Tag: Landslide

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This Democrat Is Giving Up on ObamaCare

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This Democrat Is Giving Up on ObamaCare

The disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act was the catalyst for my party’s midterm thumping.

By
Burke Beu
Nov. 13, 2014 6:00 p.m. ET

I grew up in a Democratic family. I have been a registered Democrat since age 18, a Democratic candidate for statewide office in Colorado and a party precinct captain in that caucus state. I’ve volunteered for numerous Democratic candidates and contributed to party causes and campaigns. The 2014 election results were extremely disappointing for me, but hardly a surprise.

I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, then lost my job in the Great Recession. I was lucky; my brother lost his job and his house. I survived on part-time jobs while paying out-of-pocket for my health insurance.

I voted for President Obama again in 2012, then received a cancellation notice for my health insurance. This was due to ObamaCare, the so-called Affordable Care Act. However, I couldn’t afford anything else.

Midterm elections in the second term of a presidency are difficult on the president’s party, and the Obama administration’s crisis-of-the-month headlines weren’t helpful. Ultimately, though, ObamaCare was the catalyst for my party’s midterm thumping.

https://online.wsj.com/articles/burke-beu-this-democrat-is-giving-up-on-obamacare-1415919619

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GOP Leaders Shouldn’t Forget That They Won Because Obama Sucks, Not Because They’re Great

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GOP Leaders Shouldn’t Forget That They Won Because Obama Sucks, Not Because They’re Great
John Hawkins | Nov 08, 2014

For the American people, voting in the 2014 election was like choosing whether they’d rather get Democrat Ebola or the Republican flu. Just because they chose the flu doesn’t mean that Republicans should start assuming that people love them.

They don’t.

Hell, I’m a conservative and even I don’t love the Republican Party.

Our leadership teams in the House and Senate are comprised of inarticulate country club Republicans who are to politics what the Waffle House is to fine dining. Many of the Capitol Hill staffers and consultants are out-of-touch lickspittles who hold flyover country conservatives in contempt because they’ve errantly concluded that being in the proximity of members of Congress somehow raises their IQ 40 points. The National Republican Senatorial Committee? Everyone in that organization should be fired and run out of politics. Afterwards, the GOP should burn the building to the ground and salt the earth so nothing will ever grow there again.

That doesn’t mean everyone is doing a bad job. Most people thought Republicans would lose governorships, but we added them instead. Thank you, Republican Governors Association. Also, Reince Priebus and the RNC bent over backwards to improve the GOP’s election data, to increase turnout, and to build bridges to the base. That paid off big time. We also can’t forget conservative Republicans like Ted Cruz, Jeff Sessions, Mike Lee, Tim Scott and Trey Gowdy who have stood tall, fired conservatives up and gave the base a reason to vote when our “leaders” were letting us down. That’s not a small matter because if the whole Republican Party was made up of mediocrities like Lindsey Graham, Thad Cochran and Peter King, it wouldn’t have mattered whether we voted or not because the country would be going to hell on a shutter no matter what we did.

https://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2014/11/08/gop-leaders-shouldnt-forget-that-they-won-because-obama-sucks-not-because-theyre-great-n1915796

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Did New Jersey Miss the Wave?

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photo by ArtChck for Surf Club

Did New Jersey Miss the Wave?
November 7, 2014 1 Comment
By James Pezzullo | The Save Jersey Blog

Election Night has come and passed and, by the grace of God, Harry Reid is now relegated to the office of Senate Minority Leader. However, one question seems to be on everyone’s mind: did New Jersey, home of perhaps the night’s biggest winner – Chris Christie – manage to completely miss the tidal wave of Republican victory that swept the nation?

The case for a “yes” is clear. The night’s ticket-topping race for the US Senate was won handily by Cory Booker. While it’s true that Jeff Bell outperformed his polls by 2 points, New Jersey polling in recent years has shown a Democratic bias – 3.2 points in 2013 and 4.5 points in 2008. While not 100% constant, a Republican outperforming the polls is to be expected in New Jersey.

There are several counterpoints down the ballot, however.

