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November 8, 2006Gonna be interesting - First ImpressionsFor our troops and our economy the 2006 elections are a small but intense storm - not a tsunami or a Katrina, but there will be wreckage aplenty. Haven’t had a chance to read much, yet. The only thing I can say for sure right now is that Michael Steele is the future of the GOP if they’re smart enough to notice. I’m not holding my breath on that point. My own impression - which will be unpopular with the conservative base (but it won’t be the first time I’ve been unpopular with you) - is that the country wants to be more centrist. Center-right, I think…but much more “center” than “right.” Most of the Dems who won were not flaming socialists but folks who portrayed themselves as “conservative” Dems. I expect we’ll start seeing some conservatives talk of “purges,” of pulling even harder to the right. And I think if they do that, they’ll set themselves up for a bigger disaster than this break-house blast. A few months ago, during the Harriet Miers/Dubai Ports/Immigration Debacle Trifecta - during which time some of conservatives descended into presidential namecalling to compete with the rankest sorts from DU - I thought (and said) that the “purist” conservatives (whom even Ronald Reagan said were impossible to please and didn’t know how to take 75% and walk away winners) were playing too near the ledge. The “sat home and taught ‘em a lesson” folks have let our troops down, for sure. Hope they can live with that. The conservatives who are already saying “we need to send more Tancredos to Washington” are mistaken. Americans are fair-minded people and I don’t believe they want to be pulled too far in either direction…which means if the Dems are as smart as they pretend to be, they’ll now try to get serious about serious issues. But I’m not holding my breath for that, either. The Republican Party has earned this loss, and yes, the President needed to do some things he didn’t do - but I can’t be happy thinking that someone like Rep. Peter King will not be Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. The real monster created here is not the Dem congress…its the press, which has just been told, “yes, you can get away with what you’ve been doing - the smearing, the distorting, the burying of good news, the spinning, the framing of op-eds as news pieces…”The Dems managed to pull this off by telling America almost nothing of what they planned to do, and getting the press to carry them. More than anything…more than ANYTHING…this election has given absolute carte blanche to the press, who may now operate openly and freely as the extended arm of the DNC Communications Wing. They will in no way attempt to restore faith with the American public. Hell, they got the job done, didn’t they? What’s to restore; clearly the distracted American public trusts ‘em just fine. And to be honest, I knew last week, when the press started admitting how unfair they’d been to the Republican candidates, that they wouldn’t be admitting it if they didn’t know the thing was won. Of course, I’ve said many times before, “things are always in flux, nothing is static and God has a hand in all of this…” So, we’ll see. I’ve only read a few things this morning, but I am in agreement with Ed Driscoll who writes We Are Galloping Toward the Center. While I detest how this will further embolden the press, I’m going to believe there is a limit to where even they can go. I don’t think Dem rule will be “good” for America, but it does look like it will give us a fuller and more comprehensive mix of Democrats, which might be beneficial to the nation in terms of breaking the partisanship pipeline. Of course, if all they do is become “fall in line” Dems - and under Pelosi/Hillary the Democrats have shown an alarming and almost mystical ability to strike the goosestep - all bets are off. Meanwhile I can’t say I’ll be sad to see the end of Denny Hastert’s reign with the gavel. Maxed Out Momma says in the next month, the leadership better present a united face to the enemy if they are smart. She’s right. Now that the election is over, perhaps the Dems can accurately identify the “enemy” (who has - for too long -been “the other side of America”) and act accordingly. Al Qaeda needs to see unity, or we’re in big trouble. I’m only making one prediction - no, two - no…three. 1) Nancy Pelosi will not be the Speaker of the House. Partly because she’s too far to the left, partly because she really doesn’t “play” well to the ordinary folks who will not want to watch her on Russert week after week, and mostly because she’s not going to be two heartbeats away from the presidency where if - God forbid - something were to happen to Bush and Cheney, she would become the first female president of the US. Oh, no. There’s no way Hillary’s gonna let Nancy sit in that chair for two years and possibly get the “First Woman POTUS” gig to which she, Hillary, has felt entitled to (and been groomed for) for the last 30 years. Uh-uh. I expect Rahm Emmanuel will get the job. And I think he’ll be a whole lot smarter than to suggest Alcee Hastings for anything. 2) Foolish GOPers will actually think the Dems will “share” committee responsibilities if the Senate ends up 51-49 Dem. As I said, I haven’t had a chance to read much, but I’m quite sure that we’re not seeing conservatives call the nation “stupid” and “retarded” and threatening to move to Canada like the Dems did in the last election. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Pajamas Media has a great round-up. So does The Moderate Voice. Blue Crab Boulevard says don’t expect a new tone. Siggy is sounding very leery of what comes next. More later. Some Anchoress pieces during the campaign http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/11/08/gonna-be-interesting-first-impressions/trackback/ 27 Responses to “Gonna be interesting - First Impressions” |
November 8th, 2006 at 11:01 am
The Dems won by running a bunch of candidates that were to the right of a lot of the party, everything will depend on how they deal with that. If they actually reinstate a more conservative wing of the party then I’ll consider that a good thing and I’m not sure about your predictions.
