I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

1Athena1

The biggest defeat, I think, is for the Tea Party - hence the absence of our neighbors. They are totally run out of town. That kind of extremism doesn't survive on a national stage, it seems. The exceptions (Texas, for example) prove the rule. One reason why the GOP did so badly in the senate was because the people they ran were unacceptably right wing. Moderates were defeated in the primaries. The goons/GOP primary voters in Indiana who voted out Richard Lugar and brought in the rape apologist come to mind. Lugar would have won re-election had common sense prevailed.

The only democrat I won't miss who is gone is Ben Nelson of Nebraska -so conservative that you could never count on him.

And Mitch McConnell....ahhh eating his heart out, hopefully. Thomas L. Friedman has a wonderful opening about that item in his column today:

In October 2010, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, famously told The National Journal, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” And that’s how he and his party acted.

Well, Mitch, how’s that workin’ out for ya?

No one can know for sure what complex emotional chemistry tipped this election Obama’s way, but here’s my guess: In the end, it came down to a majority of Americans believing that whatever his faults, Obama was trying his hardest to fix what ails the country and that he had to do it with a Republican Party that, in its gut, did not want to meet him halfway but wanted him to fail — so that it could swoop in and pick up the pieces. To this day, I find McConnell’s declaration appalling. Consider all the problems we have faced in this country over the last four years — from debt to adapting to globalization to unemployment to the challenges of climate change to terrorism — and then roll over that statement: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/opinion/friedman-hope-and-change-part-two.html?hp

Anonymous

Sandy, HL, please set another place at your table for me.

We weren't "defeated" in 2000, we were ROBBED, the election was stolen, remember?

Ah, well - this is TOOOOOOOOOOOOO glorious a time to quibble, FOUR MORE YEARS, and during that time we can start singing " Don't stop thinkin' about tomorrow." 

Wasn't the Big Dog just amazing in the last few weeks.  Really, loved it when BHO called him The Explainer in Chief.  LOVED seeing how gorgeous ( and grown up) Sasha & Malia looked last night too....we get to see ALL their smiling faces for FOUR MORE YEARS.

And, Elizabeth Warren, and TIM KAINE, OH, JOY!!!!  JOY!!!  JOY!!!

alexandria58

 Rachel last night said that facts exist in the world and that by pretending the facts don't exist doesn't change them.  She went down a list. Obama was born in the United States.  Polls are not a conspiracy.  REgulations of banking and finance do not make Obama a communist.  Global warming exists.  The first problem is that these extreme views have been embraced by the whole of the Republican party which transformed from a somewhat reasonable organization to a group that supports or even embraces the crazy right wingers. The second problem is that the crazy right exists in the bubble.  The crazies still think that if they're just crazier the American people will flock to them.  What they don't understand is that the only reason Romney even came close was that people began to perceive him as the moderate he pretended to be in the last few weeks. I don't know how they explain all the Senate defeats for the tea party candidates.   One problem is that the crazies look at the House which has seats safely districted for Republicans, and try to take a message there to the larger world.  But even there, a number of the crazies went down.  Joe Walsh.  West - well, hopefully. 

I am some sympathy with reasonable Republicans - and I am with Rachel that we need two reasonable parties in this country to work out solutions to difficult problems.  The question remains whether the election provided enough shock therapy to bring the majority of the Republican party back from crazy land. 

kayfh

The death penalty is the easy way out. People so deserving of societies absolute disgust should live out their lives. If they get diseases they should get treatment to prolong their lives as would be available to the most indigent members of the population in the nations they inhabit. They should not be permitted access to the media. They should be alone. Absolutely alone.

YramAL

Not completely, but it's a start.......

Mary

Enjoyful

A lot of people on the right see the ACA as extremism. It's in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.



The irony of this election is that if Mitt had run as a moderate he would have won.

pupmom

Regarding the Republic Party learning anything from this election, I don't see it. I think they need a few more devastating losses before they WTFU. I saw Mary Matlin have a huge tantrum yesterday, literally shrieking about the horrors and evils of not only President Obama, but Democrats in general. There was a former Democratic House member next to her and she started laying in on him too. He very politely tried to point out that her attitude and behavior were part of the problem in Congress. That's when she really lost it. If she is any example, Republics are nowhere near the kind of honest self reflection it is going to take to save their party. The rightwing pundits are pointing blame completely at Romney (or Sandy and Christie) for the loss. Only the already reasonable ones show any awareness that the anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-Social Security and Medicare positions Romney was forced to support by the fringe lunatics who control the Republic Party, are what brought him down. And since so many teacrazies are in the House they can continue to make mischief in our government and get away with it. They're already talking about how to impeach Obama to get rid of him! I just don't believe they are going to stop the madness until finally voted conpletely out.

