This election could have been a lot worse for Republicans (and for conservatism) than it was. The Senate is not filibuster proof. The House didn’t flip as many seats as some feared. Al Franken is still losing in Minnesota, preventing me from taking tons of guff by mere virtue of the fact that I went to school there.
And in Washington’s Eighth District, the voters showed they still have enough sense not to elect a shrill, dishonest, condescending neophyte even when all trends favor her party.
(Good thing for Obama that he’s not shrill.)
My old lawschool classmate Darcy Burner lost again in the suburban Seattle area district. Demonstrating the depth of her magnanimity and class, and proving definitively that the voters there made the correct decision, she has yet to call her opponent to congratulate him. She won’t even take questions from the press. If Sarah Palin can handle it, Darcy, then you certainly can.
My faith in democracy will never fail as long as bright spots of common sense like this remain.
The best part is that she declared herself the winner on election night. The pundits here say that it was probably a smart idea to show some sort of strength……I disagree. Buaw ha ha ha
“by mere virtue that you went to school there” ?MN is disappointed in you. Embrace your heartland past hippie.
Orrin went to school in Seattle and can new see California from his backyard. He’s changed, man.
A bit of background here:
Orrin will have his rocks knocked on this Franken thing because he’s always insisted taht that Hippius TwinCitius is a different breed of hippy – much more reasonable. The election of Franken (albeit fraudulently) will be a simple “told you so” moment.
Orrin will likely be wrong about Franken but it has nothing to do with the breeds of hippies in Minnesota. The fact that the Dems could FAIL to win that senate seat shows how absolutely pathetic Franken is. A carbon rod could have defeated Coleman in a landslide.
Coleman is nothing but a political opportunist. He was born and raised in New York, spent his youth as a hippie, and proudly proclaimed “I am a lifelong Democrat” while running for mayor of St Paul. Until the DFL endorsed someone else, then he became a Republican to take advantage of an empty field.
He failed at run at for Governor in 1998. He would have failed to receive the GOP nomination for Senate in 2002 except for the personal intervention of President Bush that caused current-Governor Pawlenty to step aside.
Coleman won the race only because Wellstone died and the DFL ran WALTER MONDALE. Even then, Coleman’s margin was slim.
It would be terribly uninformed to believe that most Minnesotans want Franken as their Senator. Indeed, Franken faced a last-minute contest for the nomination because he is not well-liked within the Democratic Party in MN.
Nearly 1.6 million Minnesotans voted for Obama but only 1.2 voted for Franken. An independent Senate candidate who ran almost no ads took over 15% of the vote. This was clearly a contest of finding the least disliked.
SirWhoopass – is it your contention then that twin cities hippies are substantially different than their Seattle sisters?
I’m just saying that this election makes that less likely rather than more likely.
I agree that most Minnesotans don’t want Franken, but most Twin Cities lefties do – which undermines Orrin’s point about them being superior to Seattle lefties.
What are you asking? Is the left-most fringe of Minneapolis more-or-less left than the left-most fringe of Seattle? I don’t know. What does that matter?
I would argue that, on average, Minneapolis hippies are less absurdly hippified than their Seattle brethren. Minneapolis is cleaner, less full of aggressive panhandlers, has a generally lower crime rate, and the protesters are kept in check.
The fact that Franken had a primary battle at all demonstrates this streak of (relative) reasonableness that Seattle hippies lack entirely. The fact that he won that battle suggests that the Hippification gap is, unfortunately, narrowing.
It matters because of the defense Orrin is rolling out yet again in the comment above.
Actually, I don’t have the stats handy, but I’d bet Seattle has a lower crime rate than Minneaopolis.
It depends. Violent crime, then yes, Seattle is lower. For property crime Minneapolis is lower.
And we all know the Seattle PD is totally ineffective, due to rampant hippy corruption. So really, Minneapolis’ rate it higher just because the MPD is better.
The stats I was looking at looked like at best a push for non-violent – but let’s just say they’re comparable.
The Seattle police was neutered by the WTO. The hippies have their number.
I haven’t spent enough time in Minneapolis to judge their police force – but every police force if better than where I’m sitting now.