As the voting unfolds, I figured I should just have a separate place for folks to discuss the results. So far the Democrats seem to be kicking ášš and taking names, despite the GOP’s desperate attempts to turn John Kerry into a cause celebre.
Looking forward to the Daily Show’s live episode. It’ll be interesting to see Colbert’s reaction if it’s a Democratic sweep.
PAD
• 
I can’t wait. I hope us Lefties have cause to celebrate tomorrow.
-Wes
Ðámņ. Allen up again by only 1000 or so votes.
Webb’s people are saying that this is good for them as the remaining votes to come in are from areas that they claim are his “safe” areas.
If this keeps up, I’m not gonna know who my guy is for a week.
Well, even if the Dems take control of both houses, I’m going to try and reign in any jubilation – they’ve still got to accomplish something to show they deserved it.
But making Bush a lame duck wouldn’t be a bad start.
Craig,
Yeah, more or less ditto.
Colbert in a sweep: I’d lay good odds that there will be denial, then anger, then bargaining, then depression, and then a hint of acceptance, but really just more depression or anger.
I think there’s an outside chance that they’ve been readying a shot of Colbert’s head exploding.
It’ll be interesting to see Colbert’s reaction if it’s a Democratic sweep.
Inner joy at having a writes itself few weeks of material, and a year or two of raging against the Dems? 😉
MSNBC has Allen ahead by 25,000 votes. have the absentee ballots already been counted? that sounds like a big lead but out of 2 million votes counted so far it’s pretty close.
At least Allen’s presidential chances are gone gone gone.
As for the rest…can’t win ’em all 🙂
Tonight, I went to my local polling place to cast my ballot. The turnout had been relatively good (out of approximately 480 registered voters I was 225 with several hours still to go).
The ladies are the same elderly women I have grown accustomed to seeing each and every election day year after year. While waiting to cast my ballot, engaging in idle chit-chat, I asked them if they thought that the whole campaign process had become more acrimonious and adversarial.
One of the women opinined, “Oh, you mean instead of telling us what they’re going to do, candidates just tell us how they’re different than their opponent?”
Suffice to say they noticed the trend as well.
I didn’t flip all the switches along one row. I wonder if that makes me unique among my fellow voters? I figure it’s more about the person than the party affiliation.
Since, I’m registered Republican and my state is in the midst of what has been referred to as a Democratic sweep does this mean the people who are elected to office will not do their level best to represent me and the fellow citizens of my state?
I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
If I don’t like the job they do, they’ll be another election in a little bit and the opportunity to elect someone else. Sometimes, I feel people forget that simple fact while trying to talk louder than one and other. Democrats or Republicans I would like to believe they are all still Americans and motivated by doing their best by their fellow citizens.
Well, Ohio’s ditched some of it’s Republicans (my mother, a former government worker, is cheering in the background), but some of the districts are still, depressingly, either in the red or too close to call.
Note, I am an independant voter, but this year felt compelled to vote straight democrat, simply because the current state of things needs a massive 180 if there’s gonna be any hope of light at the end of the tunnel.
Looks like Talent will win in MO…he was said to have a great get out the vote operation and it looks like that wasn’t just talk.
It’ll be interesting to see Colbert’s reaction if it’s a Democratic sweep.
He’ll be thrilled. That would mean he can finally go off on how bad it actually is in Iraq but be able to blame it on the Dems.
In fact, any pre-2006 midterm policy that goes to šhìŧ can be then blamed on the Dems instead of the people who actually created it.
Wow, latest estimate puts the Dems at 231 seats, a gain of 29.
I figured the House would flip, but not by that much.
We’re hearing local numbers around here as well as what’s managed to go national. Allen VS Webb is staying tight. If there is a win by more then 20,000 votes, for either guy…. I’ll be amazed.
And we’ll be putting up with a recount no matter which guy wins.
Oh….. The pain…. The paaaiiinnn…..
29 is just a bit more than I expected…that should be enough to prevent anyone from jumping to one party or another to cause a flip.
Hey! What happened to those diebold machines that Karl Rove was going to use to ensure a Republican victory???
