I haven’t had the heart to read the various NY-9 post-mortems. It’s a heavily Catholic, heavily Jewish district so it’s a twofer. First a lot of discussion about how Democrats alienated Archie Bunker and Chris Matthews’ cranky uncle with too much love for teh gay and teh dick tweet and not enough for teh fetus (maybe we won’t hear this, it’s been said so many times that everyone “knows”). Then a discussion of how Jewish voters will flock to Rick Perry en masse unless Obama gives AIPAC immediate and complete control of all American foreign policy.
Throw in “malaise”, “panic”, and some other catchy words I’m forgetting, and you’ve got yourself an article.
Someone shoot me, I can’t take it.
Bulworth
The great, historic, teabag victory in this all important district means of course that Obama is toast and that all Democrats should repent of their evil sins, change their party affiliation to Republican, join their local teabag party group and get one of those gasden flags or whatever to fly. //
MariedeGournay
When I was a kid I though ‘malaise’ was sweet sandwich spread like fluffernutter or peanut butter. Mmmmmalaise.
danimal
It seems like a lot of people were making a statement with their votes, expecting that flipping the seat will result in a changed Obama Mideast policy. My advice to Obama is: Stay the Course; don’t give in to AIPAC extortion.
The Jewish vote will be there in 2012; do you really see an exodus (sorry) of Jewish voters to Rick Perry? Especially since Obama has been pretty conciliatory to Israel in all but rhetoric (and even that has been measured and respectful). This is a power play, but the dynamics of 2012 will be quite different.
sukabi
the surest way to sweet oblivion is to get yourself to a teaparty enclave and go into a coma… (make sure to leave your insurance card home, if you have one) they’ll be sure to watch you die in the street…and may just take you up on your request to “just shoot me”…
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
The thing is that the seat itself really isn’t that important. It’s the narrative that will be crafted with the win that will be infuriating and inevitably the killer. But then again, we expected this, didn’t we? If Weprin won, they already had the ‘ACOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORN!!!!’ excuse ready and would’ve been able to win the day by showing why we need to make sure those dirty swarthy brown folk can’t vote Democrat anymore.
But instead, I guess homophobia, islamophobia, and stupid Israel fetishism wins the day.
(And before anyone tries to pull that card, I have nothing against Israel in general. I just hate the fucking enablers that scrape and bow to crazy asses like Bibi and Avigdor Lieberman simply because they run Israel and anything Israeli must be a sacred cow. Bullshit is bullshit no matter what country it comes from or who spouts it. And it’s a sad state that I even have to make this kind of caveat to avoid the inevitable ‘ANTI-SEMITE!!!’ cries.)
eemom
Love Potion Number Nine
Eight Six Seven Five Three Oh Niiiiaaaaiiiinnne
eemom
at least you fuckers can’t blame THE GREEKS.
kindness
C’mon, give most Jewish Americans more credit than that. They know the Dominionists only like Israel because that is where armageddon will occur (wiping out all the Jews there who don’t convert to Xtianity) and thus bring the second coming of the Baby Jesus.
They aren’t going to vote for Perry. They will vote for Obama.
danimal
@eemom: Damned Greeks are ruining the European economy… ;)
mistermix
If only the Democrats could nominate politicians like Geraldine Ferraro, like they did in the old days, Obama would be doing much better in places like NY-9.
barath
Somehow everything going on today (special election, PA electoral college nonsense, jobs bill, GOP primary, Eurozone mess, etc.) was enough for me to take the step I hadn’t yet: I donated to the Obama campaign. It’s like the world is piling on the crap and going crazy at the same time, and I figured we need at least a few sane people around running the show.
Makewi
We are in your base sending a message to your Obamas
FlipYrWhig
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik: I can’t believe we have elections that turn on how a candidate wants to treat some other small, distant country. It’s like a Brazilian election turning on policy towards Laos.
AlphaLiberal
Nicely said!
We’ve been through this so many times in the last 30 years. Here is the pattern:
1) National Democrats run away from their values, cave in to Republicans and offer a “Republican Lite” agenda.