If they do as I sort of expect and demand they toe the line then I suspect you’ll be right on 2 out of 3. I think Pelosi will be speaker no matter what. She gets to claim credit for the election victory and I just don’t see how she’s going to be punished for that, and I don’t think there is any chance she’ll step aside.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Pelosi is going to be speaker, sorry.
I think the Dems are going to be sobered and worried now that they have both houses. After so much extreme rhetoric, now they have to do something. It’s going to be a hard transition.
DU is very, very quiet.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Actually, Moma, the whole country seems to be pretty quiet. I think the GOP is sitting there in stunned realization…and the left is feeling like Robert Redford at the end of The Candidate. “Okay, we’ve won…now what?”
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I still don’t think Pelosi will be speaker. Just a gut feeling. I coudl be wrong.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:28 am
our state just re-elected a “Blue dog democrate, Jim Matheson. He was all over the news last night saying that it was the conservative dems that were being elected, not the liberal ones. he was specifically asked about Pelosi and her leadership. He promised the people of Utah that he would not cow tow down to her and neither would the other ones now that there were more of them. H e had better keep his word or just plan on moving out of state when his term is done. we will not be lied to again. With his being the only dem. from Utah he will take the full force of angry voters. I for one will follow him like a hound dog to make sure he remembers his promise.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Anchoress, I hope your read on the collective American mind is true and not the equally-esteemed David Warren’s latest.
It will be a great tragic irony if those who have decried the war in Iraq as “another Vietnam” are the ones who make it so by their own actions. If we abandon Iraq now and let all the American and Iraqi blood spilled go for nothing, I for one will be truly mortified and will start to believe what my liberal friends have been trying to convince me of, that America is no better than any other country.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
You are right the reason the Dems won was because the elected a lot of Centrist Dems, and it they are foolish enough to select left wing leaders like Pelosi, we should be able to convince some of them to cross over to the Republican side of the line, when none of their ideas are being considered.
The only purges the Republicans should do is replace the big spenders with true fiscal conservatives.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
The GOP earned this defeat the easy way. They left their principles and became the party of power. What this country really needs is a viable third party. Give the Democratic party to the liberals, the conservatives can have the Republicans but we need a third party that is truly centrist. Earmarks and pork barrel spending didn’t save the Republicans, lapses in ethics and just plain hubris brought the party down. The President and his vaunted political guru, Rove the genius evidently failed to read the tea leaves and see that the electorate were tired of the usual song and dance about Iraq. They want to hear a leader and see a leader that stands up and explains things more clearly especially about this war. Bush and his administratioon have utterly failed in the media wars and they have allowed their politcal opposition to frame the debate and in fact to distort and lie and get away with it. The Democrats will make a huge mistake if they think they have a decisive mandate from the public to lurch left, this election was a rebuke to the the Republicans and their leadership for their utter failure to lead and set an example.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Unfortunately, the big big lesson learned last night is that for all the enormous energy exhibited here and so many other wonderful sites (and bad ones-like Kos!) the MSM is still in charge. We (the blogosphere) are not a factor. They can ignore us and the average American, especially older folks, don’t even know we exist.Secondly, The rejection of both Lamont and Santorum prove that the internet bases cannot elect anyone, that the hard pull toward “ideological purity” from the Netroots on BOTH sides is a losing strategy. (And before anyone yells, I’m not equating Lamont and Santorum–I have great personal admiration for Santorum. Lamont is a worm.)
