McAuliffe's win and Obamacare spin

Wow, the headline below is awfully ballsy spin by "Fair & Balanced" FoxNews. They're flirting with yellow journalism. 

(They employ a typical FOX tactic: it's OK to write a stupid and inflammatory headline as long as it ends with a question mark.  Example: "John Stossel To Sell Children's Kidneys on Free Market?").

Let's recall that Terry McAuliffe was losing in the polls to his Republican rival Ken Cuccinelli, 38 to 40 percent, back in March. By August McAuliffe was up only 6 percentage points.  His margin spiked to double-digits during the federal government shutdown, very unpopular with Virginia residents, but after the shutdown his lead returned to about only 6 points.  

McAuliffe probably shouldn't have had a chance. He is a Clintonista carpetbagger who never held political office, and was tied to shady business dealings. There hasn't been a Virginia governor from the same party as the U.S. President since 1977. And McAuliffe already lost once to a popular Republican candidate for Virginia's governor. 

The reason he came back and won this time? Mainly because Cuccinelli is a Tea Party kook who staked out all sorts of far-right positions on abortion, gay rights and climate science. 

As a result, pre-election polls had McAuliffe leading Cuccinelli among women voters 58 to 34 percent!

Money was certainly a factor. McAuliffe was literally a professional fundraiser, he knows how. But notably, the conservative Chamber of Commerce declined to contribute to Cuccinelli's campaign, although they kicked in $1 million for the GOP candidate Bob McDonnell last election. Why? Because Cuccinelli's too kooky.

So this election certainly was not a 'No' vote on Obamacare, it was a 'No' vote on the Tea Party.  Cuccinelli became the GOP nominee through a state convention instead of the usual primary vote, where he probably would have lost to a GOP rival. The Tea Parties hijacked the convention and -- voila! -- kook for a candidate.

And so to my dear Tea Party Republicans I say, please keep doing what you're doing!  You keep setting 'em up and we'll keep knocking 'em down, OK?

'NO' VOTE ON OBAMACARE?
Angry Virginians make gov race close

• AP
  • Democrat Terry McAuliffe (middle, between Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine) wins a surprisingly close Virginia governor's race over Republican rival Ken Cuccinelli as the troubled rollout of ObamaCare looms over the vote.

Poll: 26 percent of Americans self-identify as kooks

Ab-so-lute-ly amazing.

In U.S. politics, it's not the Smarts vs. the Stupids anymore, not like it used to be. It's now the Sane vs. the Crazy. And crazy people apparently now make up 26 percent of the population. (This is making me start to think maybe the 2nd Amendment isn't such a bad idea.... How will I possibly defend myself and my loved ones when those 60 million rabid Republizombies come to storm my house and consume our living flesh?)

As you all know, it's crazy to attempt to argue with a crazy person. So we sane people basically have 3 options in dealing with them: (1) smile compassionately and pay lip service to the legitimacy of their delusions to spare them psychological stress and unpleasant emotions, (2) safely steer clear and ignore them, or (3) have them committed for their and society's good. I leave it to you, my fellow Sane Americans, to decide.

Oh, and if you hear about any teabaggers starting to bite people, let me know so I can immediately head to the nearest gun shop.

Poll: Majority Of Republicans Think Obama Didn't Actually Win 2008 Election -- ACORN Stole It!

By Eric Kleefeld
November 19, 2009 | TPMDC

The new national poll from Public Policy Polling (D) has an astonishing number about paranoia among the GOP base: Republicans do not think President Obama actually won the 2008 election -- instead, ACORN stole it.

This number goes a long way towards explaining the anger of the Tea Party crowd. They not only think Obama's agenda is against America, but they don't think he was actually the choice of the American people at all! Interestingly, NY-23 Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman is now accusing ACORN of stealing his race, and Fox News personalities have often speculated about ACORN stealing the 2008 Minnesota Senate race for Al Franken.

The poll asked this question: "Do you think that Barack Obama legitimately won the Presidential election last year, or do you think that ACORN stole it for him?" The overall top-line is legitimately won 62%, ACORN stole it 26%.

Among Republicans, however, only 27% say Obama actually won the race, with 52% -- an outright majority -- saying that ACORN stole it, and 21% are undecided. Among McCain voters, the breakdown is 31%-49%-20%. By comparison, independents weigh in at 72%-18%-10%, and Democrats are 86%-9%-4%.

Now, the obvious comparison would be that many Democrats felt that George W. Bush didn't legitimately win the 2000 election. But there are some clear differences.

First of all, Al Gore empirically won the national popular vote in 2000, and lost in a disputed recount process in Florida. By comparison, John McCain lost the national popular vote by a 53%-46% margin.

In order to believe that Obama wasn't the true winner of the 2008 election, one would have to think that ACORN (and perhaps other groups) stuffed ballots to the tune of over 9.5 million votes, Obama's national margin.

PPP communications director Tom Jensen says: "Belief in the ACORN conspiracy theory is even higher among GOP partisans than the birther one, which only 42% of Republicans expressed agreement with on our national survey in September."