1Athena1

I doubt that. He didn't have the ideas in his head or the charisma. I see this as a defeat of the right wing machinery. Romney's biggest weaknesses had to do not with ideology but with a lack of philosophical conviction, a lack of openness and accountability, his sense of entitlement and a lack of empathy that everyone could see. His coldness. Also, the GOP machinery was so broken that there is no moderate who could have won from their side. His voters were not hungry for compromise anyway.

1Athena1

People who see the ACA as extremism are extremists. The people on the right might be happy to know that healthcare stocks ROSE following Obama's election because the ACA won't be repealed:

Obama’s re-election rallied shares of HCA Holdings Inc., the largest for-profit hospital company, by 9.4 percent today, while Community Health Systems Inc. (CYH) and Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) also gained on prospects for millions of newly insured patients being added to their admission rolls. UnitedHealth, the largest U.S. medical insurer, fell 3.8 percent, and WellPoint Inc. (WLP) and Humana Inc. (HUM) declined as the industry faces profit limits and new taxes to help pay for the coverage expansion.

......

Bloomberg Government health care Analyst Chris Flavelle and Bloomberg’s Hans Nichols discuss what is next for President Barack Obama’s health care plan, the future of Medicare and Medicaid and how they both potentially play into a grand bargain to avoid the fiscal cliff. They speak on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

“Volumes of business will improve for hospital companies and bad debt will go down with the reduction in the uninsured” as the law moves forward, said Frank Morgan, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in Brentwood, Tennessee. While a Mitt Romney win might have benefited insurers, the Republican would have brought “a cloud of uncertainty” for hospitals, he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-07/obama-win-keeping-health-law-buoys-hospitals-shares.html

The above is why many on the left consider the ACA to be a boon for business - not government and not the people. People who consider the ACA extremists are very, very, very, very, very ,very low information voters. I mean, they had better doublecheck that they know how to spell their names. 

crazy4carrots

Margaret and Helen -- doing some media research:

Like a zoo, Fox News isn’t so scary once you realize the animals can’t get out of their cages by Helen Philpot  HELEN: Margaret, I ventured into new territory today. I tuned into Fox News. It was kind of like going to the zoo... not so scary once you learn the animals can't get out of their cages. Just like when I go to a regular zoo, I didn't know the names of all the animals at Fox, but I quickly learned the ones with opposable thumbs and the ability to reason were token Democrats who had, at some point, worked in the Clinton administration. The ones who liked to rattle their cages and screech at the visitors were the angry Republican hacks who seemed to be, for the first time, discovering the wonders of math. I was surprised to see so many animals that I thought were long ago extinct. There was angry, old Lou Dobbs plodding around mumbling something about voter fraud and immigrants and Mike Huckabee being all folksy and jolly. And there was Oliver North, Liz Cheney, Haley Barbour and even Geraldo Rivera who now just goes by Geraldo like Madonna, Cher and Cavuto. Over in a corner in a cage all by himself was the red-assed Carl Rove. Now that one scares me. When they called Ohio for Obama I heard he started flinging pooh and screaming about recounts and faulty polls. I got a chance to spot the elusive big-footed Ann Coulter which was thrilling. Since her visit to The View, she only makes appearances when no other women are in the room. She seemed pretty at ease in the zoo. I guess that comes from all the time she spent collaborating with monkeys on those personal therapy projects she calls books. Ann seemed remarkably calm considering not only the election results but also the colossal failure that was her last book. Usually she's shrill and fidgety but sitting there in the cage with Sean Hannity she seemed almost human. There was a lovely exhibit of irrelevant talking parrots including Shepard Smith, Greg Gutfeld, Tucker Carlson and Mr. Van Susteren. I can't keep all of their names straight but one of them suggested that the majority of voters are like abused housewives who voted to stay with their abuser. Most of them were squawking about Hurricane Sandy and that America was about to go over a cliff. As expected, they blamed the liberal media for handing the election to Obama while simultaneously chirping that Fox is the most watched news broadcast in the nation. I know. I know. It doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense but it's Fox News. It doesn't have to. While I don't think they understand the difference between Mexican-Americans and Cuban-Americans, they seem to think that any Republican politician with a name ending in O or Z will need to be on the bottom half of the ticket in 2016 if Republicans are to take the White House back. Every zoo has its specialty and Fox is no exception. They have the largest collection of blonde, bulemic middle school girls posing as reporters with names like Megyn, Gretchen, Cheryl and Dana... many of them openly wept as the election results came in causing a river of mascara that got all over everything. But the real treat came when I ran across that rare but ever-lovable snow beast, Sarah Palin. She's a bit older but still very capable of smacking her lips while rattling off those non-sensical run-on sentences like "this election if it continues the way it is going will be a catastrophic setback to our economy and to any opportunity that we would have for Supreme Court justices to be appointed who would be strict adherents to the traditional interpretation of what our Constitution says which is a blueprint towards a more perfect union." Isn't she precious? Honestly, I was surprised to see that she had actually survived the end-of-days calamity known as the 2008 election. Now Margaret, I don't suggest that you visit the Fox Zoo. The lighting is bad, the air is thin, and reality is in short supply. They haven't cleaned the cages in years so the bullshit is everywhere. Instead let me visit occasionally and send back reports. Trust me. It's better that way. Unlike the zoo, trips to Fox News should probably be few and far between. I mean it. Really.  MARGARET: Thanks dear. I'll stick to Ellen and leave the heavy lifting to you. But next time you are there do check and see what ever happened to Mrs. Van Susteren.

pupmom

Linda, hilarious! Those two remind me of the beloved Molly Irvins! 

