats in both states as independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for the GOP. It was a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.

Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in the Virginia governor's race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris Christie's ouster of unpopular N.J. Gov. Jon Corzine was a double-barreled triumph for a party looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008.

The outcomes were sure to feed discussion about the state of the electorate, the status of the diverse coalition that sent Obama to the White House and the limits of the president's influence — on the party's base of support and on moderate current lawmakers he needs to advance his legislative priorities.

The Virginia outcome was a setback for the White House in a swing state that was a crucial part of Obama’s electoral landslide just a year ago. Republicans also won the races for Virginia attorney general and lieutenant governor.

And New Jersey had been considered a Democratic stronghold.

Independents voted for McDonnell
Interviews with voters leaving polling stations in Virginia showed that independents — the crown jewel of elections because they often determine outcomes — broke heavily for McDonnell.

The Republican Party, through party chairman Michael Steele, was quick to describe the Virginia results as "a clear signal that voters have had enough of the president's liberal agenda."

Exit polls showed that nearly a third of voters in Virginia during the day described themselves as independents and they preferred the Republican to the Democrat by almost a 2-1 margin. New Jersey exit polls indicated the same.

The surveys also showed that more of the Virginians who turned out on Tuesday said they supported Republican John McCain in 2008 than said they backed Obama. That suggests the Democrats had difficulty turning out their base, including the swarms of first-time minority and youth voters whom Obama attracted as part of his diverse coalition.

Moreover, the Virginia electorate was whiter in 2009 than it was in 2008, when blacks and Hispanics turned out in droves to elect the country's first black president.


After more than a year of recession, the exit polls showed that the economy trumped all other issues for voters.

More than four in 10 voters in Virginia said their view of Obama factored into their choice on Tuesday. People who said they disapprove of Obama's job approval voted overwhelmingly Republican, and those who approve of the president favored Deeds, the Democrat.

Democratic victories in both Virginia and New Jersey in 2005 preceded big Democratic years nationally in 2006 and 2008.

Tuesday's impact on Obama's standing and on the 2010 elections can easily be overstated. Voters are often focused on local issues and local personalities.

Yet, national issues, like the recession, were clearly a factor, with voter attitudes shaped to some degree by how people feel about the state of their nation — and their place in it.

Obama campaigned
It was also difficult to separate Obama from the outcomes after he devoted a significant chunk of time working to persuade voters to elect Deeds over McDonnell in Virginia and re-elect Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey, who was in a three-way race with Republican Chris Christie and independent Chris Daggett.


The president campaigned in person for both Deeds and Corzine and was featured in their advertisements. He characterized the two as necessary allies in the White House's effort to advance his plans. And he deployed his political campaign arm, Organizing for America, in an effort to ensure the swarms of party loyalists and new voters he attracted in 2008 turned out.

He also spent energy trying to ensure the Democrats would pick up the GOP-held vacant 23rd Congressional District seat in New York, where Democrat Bill Owens faced conservative Doug Hoffman.

That's the race that highlighted fissures in the Republican Party between conservatives and moderates, illustrating problems the GOP could have in capitalizing on any discontent with Obama and Democrats that Tuesday's results may show.

With so much involvement in so few races, Obama raised the stakes of a low-enthusiasm off-year election season.

Thus, any Democratic losses would be a blot on Obama's political standing to some degree and would signal trouble ahead as he seeks to achieve his policy goals, protect Democratic majorities in Congress and expand his party's grip on governors' seats next fall.

Obama needs all the lawmakers he can get to pass his legislative priorities of health care and climate change, but defeats Tuesday could make it much harder for him to persuade moderate Democrats from right-leaning states and conservative districts, who are hearing from voters worried about his expansion of government at a time of rising deficits, to get on board.

As if on cue, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid indicated Tuesday that lawmakers may not complete health care legislation this year, missing Obama's deadline on his signature issue and pushing debate into a congressional election year.


Defeats also could tease out upcoming problems for Democrats, particularly in moderate districts and in swing states like Ohio, Colorado and Nevada, as they defend their turf next fall. In 2010, most governors, a third of the Senate and all members in the House will be on ballots.

The Republican victories could energize a GOP that's lost back-to-back national elections, just as it seeks to raise money and recruit candidates to prepare for next year. Triumphs, particularly in the open-seat contest in Virginia, could provide a model for how to win elections in a time of recession and war.

New Jersey is a traditional Democratic-leaning state with an incumbent Democratic governor.

But Virginia is a new swing state and has trended Democratic in recent elections after being reliably Republican in national races for many years. It's home to a slew of northern bellwether counties filled with independents who carried Obama to victory last fall, the first Democrat to win the state in a White House race since 1964. Rapidly growing counties like Loudoun and Prince William, exurban areas outside Washington, D.C., swung toward Democrats in the 2005 governor's race, previewing an Obama win three years later.