2) Voters decide, like any decent beer drinker anywhere, if it’s a choice between Republican and “Republican Lite” they’ll take the real thing.
3) The people who expect Dems to fight for them see Dems run away from them, instead, say “fuck it” and stay home.
4) National and DLC Dems blame progressives and demand the party move MORE to the right.
Best news of the day: Elizabeth Warren! Give us the hope!
Steve M.
I blame this asshole, who’s been that kind of asshole for a long time
Davis X. Machina
@eemom: You can’t have teh ghey without THE GREEKS. And this election was all about teh ghey, I’m sure. I don’t know exactly how, but I’ll figure it out.
Fixed on edit. Spelled ‘teh’ and ‘ghey’
wrongrightwrong.The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@FlipYrWhig:
What’s worse is how the election turned on LYING about how a candidate wants to treat some other small distant country. Obama’s hardly gone full PLO or anything, but judging by voter reaction that got covered, you’d think Obama was sending Hamas rockets and guns out of his own damn pocket.
Again, it’s not foreign policy. It’s Israel fetishism.
Maude
@Makewi:
Could you try that in English, please?
Rhoda
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik: I think all that narrative stuff is bullshit. Low information voters don’t know shit about NY-9; they’ll just hear something about the Jews are pissed off with Obama over Israel and it won’t be a thing for them because the gays were pissed off before and there was small boomlet of the MSM looking for blacks pissed off at Obama.
The key to me is that the President is holding his own before the campaign starts and the Republicans are in a real primary fight; and all those debates are letting low information voters hear about how Republicans don’t believe in social security, the party faithful laughing over people dying without insurance or laughing over executions, and Paul Ryan’s vouchercare is hanging out there.
The big deal right now is passing the whole jobs bill; that would likely shave a point off of unemployment and that would hopefully pave a path for the President’s re-elect. And the failure of anything to happen on the jobs bill gives President Obama a chance to pivot and hang the economy on the Republicans.
We’ll see how it shakes out. But I’m encouraged by the national numbers personally; POTUS is doing better than I’d have thought. ETA: I just saw the Field poll, lol. FUCK.
Steve
@mistermix: Someone needs to spell out this comment for me, as I am snark-impaired today.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@Rhoda:
Narrative Bullshit really IS Bullshit, but it seems like it works precisely BECAUSE it’s Bullshit. They don’t have to know the specifics (hell, it’s better if they don’t), just as long as they hear something that, at a gut level, confirms their believes that Obama is Super Satan and has to go, or else AMERICA DIES A HORRIBLE MARXIKENYAN DEATH!!!
I mean, fuck all. I have more than enough complaints about fucking Obama, but it pisses me off to see him and the rest of the Democratic party teetering not for actual sins but flat out invented bullshit that just makes the more spineless of our Dems help pull the whole fucking discourse further rightward, because of that fucking almighty ‘narrative’. And they still get hippie punched by the ‘Real Americans’ because they’re not GOP.
fasteddie9318
Is Ed related to Charles and David, or is it just that one Koch is pretty much the same as the next?
fuckwit
@danimal: Greeks don’t want no freaks.
Makewi
This seat was formerly held by Geraldine Ferraro and Chuck Schumer. Ouch.
agorabum
@Maude: Someone set us up the Weiner bomb.
Does that help?
(also, “For great justice!”)
eemom
@Davis X. Machina:
I’m pretty sure ABL was involved. Also.
Big Baby DougJ
@kindness:
I read so much crazy stuff on Slate about how Jewish voters will start voting Republican over Israel. I think it’s all 100% bullshit.
Big Baby DougJ
@kindness:
Of course! I was being sarcastic.
Culture of Truth
“Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again….”
Comrade Dread
How these myths still exist that Obama has, in any possible way, changed how the United States relates to Israel or US foreign policy with regards to Israel is baffling.
