The OAO 2006 US Elections Thread

[SuperJerk 0]

SO HOW 'BOUT THAT ELECTION????

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Has anyone heard any talk of a Montana recount?

 

No.

 

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/res...S/01/index.html

 

I've also heard that most of the R establishment wants Allen not to press for a recount.

[SuperJerk 0]

I've also heard that most of the R establishment wants Allen not to press for a recount.

Can I get an...

 

http://www.ohsnap.ytmnd.com/

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6457612

 

This says a recount in possible in MT.

[SuperJerk 0]

Now I need one that says "Oh, crap."

 

edit: AP declared Webb the official winner.

Edited November 9, 2006 by SuperJerk

[Gary Floyd 0]

...and people wonder why MikeSC was laughed off of this board a couple of years ago.

One Mike down, one to go

NoCalMike doesn't troll around, and is basically much more tolerable than MikeSC, so he won't be going anywhere.

 

Hey, gotta defend a fellow horror fan.

MikeSC never trolled.

Look at his posts in threads in the NWA TNA folder. He was a troll.

 

Why do you defend him? I mean, other than to get a rise out of people.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

I'll be damned, House & Senate, barring Lieberman chicanery.

[SuperJerk 0]

Democrats win control of Senate

NBC projects Webb victor in Va.; win solidifies Democratic power on Hill

BREAKING NEWS

NBC, MSNBC and news services

Updated: 8:00 p.m. CT Nov 8, 2006

WASHINGTON - Democrats wrested control of the Senate from Republicans Wednesday with an upset victory in Virginia, giving the party complete domination of Capitol Hill for the first time since 1994, as NBC News projected Democrat Jim Webb as the winner.

 

Webb’s apparent squeaker win over incumbent Sen. George Allen gave Democrats their 51st seat in the Senate, an astonishing turnabout at the hands of voters unhappy with Republican scandal and unabated violence in Iraq. Allen was the sixth Republican incumbent senator defeated in Tuesday’s elections.

 

The Senate had teetered at 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans for most of Wednesday, with Virginia hanging in the balance. Webb’s victory ended Republican hopes of eking out a 50-50 split, with Vice President Dick Cheney wielding tie-breaking authority.

 

The presumed Democratic majority counts on the support of two independent senators who have declared that they will caucus with the Democrats.

 

Earlier Wednesday, Democrats ousted Sen. Conrad Burns in Montana on Wednesday and led in winner-take-control Virginia. Late victories padded their day-old majority in the House.

 

Bush laments ‘thumpin’ ’

“It was a thumpin’,” President Bush told reporters at a White House news conference after Americans sick of scandal and weary of war brought down the Republican House majority and pushed Democrats to a possible takeover of the Senate as well. “It’s clear the Democrat Party had a good night.”

 

Exultant House Democrats won an early victory Wednesday when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned under fire over the troubled war in Iraq despite Bush’s flat refusal to fire him.

 

Said newly re-elected Sen. Joseph Lieberman: “Thanks, Don, you've served the country but really we need somebody new there.”

 

And in the House, Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said he will not seek to remain his party’s House minority leader when Democrats take control in January.

 

For the GOP, it was an election that started out grim and got only grimmer with the new day. First, voters brought down the Republican House majority after 12 years in power, and gave Democrats a majority of governorships for the first time in just as long.

 

Then Senate control began slipping away, the narrow GOP majority ground down to nothing, protected only by Vice President Dick Cheney’s tie-breaking vote if the contest ended at 50-50.

 

Tester apparently prevails in Montana

After an overnight vote count in Montana, Democrat Jon Tester rode to victory over Burns, a three-term senator whose campaign was shadowed by a series of self-made missteps and his ties to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist at the center of an influence-peddling investigation.

 

“One hundred thousand miles and 15 hours later, here we did it,” said Tester, a flattop-wearing state senator and organic farmer who lost three fingers in a meat grinder.