Enjoyful

But Athena...it's a government takeover of the health care industry and, therefore, can't possibly be good for business!

1Athena1

I guess all those healthcare company shareholders must be delusional, then.

Margaret and Helen pricess, as usual. Thanks Lindasa.

Chickadee

Lindasa , superlatives escape me. Margaret and Helen are the Queen Bees of rationale humor. Love it.

208sandy

Ah yes, you just know that Molly Ivins, Ann Richards and Barbara Jordan are all there together watching over us and laughing!

Enjoyful

I just read that the US hasn't had a for-real, honest to God BUDGET since 1997. Fact or crap?

bluedahlia

One of the proofs.  Can't wait to see them all.

IllinoisLady

Margaret and Helen are just so with it --- go ahead gals, you make my day.  I too have miss-givings that the Republicans are going to get it.  They just don't get that flexibility here is so IMPORTANT.  Of course, a lot of people are afraid of change---but you can't get stagnant and then wonder why all that dust is swirling around you.  I think about that song.....people get ready because the train is coming -- you don't need a ticket just to get on board.  The train left without these people some time ago and if they are unwilling to get their head out of the sand, if they want to continue to let Fox news dictate who they are, they will keep seeing this until there is no Republican party to be had anymore.  I think its time for the tea party to be the coffee klatch.  The losers corner has a lot of people in it right now that could escape.  Hope enough of that think about it long enough to want to.

Jackie

1Athena1

FACT!!! Those darned liberals never get anything done.

Just joking: CRAP! It would be unconstitutional.

E - I always ask this question when people hcve editing questions for me. So how did the 1997 person frame the question - just curious....

1Athena1

Blue - how absolutely gorgeous!!

IllinoisLady

Blue....fantastic.  I can easily see your anticipation.  Wow !!!!

Jackie

RetiredLibby

Exquisite, Blue!



When I think of the consquences of President Obama's re-election, the first thing that comes to mind are all the people who won't die. The people who will have health insurance under the ACA. The troops who won't die in Afghanistan once we complete his planned withdrawal. The troops who won't die in Iran, fighting another illegitimate war ginned up to enrich the defense industry. At the end of our President's next four years, there will be a lot of people still alive who would have died in a Romney presidency.



L

River_Rat

Enjoyful, in the real world it's crap.  In Fox world it's fact.  Which is the problem.  I have friends that watch Fox all day and honestly the crap that comes out of their mouths that they think is fact is amazing.  It would do society so much good if the Fox News Channel's broadcast went dark for awhile.  I kept hoping that the Murdoch news operations' troubles overseas might force some changes, but even as the scandal has spread to our shores it hasn't seemed to attract much attention.

Enjoyful

Gorgeous, Blue! Just stunning!



"The last time Congress passed a budget and all concurrent spending bills on time was 1996." -David Walker, former Comptroller General



http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72788.html

kad2kar

Bllue---Absolutely stunning.  She looks as though she is posing for her official royal portrait.---kad2kar

bluedahlia

Thank you Ladies and thank you kad2kar for the lovely card!  I will post more when they become available.  The photographer was fantabulous!

bluedahlia

OMG!  They NEVER learn, do they?

1Athena1

What David Walker - who is very well respected - says is misleading because it makes a reader believe that no one is keeping track of the money spent. Actually, that is wrong - and he himself was an able comptroller-general who knew exactly what was going on. Congress has a lot of automatic mechanisms by which spending items are approved year over year, and these are written into law. Examples include entitlement programs.

I am rather disappointed to see someone like Walker make the simplistic assertion that the feds should somehow behave like a family. To say that this explains why we have a national debt of $15 trillion is more than misleading -it's bunkum. The national debt is partly due to SPENDING ("reconciliation") laws which led to the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, to the war of choice in Iraq and to a lesser extent to the loss of tax revenue from the recession.

When someone appears on a rag like Politico saying they have something called Comeback America Initiative, you know it's fishy....imo.

gardengumby

Beautiful, Blue!  Just absolutely gorgeously beautiful.

lassie11

Losing gracefully is an important skill in a democratic, civilized world.  Sadly it hasn't penetrated the special bubble where some people live.