The Commentariat -- Nov. 6, 2014
Internal links, defunct videos & photo removed.
Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Obama said Wednesday that he accepts the American public's message in the midterm elections that Washington needs to break its political gridlock, even as he will now face a tougher final two years after Republicans won control of the Senate for the first time in seven years. 'I hear you,' Obama said at a news conference in the East Room":
... Here's the transcript of the presser, via the WashPo. ...
... Josh Lederman of the AP: "Speaking the afternoon after his party was dealt a punishing blow in the midterm elections, Obama said a new military authorization is one of a few areas where he will seek to work with Congress during the lame-duck session before a new Congress is seated in January. He said the goal was to update an authorization narrowly tailored to the fight against al-Qaida to be more applicable to the current mission against IS extremists in Iraq and Syria." ...
... Dana Milbank is awfully upset that President Obama didn't at least prostrate himself before the public, if not promise to repeal the ACA. CW: If Milbank had glanced at the exit polls, he would understand why Obama doesn't think he made a bad turn. ...
... Jim Newell of Salon: "He's basically the same guy he was the day before the election, and that's going to send many in Washington to their fainting couches." Read the whole post. Also, the Post should buy Milbank a fainting couch. ...
... Which Milbank can share with Ron Fournier of the National Journal: "From all appearances Wednesday, the president won't change -- not his policies, not his style, not his staff, not nothing. Defiant and begrudging, the president said he would meet with GOP leaders, seek their suggestions for common ground, and maybe grab a drink with Senate Majority Leader-to-Be Mitch McConnell." CW: Fournier pulls down a handsome salary for writing this garbage. ...
... AND Charles Pierce is aggravated that the President is polite. ...
... CW: How long does it take for liberals to figure out that railing against Republicans is not Obama's style? (It wouldn't help either, because the majority-white-racists in these here United States would get all askeert of an Angry Black Man.) If I were Obama, I'd do just what he did: concede he could manage sitting down for a drink with McConnell but otherwise deflect Stupid Reporter Questions. ...
... AND here was Pierce yesterday, urging Obama to "make them squeal." CW: I'm drawn to Pierce's mastery of the language & I'm in sync with many of his ideas, but I'm damned glad he doesn't hold a position of power.
Nathaniel Herz of the Alaska Dispatch News: "A day after Republican Dan Sullivan sprung to the lead in Alaska's U.S. Senate race, his opponent, incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, refused to concede, citing tens of thousands of outstanding votes -- particularly those in rural parts of the state. Numbers released by Alaska elections officials Wednesday morning showed Begich facing daunting odds...." ...
... Alex DeMarban of the Alaska Dispatch News: "Candidates in [Alaska's] squeaky-tight gubernatorial race have urged supporters to stay patient, saying the contest is too close to call. Gov. Sean Parnell, hoping to win his second full term but trailing slightly, said in a statement Wednesday it could be two weeks before all the votes are tallied and a winner -- either Parnell or Republican-turned-independent challenger Bill Walker, the top of the 'unity ticket' -- can be determined."
NBC Washington: "NBC News is calling incumbent Mark Warner the 'apparent winner' in Virginia's Senate race, as officials work to certify election results in the razor-close race. Throughout the day Wednesday, Warner hung onto a slim lead over Republican challenger Ed Gillespie."
Scott Lemieux in Lawyers, Guns & Money: "The in-party -- even in cases where presidents are transformative and/or have bold agendas that deliver plenty to their constituents — rarely fares well in the midterms of term 2. Combined with a very unfavorable map, the fact that midterms massively favor the Republican electorate, and Republicans at both the state and federal level figuring out that the damage you inflict on constituents will actually be held against the party controlling the White House, the Democrats were going to get clobbered, and the 'this proves Obama should have led with leadership by ...' genre is mostly a waste of time. Messaging and position-taking might matter a little at the margins, but there wasn't any magic formula that was going to prevent the 2014 midterms from being a bloodbath at the federal level."
Gail Collins: "Always look on the bright side." ...
... OR NOT. Frank Rich: "The electorate's message could not have been more clear: Having soured on hope and change, Americans voted for change without hope.... The most misleading morning-after-the-election story line is that the Republicans triumphed because the Establishment struck back and shut down the crazy gaffe-prone candidates who have dogged the GOP in the past two cycles.... Scott Brown's ability to lose in this Republican blowout was awesome, though not in a good way."
Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "... turnout among core Democratic groups was lower in 2014 than it was in 2012 or even 2010. Many Democrats would have won if turnout had resembled a presidential election year. But Democrats also lost in states where turnout surpassed 2010, according to an Upshot analysis of preliminary returns and voter turnout data."
Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "The lesson of the last decade in politics is not to over-interpret the results of any single election. The dominant trends in American politics were mostly reinforced yesterday: the country is increasingly polarized; the low-turnout midterm electorate benefits Republicans; the Senate will remain closely contested for the foreseeable future; the House will remain the anchor of the Republican Party; Democrats have a demographic advantage in presidential elections. And very little will get accomplished in Washington."
Brad Plumer of Vox: "The outlook for climate policy looks just as dismal after these midterms as it did before -- at least in Washington. True, there were small shifts in attitude here and there. Some Republicans no longer think it's viable to deny global warming outright." ...
... John Light of Grist: The big money environmentalists spent in this election cycle mostly didn't pay off. ...
... FOR Example. Rebecca Leber of the New Republic: "In handing Republicans control of the Senate on Tuesday, Americans effectively voted for the party's hostile plans against President Barack Obama's environmental legacy. Their votes also put the Senate's environment and climate policy into the hands of the worst science-denier in national politics: Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who is almost certainly the next chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee."
Harold Meyerson in the American Prospect: "... the Democrats' failure isn't just the result of Republican negativity. It's also intellectual and ideological. What, besides raising the minimum wage, do the Democrats propose to do about the shift in income from wages to profits, from labor to capital, from the 99 percent to the 1 percent?" ...
... CW: Meyerson is right. In allowing itself to be taken over by special interests, the Democratic party has become a Seinfeld meme: the Party of Nothing. The party can't give up its pretense of "feeling the pain" of the working class, but it also can't afford to alienate its big-money donors by actually doing the things that would better the lot of working people vis-a-vis said big-money donors. Remember, healthcare reform came about only because it was an accommodation to a couple of super-huge industries. (Maybe it would have been an unchallenged success if it included a provision to process all claims thru Koch Industries.) This election was less about Obama than it was about voters' real-life economic hardships. Voters don't think either party will help them. And they're right. Democrats' tepid policy proposals -- $10.10/hour & lower college loan interest rates -- are more insulting than inspiring.
New York Times Editors: "On at least six high-profile and often contentious issues -- minimum wage, marijuana legalization, criminal justice reform, abortion rights, gun control and environmental protection '' voters approved ballot measures, in some cases overwhelmingly, that were directly at odds with the positions of many of the Republican winners."
Matthew Yglesias: "McConnell is not the most charismatic politician of our time, but he is arguably the sharpest mind in contemporary politics on a strategic level.... As McConnell told Josh Green, the key to eroding Obama's popularity was denying him the sheen of bipartisanship, and that meant keep Republicans united in opposition.... To prevent Obama from becoming the hero who fixed Washington, McConnell decided to break it. And it worked." ...
I wanted to win. -- Mitch McConnell, explaining his political philosophy
"The Dawning of the Age of McConnell." Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "... we are entering a period of paralysis.... McConnell has told big donors that he will 'work at every turn to thwart the Obama agenda, and use appropriations and the budget process to force the president to roll back key elements of Obamacare, to water down Dodd-Frank, to tilt toward coal -- to move forward on the Keystone XL pipeline, and to stop Environmental Protection Agency action on climate change,' according to the National Journal. For some Republican senators, that will not be enough. Before the election, Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, refused to pledge his support to McConnell, and offered his own vision of the Senate's priorities, including opening congressional hearings into the actions of the Obama Administration, 'looking at the abuse of power, the executive abuse, the regulatory abuse, the lawlessness that sadly has pervaded this administration.'... Cruz might look like a moderate next to some of his new colleagues; in Iowa, the Republican Joni Ernst, as the Times summed it up, 'wants to ban abortions and same-sex marriage and impeach the president.'"
Lori Montgomery & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Within hours of solidifying their control of Congress, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John A. Boehner were quietly laying plans for a series of quick votes in January aimed at erasing their obstructionist image ahead of the 2016 elections. First up: Action on long-stalled bills with bipartisan support, including measures to repeal an unpopular tax on medical devices and approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.... Pressure to follow through on the party's most conservative priorities was already building Wednesday. Several tea-party leaders gathered at the National Press Club and reiterated their demand that repealing the Affordable Care Act remain the party's priority. In a memo, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) also emphasized the health-care law as a top target." ...
