Open Thread: Election Day
JD had a predictions thread, but feel free to leave predictions in this one as well.
Does your individual vote matter? Almost certainly not.
Would a Republican Senate help the country? Unclear. It would make it easier to block judicial nominees, if Republicans had a spine, which they don’t. But (as has been pointed out in the comments here) it could also lead voters to prefer a Democrat in 2016 on the theory that we need “divided government” and Republicans control Congress. And the presidency is all that really matters. The GOP can’t pass anything now to reduce the burden of government, even if it tried (which is a big assumption).
So I can’t get too excited about today. But I recognize many are. So have at it.
If you live in a state with a Senate race, go ahead and vote Republican. If for no other reason, you can cancel out one fraudulent vote of a non-citizen for the Democrat.
Ding.
Patterico (9c670f) — 11/4/2014 @ 7:28 amMy vote was suppressed.
JD (6ed9df) — 11/4/2014 @ 7:30 amHmmm … and I suppose starting to turn the Titanic before it hit the iceberg would have been useless because it could only turn so fast? I guess we’ll never know — they didn’t turn and it sank.
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/4/2014 @ 7:57 amDon’t believe the polls: they mainly measure intent, not commitment. When voters are asked how strongly they feel about Obama, 80% of those who say NO, also say HELL NO, and only a small portion of his supporters are strongly in favor — a number identical to the size of the black population.
If people stream to the polls to register their anger and sense of betrayal, and the Dem base is as demoralized as W’s was in 2006, the outcome of this election could be surprising. Obama’s numbers are far worse than they were in the 2010 wave.
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/4/2014 @ 8:03 amCast your bread upon the waters. I found a parking spot only half a block away, and a pretty girl held the door open for me. Paper ballots only, no touch screens at my precinct.
Minor irregularities: The judge who initialed my ballot did not put the ward and precinct number on it, but the guy at the ballot box caught at it and put it in. Two people ahead of me had voter registration cards but were not in the book. They claimed to have registered in person. The judge was making phone calls to see how they would vote — there was no question that they would not.
nk (dbc370) — 11/4/2014 @ 8:11 amJust something to help jog the neurons.
https://patterico.com/2007/05/23/proof-that-john-mckays-investigation-of-voter-fraud-was-woefully-inadequate/
That even if there is evidence of fraud, unless there is a smoking gun and thr crook turns themselves in with said evidence and smoking gun. Then there is a good chance the US attorney’s office is going to balk at investigation time and efforts.
Charles (5a608a) — 11/4/2014 @ 8:11 amMy poll has been moved to a much less convenient location. I could walk or bike to the long standing neighborhood poll and it was always well subscribed with lines usually about 30 to 40 voters deep. It took about 20 minutes to get inside. The new poll is about 4 miles away across a major highway. Democrats run the county elections board.
ropelight (cec0e4) — 11/4/2014 @ 8:14 amIF I go to the polls today it would be to vote against Cornyn and the newest Bush wunderkind. Neither of which would matter.
BTW, Kevin M @ 7:57: The did try to turn the boat. Murdock attempted to port around the berg but didn’t clear it. If he had hit the berg head on it is quite likely the ship wouldn’t have sunk.
mysterian (f109e3) — 11/4/2014 @ 8:17 amI’m going to vote in a few minutes. I live in California, so my vote probably doesn’t count as we speed toward the cliff of bankruptcy. I’m so soured on government that I think it’s alll corrupt and run by petty beaurocrats.
As far as the national election, I think it’s been overhyped as a republican blowout. I’ve been disappointed before. I hope the hype is true, but I’m not holding my breath.
Tanny O'Haley (066e8f) — 11/4/2014 @ 8:22 amLiving in California it is even more difficult to believe your vote counts. It seems like the Republican party has more or less given up on the state in general and most of them who do run are RINOs.
Mike (4cf49b) — 11/4/2014 @ 8:29 amHere’s what is important about the results today:
1. If Democrats lose the Senate there is a good chance they will replace Hairy Reed as their party leader. In return, Reid, who will be 76 in 2016 may decide that it’s time to wind up his political career. Sure, Chuck Schumer won’t be any better as Democrat leader, but sending Horrible Harry back to Searchlight ought to be worth hoping for a GOP take-over.
