So, here we are, 2010, and THIS election is a “referendum” on the governance of President Obama.  Are we so sure?  Didn’t we hear that about the 2004 win of Bush, that Republicans were saying it was a “referendum” on the current Bush policies. 

O.K., so stay with me, move ahead to the 2006 election and take over of the house and senate by democrats.  It was a “referendum” on the Bush white house, at least that is what the left said.  It’s funny, what I recall the Right punditry saying was that it was simply an election cycle and we should not read too much into it. 

Now, fast forward to 2008 and the overwhelming win of President Obama.  His win was a “referendum” on Republicans!   Republicans were so pissed at Bush that they decided to stay home (kind of what is being said about democrat voters in 2010).  A “real” conservative was not on the ballot.  Somehow McCain did not count as a real conservative, but hey, I’m considered a leftie commie these days so what do I know!  

Now……yep, let’s fast forward again to 2010 and THIS election , really, this one for sure, is truly a referendum on the current administration, no joke.  Unless, of course, maybe there really is no such thing as a referendum.  Am I the only one noticing something funny?  The right will claim if they win it’s a referendum, and guess what, the left will claim it is just an election cycle. 

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth……OY VEY, I am getting such a headache! 

So, what does this tell us?  It tells us nothing.  Well, for me, actually, it suggests that no matter who is in office, they need to remember that their is an entire electorate that just wants to make sure that their concerns are never forgotten.    Politicians need to just do what they believe is the best policy and hope, in the end, they used their noggin to the best of their ability.   They did their due diligence in fact finding, listened to different points of view, and made a decision they could be satisfied with, even IF they do not get re-elected. 

As the evening unfolds, I hope posters here will keep this thread full of current wins and losses.

56 Thoughts to “Seriously, who believes in a “voter referendum” anyway!”

  1. marinm

    Press has called it for Coons in DE. Paul (KY) and Rubio (FL) are good wins. Fimian has 51 to Connolley’s 46% with 17% reporting in (ref SBE). 1st and 2nd ballot inits look to be locked in as YES and 3 looks split down the middle at slightly north of 50%.

  2. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    marin, where are you watching va11 at?

  3. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Nevermind, I see. Tightened up big time. It ain’t over yet.

  4. marinm

    Not sure if this link works for everyone but if your inclined to see the Virginia results live..

    https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/election/DATA/2010/EB24720D-F5C6-4880-8DC5-12AE4D0C3772/Unofficial/6_s.shtml

    The race has tightened up. I expected that. I think FFX will skew towards Connolley and PWC for Fimian and I want to say I read one report that the -Ds were concerned that one FFX polling place trended Fimian. That’s good to hear! 😉

    But, it ain’t over until Rosie O’Donnell sings…

  5. marinm

    Looks like Hurt will defeat Perriello in the 5th. Woohoo!!

  6. Elena

    Hurt is announed winner. Connolly still not sure, certain places in Frfx not announced yet.

  7. marinm

    Wittman and Wolf crush their opponents.

  8. Elena

    Keep it comin’ guys, I am wicked tired and will need your help to keep the thread with most current wins and losses!

  9. marinm

    Fimian has lost his lead with 48% reporting. Democrat Blanche Lincoln loses re-election bid.

  10. marinm

    Manchin (D) takes WVA

  11. marinm

    Dan Coats picks up Evan Bayh’s seat in Indiana.

  12. Emma

    Rand Paul is making his acceptance speech.

  13. Elena

    Republicans gain control of house, senate still a big question

  14. marinm

    I don’t think the Senate will happen this term but the results thus far make me very, very happy. 🙂

  15. Emma

    I like balance. I don’t want a supermajority of any party. We’ve seen how that causes “payback time”. We don’t need that.

  16. Elena

    control of senate may rest in the hands of Pennsylvania voters

  17. Elena

    dead heat, 49% in 11th district, connolly vs fimian

  18. marinm

    Agreed Emma. I’m more than satisfied.. And, my good friend Brian Leeper looks to have been elected in Manassas Park!!!!! 1st Nancy Pelosi is FIRED, 2nd The -R and -TP take the House and now 3. Mr Leeper is coming to Manassas Park!!

    Awesome night so far!!!!

  19. Gainesville Resident

    Emma :
    I like balance. I don’t want a supermajority of any party. We’ve seen how that causes “payback time”. We don’t need that.

    I think that’s good too. When one party has all the power it never seems to lead to anything good over time.

