Republicans on Track to Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

[Geee]

TownHall:


Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Republicans On Track to Snatch Defeat from Jaws of Victory
by Ann Coulter

Republican consultants are doing a wonderful job raising expectations sky-high for the November elections, so that now, even if Republicans do smashingly well, it will look like a defeat (and an across-the-board endorsement of Obama's agenda). Thanks, Republicans!

That's what happened in the 1998 congressional elections, nearly foiling Clinton's impeachment. It's what happened to the Conservative Party in Britain a week ago. And that's what happened this week in the 12th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, formerly represented by Rep. John Murtha.

Note to Republicans: Whenever possible, victory parties should be held after the election, not before it.

The result of the election in Murtha's old district on Tuesday was that the rabidly anti-ObamaCare, pro-life, pro-gun candidate won! Yippee!


But the news on Wednesday morning was that the election "dealt a blow to Republicans," as The New York Times reported.

The reason the Times' description was not utter madness (in violation of New York Times' official policy) is because the anti-ObamaCare, pro-life, pro-gun candidate was a Democrat and, for the past two months, every Republican on TV has been predicting a Republican victory in Murtha's district.

Thanks to all the happy talk, if the Republican actually had won, it would have been Page 16 news. But when the Democrat won, it seemed like an against-all-odds, come-from-behind Hoosiers victory!

Why were Republicans predicting victory in a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1? Given a choice between two candidates who both hate ObamaCare, why would lifelong Democrats not vote for the Democrat?

Republicans are playing the same raised-expectations game with the November elections. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner is ludicrously predicting Republicans will pick up 100 seats in the House in November. Newt Gingrich puts the figure at an equally insane (and weirdly precise) 78. He also predicts the Cubs will win 132 games this season and six games will be rained out.

Keep it up, Republicans, and I'm going to keep naming names. I have Nexis.

For more than half a century, the average midterm pickup for the party out of power has been 24 seats.

Your job, Republicans, is not to go on Fox News and whisper sweet nothings in conservatives' ears. Your job is to repeal the Obama agenda. Raising expectations so high that a 30-seat Republican pickup will seem like a loss is not helping.

Moreover, we're not going to pick up any seats this November if Republicans keep chumming around with the Democrats' pals on Wall Street.

Roughly since the Harding administration, Wall Street has overwhelmingly favored Democrats. According to a recent report from ABC News, for example, the five largest hedge funds gave "almost all their donations to Democrats."

For the past year, the Democrats' Wall Street BFFs have had lower public approval ratings than Hitler. (When I say "Hitler," I don't mean Dick Cheney or George W. Bush; I actually mean Adolf Hitler.) While Hitler continues to enjoy great personal popularity, there is a growing dissatisfaction with his policies.

How could Republicans possibly screw that up? We try harder. Continued...

[Guest AnneV]

TownHall:

 

Your job, Republicans, is not to go on Fox News and whisper sweet nothings in conservatives' ears. Your job is to repeal the Obama agenda.

 

Thank you Ann!

I have been saying this since Obummer took office and began his fundamental "change" of America!

 

It is not enough to sit at home, waving your fist at the TV every time the anointed one speaks...we have to take an active part in fighting to get him out of office ASAP!

[nickydog]

You're both right, AnneV and Ann C. And you both say it very well.

[spikeytx86]

I can't believe it but I agree with her (shudders)

 

What genius thought it would be a great idea to go parading around the media declaring that 100, no scratch that, now 130 seats are in play?

 

We could pick up the absolutely astonishing 54 seats we picked up in 94' (not going to happen but I digress), and it would look like a total abject failure.

 

Anything north of twenty five should be considered a huge success but will only be reported as failure because our "leaders" went goofy on us.

 

There are only about 60 or so seats legitimately in play, and out of that we will pick up around 25-30 on the low side and 35-45 on the high end.

 

2006 and 2008 were years equally good if not better for the Democrats compared to the environment we are going into this year. Between those two cycles they picked up 52 net seats, and that was over two elections. They picked up 31 in 06' and 21 in 08'. We will probably pick up around what the Dems picked up in 06', high twenties to maybe low to mid thirties. Which would be a huge victory, it wouldn't give us the majority, but it would effectively neuter the Democrats in the house, and adding in remaining blue dogs could give us a majority on a number of issues.

 

But when we go around talking about possible three digit gains, anything short of that will sound like defeat and failure.