2. I think there is something to the idea that a GOP win this year would slightly diminish the party’s chances of re-taking the White House in 2016. It would almost certainly hurt someone like Ted Cruz or Mario Rubio who will be closely associated with this Congress, but it might not hurt a governor like Jindal or Walker who would be able to triangulate, much like George W. Bush did in 2000.
3. If Dems eke out a few wins in places like Iowa, North Carolina, Colorado, and New Hampshire then I think we will be faced with the cold hard fact that these states aren’t “purple,” they are essentially now blue. That will mean that there is very little chance that a Republicans will see the White House anytime soon, since even the most ineffective of Democrats running the most insipid of campaigns can win just by rounding up the low-information voters and getting them to the polls.
JVW (60ca93) — 11/4/2014 @ 8:36 amMy individual vote, in Texas, adds to the margin that the Dems would have to overcome to steal the election.
That’s worth doing, even apart from the pure satisfaction I got from casting my ballot.
Beldar (fa637a) — 11/4/2014 @ 8:47 amhttp://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/11/04/Republican-messages
DNF (4a768c) — 11/4/2014 @ 8:59 amAhh, Christ! The “we could lose by winning” argument? Really, Patrick?
I guess the corollary would be “we can win by losing”.
As for whether having both the House and Senate will make it harder to elect a Republican President in 2016, I say, ehh! Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. It didn’t seem to prevent the current Bumbler from getting elected in 2008, when both the Senate and House were controlled by the Democrats.
For those who believe that this election may be a poisoned chalice for the Republicans, I say… drink deeply and let us find out.
Mustang (2dd274) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:00 amIt doesn’t matter because we would need radical changes in the way government approaches things to fix anything. Neither party would go for that.
Dejectedhead (a094a6) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:02 amI sort of liked this one this morning…
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/5minute_arguments/one_hundred_reasons_to_vo.php
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:04 amhttp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-04/about-soaring-dollar-us-trade-deficit-excluding-oil-has-never-been-worse
DNF (4a768c) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:08 amI’m still rather pleased my vote, and those of others in my district, to give Eric Cantor a shock gave him a bigger shock than he expected. Shocked him right out of office, and into abandoning the latter bit of his term as he could not abide the set-down and change of offices.
New guy is promising. That doesn’t always work out, but I think it might.
SarahW (267b14) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:10 amI am amazed at the number of people who think that the Republican Party is a conservative party and get all bent out of shape EVERY DAMN YEAR when they find out it is merely a broad-based center-right party. Then they go calling all the center-right politicians in the center-right party “RINOs” when in fact it is the people making the charge that are the RINOs, since they vote against Republicans more often than not.
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:12 amOff to vote for every last Republican on the ballot, including for Kashkari, whom I supported in the primary. Even some GOPers I don’t particularly like. Why? Because otherwise I’ll be as bad as they people who stayed home or voted third party and gave us Kamala Harris and Jerry Brown. I am glad to say that none of these creeps got elected when I didn’t vote for their strongest opponent.
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:17 amwell no, how are they actually Republican, it’s a category error,
http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/11/newly-released-emails-show-white-house-misled-about-involvement-in-shirley-sherrod-firing/
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:21 amBrat is Republican, no danger of him not winning. He seems to be more principled and won’t be serving party over constituents, at least the first two years.
SarahW (267b14) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:33 amThere is one statewide contest in CA that involves as stark left-right choice and is winnable for our side. The supposedly non-partisan Superintendent of Education features Tom Torlakson, the union stooge incumbent Democrat versus Marshall Tuck, a charter school entrepreneur (Green Dot) whose companies have taken over a number of LAUSD schools and turned them around. The unions absolutely effing hate Marshall Tuck and everyone else endorses him.