What amazes me is that on some of the far left sites what should be a day of celebration is instead full of bitterness over Lamont losing. Jeeze…sore losers I can understand but sore winners?
Posted by: Bill Mulligan at November 7, 2006 10:13 PM
MSNBC has Allen ahead by 25,000 votes.
—————————————
And one hour ten minutes later, by MSNBC’s count, it’s Allen by 12,430. Like I said, we’re hearing the numbers before them. As of now, Allens still ahead. But the numbers we’re hearing puts his lead at about half that and dropping.
NOVA is voting Webb it seems.
Even thuogh I live in the Chicago area, I’m fascinated about how the vote is going across the entire USA. Right now, I cannot believe how close the VA Senatorial race is…. As of this typing, there’s atill about 4% of the vote, or about 115,000, to be counted. And that 4% apparently represents a heavily Democratic portion of the state! The next few hours are going to interesting.
Like Jerry C said, they’ll be putting up with a recount no matter which guy wins.
Santorum’s out! Santorum’s out!
Happy dance!
Woo hoo!!!!
Hey! What happened to those diebold machines that Karl Rove was going to use to ensure a Republican victory???
Maybe they realized that they couldn’t pull the same trick twice? 🙂
Keith’s going to be so sad about that (not). He can’t shout Rick “MAN ON DOG” Santorum every other night on Countdown now.
We may have to put him on the same suicide watch that they’ll have on Rush, Hannity and Savage on.
God, can you imagine what Bush is going to say in his next speach?
:p ………
My, God…
Even we weren’t getting these numbers around the Capitol area. 99% o the vote in and Webb is AHEAD o Allen by 2000 plus votes.
Wow.
Ugh, four more years of the Governator. Not that it’s a surprise. I mean, when you send someone who looks like Bill Gates’s wimpier older brother up against Conan the Barbarian, what do you think is going to happen? Nobody actually thinks Schwarzenegger is doing a good job, but apparently it doesn’t matter (I voted Green Party, incidentally… or, as everyone I know puts it, I “threw away my vote,” which is a mentality that makes no sense to me).
So, anybody put out an APB on Mr. Bradley yet?
Clear Democratic majority in the House. Looks like it could more or less be a deadlocked Senate…
I’m sure the White House can already hear the chants of “Lame Duck”.
Chris Chicola is OUT in IN!! Party time!
The blank check is gone! Accountability and oversight has returned and the great Uniter is a lame duck.
Now how many years will it take for the Dems to repeat the self destruct. It took them 40 years originally and the Repubs only 13 this time.
No matter how the Senate goes, the only real bummer tonight is Liberman didn’t get the boot.
Ended up unable to vote.
Original plan: Go after work.
Then, my wife woke up with a killer migraine and asked to to stay home from work, in the event she needed me to take her to the doctor for it and/or drive her to a completely different doctor’s appointment in the afternoon.
Plan B: Go during or after her afternoon doctor’s appointment, as that would be even earlier than going after work.
Then, we ended up taking her to the doctor for her migraine. Who, because of some of the other symptoms she was having, sent us to the ER. Ended up missing the other appointment, and sat in the ER until well after the polls closed and they finally admitted her and got her to a room.
Regret that I didn’t get to go, but the results as they stand are so lopsided with or against the votes I would have cast, I don’t see my being there providing a different outcome, and…well…the family’s gotta take priority for me.
He’ll be thrilled. That would mean he can finally go off on how bad it actually is in Iraq but be able to blame it on the Dems.
My god! You are a prophet, sir! 🙂
OK, someone on CNN (nobody I know, just some blogger) made an interesting comment. He said that the Republicans that lose their seats are going to be the moderate ones, leaving the most conservative Republicans still in office.
I wonder if that’s actually true. It makes sense on the surface. Where are the Dems most likely to succeed? In the states that were borderline already. And those states are the ones that are most likely to have moderates get into office.
If so, the amount of Republicans might go down, but the number of Republicans who are unwilling to work with the other side might stay the same.