 

Burns said he was not ready to concede, but projections showed him losing in a squeaker.

 

Tester’s race against GOP incumbent Burns was delayed by equipment glitches, a heavy turnout and the narrowness of his lead — under 3,000 votes.

 

Burns, 71 and first elected in 1988 as a folksy, backslapping outsider, had been under siege because of his ties to Abramoff and because of his own gaffes — including an incident in which he cursed at firefighters.

 

A candidate in Montana can request a recount at his own expense if the margin is within half of a percent. If the margin is less than one-quarter of a percent, the state and counties pick up the tab.

 

 

‘Culture of corruption’ assailed

Tester had hammered Burns during the campaign for his ties to Abramoff and what Tester called the “culture of corruption” in Washington.

 

Burns was a top recipient of campaign contributions from Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in January to corruption. Burns has since returned or donated about $150,000 and has maintained he did nothing wrong and was never influenced by Abramoff.

 

Bush faced the reality of at least half of Congress in the opposition’s hands for the final two years of his presidency.

 

The war in Iraq, scandals in Congress and declining support for Bush and Republicans on Capitol Hill defined the battle for House and Senate control, with the public embracing the Democrats’ call for change to end a decade of one-party rule in Washington.

 

“This new Democratic majority has heard the voices of the American people,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat all but certain to become the nation’s first female speaker, adding that Americans placed their trust in Democrats. “We will honor that trust. We will not disappoint.”

 

Virginia decision could take weeks

Democrats hope to shape a 51-49 majority with a Virginia victory for Jim Webb, a former Navy secretary under President Reagan, and support from two independents, Lieberman and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, both of whom have pledged to caucus with the Democrats.

 

Webb led by fewer than 7,000 votes out of more than 2.3 million cast, and with the margin so small and so much on the line, GOP Sen. George Allen was not conceding. If a recount is held, it could take weeks to be conducted by a panel of judges.

 

Moving swiftly to establish himself as the winner, Webb began assembling a transition team hours after he proclaimed victory around 1:30 a.m.

 

“The vote’s been counted, and Jim won,” said campaign spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd. Some absentee ballots remained to be counted, she said, but Webb considers it “a formality more than anything else.”

 

Allen’s campaign, however, said the senator would wait for the completion of a full canvass — that is, a recheck of the numbers by local election officials. By law, it must be done by next Tuesday.

 

 

Canvassing begins

Electoral officials were canvassing the unofficial results Wednesday, and both parties had teams ready to monitor and intervene in the event of a recount.

 

Lee Goodman, chief counsel for the Republican Party of Virginia, said Allen had not decided whether to ask for a recount.

 

There are no automatic recounts in Virginia, but state law allows a candidate who finishes a half-percentage point or less behind to request a recount paid for by state and local governments.

 

Goodman said the GOP was concerned about a number of glitches involving new touch-screen computer voting machines, including power failures and calibration problems. But he said he knew of no fraud.

 

Allen, a former Virginia governor, struggled for months to get his campaign back on stride after he used the obscure racial slur “macaca” to introduce a man of Indian descent to an all-white rally.

 

Bush to Democrats: Let's do lunch

After voters delivered a sharp rebuke of his leadership, Bush made conciliatory gestures toward top Democrats on Wednesday, pledging to work with them and inviting them to lunch.

 

Besides conflict over Iraq, Democrats promised new scrutiny of the Bush administration and a top-to-bottom cleaning of Congress, an institution that has been plagued by scandal and bitterness in recent years.

 

“We certainly have a mandate for making this place more honest, making it operate in a more civilized way,” Pelosi said Wednesday, on the morning after voters made all but certain she would become the House’s first “Madame Speaker” and hours after she and Bush pledged to work together.

 

 

A pledge from Pelosi

Setting a standard her party will be judged on in elections two years from now, Pelosi promised: “Democrats intend to lead the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress in history.”

 

Pelosi also pledged bipartisanship in a midday news conference.