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:44 am#6, Charles: Thanks for the link and the reminder about the good old times here in Seattle. I just wiki’ed McKay to see what he’s been up to and found this tidbit:
“More recently McKay has agreed to work as a rule of law coordinator in the West Bank with Palestinian officials in order to help establish an effective judicial system in preparation for the eventual Palestinian State. In a 2013 interview with the Seattle Times the former Republican acknowledged the “tremendous opportunity”, but also stated that he was “stunned” at the nature of the Israeli settlements.[7]”
He was also said to be a Professor at Seattle University which is germane.
A career of solid accomplishments indeed. As I-5 threads it’s way thru Seattle there are a number of brush- and grass filled areas beneath overpasses and on the faces of steep hill. Last week there were tents on pretty much all the “developable” areas. Say what you will about the residents of this little community, and many of them are registered to vote with no questions asked, the King County Registrar’s office being listed as their mailing address, none have done as much damage to Washington State as “Republicans” like McKay. His “rule of law” in the West Bank is a fitting legacy.
“First do no harm” would halt many a career of so many who opt for public “service”. Like Dan Evans, McKay seems to have chosen his life path mainly on the basis of a pretty face.
bobathome (5ccbd8) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:45 amstarting to turn the Titanic before it hit the iceberg would have been useless because it could only turn so fast? I guess we’ll never know — they didn’t turn and it sank.
There is a serious school thought that the late attempted turn doomed the ship. Had they hit it head on, the rip along the side that filled all the watertight compartments would not have occurred.
What this means for politics, I don’t know. I think 2012 doomed the country to a massive crisis in a few years. Romney could have turned the ship in time.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:46 am#16: This. Don’t let the best become the enemy of the possible.
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:46 amThere is a serious school thought that the late attempted turn doomed the ship.
And there’s another school of thought that if they hadn’t been jamming on the speed and/or started turning earlier they would have missed it.
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:47 am(awaiting a long sammygram about the Titanic and steamships of the era)
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:48 amThe unions absolutely effing hate Marshall Tuck and everyone else endorses him.
I voted for him but I wonder how many went to the trouble to research that race. It was the white suburbanites, like my neighbors in Orange County, that doomed the vouchers initiative years ago.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:49 amMike,
Back in the 90’s, a Colorado initiative on vouchers was defeated when the teacher’s unions ran ads suggesting that with vouchers brown people would be in little Sally’s previously lily-white class.
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/4/2014 @ 9:52 amDear Democrats: How’s my ass taste?
CrustyB (69f730) — 11/4/2014 @ 10:02 amVoted last week (absentee) and because of Munger’s Top-Two Madness, this is the first time I’ve ever voted for a Dem for a partisan office: Local Congresskritter is a Dem, and her opponent is also a Dem; voted for the challenger.
askeptic (efcf22) — 11/4/2014 @ 10:08 amSince the NEA/CTA hates Tuck, he’s an obvious choice.
Chickensh*t salad sandwiches at the White House for lunch today.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 11/4/2014 @ 10:11 amhttp://www.creators.com/conservative/michelle-malkin/the-us-chamber-of-commerce-versus-america.html
DNF (4a768c) — 11/4/2014 @ 10:22 amhttp://jenkuznicki.com/2014/11/the-old-guard-is-over-the-edge/
DNF (4a768c) — 11/4/2014 @ 10:28 amOn my ballot, I got to vote for Craig Keller [R] who is taking on Baghdad Jim McDermott. Not much chance, but a more satisfying choice than many past Republican hopefuls. No opportunity to vote for a Republican in the State Representative and Senate races. In fact only one race had two choices and both were Democrats. One had actually held a job in the private sector so he got my vote. Only two judicial posts with more than one candidate. And there were the obligatory gun law initiatives, one a stealth confiscation measure, and both were voter-ID mining actions. Pitiful.
I’m hopeful that Art Robinson [R] Oregon will finally take out the reptilian DeFazio. This is Art’s third attempt, and he has steadily increased the number of votes from 120,000 in 2010, to 140,000 in 2012, and if he can hit 160,000 this time, he just might do it. In Hawaii I’d like to see Charles Djou win, and it’s not impossible. But he’d have to collect about 120,000 votes, which would mean 20,000 sunny day patriots would have to get off their butts and cast a ballot instead of pissing and moaning.