  20. Gainesville Resident

    marinm :
    Agreed Emma. I’m more than satisfied.. And, my good friend Brian Leeper looks to have been elected in Manassas Park!!!!! 1st Nancy Pelosi is FIRED, 2nd The -R and -TP take the House and now 3. Mr Leeper is coming to Manassas Park!!
    Awesome night so far!!!!

    All I wanted was to be rid of Pelosi as Speaker, so I’m happy too with the results tonight.

  21. Gainesville Resident

    Elena :
    dead heat, 49% in 11th district, connolly vs fimian

    Looks like more precincts in PWC have reported than Fairfax, it sure is going to be close!

  22. marinm

    Wife wants to watch Iron Man 2 so I can’t track any more electoral news.. TAG! Someone else is IT.

  23. Raymond Beverage

    Looking like a normal off-year election…about 1/3rd of the registered voters across PWC and two Cities coming out to the polls.

  24. what is Ironman 2?

    I didn’t realize that the first congressional district had so many precincts in pwc.

  25. Now tell me, did the Republicans win or did the Tea Party win? I cannot tell the difference.

  26. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    I think Connolly’s got this one. Can we run someone other than Fimian next time? And not Herrity.

  27. Cato the Elder

    Wow. Fimian ran much better than I expected him to.

    The uplifting moment of the night IMO was the Rubio speech about American Exceptionalism viewed through the eyes of an immigrant.

    We need more immigration, not less.

  28. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Well, not nearly what I had hoped for, but the highlight of the evening is that fully 150,000 living, breathing human beings looked at my man Al “Satin” Greene and said “that’s my man!” I love SC!!

  29. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    No, over 291,000 people like my man “Satin” Greene!!

  30. I think that the Tea Party won and the GOP will ride the coat tails of it and take credit. The GOP was despondent until the Tea Party rallies. Then they tried to down play the Tea Party. Then the Tea Party demanded that even safe Democratic seats be challenged, against the standard party line of challenging only where they could win.

    And look what happened. Even in the races that we knew we would lose, we forced those seats to be defended. And by doing that, perhaps other seats were won by the Tea Party and the GOP. Because all eyes were on O’Donnell, Johnson beat Feingold and Angle had the pressure of a biased media removed.

  31. And the only referendum this election revealed is that that a huge chunk of the populace is angry at the career politicians that are more interested in party power than better government. And that the referendum is for change. It was a rejection of the way things have been done the last few years.

    No more bailouts, “stimuli”, or tax raises.

    MSNBC was losing it because no one could explain to “pay for the tax cut for the rich” that would now have to be borrowed. Of course, their premise is still that the money belongs to the government and that letting people keep their money would “cost” the government money.

    1. @Cargo, I believe also that there is something to be said for voter motivation.

      There are all sorts of people out there who are sick as crap of hearing the Constitution being bandied about like it has been taken hostage, seeing people act out in town meetings, people who can’t balance their checking account deciding macro economics, and making ridiculous birther and truther accusations. However, they aren’t sure what to go out and vote against.

      I cannot take seriously anyone or any group who feels the government should have just sat there in 2008 and done nothing.That is a horrifying thought and TARP had to happen. To have done anything else would have jeopardized our country.

  32. marinm

    Cargo, you can appreciate this. Winner of the best tweet of the evening goes to…

    “The racist teabaggers have elected Marco Rubio, and Susana Martinez, and Tim Scott, and Nikki Haley, and Bill Flores, and Allen West, and…”

  33. Still protecting the rich people, I see. By all means, let the middle class hold the bulk of the tax responsibility. Let’s see, how many of our elected officials would be considered middle class? Some one has duped someone….

  34. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Cato the Elder :We need more immigration, not less.

    LEGAL immigration, yes.

  35. Elena

    You know what I think, I think it’s all BS. What IF, the democrats walked away, licking their wounds, saying they were NOT liberal enough, JUST like the Republicans did in 2008 having lost to Obama. The TEA party rose because supposedly Republicans left their roots of fiscal conservatism. Its all just crazy. But you know what, Democrats won’t do that, they will not go into the abyss of liberalisim. The health care reform WAS compromised, there is NO PUBLIC OPTION. HELLO? THAT was the main tenant of the left.

    When republicans talk about cutting the fat in washington, doesn’t anyone get they are talking about cutting jobs. We all LIVE in the lap of government spending that is why northern va never suffers the same as the rest of the country. My word for the day is HYPROCRISY.