I’m convinced that facts no longer matter. All that matters is the Party.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Steve: When Ferraro ran for Congress, the “Ground Zero Mosque” dogwhistle was spelled “b-u-s-s-i-n-g”
Bulworth
@Steve M.: Good grief is Kock still alive?
eemom
wrt to the Jewish voters, do I have it right that the loser dude is actually Orthodox and staunchly pro Israel — ferfucksake there is not and never has been ANY NY politician who was not staunchly pro-Israel — and the liars were able to smear him to the Orthodox because (1) he’s friends with Obama, and (2) they’ve allowed themselves to be convinced that Obama is the mooselim anti-Messiah, and (3) he didn’t DENOUNCE the fucking Ground Zero mosque?
Is that really how this went down?
Cuz that’s some fucked up shit.
Davis X. Machina
@Comrade Dread: Slack must be cut — being the Vanguard of the Revolution is pretty hard damn work. I don’t see you climbing any tables at the Smolny Institute.
All power to the soviets of preachers and hedge-fund managers!
Steve
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Where I come from they spell busing with one s. Anyway, I don’t think busing was a dogwhistle, unless I completely misunderstand what dogwhistles are.
lawguy
Might I suggest that the problem for the democrats didn’t occur in that district within the last couple of months.
The problem happened when the leadership decided that Weiner had to go and pushed him out. One is forced to believe that the democratic leadership resembles nothing so much as either the 1919 Chicago Black Sox or a short bus full of particularly slow students on their way to the special workshop.
I would point out that the republican leadership acted somewhat differently with Diaper Dave Vitter, and went so far as to give him a standing ovation. Vitter is still a proud republican senator.
FlipYrWhig
@Makewi:
“Our economy needs help. Let’s vote for a guy who promises to hurt it more, because it’ll Send A Message!” Enjoy eating symbolism, you stupid fuckers. This is the kind of thing that challenges my tendencies towards empathy.
dpCap
Wasn’t there something from the Romney camp about how they we having trouble getting contributions from wealthy Jews because those contributors wanted to support “the Jewish Candidate”… meaning Bachmann?
ruemara
There’s so much stupid over these elections that if it were rocket fuel, this planet could just fly throughout space.
Makewi
@FlipYrWhig:
You make the leap that slashing federal spending would hurt the economy. This is a hard sell for some, but apparently Gospel around these parts.
Mino
@lawguy: One is forced to believe that the democratic leadership resembles nothing so much as either the 1919 Chicago Black Sox or a short bus full of particularly slow students on their way to the special workshop.
Quality snark there.
Menzies
@agorabum:
Gonna hate me, but wrong meme. “I’m in ur base killing ur d00dz” is WarCraft III, IIRC. You’re thinking of “All your base are belong to us.”
As far as the election: what I still want to know is who the hell thought David Weprin was a good candidate. Not that he couldn’t have been sold with an excellent media team, but it would’ve been turd-polishing rather than shine-buffing, if you catch my drift.
FlipYrWhig
@Makewi:
I’m positive of that, as are virtually all economists. But the interesting part, such as it is, is that these voters being quoted _appear to actually agree_. Why else would they be concerned about Turner’s pledges to slash spending?
lacp
The wingnut theme that Obama is “anti-Israel” is baffling. Apparently he could only be considered “pro-Israel” if he visited GiantScreamingHeatDeath on Tehran and the Gaza Strip.
Berial
That is the one Beatles song I CANNOT stand. They must have made it just to piss people off.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
DougJ, you better not be watching Martin Bashir on LIberalMSNBC. He’s hit every buzzword: “panic”, “dramatic upset”, “unthinkable”, “Wiener”
Anya
Who the fuck cares about alienating Archie Bunker? His demographic are going to die or be senile and unable to vote. We will live with their distructive force for 10 years or less.
Big Baby DougJ
@dpCap:
There’s a very strange thing where it’s acceptable — even encouraged — to make all kinds of whacky generalizations about Jewish voters based on one or two anecdotes. I guess the media does it with all groups — blacks are mad at Obama because Cornell West says so, women are mad at Obama because Cokie Roberts says so — but the stuff they say about Jewish voters, in complete defiance of all statistical data, is especially stupid.