... Here's the Wall Street Journal op-ed by McConnell & Boehner laying out their brilliant agenda. It's firewalled, so unless you're a subscriber, Google "Americans have entrusted Republicans with control of both the House and Senate. We are humbled by this opportunity to help struggling middle-class Americans" ... especially if you feel like making yourself sick. ...
... Greg Sargent: "Interestingly, they pledge a new era of constructive governance, even as they also vow to '... repeal ObamaCare, which is hurting the job market along with Americans' health care.' This is just bluster for the base, but still: Those who profess a love of bipartisan cooperation will politely ignore the absurdity of vowing to get government working again while simultaneously vowing to keep up the repeal crusade." ...
... Steve M.: "Republicans are still awfully good at concocting (and, through repetition, meme-ifying) lofty-sounding descriptors for not-so-lofty policy goals. (They're also excellent at scaring the crap out of voters with deceitfully negative sounding phrases: 'death panels,' 'death tax,' etc.)"
Nelson Schwartz & Clifford Krauss of the New York Times: "Business interests face a much more receptive audience now that Republicans are poised to control both the House and Senate next year.... [BUT] there is much less appetite on the part of business leaders for wholesale changes to the health care law. For one thing, many of the insurance exchanges are finally working well, and businesses have adapted to the new landscape. Even more important, added demand from the newly insured is likely to increase profits in sectors like hospitals, pharmaceuticals and medical devices."
Ben White of Politico: "Voters want the GOP to fix the economy. Good luck with that.... Even if Republicans manage to overcome internal fissures and unify around a set of economic proposals next year -- a big open question -- there is only a limited chance that any of them will have the kind of profound impact voters might reward in 2016.... Republicans on Tuesday bought themselves a big share of a structurally troubled American economy but may lack the tools needed to fix it. Their best hope, in fact, could be for the economy to finally gain some traction on its own, putting the GOP in position to claim credit." ...
... Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "... Republicans ousted some of the red-state Democrats most inclined to work with them, such as Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, reducing the number of potential Democratic allies.... Mr. McConnell, with few votes to spare, will have to balance the views of a handful of more moderate Republicans, such as Senator Susan Collins of Maine, with those of unyielding conservatives such as Senator Ted Cruz of Texas...."
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Two Senate sources say they expect Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to reach out to Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine) and centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) about joining the Senate Republican Conference. Republicans have a 52-seat Senate majority and that could swell to 54 seats depending on the final vote tally in Alaska and a runoff in Louisiana next month. Both are solidly red states."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Wherein Charles Pierce complains that a CNN on-air personality has sold herself to the Republican party: "what is purported CNN 'analyst' S.E. Cupp doing bringing her smart-person glasses into an effort to groom candidates for one party or another, and then going back to opine on her handiwork both on the television and on the Intertoobz?"
AND, in Totally Unrelated News. J. K. Trotter of Gawker: "The Daily Mail is reporting the name -- Robert O'Neill -- of the retired Navy SEAL who plans to appear on Fox News and reveal that he shot Osama bin Laden. O'Neill's father, Tom, confirmed his 38-year-old son's identity to the Mail a week ahead of the Fox News interview scheduled to air on November 12. The Mail's report comes two days after the special-forces website SOFREP -- and an anonymous Gawker commenter -- both claimed that the Navy SEAL was Robert O'Neill."
Presidential Election
Jonathan Chait: "The structural advantages undergirding Republican control of both chambers of Congress are so imposing that only extraordinary circumstances could overwhelm them.... As long as Democrats hold the White House, Republican control of Congress is probably safe -- at least for several election cycles to come.... Hillary Clinton is the only thing standing between a Republican Party even more radical than George W. Bush's version and unfettered control of American government." ...
... CW: OR some more messianic left-ish political figure. I just don't see Hillary as the salvation of the Democratic brand. As Frank Rich remarks (linked above), "A cautious Clinton campaign standing for little in particular and distancing itself from Barack Obama could yet be vulnerable, just as such a Democratic campaign proved this year."
Tim Egan on gun control: "... Washington showed the model for other states. If you take the issue out of the hands of cowed politicians and put it directly in front of the voters, the results are as expected -- the will of the people prevails."
Steve M.: "How many people nationwide have heard of Sherrod Brown? Amy Klobuchar? Kamala Harris? Maybe Kirsten Gillibrand gets a bit of national attention, and self-promoters like Cory Booker, Wendy Davis, and Elizabeth Warren get more. But the party doesn't have anything like the GOP hype machine. If you don't work the system yourself, a la Barack Obama, you're nobody.... And that's why Republicans have so many A-list presidential candidates for 2016 and Democrats, with Warren taking a pass, have precisely one."
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