[TheRealVille]

In state elections across the country Tuesday, voters rejected Republican attempts to pursue a far right-wing agenda

Democrats had a very good election night on Tuesday.

Their cherished causes prevailed, they kept their statehouses, and they saw one of the Tea Party's biggest champions unexpectedly lose a recall election in Arizona.

Though it's easy to read too much into the sparse data points of an off-year election, liberals were jubilant as the returns came rolling in Tuesday night, and the trend, in nearly every contested race across the country, was too obvious to ignore:

* The Republican governor and legislature in Ohio saw their attempt to roll back collective bargaining for public employees soundly repudiated by the state's voters.

* Mississippi's "personhood' initiative, which would have defined a fertilized human egg as a person and created a new front in the abortion wars, went down to defeat by a wide margin, despite leading in pre-election polls.

* Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear sailed to reelection -- though widely anticipated, his win showed Democrats can still prevail in red states with good candidates and campaign strategy.

* Russell Pearce, Arizona's state Senate president and the author of that state's controversial anti-illegal immigration law, lost a recall election to a Republican challenger who portrayed Pearce as an extremist.

Democrats also hung onto the Iowa state Senate and appeared poised to at least hold the GOP to a tie in the Virginia Senate. As of late Tuesday, Virginia Republicans had gained one seat and led by less than 100 votes in another, but needed to gain three to take over the chamber. And in Maine, voters threw out the legislature's attempt to tighten voting restrictions.

The trend was not absolute. Conservatives were victorious on other ballot issues, including one in Ohio to ban health-care mandates -- a symbolic strike against President Obama's health-care reform -- and one in Mississippi to require photo ID to vote. As expected, Republican Phil Bryant easily won Mississippi's gubernatorial election.

But there was no question that on the most controversial questions, voters seemed to recoil from the GOP's attempts to push further to the right. Pearce, in Arizona, was a case in point: He had proudly declared the state's upper chamber a "tea party Senate" and inspired similar immigration proposals across the country. Yet his heavily Republican district threw him out in favor of a fellow Republican with a more conciliatory stance.

Similarly, the "personhood" initiative in Mississippi worried not just liberals but some in the pro-life movement, who thought it could hurt the anti-abortion cause by alienating independent voters or tempting a Supreme Court smackdown. And in Ohio, conservative-leaning blue-collar voters took labor's side against Gov. John Kasich's attempt to roll back union protections even for police and firefighters.

Thus, Tuesday's results were more of a rejection of far-right proposals than a signal of approval to Democrats -- a sign that Republicans may have overreached their 2010 mandate and pushed the pendulum in the other direction.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arch...ts/248149/

[TheRealVille]

Maybe Americans are sending the teabaggers and extreme far right a message, on some of these controversial issues.

[Truth]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arch...ts/248149/

I think you watch a little too much MSNBC. Let me point out a few facts.

1. The only open seat in a governor's race was in Mississippi. The Republican won.
2. For the first time in a century or so, the Republicans gained control of the Virginia Senate. The makeup is 20 Republicans and 20 Demkocrats. A Republican breaks the tie. The Virginia House is Republican controlled and the governor is a Republican.
3. Beshear in Kentucky and Jindal in Louisiana won reelection as governors of their respective states. Jindal won by such a large number in the primary that he did not have to run in November.
4. In Kentucky, Republicans held one state office prior to the election. After the election, the Republicans hold one state office- Commissioner of Agriculture.
5. While Obama won on Issue 2 in Ohio by a large margin, he lost by a large margin on Issue 3 (mandated health care). thus, in Ohio, it was a wash and, when the collective bargaining results in layoffs or considerably higher taxes (and it must be one or the other), many non-union Ohio residents will realize that they cut their own throats and cleaned their own pocketbooks by supporting Issue 2.
6. While it is generally accepted that Mississippi failed to approve the personhood amendment because of its poor wording, the voters overwhelmingly voted for photo indentification for voters- certainly a big defeat for Obama. Surely not even MSNBC would conclued that the Mississippi vote on personhood was a vote for Obama and his fellow abortionists.

More examples could be added but the bottom line is that neither party or philosophy scored a big victory yesterday.

[TheRealVille]

I think you watch a little too much MSNBC. Let me point out a few facts.