I’m just happy now Pennsylvania has someone in Washington whose name isn’t “Sanitarium” spelled sideways. Honestly, not surprised there, nor by Rendell beating Swann. I’m sure the Philadelphia Daily News is going to talk about Swann taking a Dive. Just saw one of the analysts on CNN saying something I’ve been thinking for a week now. Now that the Democrats are (mostly) the majority, it’s time to DO something, not just talk. I have to think they will. Also thinking with a laser pointer glued to his head, James Carville would make a decently frightening Borg.
Can’t speak for the rest of the state, but in PA, we have Santorum, Sherwood, and Weldon. Those aren’t the moderates. Yeah, some moderates like Chafee are also going down, but I think it’s a wash. Most of the Dems winning in PA are moderates, not far leftists (not that it will stop Fox “News” from portraying them as such), so maybe we’ll be seeing a return to the center.
I wouldn’t say Talent in MO is a sure thing right now. He’s only winning 49%-46%, and I think I read that a good number of remaining precincts are from Kansas City/St. Louis City/and St. Louis County. All generally leaning Blue. So we shall see.
The Stem-Cell initiative in Missouri is also a nail-biter. I expected it to fail due to the rural vote, but it might just pass. That would be great, as it would make Michael J Fox happy, and Rush Limbaugh unhappy. (no other reason)
Robert Fuller:(I voted Green Party, incidentally… or, as everyone I know puts it, I “threw away my vote,” which is a mentality that makes no sense to me).
I live in Canada, where we had an election not that long ago because of corruption in the Liberal party, to which the Prime Minister belonged. The alternative to that Prime Minister, Paul Martin, was a guy who somebody else on this site in another thread referred to as our version of the Shrub: a guy named Stephen Harper.
Now just months before I had become upset with a relative of mine who lives in Connecticut and who had “reluctantly voted for Bush.” (My parents grew up in the U.S. but I was born in Canada, giving me dual citizenship, which is the reason that I often refer to the U.S. as “we” out of habit) She didn’t like what Bush was doing, she wasn’t in favor of Iraq, she cared very much about the environment, but because of the Swift Boat Vets she believed that Kerry was far worse. I know, I know–I can’t believe she bought that BS either.
So I said to her “Dammit, when somebody screws up as bad as Bush does you FIRE him! When somebody does the kind of stuff he does, it’s time for a change!”
So my own words had come back to bite me in the ášš. The Liberal PM was corrupt, and by my own logic he had to go. BUT. I knew that Stephen Harper was very similar to Bush and I could not bring myself to vote for him. There are two other political parties in Canada, the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Quebecois, but voting for them isn’t much more useful than voting for the Green Party.
At the end of the day I just didn’t vote. I was not going to be a hypocrite by voting for Martin to stay in office despite his wrongdoing, but I was not going to give my vote to somebody as undeserving as Harper, either.
My point is this: if you hate the idea of either candidate being in office, don’t hesitate to “throw away your vote” by giving it to a more deserving third party. That way, no matter who wins and what they do, you can truthfully say you are not the least bit responsible for it.
Santorum is out – thank goodness.
I’m not trying to distract this thread from discussing election results, but I thought most everybody would enjoy this, if you haven’t seen it yet.
http://www.nationalnightmare.com/
McCaskill has just passed up Talent with 3009/3746 precincts reporting. (48.7/48.0)
Nytwyng, take care of your wife. Some things are WAY more important than politics. Migraines are nasty.
Something ELSE to blame Bush for. I cracked up for 5 minutes when I saw this.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=3&id=38860&type=0
“My point is this: if you hate the idea of either candidate being in office, don’t hesitate to “throw away your vote” by giving it to a more deserving third party. That way, no matter who wins and what they do, you can truthfully say you are not the least bit responsible for it.”
I think if more people weren’t afraid of “throwing away their vote,” then election results would be considerably different, and it would no longer be considered “throwing away your vote” (which I think is just as bad as the “Why should I vote? My vote isn’t going to make a difference” mentality).
Incidentally, I feel a need to express my pleasure over the fact that the Republican candidate for Senator in California is named Ðìçk Mountjoy. Now that he’s lost, he should have no trouble finding employment in the gay pørņ industry.