Morzer
@eemom:
Give us time, cherie, give us time. After all, if they hadn’t snuck that damned horse filled with right-wing crazies into NY-9, we’d not be having this discussion.
Svensker
@Steve M.:
Grrrr.
That is all.
Morzer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
An unthinkable weiner isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Ron Burgundy didn’t turn out so bad.
PurpleGirl
@mistermix: Her 9th CD was a different district. Much more working class, German, Italian, Irish, with the Greeks just moving in. That’s the section of the borough where I grew up. Delaney was congresscritter before Gerri Ferraro. District lines in Queens were redrawn in 1993. The old 9th was in Northwestern Queens, a large portion of which now is in Carolyn Maloney’s district.
FlipYrWhig
@lacp: I am SO TIRED of Israel’s position in American politics. And one half of my family is (totally non-observant) Jewish. Can we give it a rest, and try arguing for the next 70 years about which candidate has it in for the Basques or Kurds, or something? PLEASE make it stop.
R Johnston
@Menzies:
Absolutely no one thought that. Weprin is of at best average intelligence and is the least charismatic person I’ve ever seen run for office. The worst night of my life was a night I had to listen to him give a speech. His only political asset is his name–his father was Speaker of the State Assembly, one of the most powerful men in Albany and extremely popular in Queens, and his brother Mark is a perfectly competent politician in his own rights–and in NY-9 that was only an asset in some of the Queens portions of the district.
What they thought was that the election wouldn’t be meaningfully contested, Weprin would win, and his brother would take back his Assembly seat–Dave is only in the Assembly because a Weprin who wants a legislative seat must have one and Dave got term limited off the City Council, so he and Mark swapped seats even though Mark was the much better choice for Assembly. They also knew that the seat was going to be redistricted away and needed a warm body with no political future who wouldn’t try to primary some other sitting Democrat to run for it.
Menzies
@Berial:
That’s exactly why they made it, if I recall correctly. I may be the only person on this Earth who finds it legitimately fun to listen to that song.
FlipYrWhig
@Anya:
Especially when all those death panels come online. Death panels administered by angry Muslims, from what I hear. That’s the secret provision in ObamaCare that he doesn’t want you to know!
Mino
@Big Baby DougJ: The media have to work very hard at being especially stupid. Routine stupid is routine.
Morzer
@FlipYrWhig:
On the other hand, one Basquet case is as bad as another, in political terms.
Davis X. Machina
@Anya: The bad news: More old people are made every day, by a process over which we have little control. The good news — so long as there’s no awful Negro in the White House, they don’t actually vote all that differently than the country as a whole.
jl
More information on reactionary double think, or whatever it is:
TPM2012
The Poll Paradox For Perry: Obama A ‘Socialist’ But Ending Social Programs Would Be Terrible
” 71 percent of Republicans in the poll agree that President Obama is a socialist. But 75 percent of them don’t think that the government should end Social Security. 78 percent think that ending Medicare would be a bad idea. And 61 percent say the same about Medicaid (health care for the poor). ”
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/ppp-republican-poll-obama-a-socialist-but-ending-social-security-medicare-medicaid-would-be-horrible.php?ref=fpa
Culture of Truth
The short bus riding Democratic leadership thought they had a really good candidate – Anthony Weiner.
jl
Reposting the comment because of naughty words. Link removed because it contains naughty words.
More information on reactionary double think, or whatever it is:
TPM2012
The Poll Paradox For Perry: Obama A ‘S * s h * l * s t’ But Ending Social Programs Would Be Terrible
” 71 percent of Republicans in the poll agree that President Obama is a s * s h * l * s t. But 75 percent of them don’t think that the government should end Social Security. 78 percent think that ending Medicare would be a bad idea. And 61 percent say the same about Medicaid (health care for the poor). “
Berial
@Menzies
I think they (Beatles) were trying to finish off a contract obligation. If it is playing in the background in my home for some reason even if I am paying NO ATTENTION to it, it will eventually annoy my subconscious enough to make me actively search out the source to make it stop.