November 8th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
The GOP lost this election the easy way. Leave ethics at the door and go for personal gain, forget your main fame to glory that is fiscal conservatism nad oh by the way lest we forget go for power instead of following through on your campaign pledges and promises. It is time to have an alternative a real third party. Liberals can have the Democratic party since that seems to be their forte, conservatives can have the Republicans but where is the party for those of the middle a centrist party? Extremism on both sides of the political spectrum really has not caught on with the American electorate, what the majority of Americans want is a party that governs from the middle. The Democrats will make a huge mistake if they govern left instead of from the center.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
I guess voters bought the pig in lipstick. Hope everyone that sat this one out will be happy with what happens over the next two years…and twenty.
My prediction? Rumsfeld will step down and we will be on our way to the Deluge, v.4.0.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
[...] The Anchoress has managed to provide the most succinct and empirical of last night’s election results. Her post, Gonna Be Interesting- First Impressions, sums it all up nicely: My own impression - which will be unpopular with the conservative base (but it won’t be the first time I’ve been unpopular with you) - is that the country wants to be more centrist. Center-right, I think…but much more “center” than “right.” Most of the Dems who won were not flaming socialists but folks who portrayed themselves as “conservative” Dems… [...]
November 8th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
[...] The Anchoress sees these election results as a need to return to a more centrist position. But more than that, she sees what happened yesterday as a major win for the MSM. The Dems managed to pull this off by telling America almost nothing of what they planned to do, and getting the press to carry them. The real monster created here is not the Dem congress…its the press, which has just been told, “yes, you can get away with what you’ve been doing - the smearing, the distorting, the burying of good news, the spinning, the framing of op-eds as news pieces…” [...]
November 8th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Not Quite September 10th
The Anchoress writes:1) Nancy Pelosi will not be the Speaker of the House. Partly because shes too far to the left, partly because she really doesnt play well to the ordinary folks who will not want to watch her on…
November 8th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
Anchoress:
I agree with just about everything you said. I do think they might rethink the impeachment business, because the American people are getting tired of drama. It would hurt them in the long run.
As for Iraq, well it is one thing to bitch and moan and whine…it is another to be the guy who takes responsiblity for defeat.
November 8th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
“they might rethink the impeachment business”
When Democrats have power, they use it. And they never rethink their tired, already-tried-and-failed policies. Or agendas. Republicans treat victory as a defeat.
November 8th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Wow. So it’s all the media’s fault. Thanks for that keen insight. Couldn’t you have found some space to blame Bill Clinton?
November 8th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
You’re quite wrong on predictions 1 and 3. As to #2, I predict that the Democrats will not be less procedurally gracious in victory than the Republicans have been during these last few heady years of their ascendency–although I grant that this is setting the bar very low.
November 8th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
Wow. So it’s all the media’s fault. Thanks for that keen insight. Couldn’t you have found some space to blame Bill Clinton?
‘
What a sophomoric demonstration of willful misunderstanding. Do you see me “blaming” the media without also declaring that the GOP deserved to lose this? What an extraneous and gratuitous comment borne of nothing but your own projections. Your side won…try to be as gracious in victory as most of us are trying to be in defeat. How about you grow up, now, hmm? I saw no reason to mention Bill Clinton - why did you?
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And yes, the media played a roll in all this. Bush and the GOP screwed up plenty. But the press even admitted last week (when it was easy for them to do so) that they screwed the conservatives in their coverage. I made up nothing.
November 8th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
Democrats will not be less procedurally gracious in victory than the Republicans have been during these last few heady years of their ascendency–although I grant that this is setting the bar very low.
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Let’s see…President Bush went to Ted Kennedy and said, “help me with Education reform…” Outside of obstructing everything Bush at almost every turn, please give me solid examples of where Democrat graciousness has been rebuked by Bush.
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And you guys are supposed to be so much “better” than we are…are you really saying a low bar (if there is one) is all you have to meet?
November 8th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
Oh no you don’t, sweetheart. Rebukes by Bush are another subject. We were talking about institutional courtesy in the House of Representatives. This is the sort of standard Democrats need to beat.
Really, Ank, given the pious praise of sweetness and civility at the top of your page, I’m surprised it’s necessary to explain this to you.
November 8th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
“Sweetheart?”
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Well, clearly I have nothing at all to explain to you about civility, do I?
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You did mean to call me “Anchoress,” right, and not “Ank?” Only my husband calls me “Ank!”
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Hmmm…so, let me get this straight…we now how to go tit-for-tat on who was ruder in the houses? Do I have to drag out examples of John Conyers and the rest? Do I have to then ask you if you think our minority leaders will call refer to your next Democrat president in the language and with the name-calling that your leaders have used to talk about the American President (no matter who he is?)