Tom MacArthur cruised to a 10-point win over Aimee Belgard. Scott Garrett swatted away what was supposed to be a strong challenge from Democrat Roy Cho by the same margin as 2012’s Adam Gussen (13 points), and in the 2nd district Frank LoBiondo laid a 25-point smackdown on challenger Bill Hughes. Cho and Hughes – both anointed by Democrats as the chosen ones who would finally unseat entrenched Congressmen – both came up with at or below average performances against the two veteran Republicans. Burlington and Monmouth’s GOPs came up with wins in their competitive Freeholder races, Ocean County Republicans took care of business across the board (as my good friend Bill Kuncken wrote about right here on Save Jersey) and, in general, it was a good night to be a Republican.

What gives?

https://savejersey.com/2014/11/did-new-jersey-miss-the-wave/

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GOP preps for power

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GOP preps for power

By Alexander Bolton – 11/06/14 06:00 AM EST

For Republicans, now comes the hard part: governing.

Fresh off its historic gains on Election Day, the GOP will soon have control of both the Senate and the House for the first time since 2007. Republicans are promising to fix Congress, knowing that they — for better or worse — will run a historically unpopular institution ahead of the 2016 elections.

Republican leaders know the mandate they received Tuesday will be short-lived if they cannot enact laws to boost what many voters see as a sluggish economy.

In a rare phone call with President Obama Wednesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) identified two major areas of possible compromise: trade agreements and tax reform.

“There are a lot of people who believe that, just because you have divided government, it doesn’t mean you don’t accomplish anything,” McConnell said at a press conference in Louisville, Ky.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said “serious immigration reform” is on the table as well but cautioned it must include strong provisions to secure the border.

Yet the first order of business for McConnell and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will be to put the basic work of Congress back on track. That means passing a budget each year and moving the appropriations bills on schedule instead of letting them pile up in annual year-end omnibus packages.

The GOP leaders say they will tackle more than three dozen House-passed jobs bills, such as an authorization of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. That measure has passed the House and has the votes to clear the Senate next year. The Obama administration has repeatedly delayed a final decision on Keystone.

McConnell on Wednesday said the upper chamber under Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was the primary cause of gridlock.

“The Senate was the problem, not the House,” he said. “The House passed over 300 pieces of legislation, many of them on a bipartisan basis, and nothing was done with them in the Senate.

“The American people have changed the Senate, so I think we have an obligation to change the behavior of the Senate and begin to function again,” he added.

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/223153-gop-preps-for-power

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Landslide! Republicans capture Senate and prized governorships

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Landslide! Republicans capture Senate and prized governorships
NJTP

GOP holds House, poised for gains in governorships

Republicans held all of their seats and were projected to net the six necessary to take control of the Senate Tuesdaynight, with several more pickup opportunities still to come in undecided races in an election that proved to be a scorching rebuke of President Obama’s tenure.

Pickups in South Dakota, Montana, West Virginia, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa and North Carolina earned Republicans the majority with a seat to spare, and they were already the favorite to win a runoff in Louisiana in December, which would give them 53 seats. Races in Virginia and Alaska were also still too tight to call, and each of those represented a potential GOP pickup.

Democrats including Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Udall of Colorado fell like dominoes as Republicans capitalized on a particularly strong set of candidates, including Arkansas’ Tom Cotton and Colorado’s Cory Gardner, who successfully convinced voters they would be better off with leaders not loyal to an unpopular president.

Voters, seething at an economy still struggling to recover six years after they hired Mr. Obama for that job, directed their anger at his allies in Congress and in the statehouses, though the election was not an affirmative mandate for Republicans either, according to exit polls.

Republicans also cleaned up in key governors’ races, earning re-election in Florida, Wisconsin and Kansas and stunning Democrats by winning governorships in Democratic strongholds Maryland and Massachusetts.

Conservative Joni Ernst won her battle in Iowa, becoming the state’s first female senator.

Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker won a hard fought election over Democratic challenger Mary Burke Tuesday, overcoming fierce opposition from unions and other liberal groups for his third victory in four years and cementing his position as a possible contender for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

But of the 36 governors’ races, probably the most painful for Obama was Illinois, where Republican Bruce Rauner ousted Democrat Pat Quinn in the president’s home state.

Compounding Democratic woes, projections showed the GOP could gain as many as 18 House seats, giving Republicans their largest majority since 1946.

Sources: Washington Times, AFP, Drudge Report