You could see defeat in their faces on Fox News as the returns began rolling in.
Pennsylvania? “Fool’s gold.” Michigan? “That was a long shot, anyway.” Virginia? “It all depends on Fairfax County.” Florida? “It’s the voters in the I-4 corridor.”
And, of course, Ohio.
Indeed, only the brilliant, but reviled Republican strategist Karl Rove looked optimistic after 9 p.m.
At 10:30, my husband and I turned off the television, a persistent, sinking feeling in our collective gut. I woke at 1 a.m. and couldn’t resist grabbing my phone and loading Drudge.
Headline: “The Divided States of America.”
Sigh. So close. So close.
Naturally, sleep proved elusive as I pondered the meaning of the results. Although exit poll voters gave the edge on the economy to Romney, Obama still won. Women and minorities supported the president roundly, while white men, upper income voters, the religious right and other traditional conservative stalwarts supported Romney.
Of course, defeating an incumbent president is nearly impossible. But the fact that Republicans didn’t win in a landslide last Tuesday indicates the party of Lincoln has an elephant-sized case of head-in-the-sanditis.
Republican strategists will no doubt spend a lot more time analyzing this past election than I will. While I’m sure we’ll all hear tons about how GOP candidates need to do a better job getting their message out to Hispanics and middle-income moms, the problem isn’t the breadth of communication; it’s the communication itself.
I think Washington has a habit of underestimating the man (or woman) in the street. Voters get what the Republicans are saying. They just don’t like it.
That doesn’t mean they embrace the liberal agenda, either, as evidenced by the halfhearted endorsement of the Obama mandate. It just means that they found the reality of another Obama administration more tolerable than the idea of a Romney administration.
The long-held assumption that America is a center-right country is false. We’re center-center. We want compromise. And nobody, from the single mom waitress in Cuyahoga County to the hedge fund manager in New Canaan, wants to see the government waste taxpayer money.
Let’s not forget, the fact of the matter is George W. Bush spent money like a drunken sailor and left Obama with a big fat mess. It’s not as if the economy was plugging along nicely and Obama wrecked it. The ugly truth is the country has still not recovered from the Bush years. Voters recognized it. Republican leadership should, too.
But the common thread between all of the reasons voters chose Obama is the Republicans’ insistence on not accepting the reality of the shifting priorities of the American electorate.
When Romney shifted to the right on immigration that was a big mistake. Why? Although rounding up illegal immigrants and shipping them back home sounds great on paper, it is not a practical solution to our border problem. Developing a sensible amnesty program is and Hispanic voters noticed.
Maintaining a pro-life platform was an even bigger mistake and the right wing needs to accept America is never going to outlaw abortion. Women noticed and they're tired of it. Yes, I know no one even talked about overturning Roe v. Wade. If you don’t want an abortion, don’t get an abortion—but let others make their own choices. Voters believe that is the American way.
Romney also would have been better off taking credit for the truth of being the ideological father of Obamacare (and also for being pro-choice while leading Massachusetts). Standing up to the noisy far right, with whom northeastern and west coast voters do not identify, would have demonstrated courageous leadership. And though it would have made the GOP faithful red-faced in anger, it would have garnered the respect of voters.
Finally, how refreshing would it have been to hear Romney say, “I think we should keep the Bush tax cuts. But healing a divided nation and making real progress will only be achieved through bipartisan legislation. That’s why I cannot release specific details now.
“I need the American people to give me a chance to sit down with our Democratic friends and work out a compromise that every party can be proud of. It may include entitlement cuts and higher revenues. But we won’t know how great our nation could be unless you elect me to prove it.”
Alas, it was not to be.
If you make gender-selection abortion illegal, then government assistance will be denied and taxes will be reduced. This simple answer should not be interpreted to address anything else implied in your complicated question/assertion nor to agree to be included in whatever groups you feel those who answer your question/assertion belong.
Harper Collins Illustrated Medical Dictionary; Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, 5th edition; Langman's Medical Embryology, 7th edition and Patten's Foundations of Embryology, 6th edition. If you can accept an objective, science-based viewpoint on this question, perhaps we can go further if you like.
OK so far?