  36. e

    when republicans talk about cutting fat in washington, they are talking about the american people getting to keep more of their money to do with as they please, instead of it being confiscated by big brother. more money in peoples’ pockets mean more jobs, because people will have more money to purchase goods and services. increased purchases mean more money for big brother too, by the way, because increased revenue equals increased amounts of money in taxes going to treasury. this is why tax cuts always increase revenue to government, although this might seem paradoxical at first and is a first base democrats never seem to get past

  37. marinm

    I woke up today with a different smell in the air. Something I hadn’t smelled in a long time.

    A scent that I like to call. FREEDOM.

    Today is a good day. 🙂 I went pinko commie today and bought my coworkers donuts!! For today they are Freedom and Liberty (fat) pills. 🙂 🙂

    The screeching at HPost and MSNBC makes my heart all warm and gushy.

  38. Cato the Elder

    Slowpoke Rodriguez :

    Cato the Elder :We need more immigration, not less.

    LEGAL immigration, yes.

    Yes yes, legal immigration.

    I have a good friend from Mexico. Owns a construction business employing about 20 people and makes a decent living for himself and his employees. He told me it took him three years and tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to naturalize.

    Stories like that make me wonder what’s wrong with our immigration system. Worried about an aging demographic? More immigration could fix that. Foreclosures? Immigration could fix that too. Shrinking tax base? Well, you get the idea.

  39. Elena

    e,
    Tax cuts have never paid for themselves! Clinton had amazing job growth under his administration. He did cut taxes but also RAISED them on the wealthy. Al Gore cast the deciding vote.

    How do you argue with these statements that say tax cuts do not pay for themselves?

    http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/have_tax_cuts_always_resulted_in_higher.html

    Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the push by congressional Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts without offsetting the costs elsewhere could end up being “disastrous” for the economy.

    In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Greenspan expressed his disagreement with the conservative argument that tax cuts essentially pay for themselves by generating revenue and productivity among recipients.

    “They do not,” said Greenspan.

    “I’m very much in favor of tax cuts but not with borrowed money and the problem that we have gotten into in recent years is spending programs with borrowed money, tax cuts with borrowed money,” he said. “And at the end of the day that proves disastrous. My view is I don’t think we can play subtle policy here.”

    The comments from the former Fed chief were an elaboration of a position he outlined in an interview earlier in the week. Speaking with PBS’ Judy Woodruff, Greenspan expressed his opposition to passing legislation that would hold tax rates steady (under law the tax cuts Bush passed ten years ago are going to expire, thereby bringing rates back to Clinton-era levels). President Obama has pledged to continue the tax breaks for those individuals making under $200,000 and those families earning less than $250,000.

    But Republicans want the entire package kept in place. Even so, they have declined to say how they would pay for it, saying, in part, that keeping the Bush tax cuts in place will pay for itself.

    In addition to throwing cold water on that theory, Greenspan also weighed in on broader economic issues and trends. The former Fed Chairman relayed some sobering economic predictions, saying he expected the nation’s unemployment rate to remain at its current level, mainly because there were few tools left to change it.

    I dare you to read this site! It is dry as hell, but VERY informative on why tax cuts DO NOT pay for themselves.

    http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=165

    Treasury Department Study Finds the Bush Tax Cuts Will Pay For Less Than 10 Percent of Their Cost
    According to CBO’s official cost estimate, the Administration’s proposal to make the tax cuts enacted since 2001 permanent would cost 1.4 percent of GDP annually. (This does not include the AMT relief that the Administration proposes on an annual basis, which would bring the total cost to 2 percent of GDP.)

    According to the Mid-Session Review, the tax cuts would have positive long-term economic effects that would raise national income by “as much as” 0.7 percent over the long term. With tax receipts projected to be about 18 percent of national income, this translates into an increase in revenues of as much as 0.13 percent of GDP.a In this scenario, which assumes that the tax cuts are financed by future cuts in government spending, the tax cuts would cost about 1.27 percent of GDP annually — or more than 90 percent of the conventional cost estimate. (Under Treasury’s alternative financing scenario, the tax cuts would actually reduce national income over the long run.)

  40. @Cato, yet immigration reforms are shouted down each and every time. Go figure.

    We don’t want illegal immigration and yet we aren’t willing to make the legal changes to unleash the gridlock and cost associated with legal immigration. Mixed messages much?

  41. Formerly Anonymous

    I won’t run the tally on my predictions yet, since I made some about the lame duck session but I called Perriello as a dead man walking over a year ago. Not a shocking prediction, but at least two people here didn’t buy it at the time.