The loss in Virginia suggests that the diverse coalition that Obama cobbled together last year in Virginia and elsewhere — blacks, Hispanics, young people, independents and Republican crossovers — was a one-election phenomenon that didn't transfer to the Democratic Party when Obama wasn't on the ballot.

Elsewhere, Maine voters weighed in on same-sex marriage in a closely watched initiative, and New York and California picked congressmen for two vacant seats. A slew of cities selected mayors, and Ohio voted on allowing casinos.

Discussions on Twitter emphasized the same-sex union initiative in Maine, with the phrases "VoteNoOn1" and "Maine" landing in the site's top trending topics. The measure would repeal a bill passed by the Legislature allowing same-sex marriages.


Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33597807/ns/politics-more_politics/?GT1=43001
_________________
Enjoy every sandwich

   

go figure....Or maybe Gibbs needs to be told denial isn't a river in Egypt.....

White House: Tuesday's GOP wins not about Obama

1 hr 1 min ago

WASHINGTON – The White House says that Republican wins in two governors' races were not referendums on the president.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday that voters went to the polls in Virginia and New Jersey to work through "very local issues that didn't involve the president." The presidential spokesman said voters were concerned about the economy.

"I don't think the president needed an election or an exit poll to come to that conclusion," Gibbs said.

By contrast, Gibbs acknowledged that the 2010 midterm congressional elections will be more about the Obama agenda.

Republicans turned aside Democratic candidates in both Virginia and New Jersey, raising questions about the limits of the president's influence on his party's base of support and on the moderate lawmakers he needs to advance his legislative priorities.

Gibbs noted that Democrats did win two special elections for congressional seats, in California and New York.

Gibbs said Obama telephoned both Democratic losers, incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine in New Jersey and candidate Creigh Deeds in Virginia, Tuesday night. But Gibbs said Obama has not yet called the two GOP gubernatorial winners because he wanted to let them celebrate with family and supporters.

The president had campaigned for both Corzine and Deeds in recent days.

The White House sees no need to recalibrate its legislative agenda or message based on the results of the governors' races or the swing of independents in this election toward the GOP, Gibbs said. And he expressed no concern that the election results will make conservative Democrats on Capitol Hill more skittish toward backing the president's agenda as they head toward their own re-election bids in 2010.
_________________
Enjoy every sandwich

   

Actually, if ya think about it, It is all about CHANGE. incumbants were largely thrown out and or new faces 'introduced'.
Out with the old IN with the new.
VIVA LA REVILISION I'd say its working to a degree, throw the bastards out....spread the word.
_________________
I Wish You Enough

   

Like Bloomberg?
_________________
Enjoy every sandwich

   

'sides don't burst my bubble
_________________
Enjoy every sandwich

   

What will a measly 100 million by ya

(I said largely he's a skinny fk'r)
_________________
I Wish You Enough

   

So you're say'n the big guns are to big to fail......damn where did I hear that b4
_________________
Enjoy every sandwich

   

not at all
what is v what should be
Same old story money talks. Ole bloomy spent 100 million v whats his face 8 million

The places where the changes were, the $$ spent weren't that far apart (relitively speaking)
_________________
I Wish You Enough

   

Well, Bloomberg won by a lot smaller margin than the press predicted. Hope it sends him a message not to make any more plans to run for Prez down the road.

   

Good point Bear!
_________________
Enjoy every sandwich

   

Careful, somebody 'll try ta dig up ole ted and run em
_________________
I Wish You Enough

   

I cant hear shit cause my ears are all plugged up. No, no-one's got me by the ears, just a damn bad cold.

   

_________________
Enjoy every sandwich

   

Tuesday's Biggest Loser: the Union Agenda

The GOP victories reveal fissures in the coalition that elected Barack Obama. NOVEMBER 4, 2009, 7:05 P.M. ET
By MICHAEL BARONE

If you were watching television on Tuesday night as the election returns came in showing Republicans capturing the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, you probably missed seeing the biggest losers of the evening. You may have caught the concession speech of Creigh Deeds, who ran 12% behind Barack Obama's winning percentage of the vote in Virginia, and that of Jon Corzine who, after spending over $100 million of his own money on three campaigns, ran 13% behind Obama's winning percentage in New Jersey and got evicted from Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion in Princeton.

But you missed seeing the guy who may have been the biggest loser of all—a man who according to recently released White House logs has been a guest in the White House 22 times since Barack Obama became president, more than any other single individual.

That man is Andy Stern, who has boasted that the Service Employees International Union, which he heads, ponied up something like $60 million for Barack Obama and other Democrats in the 2008 campaign cycle. Altogether, Mr. Stern and other labor union leaders reportedly gave Democrats some $400 million last year.