In the U. S. Senate my favorites are Sullivan in Alaska and Cotton in Arkansas. I’d like to see the remainder of the [R]’s do well, despite some clear concerns about the incumbents who have proven to be little more than Churchill’s proverbial whale cast upon the beach. I’d also like to see McSally do well in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District. As a decorated A-10 combat pilot she’s got a view of the world that might shame the current leadership into action. And we have a number of incumbent Republican Congresspeople in our state who are much to be preferred to their Democrat challengers, despite Club for Growth ratings in the 50’s and 60′, which are mid-way between solid [R]’s and typical [D]s who score in the 10’s and 20’s. Plus we have a Microsoft veteran, Pedro Celis, who would certainly be an improvement over the incumbent [D].
That said, I haven’t been able to vote for a winning [R] in about two decades, not counting a couple of County Prosecutors. So it wouldn’t take much to make my day!
bobathome (5ccbd8) — 11/4/2014 @ 10:34 amLots of white-haired hippies at my polling place. This is a precinct where an Asian (Not One of Us as one hit piece put it) is trying to unseat a Dem to rebalance the legislature, so the left is out in force this morning. I suppose the Repubs are working!
Patricia (5fc097) — 11/4/2014 @ 10:59 am@24 Bob,
What is sad is after that event that I realized why the left says there is no such thing as voter fraud. Since the questions about even who is on the voter rolls and the questionable hijinks of county election folks during the recounts. Then the later local scandals of one of them running for office in Seattle but living across the harbor in another city and more hijinks of missing ballots or un-mailed absenter ballots during the 2006 midterms. Just tells me that out west it is the big cities that make or break the states and since most of the big cities are liberal, it means that liberals will win no matter what.
Charles (5a608a) — 11/4/2014 @ 11:10 amOh and I know I voted via FVAP, since I didn’t receive my ballot till a week after the election, but reading Stefan’s investigation links, they had me recorded as not voting in that election. So I also wonder when and where the MOVE act lawsuits with the same gusts as those ID laws came or even the editorials from DK, Puffho, Blank Slate, Juice Box or the rest about voter suppression of overseas citizens.
If people stream to the polls to register their anger and sense of betrayal, and the Dem base is as demoralized as W’s was in 2006, the outcome of this election could be surprising. Obama’s numbers are far worse than they were in the 2010 wave.
Would not expect that. The Rothenberg Report suggests at this time that the Republicans might gain three seats in the House of Representatives and 7 in the Senate, with a wash in Governor’s chairs. The Republicans should be able to block nominees and should do so as a matter of course. It means little for legislation unless McConnell is willing to countenance the elimination of the filibuster. The filibuster is a bad institution, but politicians are attached to it as are attentive Republican voters (presumably because it assists the gamesmanship of the former and is in tune with shibboleths fancied by the latter, the sort usually delineated with the opening phrase “the Founders intended…”).
Art Deco (ee8de5) — 11/4/2014 @ 11:31 amThe burden of Patterico’s remarks is that elections resolve nothing because institutional machinery is broken and useless. Promise not to grass you up to the tricorn hats.
Art Deco (ee8de5) — 11/4/2014 @ 11:33 amI’m looking forward to today’s results, but even a GOP sweep won’t be the solution to America’s problems. We need small-government conservatives controlling Congress — they don’t have to be a majority but they need to be the leadership, and they aren’t now — and holding the White House in 2016. I doubt any of this will happen but I’m holding out hope.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 11/4/2014 @ 11:47 amHey Art! I thought I said that. And would baseball hats with the old style visor be appropriate if I’m going to be grassed up? Would I need a vaccination? And I think “institutions” are rarely as good as their leaders, and with bad leadership they are awful. Did you ever enjoy the experience of being “government issue” meat? Have you read any history? Coached or taught in an inner city school? Been involved in local elections? Any of the above might lower your expectations for our marvelous institutions.
bobathome (5ccbd8) — 11/4/2014 @ 11:50 amI cannot figure the point of your complaint, bobathome. When you sober up, maybe you could let us all know.