 

“It's not about the Democrats in Congress forcing the president’s hand,” she said. “The American people have spoken.”

 

Pelosi has already outlined a “First Hundred Hours” agenda. The plan includes promises to reform lobbying, enact the recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 commission, raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, cut the interest rate on student loans in half, streamline Medicare’s prescription drug program and expand federal funding for stem cell research.

 

She said she wants to work with Bush on a "new direction" on Iraq.

 

‘Full speed ahead’

“Voters said let’s go full speed ahead — to the ballot box,” Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., said on NBC's “Today” show.

 

Rumsfeld’s resignation came on the heels of renewed calls for Bush to fire him.

 

 

“You cannot have a new strategy (in Iraq) with the same incompetent management directing it,” Emanuel told “’Today” co-anchor Meredith Vieira.

 

Without losing any seats of their own, Democrats captured 27 GOP-held seats and were leading for two more, assuring them of control 12 years after a Republican rout brought a new generation of conservatives into office.

 

Democrats also defeated four Republican incumbents in the Senate — Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania, Mike DeWine in Ohio, Jim Talent in Missouri and Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island — who covered the spectrum from conservative to moderate.

 

Indiana was particularly cruel to House Republicans. Reps. John Hostettler, Chris Chocola and Mike Sodrel all lost in a state where Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’ unpopularity compounded the dissatisfaction with Bush.

 

One of the biggest surprises of the night was Republican Rep. Jim Leach’s defeat in Iowa after a career that spanned 30 years, losing to Dave Loebsack, a college professor making his first run for elective office. The two parties spent lavishly on television commercials in dozens of districts deemed competitive — but not that one.

 

 

Voter discontent

Across the country, voters expressed exasperation with the criminal convictions, the investigations and the recent sexual e-mail scandal that befell Congress over the past two years.

 

In surveys conducted at polling places, three out of four voters said corruption and scandalous behavior in Congress made them more likely to vote Democratic.

 

Also in the surveys, about six in 10 voters disapproved of the Iraq war and only a third believed it had improved long-term security in the United States.

 

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., echoing Pelosi, said the election shows “we must change course in Iraq.”

 

More broadly, he said, Americans “have come to the conclusion, as we did some time ago, that a one-party town simply doesn’t work.”

 

The toll of scandals

Scandal took an undeniable toll on the Republicans. Democrat Zack Space won the race to succeed Bob Ney, who pleaded guilty to corruption this fall in the Abramoff scandal. Republican Rep. John Sweeney lost his seat in New York several days after reports that he had roughed up his wife — an allegation she denied.

 

Republicans also lost the seat that Rep. Mark Foley had held. He resigned on Sept. 29 after being confronted with sexually explicit computer messages he had written to teenage pages.

 

Rep. Don Sherwood lost despite apologizing to the voters for a long-term affair with a much younger woman; and Rep. Curt Weldon, also from Pennsylvania, was denied a new term after he became embroiled in a corruption investigation.

 

Surveys of voters suggested Democrats were winning the support of independents with almost 60 percent support, and middle-class voters were leaving Republicans behind.

 

About six in 10 voters said the nation is on the wrong track and disapproved of the way Bush is handling his job. Voters in all groups were more inclined to vote for Democratic candidates than for Republicans.

 

Over half of the voters registered dissatisfaction with the way Republican leaders in Congress dealt with Foley. They voted overwhelming Democratic in House races, by a margin of 3-to-1.

 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15620405/

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

"Democrat Party." They're still going with that?

[Gary Floyd 0]

Rumsfeld resigns, Webb wins-today's been a good day.

[SuperJerk 0]

"Democrat Party." They're still going with that?

"Democratic Party" = too many syllables.

 

Scarborough's on pushing the idea that the liberals are going to push for Bush's head on a silver platter, and push the Democrats back to the left.