    I’ll admit Boucher’s loss was a surprise, and I think that with it, the talk of “Blue Virginia” is out of date. 2006-2008 was a very good run for Democrats in Virignia but it’s not going to be a competitive state for Democrats in 2012.

    The guy who should be most worried right now is Sen. Webb. Webb is going to have a tough two years. He and Ben Nelson are both in very tight spots as relatively conservative Democrats, and they are going to be forced into some very tough votes. His only hope is that Allen gets the nomination again. Webb can beat Allen again but not most of the other names being batted about. I expect he’ll have some negative coattails from the top of the ticket as well.

    If you want an example of a tough vote: Expect to see a very high profile vote in March 2012 on repealing the health care bill. The GOP doesn’t have the votes to override a veto but it forces the Democrats in the Senate and the Administration to defend an unpopular bill. Webb needs to get a popular signature issue fast. (Warner has more time and if he saves JFCOM, he can ride that to another term in 2014.)

  42. e

    keep big government out of my back pocket. the tea party and the american revolution in the 1770s were initiated over grievances far less egregious than what the current batch in washington is scheming. alan greenspan is a doddering old buffoon who couldn’t make himself a bologni and pickle sandwich if his life depended on it

  43. e@ do you have soldiers living in your house? [evilgrin]

  44. Formerly, Why do you think Webb could beat Allen again? I sure don’t have that kind of confidence.

    As for Periello, I don’t think anyone had real strong opinions a year ago. I would have said no to an overthrow just because that is what one does that far out. Why start the hand wringing. In fact, I know I would have said no whether I had thought about it or now. Perillo was iffy to start with and had Charlottesville to boost his vote count. C-ville always can be counted on for a liberal vote because of the University.

  45. Elena

    good come back e….NOT! How about addressing the very crebile analysis by the CBO regarding tax cut viability.

  46. Formerly Anonymous

    We went over the Charlottesville issue at the time. The short answer is that historically they just don’t vote in large enough numbers to matter much. Besides, it’s already factored into the demographics of VA-5. It’s not like Charlottesville is new to VA-5 and it is a historically Republican district. There was a massive GOTV effort at UVa in 2008 that probably got Periello elected but the kids didn’t show up this year. (18-25 year old turn out was about 11% vs. 18% in 2008. It’ll be up some in 2012 but it won’t be 18%.)

    As for worrying early. If Periello had worried a little earlier he might have been able to keep his seat. It would have been a long shot but he waited way too long to pivot to the center. He should have pushed to be released from the health care and cap & trade votes. After those votes though, his fate was sealed.

    Despite the unfavorable landscape for Webb, he still has a chance against a weak opponent like Allen. Allen is damaged goods. Republicans might like him but as a “brand” he won’t play to independents. RPV has done a very good job of getting independents to vote for Republicans in 2009 and 2010 but it’s largely been with new, friendly faces. Allen can’t get the majority of the independent vote that he’ll need to win. (Plus running Allen guarantees you a mountain of negative press coverage from the Post because of the Robb thing.) If Republicans are careful in their candidates, they could take VA-11 next cycle too. (Although I don’t think Herrity could have beaten Connolly this cycle, he can in 2012 if VA goes to the GOP presidential nominee by 3-4 points.)

    Jim Webb is a smart man. He knows the political landscape and has two more years to prep himself. He’s got a tough fight but he could win if he gets some lucky breaks. (Allen getting the nomination would be one of them.) I don’t think Allen will get the nomination though. I suspect somebody else is interested in running for the seat as a consolation prize.

  47. Cato the Elder

    Completely agree with the above. The lesson of this cycle was that if you run flawed candidates you lose, regardless of environment.

  48. Students don’t vote where they go to school as a rule.

    Charlottesville is somewhat unique, as is Blacksburg, in that there are huge schools there around which communities have been built. Charlottesville and to a lesser degree, Albemarle County traditionally are more progressive than the rest of the district. It is more a reflection of university community than student. Several of the smaller cities also went D rather than R.

    So what is this discussion about? Why Periello lost? Weren’t most people surprised that he had won? My point was, I am not going to sit here, on a blog, a year out, and fall on the sword of any candidate. I will speculate. I specultated that Harry REid would win because a whole bunch of good old boys would crawl out of the desert who had not been polled and vote for Harry who had done them a favor 35 years ago. Who knows if I was right or not.

  49. Connolly has won by 800 votes.

  50. LOL! I just now posted that on the other thread.

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