Comments on: Born Fighting / Battle Born

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 01:20:40 +0000

And “second-term” was your call. Neither Kennedy nor Johnson had a second term.

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 01:19:11 +0000

so if you don’t count the rest of the century when Roosevelt lost 72 (and then another 45) and Truman lost 34,

Wait. You’re going back to when? The 1940s?

Dude, things have changed! Your people haven’t been gaming the districts for fun.

By: Duros62

Duros62 — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 22:01:27 +0000

Dude, somebody call me?

By: Marty

Marty — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 21:58:53 +0000

Wow- so if you don’t count the rest of the century when Roosevelt lost 72 (and then another 45) and Truman lost 34, and the Kennedy/Johnson team lost 48, (Though I realze technically it wasn’t Johnson’s second term) then I suppose your talking point from Talking Points Memo
works out.

Thank’s Josh Marshall!

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 16:39:39 +0000

You do bring up an interesting question, though.

In the post-Watergate midterms, the GOP lost 48 seats. So the question is: Was this year’s defeat as bad as the post-Watergate thrashing? Or only nearly so?

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 16:20:43 +0000

Landslide? What the bloody hell are you talking about. It just barely made the average of a second term president’s loss in the House and the Senate.

Ha. Mr. “you’re-just-repeating-the-talking-points” is caught distributing taffy. Read ‘em and weep:

Here are the number of House seats lost by the President’s party in the 6th year of his presidency during the post-war period. I pulled the numbers from the House website and quickly did the math:

1958: Eisenhower–Republicans lost 48 seats
1986: Reagan–Republicans lost 5 seats
1998: Clinton–Democrats gained 5 seats

So only once in the last half century has the President’s party lost more than 30 seats in the second-term midterms.

The 1974 midterms, in which the Republicans lost 48 House seats in the aftermath of Watergate, occurred after Nixon resigned.

Don’t believe everything Mehlman says, Marts.

By: Nimrod Gently

Nimrod Gently — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 23:24:00 +0000

Also I’m not Duros. And okay, it’s not as big a landslide as 1997, but it feels similar, and may well have a similar impact.

By: Nimrod Gently

Nimrod Gently — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 23:22:56 +0000

You got raped. Accept it. Do what John Major did, take it with grace.

By: Marty

Marty — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 22:16:43 +0000

Landslide? What the bloody hell are you talking about. It just barely made the average of a second term president’s loss in the House and the Senate.

Yes, the house and Senate changed hands- huge impact and congrats are in order. hardly a landslide. (In fact- actually may help the next Republican presidential candidate. The next two years will be very interesting.)

And 1997? I guess you’ll have to explain why that one excites you in the ‘landslide’ department Duros.

So Oliver- You got your wish. Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Pelosi are now the face of the Democratic party that everyone will be watching.

Say it over an over until it sinks in.

(Now tell me which Democrats would you really like to see in those positions. I’m sure you have your “druthers.”)

By: Nimrod Gently

Nimrod Gently — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:56:25 +0000

And I have to say, I did not expect this. I thought the GOP would keep the upper house by the skin of their teeth, but it’s a clean damn sweep. It’s a landslide. It’s 1997 once again. It’s “a metorite hitting the Earth, obliterating all life”, as Anthony King said.

By: Nimrod Gently

Nimrod Gently — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:46:34 +0000

Macaca boy’s finally got round to conceding.

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 05:27:18 +0000

Yeah, I’m clearly an idiot.

By: August J. Pollak

August J. Pollak — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 04:22:36 +0000

Thinking you mean one branch down unless Alito just joined the ACLU