 

In additon to my prediction about the final Senate number being true (49-49-2), my prediction that the party line would be "We lost because we weren't conservative enough" is also hitting it right on the head.

 

They weren't conservative enough? Jeeez. Talk about not being able to smell your own shit. You guys lost because you fucked up Iraq. Accept it.

[EricMM 0]

Oh. My. God.

Provided one ignores they did the same thing in OH.

TN.

PA.

 

Yeah, ACORN didn't do anything. Of course, Tyler.

 

And, no, I don't buy your myth of these "Republican robocalls" or this mythical "lit" they posted. Reminds me, heavily, of the "police roadblocks preventing blacks from voting in FL" lie that had, literally, no evidence behind it.

 

Your claim smells kinda like, well, bullshit.

 

Hey, I wasn't broken up about it last night. I'm still not broken up about it. The Dems committed their usual massive voter fraud in Missouri --- again, KC and St. Louis seem to report their vote totals REALLY late --- but the GOP did one thorough job blowing an election by refusing to actually act like Republicans. C'est la vie.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

[Guest Princess Leena]

Poor Michael.

[Guest Felonies!]

Poor me Michael.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Everyone I voted for won.

 

The biggest surprise of this thread for me is marvinisawingnut.

 

Who'd have thought that a disturbingly white, pudgy, social retard who can't get a date would be a right-winger?

 

j/k marv

 

Im a registered independent, I voted democrat in just about every race other than Governor and Senate. Dems are better on the more local issues that affect me more on a daily basis.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

I was just joshin' ya.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

That's some pretty racy flirtation in your sig, you cad.

[SuperJerk 0]

More cunter-evidence to the claim that Republicans lost because they weren't conservative enough.

 

Exit polls: Bush, Iraq key to outcome

 

(CNN) -- After a sweeping Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives in Tuesday's midterm election, and with control of the Senate hanging in the balance, exit polls indicated views of President Bush and the war in Iraq were key to the outcome.

 

According to CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider, voters were angry and wanted change -- and the old adage that all politics is local did not apply this year.

 

Schneider said as he interviewed voters across the country, "a lot of voters said, 'I'm going to vote Democratic.' They didn't even know the name of the Democrat, but they said, 'I'm going to vote Democratic because I don't like Bush, I don't like the war, I want to make a statement'."

 

According to exit polls, 57 percent of all voters disapprove of the war in Iraq and 58 percent disapprove of Bush's job performance.

 

Most voters cast their ballots on national rather than local issues, with 60 percent saying national issues mattered most to their vote, while 34 percent said local issues mattered most.

 

Readers who e-mailed CNN.com echoed some of those themes.

 

"I used to side with the Republicans until a few years ago," wrote Todd Richads of Leonardtown, Maryland. "I just can't get behind their way of thinking any more. I decided to vote all Democrats in order to teach my former party a lesson to come back to reality." (Full story)

 

Independents, who make up 26 percent of the national electorate, were the swing constituency. They voted for Democrats by a 59 percent to 37 percent margin.

 

"We haven't seen that big a vote for one party among independents since exit polling began about 30 years ago," said Schneider.

 

"[swing voters] were supposed to be irrelevant, and in previous elections, for about the last 10 years, the swing voters have divided evenly, so who cares," Schneider said. "This year they really had their revenge."

 

Late-deciding voters went decisively for Democrats. Nationwide, 19 percent of all voters indicated that they made up their minds in the last three days of the campaign. Those voters went Democratic, 56 percent to 41 percent. Among the 10 percent of voters who decided on Election Day itself, 60 percent voted Democratic and 37 percent voted Republican.

 

Voters overwhelmingly turned thumbs down on how Congress has performed its job. Only 36 percent approved, while 61 percent disapproved. Of those who disapproved, 71 percent voted for the Democratic House candidate. Of those who approved, 71 percent voted for the Republican House candidate.