In response to your series of questions: no, I’m not nor ever have been ‘government issue’ meat; the government does not promote cannibalism and I would not be here to respond to you had I had a turn at being ‘government issue’ meat. Yes, I have read history; have you? No, I am not a school teacher or coach in central city schools, something which does not set me apart from 99.3% of the workforce. Yes, I have been involved in local elections, but not since 1990. When the federal government can pass a properly formatted budget and balance the books more frequently than once every 30 years, I might or might not give some thought to the possibility that my ‘expectations’ are excessive.
Art Deco (ee8de5) — 11/4/2014 @ 11:59 amWent the local polling place.There are signs in front in English, but also Spanish and Chinese, ballots in every language you could imagine spare Gaelic and Dothraki. While America does not have an official language, naturalized citizens are supposed to have a command and understanding of English. or they cannot become citizens. Why are we paying to have ballots and election notices in multiple languages other than English?People who are voting are supposed to be citizens who therfefore should know English.Or fraud is going on,also a distinct possibility. If I moved to France, I wouldn’t expect everyone there to accomodate me, I’d learn French. What a disgraceful waste.
Bugg (f0dbc7) — 11/4/2014 @ 12:10 pmVoted for Astorino, who deserved better from the institutional GOP and Chris Christie, who did everything he could to help Cuomo. And anyone wants this guy to grab the brass ring? MY CD is basically locked in to the Dem column(Yvette Clark) since the NY GOP shafted Bob Turner’s Senate run 2 years ago. if you want to see what a mess a one party state is, look at NY.
Re: #25… wrong, Mike K… Romney was nothing more than a socialist and the fortunate son of a famous politician.
We need to embrace the Dems, for they only seek a better life… or so some would have you believe
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/4/2014 @ 12:21 pmJust voted in that bastion of democracy that is Chicago, IL. I voted all R and voted “not to retain” on about 50 judges. They will all be retained anyway but they will at least see that negative vote. Any D’s running unopposed did not get my vote. There were people voting who looked to be about 12. Same for election judges.
The only good thing I noticed is that as I placed my 2 cards in the machine that supposedly counts votes (My guess is that my votes go to Pol Pot, Che, Karl Marx (although in my neighborhood he is considered a conservative)and Angela Davis, the election judge did not stand by the machine and grunt his disapproval over my vote choice as has happened in the past several times. I love how your vote is there for all to see as you place it in the machine. Illinois and Chicago cannot default fast enough!!!!
Ipso Fatso (10964d) — 11/4/2014 @ 12:32 pmUtopians are cute. They have a herd of them in the zoo in Milwaukee.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 11/4/2014 @ 12:37 pmWhen I voted this morning several Spanish speaking people who did not speak or understand English where allowed to vote. I thought only United States citizens were allowed to vote and that if they immigrated from another country that to become a citizen they had to have a basic command of English. These “voters” did not know English at all. I really don’t expect republicans to win in California, but I at least thought my vote would count.
I mean California now votes overwhelmingly democrat so why do they need to cheat with voter fraud?
Tanny O'Haley (3bbc7b) — 11/4/2014 @ 1:18 pmI only voted to add to Greg Abbott’s win total. Wendy Davis is such a joke as a candidate.
BradnSA (4598d6) — 11/4/2014 @ 1:29 pm#43, Art: I was trying to make sense of your #40. Grassed up?
bobathome (5ccbd8) — 11/4/2014 @ 1:34 pm“Wendy Davis is such a joke as a candidate.”
BradnSA – I thought Wendy was only losing because of redistricting, or at least that’s what progressive rocket surgeon Liz Winstead said. 🙂
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 11/4/2014 @ 1:55 pmThen again, there could be massive fraud with all inner city and other liberal ares voting at 100% and more, resulting in a Dem gain of 5 Senate seats. The MSM would chalk it up to the Dem ground game.
Kevin M (56aae1) — 11/4/2014 @ 2:07 pmIf Neel Kashkari gets over 25% of the vote, which he just might, that should be counted as a moral victory and a bad omen for the Dems. If a guy with no money can get that many votes, imagine what a real candidate could do.