This was, to borrow a word from Mr. Obama, an audacious gamble. Unions these days represent only 8% of private-sector employees (and that's counting General Motors and Chrysler as private sector) and some unions went into debt to make these contributions. Public employee unions of course are financed by taxpayers, who pay the salaries from which dues are extracted, but even so their resources are ultimately limited.

What have the unions gotten in return? Some not insignificant things. The Obama administration bludgeoned General Motors and Chrysler bondholders, in what I called an episode of "gangster government," and effectively turned over the two auto companies to the United Auto Workers. The building trades got project labor agreements—i.e., plenty of dues money flowing to their coffers—in the $787 billion stimulus package.

A lot of that stimulus money went as well to state and local governments. The goal was to spare public employee union members from the vicissitudes of the recession to which the rest of us are subject—and to keep that dues money flowing in.

But the union leaders have been frustrated on their No. 1 goal, the card check bill that would effectively abolish the secret ballot in unionization elections. A couple of bulky guys in varsity jackets visit your home and, um, persuade you to sign a card, and later the union—with the help of a mandatory arbitration clause—impose contracts on employees and rake in the dues money.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele (left) stands with Virginia's Governor-elect Bob McDonnell on Nov. 3.
Just about every House Democrat voted for the misleadingly titled "Employee Free Choice Act," and every Senate Democrat cosponsored it when George W. Bush was president and it had no chance of becoming law. As Barack Obama was inaugurated, Atlantic blogger Marc Ambinder was speculating on how many Republicans would come on board.

Instead, support evaporated as Democrats from places as dissimilar as Arkansas and California thought hard about what life would be like with card check. Today the bill looks dead no matter how many Democrats are elected to Congress.

And after Tuesday's elections, it looks like fewer Democrats will be elected to Congress in 2010 than in 2008. In the election results and the exit polls there are clear signs that the Obama majority coalition has splintered.

Mr. Obama benefited last year from a big turnout of young voters, who backed him by a 66% to 32% margin. This year young voters formed only about half as large a percentage of the electorate in Virginia and New Jersey as they did in 2008, and in Virginia they voted about as Republican as their elders.

The big-government programs of Obama Democrats evidently have less appeal than those trendy posters and inspiring rallies and cries of "We are the change we are seeking." I have yet to see survey research showing that young Americans want to work under union contracts, with their 5,000 pages of work rules and rigid seniority systems. That doesn't sound like a tune that appeals to the iPod generation.

Economically, the Obama majority was a top-and-bottom coalition. The Democratic ticket carried voters with incomes under $50,000 and over $200,000, and lost those in between. As the shrewd liberal analyst Thomas Edsall has noted, there's a tension between what these groups want. High earners in non-Southern suburbs have been voting Democratic since the mid-1990s largely because of their liberal views on cultural issues; low earners vote Democratic because they want more government money shoveled their way.

Tuesday's elections suggest those whose money gets shoveled are having second thoughts about this odd-couple coalition. In Virginia, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell carried affluent and immigrant-heavy Fairfax County, which Barack Obama carried by 21%. In New Jersey, Republican Christopher Christie cut Democrat Jon Corzine's margin in demographically similar Bergen County from 16% in 2005 to 1%. A Republican was elected county executive in Westchester County, New York, and the Republican candidate for state Supreme Court in Pennsylvania carried the four-county suburban Philadelphia area—turf that voted 57% for Barack Obama in 2008.

A health-care bill financed by either higher taxes on high earners or on those with generous, employer-provided health insurance, looks like a hard sell in high-earner constituencies. It looks politically risky especially for newly elected Democrats.

Mr. McDonnell carried nine of Virginia's 11 congressional districts, and the three districts that Democrats captured from Republicans last year voted 62%, 61% and 55% for the Republican this time. No wonder Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is talking about postponing health-care votes until next year.

The unions' unprecedented political push in 2008 has not been unnoticed by the voters. Mr. Corzine's cozy relationship with public employee union heads proved a liability in New Jersey, and in Virginia Mr. McDonnell campaigned hard against card check and the Obama agenda. The Gallup organization reports that Americans are less pro-union than they have been at any time since it first started asking the question in 1936. Maybe around the country union members will start asking their leaders what they have gotten for all the money they've spent on politics.

Mr. Barone is senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and co-author of "The Almanac of American Politics 2010" (National Journal).
_________________
Enjoy every sandwich

   

The election proves one thing. Especially in New Jersey.
A popular president within a Democrat leaning state can't save a train wreck of a candidate (corzine). Endorsements help a little. Only a little.

And speaking of train wrecks, Sarah Palins endorsement in New York 23, a Republican leaning district didn't help, as the Democrat took the seat and gives the Democrats another seat in Congress.