AliceBlue
@FlipYrWhig:
Exactly. Stupid fucking idiots. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to shove a brick through a window and run screaming into the street.
fasteddie9318
I’m thinking I need to check out for a couple of decades, let the Great Pig-Ignorant Old White People Die-Off happen, and then maybe get back into politics again, assuming I’m not too busy trying to fend off roving gangs of cannibals in the post-apocalyptic hellscape. I assume Tom Friedman will still be around, writing about how he keeps trying to explain to his cab drivers that the global economy demands that Friedman eat the cabbie rather than vice versa.
david mizner
This was not your standard “Jewish” district. This was a district with a lot of orthodox Jews who’re flatout fanatical on Israel and who don’t like Muslims (or that “Ground Zero mosque” idea) or don’t like that President Obama took the same position as did Bibi NetanYahoo (the 67 borders.) So naturally they voted for the fanatically pro-Israeli Catholic over the very pro-Israel Jew. Idiots.
PurpleGirl
@dpCap: Which is funny because M. Bachmann was raised in the Wisconsin Lutheran synod (very conservative) and now apparently attends a more non-denominational fundy church. And Bachmann is a GERMAN name, not Jewish. (Most “Jewish” names are really German because that’s the area of Europe the people came from.)
debit
@Menzies: It scared the hell out of me when I was listening to the album while babysitting in a very old, creepy house. It was late, the kids were in bed, I was only 12 and so freaked out I called my big brother and made come him stay with me.
ETA: and that was the last time I listened to it.
Poopyman
Nor have I. Just dipping a toe in the very liberal WaPo:
“In sharp rebuke of Obama, voters hand New York House seat to Republicans”. Niiiice.
“NY-9: Oh yes, Obama has a Jewish problem” It’s Jennifer Rubin, so what else do you expect?
My strategy is to avoid the news
until the next mass killing or whatever.Yeah. Just avoid the “news”.
jl
Ms. Wiki says that Lennon was trying to introduce the fans to a little Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage action. Doesn’t look like it worked. Has some excerpts from Lennon interviews on what he was trying to do, so might be accurate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_9
Berial
@jl
For me, it will always be “that awful song the Beatles made to annoy the holy hell outta people”.
eemom
@FlipYrWhig:
I stil think the supposed dominance of that “position” is ridiculously exaggerated –particularly insofar as it is attributed to the influence of American Jews.
In this particular instance, we’re talking about New York CITY — which has the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Tel Aviv. Jews comprise less than 2% of the U.S. population at large.
To the extent Israel is said to “dominate” US foreign policy, it’s got nothing to do with Judaism, and everything to do with neocon political dogma.
And about that supposed “dominance” — why has there been barely a whisper in any U.S. news medium, OR from any US government official, about the Egyptian assault on the Israeli embassy and the Turkish saber-rattling over the last few weeks? Why isn’t AIPAC forcing its puppets in the US Congress, WH and everywhere else to at least SAY something about all of that, if not to obliterate both countries?
Culture of Truth
I wonder how many Knesset seats are determined by whether the candidate is sufficiently pro-Bensonhurst.
PurpleGirl
I double-checked when the 9th CD changed and when Schumer had it. He was elected to the House from the 9th in 1980. So the district lines were redrawn even further back than I remembered.
eemom
@david mizner:
Good Lord, I do believe that’s the first comment of yours on this blog that has ever made sense. What are you smoking today?
Poopyman
@eemom:
Fixicated. Granted, there’s neocon politcal dogma there, it’s just heavily lubricated with cash.
eemom
@Culture of Truth:
I lol’ed.
sukabi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: let me see if I can put that into a more comprehensible paragraph than Bashir probably used:
In 1987, a young Sarah was so enthralled with Wiener that she did what she’d now consider unthinkable. In a panic, her marketers have declared that Sarah has been the victim of a smear campaign perpetrated by the Black Panthers and Liberals. This dramatic upset and the ensuing whine from the north will be used to generate funding for her lifestyle for the next 6 months.
edited to add in ‘dramatic upset’…
wrb
@dpCap:
It is true.
