…but there are limits to what can be done with no budget and no staff. Won’t be the first time, and it won’t be the last. I will admit to being surprised at the Libertarian turnout; I think that it’s the best they’ve done in my lifetime. Which I am sure will comfort them when the two state parties take their revenge in the next few years*.
The good news is that we’re still on-track to get the AG spot in a squeaker, and the House of Delegates is staying firmly in control of the GOP, which pretty much means that Terry McAuliffe is on-track to be limited to whatever he skim off of the top of the budget. The even better news? It’s proving to be difficult for people to pretend that McAuliffe’s double-digit collapse in two weeks wasn’t directly related to Obamacare, and most of the pundits aren’t even trying**. There are some slightly nervous Democratic strategists right now wondering how soon they hit the floor on Obamacare.
Moe Lane
*The Virginia Democratic and Republican parties feel that they have a good thing going, here.
**Mind you, McAuliffe will have to console himself with being Governor of Virginia.
Well, if there is a silver lining in all this….
Perhaps McAuliffe will so annoy and disturb the state over the next four years it will damage his party’s prospects. I doubt anyone voted for him out of genuine admiration or attraction to his magnetic charisma.
You know, I was just thinking that one term at a time thing they have in Virginia now seems like good thing.
To go from a double digit lead to barely eaking out a victory in a week takes a special kind of fail, there have to be a lot of Dem candidates in red states who are going to get really worried about this in the next month as the exchanges continue to fail. And if as has been predicted in the Daily Caller that up to 129 million people could lose their coverage by 2015 over O’bama’s lie, well I wouldn’t be surprised next year to see Dem’s screaming for a repeal of O’bamcare after the cancellation notices start to fly in October. McAuliffe’s victory in the end may end up being a pyrrhic victory just before the real problems start.
While outspending your opponent 25-1 in ads.
Oh, God, the ADS. That’s the only thing I’m happy about right now.
Sorry, I wish Terry had more power, VA deserves to get screwed up. You’ve got Republicans who voted against Ken, thinking that Terry wouldn’t be able to screw VA up in four years. They deserve to learn the error of their mistake. What is more the worse Terry behaves as Governor, the more vulnerable VA Dems are in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.
The only reason Obenshain got moderate GOP support is because of his last name, a bunch of Republicans owed his dead a favor, they’ll turn on him in 2017 ( especially if a GOP is in the WH)
Who do we have to run against Warner in 2014? Not McDonnell ( I don’t care what he’s polling right now, in a race that number will tank, Conservatives certainly don’t like him) Not Bill “i’m a mainstream” Bolling.
Could we perhaps start a draft movement for someone who’s schedule just opened up?
I’m not so sure about Bolling – he’s the only one of the outgoing top three not getting any damage this year, and VA voters like the “I’m a mainstream” candidate – it’s why we got Warner for Governor and Senator. For this race, I would have been as happy voting for him as I was for Cuccinelli.
I doubt Bill would survive a primary after the way he behaved. The man is dull, no charisma whatsoever. Plus he isn’t even all out against Obamacare, he endorsed Medicaid expansion.
Cuccinelli’s negatives won’t remain this high for long if T-Mac turns into a terrible Governor and if Obamacare becomes an even bigger mess.
Ken put up a good fight towards the end. What gets me is this – He did not make Obamacare an issue except for the last 2-3 weeks. And he was a leader in terms of opposing Obamacare.
Another thing that gets me – He was so heavily outspent. He could have used better financial support.
You can look at T-Mac in his concession speech, he’s sweating beads, he knows he just almost lost.
I never watch the victory/concession speeches. Once the polls close, the fun/aggravating/interesting part is over for me and it’s time to start getting ready for the next one.
Do you think we could draft ( you know who) for Senate. in VA.
Wow. I am taking this pretty hard. I couldn’t watch the results as they quickly tightened up and waited to log into Moe’s site to get the news.
I am most fearful that this will embolden GOP to go full RINO. Plus I am bummed because McAuliffe is just not in any way likable to me.
If Cuccinelli had lost by eight the GOP might have concluded that so-cons were a dead end. Losing by this amount will simply tell them that they need to keep turning Obamacare into a Mighty Hammer Of Maximum Fun, which is honestly a pretty smart thing to do.
Losing by this much after pulling funding from the candidate should tell them two things
1) Obamacare is an albatross around the Dems neck ( we already knew that)
2) Fund the candidates. And crack down on the deserters ( not just the conservative ones, the moderates as well)
How does one “crack down on the deserters” ?
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It’s not like we can round them up and force them to watch the collected speeches of Ronaldus Maximus, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee .. or can we?
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Mew
Make there lives hell, make sure they can’t find a job ANYWHERE after their desertion. Boyd Marcus will likely go on working for Dems, might even start working for Centrist Groups. Instead the GOP should dig up some dirt on him and basically make sure he can’t get a job doing anything other then janitor work.
Greeter at WalMart has a nice public-relations feel to it .. I just don’t see how the grassy roots have any real control there.
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It’s like the saying goes .. a rich man and a poor man can both go broke, but only the poor man will go hungry.
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Mew
Gosh darn it all, I TOLD you guys a week ago that the supposed “Libertarian” candidate would turn out to be bankrolled by the Democrats as a spoiler.
Don’t you think those seven percentage points might have made a difference?
We’re actually trying to take apart those numbers now. It may very well be that we clawed back all the support that Sarvis was pulling from the GOP; as I admitted last night, this was the largest third-party showing in VA in probably my lifetime.
It’s not knowable, far as I can tell, but .. I’m wondering how many of those voters were in the “throw ’em all out” camp.
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Mew