The 2006 American Midterm Election Day Thread

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Yes, it will take weeks before we know the final composition of the Senate, but this limbo will be a little more pleasant than 2000 FL and 2004 OH, won't it?

(Good point, Edward O; I was trying to find a quick guide to the blueness of the area)

http://uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/

Meagher is quite red, but on 2000 (certainly not on 2002!) figures, not quite red enough to take the margin under .25%.

I was shocked to discover that most of the stuff in my area went off without a hitch. Biggest problem I had personal knowledge of: adjoining precinct was (initially) forcing folks to cast provisional ballots in situations where they should be entitled to cast normal ballots (where the voter is registered at a previous address in the same county, or has a different address than the current registration address on a driver's license). That appeared to be cleaned up by mid-day after some squawking by nonpartisan election attorneys and a robocall to all of the head poll judges from the board of elections.

I am sad because my father lost his judicial race, but we are all thrilled because of the huge Ohio Dem Sweep. Tiberi's win (and Debbie Pryce's possible win) must be bitter candy for those fuckers over at the Ohio GOP!

I knew someone who went to high school w/her and apparently she was a major druggie HOOR. But I'm sure she thinks that had nothing to do with any good university shooting her down, it was all evil affirmative action.

Whoa! (Sorry to hear it.)

Larry Sabato: It's a possibility, though right now there are hundreds of possible combinations for both parties' presidential tickets. Hillary Clinton is likely to go into the '08 race with support from roughly 40 percent of likely primary and caucus voters. A candidate can win with 40 percent in a split field, but a candidate can also lose with 40 if a single opponent arises. This will be the question for the Dems in 2008. Barack Obama is certainly a rising star in the Democratic Party, although the Democrats chose another charismatic, one-term Senator in 2004 and it didn't do a whole lot to help their outcome.

She didn't get shot down. She got wait-listed. And everyone else on the wait list got accepted but she withdrew from the list before that happened and started this hateful campaign. I guess she didn't want to get to U of M as much as she wanted to get into right-wing politics.

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Nick Lampson took Tom Delay's seat in Texas, Space took Bob Ney's seat in ohio, & Tim Mahoney took Foley's seat in Florida.

Unfortunately, Bilbray hangs on to Duke Cunningham's seat in California, beating Francine Busby by 15K.

Tom DeLay was on MSNBC this morning trying hard to spin this one - my fave moment was when he argued that he'd been indicted under laws that weren't actually in place

in virginia the threshold is 1% sothere will probably be a recount (which could be interesting as it increases the likelihood of gop dirty tricks being uncovered).

"Tonight the news has arrived from every corner of the country - the American people have sent a resounding and unmistakeable message of change and a new direction for America!

"We accept your votes not as a victory for our party but as an opportunity for our country. All Americans have recognised that what we are doing in Iraq isn't working and we need to change course."

Let the betting pool for the total number of subpoenas begin

The diff is Bush only has a year to go to true lame duckitude, Nixon had 3-1/2 years left when the shit really hit. The conv 'wisdom' will rule out beheading W.

Also, the Dems had Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm then, we get Pelosi.

hahaha OTM

Summary of the e-voting problems - gotta skip an ad to get to it, though

There's plenty of evidence to suggest that President Bush may have been the deciding factor that killed the GOP's momentum in some key Senate races over the last week. One Republican consultant is convinced that Bush's last-minute visit to Missouri on behalf of ousted GOP Sen. Jim Talent did the incumbent in. According to the network exit polls, Democrat Claire McCaskill crushed Talent among those late-breaking voters who decided in the final three days (a full 11 percent of the electorate). Bush also made a last-minute trip to Montana, where anecdotal evidence indicates the president's rally for Republican Conrad Burns stopped the incumbent's momentum in Billings.

It's hard not to look at the White House and wonder if it was flying blind. For 18 months, there was evidence that this was going to be a tough midterm thanks to basic history (six-year itch, after all) and the war in Iraq. So why didn't Karl Rove attempt to do what he did in '02 and '04 and dictate the terms of the debate? It was clear this was going to be a national election, yet the White House stuck to its "stay the course" guns for way too long. Northeastern Republicans were desperate for Bush to pivot on Iraq and he just wouldn't do it. When he finally did, it was too late.

The political arm of the Bush White House doesn't usually miss this badly, but it appears this election was misjudged from the beginning. Maybe they believed all the "genius" books that were being written about them.