1. The only open seat in a governor's race was in Mississippi. The Republican won.
2. For the first time in a century or so, the Republicans gained control of the Virginia Senate. The makeup is 20 Republicans and 20 Demkocrats. A Republican breaks the tie. The Virginia House is Republican controlled and the governor is a Republican.
3. Beshear in Kentucky and Jindal in Louisiana won reelection as governors of their respective states. Jindal won by such a large number in the primary that he did not have to run in November.
4. In Kentucky, Republicans held one state office prior to the election. After the election, the Republicans hold one state office- Commissioner of Agriculture.
5. While Obama won on Issue 2 in Ohio by a large margin, he lost by a large margin on Issue 3 (mandated health care). thus, in Ohio, it was a wash and, when the collective bargaining results in layoffs or considerably higher taxes (and it must be one or the other), many non-union Ohio residents will realize that they cut their own throats and cleaned their own pocketbooks by supporting Issue 2.
6. While it is generally accepted that Mississippi failed to approve the personhood amendment because of its poor wording, the voters overwhelmingly voted for photo indentification for voters- certainly a big defeat for Obama.

More examples could be added but the bottom line is that neither party or philosophy scored a big victory yesterday.

I don't watch MSNBC. You did notice the words "controversial issues" and "extreme right" in there huh? People aren't going to put up with some of the extreme right issues, and they proved it tonight. As to issue 3, it won't matter what Ohio does, because Obama won a big victory in the Appellate court, that says his healthcare bill isn't unconstitutional. It will most likely go to the supreme court and will be upheld there also. So no matter what Ohio does, the appellate court, and the coming supreme court ruling will make void what they voted on in Ohio.

[Truth]

I don't watch MSNBC. You did notice the words "controversial issues" and "extreme right" in there huh? People aren't going to put up with some of the extreme right issues, and they proved it tonight. As to issue 3, it won't matter what Ohio does, because Obama won a big victory in the Appellate court, that says his healthcare bill isn't unconstitutional. It will most likely go to the supreme court and will be upheld there also. So no matter what Ohio does, the appellate court, and the coming supreme court ruling will make void what they voted on in Ohio.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Your big" appellate victory was a 2-1 decision by a tribunal of the District of Columbia Circuit and was not heard by the full court. Of course, if your little fellow in the White House loses the election next year, we won't need to worry about any Obamacare, will we?

My group may be categoried as "extreme right" but they still smell a lot better than do your group of "occupiers". In fact, my group even works, pays taxes, assembles peaceably and with proper permits, and cleans up after themselves.

[TheRealVille]

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Your big" appellate victory was a 2-1 decision by a tribunal of the District of Columbia Circuit and was not heard by the full court. Of course, if your little fellow in the White House loses the election next year, we won't need to worry about any Obamacare, will we?

My group may be categoried as "extreme right" but they still smell a lot better than do your group of "occupiers". In fact, my group even works, pays taxes, assembles peaceably and with proper permits, and cleans up after themselves.

My group is middle America. A lot of us that aren't extreme right don't identify with the occupiers. There are millions of Americans that aren't extreme right that work and pay taxes, me being one of them.

[Truth]

My group is middle America. A lot of us that aren't extreme right don't identify with the occupiers. There are millions of Americans that aren't extreme right that work and pay taxes, me being one of them.

Most pay no income taxes and, in fact, with all the obscene credits, actually pay less than zero because they take from the system with no contributiion. Do you want to bet on how the overwhelming majority of those people vote?
the electorat eis pretty much broken into the "payers" and the "receivers". Sadly, we are becoming a country of "receivers". That is how the little fellow got elected.

[TheRealThing]

Maybe Americans are sending the teabaggers and extreme far right a message, on some of these controversial issues.

The message will be delivered on Tuesday, Nov 6, 2012.

[TheRealVille]

The message will be delivered on Tuesday, Nov 6, 2012.

We will see. What excuse will you use when he get's his second term?

[jetpilot]

LOL at RV. I don't believe you don't watch MSNBC. You couldn't come up with this much horse sh!t on your own.

[TheRealVille]

LOL at RV. I don't believe you don't watch MSNBC. You couldn't come up with this much horse sh!t on your own.

That would only be "horse shit" to someone as extreme right as yourself. My TV watching is limited to sports, ID, SCI, travel channel, and NBC nightly news, and WSAZ nightly news. If you really knew me, you would know I could give a damn less whether you believe me or not. BTW, you watching Faux News amounts to about the same thing as MSNBC, only on the other end of the spectrum. I could be wrong, but we will see next year. Be coming up with a good excuse why Obama get's his 2nd term in the meantime. Another BTW, I didn't lose a vote yesterday, how about you?