I think the fire of anger has been lit. I’ve seen a real change over the last couple of years in liberal relatives and even the comment section of the LAT.
Patricia (5fc097) — 11/4/2014 @ 2:16 pmTexas Democratic vote manipulation has reached a new high in Bexar County. Greg Abbott doesn’t even appear on the list of candidates in Bexar’s voting machines. Instead “avid Dewhurst”, a failed candidate for Lt. Governor (David Dewhurst) in 2012, shows up on the first line, and without party affiliation. Check it out. The only option for Bexar County’s Republican residents is to write Abbott’s name in the write-in space, but then the D’s will get to throw out a fair portion as voters misspell Abbott’s name. No doubt Bexar will report something like: Davis: 50,000. Dewhurst: 12,000. Abott: 5,000; Abbot: 10,000; Gregg Abbott: 25,000; Greg Abbott: 35,000. Giving Davis a margin of 15,000 in the final “certified” count. In Washington this would be regarded as an insignificant and harmless error. No doubt due to inadequate funding.
We have a Republic if we can keep it.
bobathome (5ccbd8) — 11/4/2014 @ 2:32 pmThere are people out here going door to door getting out the vote. Two came by asking about one of my family. “Do you know if she already voted, is going to vote, is not going to vote?” “I don’t know. Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.” Both of them laugh. “Fair enough, have a good evening, sir.”
nk (dbc370) — 11/4/2014 @ 2:48 pmbobathome, to grass someone up or out is Scottish slang for snitching them off, pointing the finger, ratting them out, or dropping a dime.
ropelight (cec0e4) — 11/4/2014 @ 2:54 pmFor all of you complaining about multiple languages. The only people under a requirement to understand basic English as a condition of citizenship are foreign immigrants, under the age of fifty, or over the age of fifty but who have not yet been in America for twenty years, who want to become naturalized citizens. Nobody else. Puerto Ricans do not have to speak English. American Indians, Eskimos, Hawaians, and Samoans do not have to speak English. Mexican-descended South Texans and German-descended Mennonites do not have to speak English. Deaf-mutes do not have to speak English. Blind people do not have to read English. Ain’t nobody born in the U.S.A. got to speak English, just to keep it simple. I don’t know what’s so special about a language from a cold little island that nobody could wait to leave, anyway. Ok, Shakespeare cannot be translated, but is that enough reason? 😉
nk (dbc370) — 11/4/2014 @ 3:07 pm#54 On Bexar County …. can’t the Secy of State simply throw out all the Votes or refuse to Certify?
Frankly, call the election Abbott, don’t count any Bexar Votes and force the issue to the Courts and Media.
If we can spend 6 months talking about Democrats doing Election Fraud and Republicans fight for Voter Rights ………… I would take it even if it meant the election results are disputed.
Rodney King's Spirit (8b9b5a) — 11/4/2014 @ 3:24 pmWhen I read about the machines that don’t work and the stolen ballots, etc. I realize our fears of mass cheating have not been overblown.
patricia (5fc097) — 11/4/2014 @ 3:48 pmI’m withholding judgment on the Bexar County allegations until there’s more and better information. There’s obvious photoshopping involved in that photo; the question it raises is, was the photoshopping done by a person manipulating the image displayed on the voting machine, or by a person manipulating the photo of the voting machine?
I stress that there’s nothing too blatant, stupid, dirty, and grossly illegal to be beyond the pale in Texas Democratic Party politics. This has been true for well more than a century. Texas, after all, is the state in which dead Democrats from the Valley stood in line late at night, in alphabetical order, so they could sign the voting register in identical handwriting to cast straight-ticket Democratic votes. Texas is the state that taught LBJ the most important political lesson he ever absorbed, the one that made JFK the President in November 1960: Make sure you hold back enough political boxes to offset your opponent’s totals after your opponent’s strongholds are already fully reported. (Otherwise you can’t know how high to tweak the fraud dials.)
But Abbott’s margin in this race is going to be lopsided beyond any conceivable margin of cheating. So while I’m interested in this story, I’m not hyperventilating.