Fox News commentators no longer couch their hate and bigotry. O'Riely's "they want stuff" comment illustrates just the tip of the confusion that muddles the modern conservative mind. Quoting conservative columnist David Frum: "[The GOP has] been fleeced, exploited, and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex." But please keep it up. Keep saying "maker vs. taker" and "legitimate rape." Keep trying to regulate a woman's uterus. Keep denying equal rights to gay people. Keep marginalizing minority voters with phrases like "self-deportation" and "food stamp President." Keep feeding more bigotry to that every shrinking portion of the population that you are pandering to. See you in four years.
Can I get an Amen! Enough said!
I'm not sure how reliable your source is, given that you've only said it was done in 2004. But since 54% of rapes/sexual assaults go unreported (RAINN.org), I can use my common sense to say that your 1% statistic does not accurately reflect reality. The same applies to the incest statistic. Many girls may not yet have the emotional strength to tell people what happened to her.
Stephanie, J. Bauer has research to back up the viewpoint stated. I can’t guarantee that the link below is the same research source, but the numbers match up. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3711005.pdf The Guttmacher Institute is a pro-choice research organization and the paper is empirically-based which means they interviewed 1209 women at 11 US abortion facilities and facility staff asked them if they wanted to complete an anonymous survey as to why they were getting an abortion. Please read the paper and if some of the methodology fogs you, ask at American University for help. There’s no disgrace in asking for academic help at a university if the methodology is unfamiliar to you. After you read and understand the paper, you will be in a better position to criticize J. Bauer’s comments or to agree with them or to add new ones. You are entitled to your opinion, as is J. Bauer, but you will need to run your own controlled survey or find and quote other rigorous surveys if you want to introduce new facts. For a blog post, it is OK to use your common sense, but in research, you need facts. Good luck. Challenge yourself and everyone else the right way and your education will be much richer and useful.
You mention "But since 54% of rapes/sexual assaults go unreported " okay, so double the 1% and call it 2% +.5% = 2.5% for incest and rape. Thats a tiny proportion. As for your other comment, of course it is not a fun process, but as you said "sometimes you just have to do what you have to do"... by the way, what does that mean? In the context of how you used it, it seems to be that you are pointing out abortions are unpleasant, but well worth the effort given the outcome. You are practically illustrating the point that many people look at abortion as a convenience option all too often and certainly as a post-event contraception method - even if it is an unpleasant one. And, in reality, if this were not the case then the numbers I gave you would look far different than they do.
Lisa B.
In penance, I volunteer to be zapped by Editor Jaimie Cura with the hope that Hollywood2 is also zapped. As always, Ms. Bigelow, you show remarkable restraint and grace. May the rest of the day be good for you.
I do appreciate good hygiene, as I imagine our nation's professional entertainers do as well! and you have a good day, too! thanks for the good humor. Lisa B.
Lisa, you should try it!
CNSNews.com) - Louisiana's Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal gave his first post-election interview to the liberal-leaning Politico, and he had some unflattering things to say about his fellow Republicans. “Stop being the stupid party,” Politico quoted Jindal as saying during the 45-minute telephone interview. “It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand this year with offensive, bizarre comments — enough of that,” Jindal was quoted as saying. “It’s not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid within our party, but it can’t be tolerated within our party. "We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.” He said the GOP must not be the party of "big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything." "We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys.”
If I may take a moment to sound exeedingly philosophical and archaic, I must say that we still need a voice in our political system to remind the people what has made this country the greatest on earth, and that is the words of our founding fathers. They believed in natural law and the liberty of the individual. To understand these notions is to have a firm grasp of morality and an understanding that self reliance brings the greatest rewards and leads to a sense of human dignity.
Dr. Potenza/Stephanie Take a look at the Guttmacher Institute Study p 117 (link below) and note that “more than one-third of interview respondents said they had considered adoption and concluded that it was a morally unconscionable option because giving one's child away is wrong.” http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3711005.pdf Whether you are for or against abortion, the study will convince you that some of these women have all kinds of difficult choices in their lives and are in a different class entirely from those who would abort for gender selection (family balancing) or so they would look and feel good for a Paris vacation – quoted above. The plight of some of these poor women is truly sad. The choice of death for a child rather than adoption is stark and chilling, especially when the women feel it is a more moral choice. The choice of abortion for trivial reasons like gender selection, personal pleasure or trendy appearance is even sadder, evil and narcissistic. We need to do more to help these women in a better way than to dump their flesh and blood sons and daughters like biological trash. 100% pro-choice makes no sense.