[nky]

Beshear winning in Kentucky is no way a referendum on the tea party. If the state Republicans big wigs would let the state choose a qualified candidate in the primaries instead of bullying or pushing the best candidates to the side so that the chosen one would be the candidate. It's the same old backroom politics of the past.

[TheRealVille]

Beshear winning in Kentucky is no way a referendum on the tea party. If the state Republicans big wigs would let the state choose a qualified candidate in the primaries instead of bullying or pushing the best candidates to the side so that the chosen one would be the candidate. It's the same old backroom politics of the past.

Again, it wasn't about Beshear, it was about the right wing controversial issues. The message was sent, take it how you like.

[tvtimeout]

Again, it wasn't about Beshear, it was about the right wing controversial issues. The message was sent, take it how you like.

I agree with you and I disagree with all in one statement. Man, am I a politician or what:biggrin:

Last night was not about Beshear. This is the point I agree with you! However, it also was not about the right wing controversial issues either.
It was about the right though so again you are partially right in my opinion.
The Republicans did not put up a strong canadiate for Governor, plain and simple. No one likes D.W. period not even his own party. Because that was the key race in this election, turn out was very low for the Republicans and here is how you know.

Look at the Attorney General's race Conway got close to the same number of votes as he did when he ran for Senate. He got beat in the Senate Race with those same number of votes. So the question becomes what changed? It was lack of Republican votes for P'Poole. Why was this? In my theory, the Republican base was not motivated because the key race, the Govenor was basically decided in the primary, thus a low turnout of Republican Voters. If you were right about sending a message, Conway would have had 20,000 more votes or so, he did not. In my opinion, because there was no change of sunificance (sp) no message was sent about right wing causes.

O.K. another way you know that the Republicans had a low turnout look at Knox County, Kentucky. It went Democrat... this is a traditionally Republican County, why did it go Democrat, because of the low turnout in that county.


This all stems from a poor choice at the primary of putting D.W as the canadiate instead of Phil Moffett.

Just my two cents.

[Hoot Gibson]

Election eve, 2008, was a good night for Democrats - or so they thought. Turned out to be a bad night for all Americans, as the unemployment rate in this country soared and real incomes dropped. What's up should be down and what's down should be up.

[jetpilot]

That would only be "horse shit" to someone as extreme right as yourself. My TV watching is limited to sports, ID, SCI, travel channel, and NBC nightly news, and WSAZ nightly news. If you really knew me, you would know I could give a damn less whether you believe me or not. BTW, you watching Faux News amounts to about the same thing as MSNBC, only on the other end of the spectrum. I could be wrong, but we will see next year. Be coming up with a good excuse why Obama get's his 2nd term in the meantime. Another BTW, I didn't lose a vote yesterday, how about you?

Typical BS from you. Everyone who doesn't agree with your ultraliberal crap that has failed in every country on earth you label "extreme".
If you think Fox News is the equivalent of MSNBC it's just another example of your ignorance. Yeah congrats on the Dems controlling Kentucky yet again, looks like we will rank 49th in the country in any meaningful statistic for the rest of our lifetime as we always have under their watch.
You proudly vote to continue to be ranked 49th and think you are smart for it...

You are a living, breathing example of what is wrong with this state and country. The US will have to fail like Europe is to get a fresh start, and all your people will be rioting in the street when they get one dollar of their free sh!t taken away.

[RunItUpTheGut]

I dont care who gets what right now.
I just hope and pray America is smart enough to get Obama out of there next year.
Thats a step in the right direction.

[Truth]

We will see. What excuse will you use when he get's his second term?

For once we agree. The little fellow will win. He'll win because we are a country in which there are more who take from the system than those who pay to support the system. Since most all with their hands out will vote for the little fellow, he will get reelected.

He who confiscates from Peter to give a handout to Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

[vundy33]

Typical BS from you. Everyone who doesn't agree with your ultraliberal crap that has failed in every country on earth you label "extreme".
If you think Fox News is the equivalent of MSNBC it's just another example of your ignorance. Yeah congrats on the Dems controlling Kentucky yet again, looks like we will rank 49th in the country in any meaningful statistic for the rest of our lifetime as we always have under their watch.
You proudly vote to continue to be ranked 49th and think you are smart for it...

You are a living, breathing example of what is wrong with this state and country. The US will have to fail like Europe is to get a fresh start, and all your people will be rioting in the street when they get one dollar of their free sh!t taken away.

Fox News is the equivalent to MSNBC, anyone that watches it can see that. I'm a big Republican and they never report the positives. Fair and Balanced...hahaha. It's a joke.