 

For the most part, Republicans held their religious base. White evangelical-born again voters went Republican by 69 percent to 29 percent. In 2004, the same group voted Republican in House contests by a slightly higher margin, 73 percent to 26 percent.

 

In Montana, one of two states whose senatorial election was still too close to call on Wednesday morning, exit polls showed that Republican incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns suffered serious political damage because of his association with disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Forty percent of Montana voters said the ethics/corruption issue was "extremely important" to them.

 

Rhode Island votes out popular, moderate GOP leader

Schneider cited Rhode Island as proof of how badly voters wanted change.

 

"[incumbent Republican Senator] Lincoln Chafee, who had a 63 percent job approval in Rhode Island -- they liked him, but they didn't vote for him. They didn't vote for him because he's a Republican and even though he's anti-war, he didn't even vote to re-elect President Bush, the fact is he would vote to make the Republicans the majority party in the Senate," Schneider said.

 

Exit polls showed that 63 percent of Rhode Island voters wanted Democrats to control the Senate, and 78 percent of those voters supported Chafee's opponent, Sheldon Whitehouse. Whitehouse won the seat with 53 percent of the vote.

 

In another state with a hard-fought Senate race, 46 percent of Missouri voters said their most important issue was the economy. Among that group, 61 percent voted for Democrat Claire McCaskill, who defeated Republican incumbent Jim Talent.

 

In Tennessee, site of another closely watched Senate race, voters were more supportive of President Bush and the war in Iraq than most Americans.

 

Tennessee voters were almost evenly split on the war, with 49 percent approving and 48 percent disapproving. On Bush's job performance, 50 percent of Tennessee voters disapproved and 48 percent approved.

 

In the race there for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Bill Frist, Republican Bob Corker defeated Democrat Harold Ford Jr. by 51 percent to 48 percent.

 

Exit poll interviewers, working on behalf of The Associated Press, CNN and four other networks, were stationed at about 1,000 precincts around the country Tuesday, asking voters to describe themselves and their opinions on important issues.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/08/ele....why/index.html

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

That's some pretty racy flirtation in your sig, you cad.

 

Its the only reason Id consider moving to delaware lol..

[SuperJerk 0]

The infamous Harold Ford ad.

 

 

Apparently he went to a Super Bowl party hosted by Playboy and met a woman who only breathes helium.

[bob_barron 0]

I got my ballot today. Who should I vote for?

[NYU 0]

The "Rent is Too High" party.

 

I considered voting that on my New York ballot for a brief second yesterday just because of the name alone.

[SuperJerk 0]

I got my ballot today. Who should I vote for?

 

The only wasted vote is the one you never cast. Having said that, you should go crazy and write-in your own name for every office.

[bob_barron 0]

The "Rent is Too High" party.

 

I considered voting that on my New York ballot for a brief second yesterday just because of the name alone.

 

It's actually the Rent is Too Damn High party. I almost voted for him too

 

You have to go to their website- dude is one scary looking nigger.

 

I'm gonna vote legit, except for attorney general. I might write in Borat.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Can we stay on topic, please.

[CheesalaIsGood 0]

Poor me Michael.

Best Czech post ever. You sir have earned my respect.

 

Edit: Oh and... LOL!

[bob_barron 0]

Can we stay on topic, please.

 

We are

[Guest Vitamin X]

...and people wonder why MikeSC was laughed off of this board a couple of years ago.

One Mike down, one to go

I would suggest you not talk that way, unless you are just asking for a banning.

[Timmy8271 0]

The infamous Harold Ford ad.

 

 

Apparently he went to a Super Bowl party hosted by Playboy and met a woman who only breathes helium.

 

Well did he fuck her? If not, What's the big deal about it?

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

The Republicans just came off looking like the biggest nitpickers in the world with that commercial. Pretty much the only reason Corker won Tennessee is because it is a very heavy Republican state. Hell, fucking hometown boy Al Gore couldn't even win his own state in 2000!

 

Imagine where we would be today if this state had any sense.