The so-called mainstream media will never learn. