AP is calling it for Brown in Mass!!!

[Sergeant Bob]

I just read that Sarah Palin will be out stumping for John McCain...

Will they never learn?

[41magsnub]

I hope that is not how it turns out, last election I felt like I had to choose which side of the turd sandwich I wanted to take a big bite from.

[CNYCacher]

I completely agree. Now I think way too many people are reading way too much into this. This MA election was between a liberal republican who didn't act like an elitist and a liberal dem who did.
Furhermore it occurred in a state that already has near universal healthcare. I think it's hard to draw the MA voter opinion about national healthcare, given this fact.

It's great that the repubs can potentially filibuster major issues in congress. It is certainly news-worthy that MA elected a R, regardless of his views.  Is this some sort of indication that people are waking up? I don't know, but I really doubt it.

If anything this will convince the GOP that the big tent philosphy is the way to go. I expect more liberal/left R's to run, giving future voters a choice between socialist/marxist and socialist-light (or whatever is one step to the right of leftist dems).

The R's won't have a true filibuster-proof membership, until the left-leaning R's are gone or more true conservatives are elected.  IMO, electing true conservatives (regardless of what label they choose) will be the only way to fix some of the problems we have.

No way. Not on Armed Polite Society. Take it to PM if you must, but leave it off the forum.

[alex_trebek]

LOL, nice.  I don't even know how to respond to that. Should it be in the form of a question?

[Perd Hapley]

I just read that Sarah Palin will be out stumping for John McCain...

For what?  Not for president, surely.    I can't see the point of doing that, even as a gesture.  She must know he'll never win.  Why would she go anywhere near him again? 

I'll believe it when I see it. 

[Perd Hapley]

George Soros Learns About Brown Victory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4aQCiRjvZY&feature=player_embedded

This video is evergreen.

Brilliant dialogue. 

[MicroBalrog]

If anything this will convince the GOP that the big tent philosphy is the way to go. I expect more liberal/left R's to run, giving future voters a choice between socialist/marxist and socialist-light (or whatever is one step to the right of leftist dems).

This is indeed the danger.

[Standing Wolf]

Brilliant dialogue.

Laughed my ankles off.

[sumpnz]

For what?  Not for president, surely.    I can't see the point of doing that, even as a gesture.  She must know he'll never win.  Why would she go anywhere near him again? 

I'll believe it when I see it. 

His senate seat is up for reelection this year.  Dunno why he'd need her support, though supposedly they are on friendly terms so I'd guess that's why she'd stump for him.  Last time around he won with something like >70% of the vote.  I tossed a protest vote to his Libertarian challanger in 2004, along with, seemingly, about 8 other Arizonans. 

[makattak]

http://chicagoboyz.net/

[Waitone]

I want gridlock. I want the government STOPPED.

No, I want rollback.

[Monkeyleg]

For Massachusetts, Brown is pretty conservative. Small town roots, National Guard, deployed in Afghanistan, voted for a local cap and trade bill but later apologized for his vote, opposed same-sex marriage, and was publicly attacked for his opposition but didn't back down.

Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska and a host of other states can't boast of having a senator that conservative. I'd say this is a huge move for Massachusetts.

If the administration and Democrat leaders persist in seeing this as a Massachusetts quirk, they're going to get a shellacking in November. MA hasn't elected a Republican to congress since 1973. It was the only state McGovern won. If a population that liberal rejects Obamacare, cap and trade, and other Obama initiatives, what will the rest of the country do?

Chris Matthews, Olberman, the NY Times, WA Post, LA Times and other elitist mouthpieces can be in denial all they want, but it would appear that the American people will accept a certain amount of socialism, and perhaps only the amount that we have now.

The American people rejected nationalized health care in 1994. They're rejecting it now. No matter what proponents call it, or how they try to package it, Americans don't want it, and they don't want anyone shoving it down their throats.

I've been really frightened about the direction the country has been moving the last twelve months. This election gives me hope, and not the Obama kind of "hope."

[drewtam]

No, I want rollback.

What, specifically?
What do you want to repeal?

If you are politically active, you need a goal. You need to be able to express that goal in simple sound bite phrases.
Like "I want the bailouts rolled back."
or "I want Social Security ended."
or "<enter your own goal>"

[French G.]

What, specifically?
What do you want to repeal?

If you are politically active, you need a goal. You need to be able to express that goal in simple sound bite phrases.
Like "I want the bailouts rolled back."
or "I want Social Security ended."
or "<enter your own goal>"

Let's start with the 17th amendment, killing social security, and replacing the income tax with a national sales tax. After that I'm sure we'll find something else to kill.

[Harold Tuttle]

This is a public forum, lest we forget, Harold.  Converted to link:

http://premium1.uploadit.org/docZox//*derogatory term deleted*.jpg

[Perd Hapley]

His senate seat is up for reelection this year. 

Oooooh, how silly of me not to think of that. 

Dunno why he'd need her support, though supposedly they are on friendly terms so I'd guess that's why she'd stump for him.  Last time around he won with something like >70% of the vote. 

He needs her for the same reason he needed her in '08 - to shore up his support among Americans (you call them conservatives).  And keep in mind that '04 was a good year to be a Republican, even a squishy moderate like Bush or McCain.  The atmosphere is a little less kind to RINO's these days. 

[Silver Bullet]

I just hope we don't over-react.

The last thing I want is a Republican supermajority and a Republican president in 2012.  This has already been bad enough.  Imagine what a Stupid Party supermajority would do to police powers domestically.

I love it like in 1994, when the FedGov shuts down and no one can agree on anything.  No spending.  No intrusive programs.