Beldar (fa637a) — 11/4/2014 @ 3:59 pmI hit a deer driving home from my polling place this evening. I wonder if that means something. It was able to get up and go into the woods. I wasn’t able to see an obvious injury but it was a dimly lit place. There’s an obvious dent in my bumper.
Gerald A (d65c67) — 11/4/2014 @ 4:00 pmMy tip for the evening, only for the strong-stomached who can tolerate his or her schadenfreude thick and steamy: I’m DVR’g Fox, but watching MSNBC live.
Beldar (fa637a) — 11/4/2014 @ 4:03 pmI just dropped off my ballot (I get an absentee ballot, mark it at home, then hand-deliver it to my polling place. I’m surprised at the number of people out voting. My district has a competitive state assembly race, so that probably helps.
For what it’s worth, my precinct skews slightly Republican (I think Romney won 55% of the vote in 2012) so perhaps that augers well for the GOP.
JVW (554218) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:00 pmBeldar… you are of sturdy stock, sir, and I salute you!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:04 pmGerald – you had prime venison within your grasp, but you threw it all away. Hopefully it didn’t badly damage your car.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:07 pmThanks, Beldar, but a color Gunsmoke is on, followed by two of the half-hour episodes, followed by Rawhide, followed by the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and I don’t even know where PMSNBC is on my cable box.
nk (dbc370) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:16 pmAnd I’m not missing a thing. Flipped over to the PBS station and heard “if the Republicans are sensible they’ll pass immigration reform”, a/k/a amnesty, and flipped right back to the p.i. lawyer commercial.
nk (dbc370) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:24 pmMitch pummeled Lundergan Grimes. Her speech was awful.
JD (e0c05e) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:28 pmA strong stomach is required, but there’s comedy gold here! Chris Matthews & Al Sharpton (!) both just panned Alison Lundergan Grimes’ speech acknowledging the end of her campaign:
Beldar (fa637a) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:34 pmI do have a rack on my car Colonel Haiku but I had nothing to tie it with.
Gerald A (d65c67) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:38 pmMaybe the meaning of my deer encounter is Obama will have a deer in the headlights look after today.
Gerald A (d65c67) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:42 pmBeldar: Be careful what you feed your brain. CoQ10 and Omega-3 supplements can only do so much. And then there is the issue of the subliminal messages that they are broadcasting every 43 frames …
bobathome (5ccbd8) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:43 pmPS: The supplements work. Last year about this time of year, a dear came in from my 11oclock just at dusk and I was able to brake and miss the poor thing as it crossed the road. I was going 40 mph, and the dear 20 mph. My neighbors, who aren’t entirely onboard with the State Democrats, have taken to disabling the poor things by damaging their right front elbows. Prime road kill. Another unintended consequence of progressive tyranny … take control of resource, give the exploitation of the resource to selected constituents (a native American took 103 Elk this fall from the Ellensburg area before heading east to devastate mountain goats,) then ignore the consequences.
bobathome (5ccbd8) — 11/4/2014 @ 5:54 pmbob, I take those two also.
Beldar (fa637a) — 11/4/2014 @ 6:19 pmGrimes’s speech is on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNC9yoCLXe8
It was for her supporters. What does she owe McConnell?
nk (dbc370) — 11/4/2014 @ 6:34 pmIf this year demonstrated anything, it should be that no insurgent movement is going to take over the GOP. The disgruntled right candidates lost in the primaries, sparing the usual indignation of losing the general. Tea Party favorite loser Buck was intimidated in Colorado into not repeating his pathetic Senate attempt of 2010, and running for a House seat he could actually win instead.
So if you hate the GOP leadership, the best course is just to start your own party. Or take over another party, the Constitution Party might be a target. Are any of the Phillips still alive?
Sure, it will be hard organizing and qualifying for ballots, etc., but it’s more productive than sitting at your keyboard whining and complaining all day how the GOP just doesn’t get all you ‘true conservatives.’
Estragon (ada867) — 11/4/2014 @ 11:40 pm