They do have quite a few beautiful women though.

[jetpilot]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...13916.html

[LWC]

Typical BS from you. Everyone who doesn't agree with your ultraliberal crap that has failed in every country on earth you label "extreme".
If you think Fox News is the equivalent of MSNBC it's just another example of your ignorance. Yeah congrats on the Dems controlling Kentucky yet again, looks like we will rank 49th in the country in any meaningful statistic for the rest of our lifetime as we always have under their watch.
You proudly vote to continue to be ranked 49th and think you are smart for it...

You are a living, breathing example of what is wrong with this state and country. The US will have to fail like Europe is to get a fresh start, and all your people will be rioting in the street when they get one dollar of their free sh!t taken away.

Fox News is not very fair and balanced either.......

[TheRealVille]

Typical BS from you. Everyone who doesn't agree with your ultraliberal crap that has failed in every country on earth you label "extreme".
If you think Fox News is the equivalent of MSNBC it's just another example of your ignorance. Yeah congrats on the Dems controlling Kentucky yet again, looks like we will rank 49th in the country in any meaningful statistic for the rest of our lifetime as we always have under their watch.
You proudly vote to continue to be ranked 49th and think you are smart for it...

You are a living, breathing example of what is wrong with this state and country. The US will have to fail like Europe is to get a fresh start, and all your people will be rioting in the street when they get one dollar of their free sh!t taken away.

Well, well, well, how did we fair under your last governor, Mr. Ernie Fletcher, with all the corruption? :lmao:

[jetpilot]

Well, well, well, how did we fair under your last governor, Mr. Ernie Fletcher, with all the corruption? :lmao:

LOL...you think Fletcher was corrupt because a sorry Dem whistleblower who got terrible reports his whole career lost his job and the Dem's called it political favoritism?

[TheRealVille]

LOL...you think Fletcher was corrupt because a sorry Dem whistleblower who got terrible reports his whole career lost his job and the Dem's called it political favoritism?

Did or did not pardon everybody involved, but himself, then struck a deal with Stumbo? Yes or no, did it happen? Did Fletcher acknowledge that evidence "strongly indicated wrong doing by his administration"?

Fletcher was one of the most corrupt governors to ever hold the office.

[jetpilot]

Did or did not pardon everybody involved, but himself, then struck a deal with Stumbo? Yes or no, did it happen? Did Fletcher acknowledge that evidence "strongly indicated wrong doing by his administration"?

Fletcher was one of the most corrupt governors to ever hold the office.

Your mind is full of mush put there by the Dems. And you're an easy target. Back to the tread title though...did you click on the link to see how Obama fared in Virginia? And to you that's a "very good night for Democrats?" :yawn:

[SKINNYPIG]

Well, well, well, how did we fair under your last governor, Mr. Ernie Fletcher, with all the corruption? :lmao:

Just sitting here trying my best to figure out what in the hell Fletcher has to do with anything jetpilot said. Kentucky is ranked 49th in the way it's being run by government. Are you blaming Fletcher, or somehow trying to justify the current administration's ranking by bringing him up?

[TheRealVille]

Just sitting here trying my best to figure out what in the hell Fletcher has to do with anything jetpilot said. Kentucky is ranked 49th in the way it's being run by government. Are you blaming Fletcher, or somehow trying to justify the current administration's ranking by bringing him up?

No, it's not ranked 49th as to the way it's ran by government. I have no clue as to what he's talking about. But, it is way better now than the corrupt Ernie Fletcher government. Care to prove your statement "Kentucky is ranked 49th in the way it's being run by government"?

[vundy33]

I agree, being ranked 49th is way, way to low for us...however, I looked at Beshear as the lesser of two evils. David Williams really put me off when it came to his criticism of the E-town Hindu thing Gov Beshear took part in. Understand the point he was trying to make, just a non-issue though, in my opinion. I still voted for him though. I've always been good at being able to tell when someone is full of horseshit, and when I met Governor Beshear, I got that impression.

[TheRealVille]

The only ranking it places 49th in, is being the 49th unhealthiest state. I don't think that's Beshears fault. Then there's the 49th unhappiest state poll. I don't know what the hell that means, unless it goes along with the people being fat and unhealthy.

[jetpilot]

No, it's not ranked 49th as to the way it's ran by government. I have no clue as to what he's talking about. But, it is way better now than the corrupt Ernie Fletcher government.

Nobody with an IQ over 7 believes that statement, but I'll play along because it's so easy with you; go ahead and try to explain how.