I want gridlock. I want the government STOPPED.

Status quo is better than Obama-_______ (Care, Energy, Stimulus, Taxing, Spending) but status quo is unsustainable. Something has to be done about entitlement spending and it must be done soon. It will collapse on itself within the next generation.

However, I don't know how we roll things back without a supermajority, though. I don't know how Social Security and Medicare are "fixed" (I'd prefer "ended") without that.

I don't have reason to believe that the GOP would do any of these things [“rolling things back”] with a supermajority.

Two years ago, when the Rs had both houses and the White House, there were folks clamoring on THR and TFL for voting for Hillary to achieve “gridlock”.  At the time I pointed out that was ridiculous because there was no guarantee that the Rs would hang onto control of Congress.  I still feel that way; the best way to keep the Ds from controlling both houses and the White House is to vote them out of both Congress and the White House.  When you think you’re achieving gridlock by voting the Rs “partly” out of control, you’re at risk of losing all control because you can’t guarantee the other half of the deal.  Just look at 2008 if you need an example.  “Yay, gridlock !  The Rs no longer are in the Whie House !  Oops; the Rs no longer control the House or Senate, either.  Gee, we didn’t think of that …”  Think of it now.

The Rs might not roll things back if they get back in control, as stated above, but I have more confidence that they won’t be in as big a rush to make things worse as the Ds will.  I fully expect the Ds will try to ram through more gun control in the next three years.  If the Rs were back in control, I have more confidence that they would NOT initiate a new AWB.  I’m ecstatic that the Rs now have a chance to fillibuster. 

Looking back at the previous eight years, we didn’t make a lot of progress on a federal level, but we did make some.  We allowed the AWB to expire, we passed a law protecting gun manufacturers from nuisance lawsuits, and we replaced two Supreme Court justices with conservatives.  My guess is that NONE of those things would have happened with eight years of Gore or Kerry.

Keep your “gridlock”.

[Gewehr98]

LOL, nice.  I don't even know how to respond to that.

No need to, and I wouldn't honor it with a response, anyway.

Edited for lack of civility, even under the guise of a famous SNL Jeopardy/Sean Connery skit.

We can do better, folks - even if we disagree with a given viewpoint. Honest.   

[Silver Bullet]

I love watching the socialists cry:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7518713
 

[MicroBalrog]

Some people describe America as a car driving towards a cliff.

But a more potent metaphor is one I heard from Yaron Brook, head of the Ayn Rand Institute. His is the view that America is more like a raft sailing towards a waterfall, and the democrats are rowing downstream, hard.

But you can't save it just by putting down the oars.

[makattak]

Some people describe America as a car driving towards a cliff.

But a more potent metaphor is one I heard from Yaron Brook, head of the Ayn Rand Institute. His is the view that America is more like a raft sailing towards a waterfall, and the democrats are rowing downstream, hard.

But you can't save it just by putting down the oars.

True. For the time being, though, it's a start.

As I said, I know our current status quo is unsustainable. We may have to get closer to the waterfall before we can actually paddle away, though. (Hopefully it won't be too late.)

At least, maybe, we can stop paddling towards it in the meantime.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Some people describe America as a car driving towards a cliff.

But a more potent metaphor is one I heard from Yaron Brook, head of the Ayn Rand Institute. His is the view that America is more like a raft sailing towards a waterfall, and the democrats are rowing downstream, hard.

But you can't save it just by putting down the oars.

Nobody is proposing that we "put the oars down".  We're proposing to eliminate the people paddling downstream.  Even if many of us are paddling upstream, it does no good when half of the people are still paddling down, thus canceling out the effect of the "upstreamers".

You're never going to make any progress paddling upstream so long as there are a significant number of downstreamers.  Progress will be made by kicking the downstreamers out of the boat, or at the very least getting them to put their oars down.  That will tip the balance back in our favor and allow us to start making progress.

[alex_trebek]

Yes but it isn't as easy as it sounds.

You kick one of the downstreamers out, another will come in. Trying to convince them to change direction is asking them to redefine what they believe in.

Personally I question some of the downstreamers' agenda. I think some of them know what the result of their actions is, but some think they will somehow benefit when the raft does go off the waterfall. 

Then there will be the people claiming that moving towards to waterfall is progress, because we have already been where the upstreamers want to go.

[CNYCacher]

but some think they will somehow benefit when the raft does go off the waterfall. 

I wish I was artistically inclined because I would love to make a political cartoon out of this analogy.

Imagine our raft as we've described it, heading towards the waterfall.  People in the back paddling upstream, people  in the front paddling towards the waterfall.  A thought baloon emanates from the heads of the downstreamers, they are envisioning the raft sprouting wings as it goes over the falls, and flying them off into the clouds.

Put BHO at the front, pointing the way into the clouds.  He is clutching a map labeled "Health Care Bill".  Write "debt" on the waterfall

[Sergeant Bob]

I wish I was artistically inclined because I would love to make a political cartoon out of this analogy.

Imagine our raft as we've described it, heading towards the waterfall.  People in the back paddling upstream, people  in the front paddling towards the waterfall.  A thought baloon emanates from the heads of the downstreamers, they are envisioning the raft sprouting wings as it goes over the falls, and flying them off into the clouds.

Put BHO at the front, pointing the way into the clouds.  He is clutching a map labeled "Health Care Bill".  Write "debt" on the waterfall

I get the cartoons in my head as well, but have little artistic talent to do anything creative with it. Don't be surprised if Harold Tuttle comes up with some Photochop.