She works it. Tells Jewish groups stories from the summer she spent on a Negev Kibbutz
Michele Bachman, Jewish by Heritage
Mino
@eemom: Nothing about the Palestinians going before the General rather than the Security Council to request statehood, either.
That bucket of worms will be a big old surprise to Americans thanks to our press.
cleek
@jl:
that’s probably over-generous.
to me, it’s simply the result of two people having fun with technology.
my college friends and i made hours and hours and hours of similar stuff before we’d ever listened to Rev #9. when we did finally get around to listening, we were like “oh, ok, so we weren’t the first people to have fun with samples and random noises. but, hmmm…. it’s not as much fun to listen to, if you didn’t make it yourself.”
jl
@cleek: I agree. It’s kind of like home made beer.
Berial
@jl
Mmmmm…home made beer!
Now THERE’S a topic worth discussing!
cleek
@jl:
heh. nice. :)
Suffern ACE
@Mino: I agree on that. My assumption is that the U.S. will block the recognition by the UN. Domestically, I’m sure the administration won’t have blocked loudly enough.
FlipYrWhig
@eemom: I know. Actual Israelis have much wider diversity of opinion about Israel and the Palestinians than is represented in the US media — and that’s not even mentioning the huge diversity of opinion among _Jews_. But it really is a peculiar thing to play an important role in an American election. Nobody does post-mortems on elections in districts dominated by Greeks about how they were probably sending a message about Macedonia. To the degree that “pro” vs. “anti-Israel” as a campaign issue is a media creation, it’s dumb, and to the degree that it’s a real set of fiercely held opinions, it’s also dumb.
srv
@eemom:
Well, let’s follow your tinfoil conspiracy of keeping the US general populace ignorant about those events…
You think Americans being blasted about how mad one group is at another reflects badly on the former? How’d that strategy work out for the last flotilla?
Please take your joos-control-the-media conspiracies elsewhere.
FlipYrWhig
@Suffern ACE: FYI, the newest Juan Cole post is about that.
FlipYrWhig
@srv: Um, I thought eemom’s point was that _if_ there were a Jews-control-the-media (or Jews-control-foreign-policy) conspiracy, it would have been blinking red with coverage of events in Egypt and Turkey that threaten Israel. But since that coverage is absent, the centrality of Israel issues to American politics is less than reputed. I’m not sure I agree with eemom’s view, but I’m pretty sure it was the opposite of what you’re suggesting.
Menzies
@R Johnston:
That last sentence may be the key to the whole mess. I just don’t know how they expected it wouldn’t be seriously contested. Had great ingredients for a Republican pickup: what mistermix mentioned earlier about seats flipping, the cock shots providing the necessary luridity to get things moving, and a demog profile that the GOP could use to their advantage.
Menzies
@debit:
It once came on my iTunes while I was working on the campus paper with the rest of the staff. My editor-in-chief made me leave it on as it got progressively scarier and scarier to mess with us.
This was at two in the morning, just by the by.
Social outcast
@FlipYrWhig: There’s no big flareup over those events because nothing that Egypt or Turkey is doing will alter the situation in Israel. The only player in the region with any real influence over the Israeli government is the US government. It’s just not that newsworthy when muslims bitch about Israel.
srv
@FlipYrWhig: Whoosh.
Obviously, if the MSM and Obama were out there ranting about another flotilla going to Gaza… That attention would be bad for… the Palestinians?
Logic fail.
Dennis SGMM
Am I the only one who thinks that the DCCC has become a useless, money grubbing, incompetent, clueless, drag on Democrats? Someone, somewhere in the party hierarchy should have slapped Coakley into running an actual campaign against Brown. Like wise, someone should have shaken NY’s machine politicians so hard that a viable candidate might have fallen out of their greasy pockets.
The idea that politicians need seasoning has become perverse. Some people are naturals at politics just as some people are naturals at baseball, or surfing, or water colors, or even management. A mediocre politician is going to be a mediocre politician. It doesn’t matter if it’s their turn.
Losing these special elections are unforced errors. I encourage anyone who can tell me different to please correct my mistake.
