Posted by
Patrick Henry on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 6:54:28 PM
Electoral breezes of autumn have blown, and the outcomes are rife with lessons for political parties and
elected officials alike. Beware the coming storm, and ignore what's written on this wind at your own peril.
President Obama's minions are furiously spinning the outcome of Tuesday's elections in which Republicans
wrested the only two governorships up for grabs from the Democrats' grasp. Dems are at great pains to assure
all that these outcomes were not a sign of national disapproval of the president, but based on local issues
alone. They ignore the fact that exit polling clearly demonstrates that disapproval of Obama's directions
did, indeed, factor in (the polled voters said so), and that while Obama carried both New Jersey and
Virginia in 2009 and actively campaigned for the Democratic incumbent in one and the Democratic pretender
in the other, both states repudiated his pleas. If face-saving is more important to the Valerie Jarretts, Anita
Dunns, David Axelrods and Robert Gibbs of Obama's staff than careful analysis and a sobering reality check
it does not bode well for any change of direction going forward. Whatever they're saying publicly, congressional
Democrats are thinking privately, "This means I could very well get my own butt kicked in the 2010 mid-term
elections if I appear to be a knee-jerk liberal voter." They would be right to worry.
Republicans, who are riding high after the two big wins, seem to think that the 2010 and 2012 elections
are now in the bag. That kind of foolishness assures their defeat and ignores the chaos on the ground in
which Republican leadership gave every appearance of not knowing who is on first. In New York 23 the
idiotic party leadership nominated a candidate who was so far left she wound up being repudiated by
polled voters, dropped out and then promptly endirsed the Democrats who won election to the House. To
make matters worse, Deirdre Sozzafava, the left-leaning dropout, was endorsed along the road by the likes
of the RNC and party chair Michael Steele, Newt Gingrich, John Boehner and other noted Republicans.
Some how it just didn;t make sense to voters to back a candidate with the same views as her Democratic
opponent and they couldn't understand why party leadership would want to send to Washington someone
who would vote for all the things they were against. Local leadership not in touch, national party in
disarray, political endorsers (except for Sarah Palin, Fred and Jeri Thompson and Tim Pawlenty) politics
as usual. Picking candidates with views so radically different from the local voters is plain dumb, and
supporting such a candidate by endorsement because she wears a particular party tag is brain dead. Who
wants to vote for that? The clock is ticking, and if the Republican party doesn't get its act together soon,
it's celebration will be short-lived.
If the angry town hall meetings and the tea parties didn't get Barack Obama's attention, then Tuesday's
outcomes should. It would be a fool's miscalculation to deny that protest has now spread from the
streets to the voting booths. Voters are saying that they are nervous about or, in many cases downright
disapproving of the high spending, big government, socialist leaning, foreign policy dithering approach
that Obama and the Democrats are hawking. These are not policy directions consistent with Obama's
commitment to "govern fron the center." and voters expect accountability. However much the White
House talking heads blather about the state elections being about local issues, a look at those issue,
i.e., high taxes, corruption in government and marginalizing the private sector are precisely the same
issues bearing on people's opinions of the Obama administration. The statement that "all politics is local
politics" definitely applies here. The natives are getting restless, and they are saying, "Mr. President, we
don't like what you're doing." Congress is beyond listening to it, and they'll pay. Obama had better listen
if he doesn't want to meet the same fate.
There are messages written on the elctoral winds for Independents, too. The showing that Doug Hoffman
put on in NY 23, losing narrowly to Democrat Bill Owens while underfunded, spurned by the Republicans
and stabbed in the back by fauz Republican Sozzafava, was astounding. Forty percent of Americans call
temselves conservatives, with another thirty saying they are moderate. With the Democrats selling out to
socialism and the Republicans in disarray, the time was never more ripe for a successful third (consiervative)
party to be a factor. Independents are already the swing vote. Why aren't they entitled to a candidate of
their own. Glenn Beck has said that a third party candidate could win in 2012. Maybe so. But in any case
it is high time for conservatives and Independents to let both parties know in no uncertain terms that if
they continue politics as usual, nominate unsupportanle candidates and ignore the voice of the people those
parties cannot count on their support.
The trend nationally is nothing if not toward conservative values. Maine voters repealed their own legislature's
approval of gay marriage rights, and in Washington, an extremely liberal state, the same sex partner benefit
passed by only a whisker. A majority of Americans now disapprove of abortion and are most concerned about
the deficit, runaway spending and government invasiveness. The wind is well on its way to becoming a storm.
There's a whole lot written on yesterday's winds. Those who read it well will be the future's winners. Those who
don;t are destined for the scrap heap of unsuccessful anonymity.