My thoughts on third party candidates in the US system:
If you do have a preference of one over the other between Dem/Rep, voting third party is worse than throwing a vote away. It is half a vote for the candidate you like less. (You know how if two teams are tied in the won-loss column in a baseball season…if one loses, the other goes up half-a-game. Your favored of the two candidates has just lost a vote.)
If you have no preference RvsD…you *should* vote third party. It sends a signal of dissatisfaction.
But in a winner-take-all system like we have, the argument is weak for voting for your favorite candidate if your favorite candidate isn’t in one of the two major parties. It makes more sense to vote for your second favorite.
I sometimes wish I lived in Nevada.
There, you can quite literally vote for “None of the Above”.
Well, I’m off to bed. It looks like the Dems stand a good chance of gaining the Senate as well as the House.
Maybe now we can have some checks and balances against Bush.
About a month in a half ago, I posted that the D’s were tripping up and tripping over themselves so bad in so many areas that I didn’t think that they would win as many seats as they claiming. Hëll, there was one point that I thought they might drop a few seats in the Senate.
I’m glad I don’t have to make a living by making calls like that. 🙂
Barring a major change in the last few votes, Tester, McCaskill and Webb will have it. The Senate flips Dem 49, Rep 46 and Indy 2. If the most iffy race at this point, Tester, fails them, they still go 47 – 47 – 2.
Can I be snotty? Good.
Anybody know someone in the major media outlets? How much money would it take to get them to ask Rove to explain to us again that the news outlets had their polls, but he had “THE math” and what that meant for clear victories across the board for the Rs?
🙂
The Republicans deserved what they got this election, even if the people may not. Forget about 12 years in the majority in the House and most of that period in the Senate AND a Republican president for the past six years. For the past TWO YEARS, despite their biggest margin in the House in over four decades and a TEN seat margin in the Senate, they repeatedly failed to do what those who elected them wanted them to do. The President and key members of the legislative branch pushed Social security reform for months but in the end didn’t have enough guts to pass it. If it had passed, and seniors didn’t see a difference in their checks, it could have been a positive, historic accomplishment. The average person is concerned with the immigration issue, yet House members refused to go along with a more moderate Senate – and a President who had a moderate, humane policy on this issue – in the hopes it would help them come election time. Incidents like Foley happened because they were more concerned about losing a seat rather than losing their principles. One thing I agree with McCain on – elimination of earmarks and similar measures to curb wasteful spending – was killed by those eager to serve pork to their constituents to keep power. Even slam dunks like Supreme Court nominations had some checking polls rather than their principles. Speaking of principles, my Congressman, Don Sherwood, just lost a seat that was in republican hands for over 30 years because of his personal conduct. I do hate John Kerry anymore, especially his “joke”, but George Allen’s “macaca” comment was “cause celebre” he never recovered from. Hopefully, the Democrats that were elected tonight are going to Washington for the right reasons and we can all work together to solve our problems. Then, in two years, when the Republican party has found its way again, they will have a recent past to be proud of and an optimistic vision of the future. As for my state, santorum is gone and I know that is cause for great rejoicing for many on this board, but I for one will always be proud he stood by his principles – including funding for autistic children in Pennsylvania – and he will be missed. Also, keep an eye on Ed Rendell, who thrashed Lynn Swann tonight. I have never seen a politician like him in this state, who could appeal to “elites” and eagles fans, from all parts of the state and he may have Presidential aspirations someday.
The people have spoken tonight. That is the strength and beauty of our country. Congratulations. Now let’s do some heavy lifting.
This is the election system, and this is our democracy. weather i agree or not, as the saying goes, the people have spoken.
Democrats, cogratulations. For 6 years you’ve been bìŧçhìņg and complaining and telling us you can do it better, well, here you go. This is what you wanted. This is what you wished for. You have both houses and i’m quite sure the Presidency will be your also. So show us what you can do.