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Tell you what, let’s not. We can do that for months and in the end it gets us nowhere (and btw, I’d appreciate it if you would simply give the URL for that looooong excerpt you have there, and I will replace the excerpt with the link because it’s kind of rude to use up someone’s bandwidth like that in the comment’s section and you open me up to all sorts of nasty old copyright problems. So, if you don’t give me the url, then I have to edit it, then I get nasty emails telling me I’m a bitch for editing content, blah, blah…)
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You see how tiresome it gets doing this titty thing? And I have to be honest, I don’t really know what you and your co-ideologists are so damn testy about. You won! You don’t have to be snarky anymore. You can be gracious in victory.
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Unless you just don’t want to be, don’t have a clue how to not be mad and simply want to pick a fight, which I don’t engage in because I get fevers every night and simply don’t have the energy for pissing contests!
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Congratulations on your win. Please send the url.
November 8th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Testy, darling? Moi? Truly not. I am sweetness itself, and provide the URL instanter:
Link here.
As to how you and yours might refer to the next “Democrat” (we prefer, incidentally, the nomenclature “Democratic,” and prefer that the words “party” or “president” not be preceded by the abbreviated “Democrat”–kinda like you’d rather not be addressed as “Ank” by any old git), I suggest again that the bar was set pretty durned low during the Clenis administration.
kisses,
rc
November 8th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
I ain’t testy. I doubt you’re sweetness itself, but I’m going to start liking you because you used the world “instanter” which reminds me of Bertie Wooster.
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I am a former Democrat myself, and I have always prefered “Democrat” to “Democratic,” so I think I’ll continue to use that, just the same, thanks.
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As I have treated you nothing but respectfully, I’ll ask you now to stop the pussy-cat talk and condesending tone. Funnily enough, I’ve never gone to someone’s site and posted in such a tone, and I’m sure you’re capable of better.
November 9th, 2006 at 6:57 am
“this election has given absolute carte blanche to the press, who may now operate openly and freely as the extended arm of the DNC Communications Wing. They will in no way attempt to restore faith with the American public. Hell, they got the job done, didn’t they? What’s to restore; clearly the distracted American public trusts ‘em just fine”
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It’s always somebody else, isn’t it Anchoress? The stupid voters, the biased press, the evil magic spells of Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, and on and on and on.
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Your party lost because it governed badly. Period. Exactly four years ago George Bush and the Republican Party held nearly all the cards. Exactly two years ago they held absolutely all the cards. All they had to do to keep power was to succeed at something besides merely winning elections. They didn’t.
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They played their hand spectacularly badly. All it would have taken was a little flexibility, a little common sense, and the understanding that power was not theirs merely by having the self-evidently correct political views.
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Can you imagine what Ronald Reagan would have done with a Republican Congressional majority and a galvanizing event like 9/11? I can.
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Did they need to pass laws? There was a majority in Congress to do so. Did they need to exercise strong executive leadership to rally all Americans? They had an unprecedented expansion of Executive Branch power and a President whose popularity, in the Spring of 2002, was in the stratosphere.
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What more can you ask for, short of the absolute power of a Napoleon or a Louis XIV?
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All it would have taken was a willingness to govern with the consent of the governed rather than to rule without any regard to the views and opinions of about 3/5 of the public.
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It would have taken so very little. A little less arrogance about “political capital”, a little more attention to the actual mood of the country, a realistic understanding of the difference between military success and military failure, a willingness to concede that some attempts at policy might have been headed in the wrong direction.
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The former governor California and honored Republican President could have given them a few hints. The questionable but immensely popular President before GWB would have had some sage advice on the matter. And the current Republican governor of California, who coasted to victory against the tide, could have set an example for them.
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They did not want to govern, they wanted to rule. Unfortunately, in America you just can’t. And if you try you will fall down go boom.
November 9th, 2006 at 10:17 am
[...] The Anchoress is right about this: The real monster created here is not the Dem congress…its the press, which has just been told, “yes, you can get away with what you’ve been doing - the smearing, the distorting, the burying of good news, the spinning, the framing of op-eds as news pieces…”The Dems managed to pull this off by telling America almost nothing of what they planned to do, and getting the press to carry them. [...]
November 10th, 2006 at 5:55 am
No Holding Back
When Republicans had both houses of Congress it was actually quite a burden. But now the gloves can come off and for the first time in 12 years we don’t have to hold back any longer. We can tell you what we really think and we are ecstatic about our …
November 16th, 2006 at 9:51 am
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