Jay C
Also: look at the breakdown of the vote: Weprin actually won in the Queens precincts of the district, but got creamed (by a 2-1 margin!) in Brooklyn. This, to me, reeks of bloc voting (and a fairly tight bloc at that!); probably the Orthodox flexing some local political muscle.
R Johnston
@Menzies:
The desire for a warm body who reliably wouldn’t run in a primary was very real, and that meant either a going-nowhere party hack or an elder statesman. I’m having trouble thinking of a qualified elder statesman to have run. The ones I’m thinking of all are in their mid-80s (Clair Schulman, Howard Golden).
Of course the Democrats should have taken the special election into account before joining the wingnut bandwagon and forcing Weiner out of office for a relatively minor offense. They should have just let him stay on and then redistricted him out of a seat since his seat was always the logical one to lose anyway. No way was Weiner going to primary a popular Democrat from an adjacent district after his “scandal” hit.
Some Republican whining over a fake scandal that continued for an extra couple of weeks would have been by far politically preferable to all the handwringing and dealing with spin over losing the special election.
eemom
@FlipYrWhig:
yes, that WAS my point. Thank you.
@srv:
You’re an idiot. And if you’re accusing ME of anti-Semitism on THIS blog, you also are likely illiterate.
ETA: Anyway, fuck you for even DARING to accuse me of that. Stupid asshole.
eemom
@FlipYrWhig:
of course. I have an old college friend who lives in Jerusalem who is left of Noam Chomsky when it comes to Israel.
JCT
This was a bit of a perfect storm — weird district with a huge Orthodox component (I’ll bet tons of those folks didn’t vote for Obama in 2008 either) on the Brooklyn side and an utterly terrible candidate. Plus people are cranky. It’s not like it was a 20-pt blowout. And Ed Koch is a schmuck.
Turning this into some sort of “Oh noes, Obama’s lost the Jews” is nuts. First of all, really, this has been pointed out repeatedly, there is no such thing as this monolithic Jewish voting bloc. And as far as Israel goes, trust me, one of the best ways to wreak havoc at a Jewish Holiday dinner is to profess love for Bibi and what he is doing. Same goes for my Israeli friends.
Obama is a mensch and most of us know it.
sukabi
@Dennis SGMM: Dennis, a large part of the problem with the elections is that the people (you and me) have conceded the running of the elections as something belonging ENTIRELY TO THE PARTIES… which is why things are as they are… we need to take back our elections and the electoral process from the parties if we expect to ever get a worthwhile candidate and have anything resembling a democracy. “Of the people, by the people and for the people” wasn’t just a throw away phrase, and our parties have taken that phrase, which was supposed to be one of the cornerstones of our democracy and turned it into a joke.
Culture of Truth
Gives new meaning to the term holier than thou
Culture of Truth
I don’t want to be the voice of doom and gloom, but it looks increasingly unlikely that Dave Weprin can be elected President of the United States
FlipYrWhig
@srv:
What are you going on about now? From the way I remember the coverage of the Gaza flotilla, there _was_ a substantial amount of pro-Israeli spin applied.
Anya
@Davis X. Machina: I am talking about McCain’s demographic. The Gen xers and millennials grew up in an integrated world so they cannot be easily scared off by racist dog whistles and ads depicting scary Mexicans and scary blacks.
Morzer
@Culture of Truth:
Ass-holier than thou, at any rate.
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: I was in a fraternity, what of it?
The Raven
Anyone know if these are these mainstream Orthodox or Chassidim, in that Brooklyn district? They’re very different groups.
priscianus jr
Frankly, it don’ mean jack shit. And you can quote me on that.
priscianus jr
@The Raven:
R Johnston
@JCT:
What I’ve read is that even though Democrats have a 3-to-1 registration advantage in the district, Obama took the district by only 11 points, just 4 points better than he did nationally.
The Raven
@priscianus jr: “Mostly Chassidim in Boro Park, modern orthodox and black hat in Midwood and some other areas.”
Interesting. Thanks.
Both groups are very conservative. So…did they turn out for the Republican or just stay home? So far I can’t find any polling or articles to the point.