But a warning, if you guys all pull to the left you will loose in 08. Most of you centered and by golly a few of you are even conservative. believe it or not, most in this country are neither far right or far left. Keep yourselves in the middle and you’ll do fine. try to turn the US into San Francisco and it will spell your doom.
i will, as always hope for the best. i love this country. you will never hear me say i’m moving to mexico or canada. this was the will of the people.i hope you can offer a solution. this is your moment to shine.
we had our moment and we FÙÇKÊÐ it up. i make no bones about that. now don’t you FÙÇK it up.
congratulations. celebrate tonight, but tommorow there is work to do. a lot of it.
Joe V.
one last thing to add. Please don’t raise my taxes. Historically, this is what democrats do. i love to have low taxes. don’t raise them. did you know that was my biggest fear of democrats winning. not abortion, not gay marriage. taxes. i worried about taxes.
congratulations again.
Joe V.
ps
please don’t raise my taxes 🙂
Jerry C…those numbers are a bit off. They need to total 100. Right now CNN is projecting 49 Republicans 49 Democrats and 2 undecided races.
(2 of the Democrats are Independent – Lieberman and Sanders – but both have said they will caucus with the Democrats. I can already see some idiot analyst tomorrow claiming that the GOP and Democrats tied 49-each — ignoring the 2 “independents”.)
Congratulations (to most of you)… I guess.
🙂
Ive been telling everyone here that most americans are not like Bush, Rove or Grover Norquist… just dont let me down now.
Alright… waiting for a couple of final results for issues so I can make my political/academic roundup elsewhere, and Colbert mentioned how no one who was up for election and appeared on Better Know a District lost. Being curious and needing to kill time, I did a bit of research…
…not only did none of them lose, none of them lost with a wide margin for their challenger to dream of closing. We’re talking the lowest collected votes got 66%, and the highest got almost 90% of their votes. Twenty-six people in total.
However, not so cheerful news for Better Know a Challenger – of the six, only one was elected. The rest lost – by wide, wide margins.
So while Colbert is entertaining, he doesn’t appear to directly affect politics as much as some people might hope (or fear).
And as for what Colbert did when he said, sotto voce, that “Democrats win,” i’ll leave it to you to see on TiVo, Mr. D. I will only say that, although he is only a pretend right-wing media whørë, he showed more integrity and honesty than any of us would get from O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity or any of the “genuine” versions.”
Joe V.
“one last thing to add. Please don’t raise my taxes.”
Hey Joe. I think that the taxes are going to have to be raised. The way I see it, Republicans (by escalating the amount of debt) are like the irresponsible person who has borrowed your credit card. They spent money you didn’t have, and gave you some of it.
However, those bills won’t go away. And traditionally, the Democrats are forced the play the role of the bad guy, by raising taxes, paying off the debt that the Republicans made.
“I voted Green Party, incidentally… or, as everyone I know puts it, I “threw away my vote,” which is a mentality that makes no sense to me”
Elections on not like a beauty pagent, they are like a chess match, you don’t pick the most beautiful candidate, you pick the piece on the board that is the most useful for your purposes at a given moment.
If you believe that between the two candidates that have a chance of winning, it doesn’t matter who wins, or that the slightly better candidate is going to win anyway, and you believe that by voting for a third party, or by not voting you may strengthen a certain cause you want to promote, than it may be the right choice to do so.
Bush may no longer be The Decider (especially if the Dems wins the Senate) but can finally be The Uniter.
— Ken from Chicago (who wonders if he gets a cape and tights)
P.S. Kevin, did you see the video on channel 7 of David Orr–again–talking about how they had a “few” problems with the ballot machines, but that everything’s under control? WGN had Ðìçk Kay on the Steve and Johnni show overnight discussing all the assurance Orr had made about the machines after the fiasco in the primary last Spring.
>Ugh, four more years of the Governator. Not that it’s a surprise. I mean, when you send someone who looks like Bill Gates’s wimpier older brother up against Conan the Barbarian, what do you think is going to happen? Nobody actually thinks Schwarzenegger is doing a good job, but apparently it doesn’t matter
I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but there you are. Depressing, ain’t it? Though not quite as depressing as the fact that, with all that’s wrong out there, the Democrats still couldn’t take the Senate away from the Republicans.