US POLITICS election/post-election edition: your country will improve immediately.

in the midst of tea party madness, feels pretty good to be able to vote for a muslim and know he's gonna win

nb re Paladino: i think that he'd be TOTALLY electable in some non-Northeast Corridor (aka "elitist liberal") state.

Angle has us all in suspense. She's been the "I'll only give my positions once elected" candidate.

By contrast., about three in four expressed negative views about the federal government. Less than half said they wanted the government to do more to solve problems.

this is emblematic of where the real failure is - people have this deeply ingrained illusion that the federal government is the source of all their woes, that government cannot (and SHOULD not) even attempt to solve problems. everything will just work itself out! nice corporations will take care of us all! it's just the stupidest, saddest worldview imaginable.

it'll have to be reality-tested i'm afraid

this is a generation since 'government is the problem' became conventional wisdom. it's freaky to consider we're seeing the continued rippling effect of ronnie.

reading Supreme Power right now (thx Alfred!) and struck by the contrast that FDR continually made the argument - which much of the public readily and heartily endorsed - that the federal gov't was all that stood between the "common man" and total oppression/exploitation at the hands of moneyed interests. Like, this was a narrative that was just taken for granted, and the real pushback came from people who feared the fed over-extending its power. This is now completely reversed, no one understands (or even thinks it's possible) that the federal government can solve anything.

like, no one thinks the federal gov't protects the common man at all, and those that think it can and should are afraid that it doesn't even have the capacity to effectively do so.

tbf, very few candidates/elected officials offer any evidence to the contrary. xp

national GOP doesn't seem to have had much luck reigning in the crazy this year.

From a party that has Michael WHAT UP? Steele as its chairman, I'm assuming that they're not even remotely interested in doing so.

Well, FDR's immediate forebears were the last to think gov't can solve everything. I'm more interested in government mediating.

People need to stop thinking there's a difference between the "national GOP" and the Tea Party.

Other than a difference in tone, name one issue on which the "national GOP" and Tea Party have split and has surprised you. The "national GOP" has endorsed insane drivel for years!

Tea Party, the GOP equivalent of a WWF "rebellion"

Tomorrow is going to be awesome.

Here's a piece for some of you. It's like every Obama apologist, and every bit of Democratic complacency/piety/naivete/stupidity that gets ridiculed around here, rolled into one depressing and mind-numblingly squishy fan letter:

I Still Love Obama. Love. Love. Love.

I like it and more or less agree with it.

(Beats a hasty retreat.)

We posted this earlier, and, yes, we would have ripped you a new asshole.

It'd be awesome if a few dudes in Congress actually went all Ultimate Warrior on us. Like, replete with face paint and stuff.

Glad I could help!

speaking of exit polls Andrew Sullivan posts some data that's as bewildering as the stuff I read in 2008.

Tea Party, the GOP equivalent of a WWF "rebellion"

hahah yeah, mostly. but it is the case that had GOP nominated whoever that other nevada candidate was, and castle in delaware, they'd be winning those races going away prob

the new Congress is going to be way better than WWF. And more fake.

chris wallace has a writeboard and says the GOP could pick up 60 in the house

hi, Don!

538 is saying 55-56 at the moment - on the back of bigger House wins in Indiana than expected…

theoretically this should be a heavy drinking night, if i didn't have so much work

I'm on my third glass of wine and will switch to shoe polish if necessary.

and I don't even have cable.

none of this is terribly surprising considering how incompetent virtually the entire democratic party has acted if not been (i was about to say over the past couple of years but i'll just strikethrough myself here...)

the republican party has to be admired for generally being utterly fearless politically (if the opposite of fearless w/r/t "sky is falling" claptrap)

tonight is a vote against whomever's in power. It's going to keep happening every two years as long as the economy is shitty.

hi Al! and Daria! and everyone!

It's going to keep happening every two years as long as the economy is shitty.

I'm not sure about that - odds are that Dem losses now = Obama re-election in '12

but yeah I agree with yr first statement, that's obviously a no-brainer

debating whether i should have a drink or not. but it's like, everyone knows it's going to be bad. i'm sort of eh about the whole thing.

sup Don

I predict my entire city is going to smell like skunk-weed tomorrow morning

people are not bonering up for conservatism today any more than they bonered up for liberalism two years ago. Independents just keep voting against incumbents. And if unemployment is this close to 10% in 2012, Obama will be booted. He's simply not that good of a pol and he never has been.

nights like this make me long for gabbneb

hey don!

tbqf it's not like the last two years have been some magical strawberry fields dream that some nasty villains are going to pop the bubble on so i'm just like w/e

nights like this make me long for gabbneb

wait what?

no matter how bad it gets let's not start longing for nebster

And if unemployment is this close to 10% in 2012, Obama will be booted. He's simply not that good of a pol and he never has been.

I think you are seriously overestimating the Republican candidate field here, sorry

but I also don't think the 10% unemployment will last quite that long.

(I could be wrong about that)

i can't figure out how a candidate who could actually beat obama makes it through the GOP primaries.

i think you may be wrong there, shakey.

still: i hold that 10% unemployment or no, there won't be a President Palin -- or a Palin-esque President.

People, concentrate.

ummm you are right. I forgot who every Rep prez candidate was since Reagan. Fucking dismal.

If we are anywhere near 8% unemployment in two years, it will be nothing short of amazing (go look at the numbers and see how many jobs would have to be added every month to get 2% more employment. It's scary.)

I long for gabbneb just to tease him.

i'd LIKE for this election to be a referendum on gabbnebism -- i.e., a rejection of his strident and smug advocacy of a party devoted to Rockefeller Republicanism -- but i think that don's assessment is the correct one.

Why I Hate Ohio -- current results from one of our judge races:

Michael Astrab (R) 78,778
Bridget McCafferty (D) 57,707

The Democrat, Bridget McCafferty, is currently under Federal indictment on corruption and bribery charges as part of a years-long operation which has also resulted in one of the county commissioners and other public officials being indicted. But she's got 57,000 votes.