Day: November 7, 2012
Obama Victory Shows Cuban-Americans are Transcending One-Issue Status
Obama was the first Democrat to win the Cuban-American vote in Florida since the Cuban Revolution. This changes FL & national politics.
— @d_simas, a staff member of Obama for America, on Twitter. Simas is right that Cuban-Americans supporting a Democrat is huge, and probably a result of the gradual devolution of anti-Castro sentiment, especially among younger Cuban-Americans who have no memory of life before the 1959 revolution.
Mitt Who? Republicans Hurry to Be Post-Romney
Before dawn broke in my neighborhood, the Romney/Ryan yard signs disappeared from lawns. The zzzppptt! of Romney/Ryan bumper stickers being torn off like bandaids, in grim, lip-pursed yanks, might be what woke me up this morning.
Almost as if they had never existed, the traces of Romney’s support were gone. As soon as it became evident that Pres. Obama had easily held off his shape-shifting opponent, the Romney brand was in the clearance bin.
The main lesson is one that Democrats learned in 2004, when hating George W. Bush wasn’t enough to put Generic Democratic Challenger in the White House
For the vast majority of Romney’s base, his support was more about what he wasn’t than what he was. He wasn’t, of course, Barack Obama. Beyond that, he was Generic Republican Challenger, and he stirred as much passion in his followers, if they could be called that, as a can of Ensure. Yes, he had all the ingredients they needed but they’d really rather have had them in a slice of pizza.
Sonny Bono’s Widow and Her Current Congressman Husband Were Both Defeated Yesterday – an Era Ends in Congress
Yesterday Rep. Connie Mack, the Republican congressman and husband of Sonny Bono’s widow, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., lost his race to unseat Florida’s Democratic senator, Sen. Bill Nelson. Today we learn that Mrs. Bono Mack has lost her race for reelection to the House:
Raul Ruiz, a Democratic emergency room doctor, eked out a victory over Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Palm Springs) in the race for the 36th Congressional District seat in the Coachella Valley.
The often-caustic political slugfest is the first defeat for Bono Mack in her 14-year political career, which began when she was elected to replace her husband, singer Sonny Bono, in Congress after his death in a skiing accident…
Ruiz assailed Bono Mack for supporting the budget plan of GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin; Ruiz said the plan would decimate Medicare.
The political parties and outside groups spent more than $3.3 million in the race
Since Rep. Mack gave up his seat to run for the Senate, this means that next year, neither Mack nor Bono Mack will be returning to Congress.
Slate: The Five Stages of Fox News Grief
Slate’s Will Oremus takes us through the five classic stages, courtesy of FOX News:
In Fox News’ election coverage Tuesday night, there was little pretense of fairness or balance. What there was, from the start, was a glum tone that turned downright funereal by the time Mitt Romney finally conceded, near 1 a.m. To watch the network’s anchors and guests work through the dawning realization that their candidate was doomed was to witness a textbook case of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of grief.
Denial: With the early returns breaking badly for Romney, Karl Rove points to an exit poll suggesting that Democratic turnout was low in Ohio’s Cuyahoga County. Everyone basks in the critical importance of Ohio’s Cuyahoga County. Anchor Megyn Kelly asks, “Is this just math you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better?” Rove assures her it’s real.
Mike Huckabee, meanwhile, is counting on rural voters to turn things around: “I still think Mitt Romney wins when it is all over.”
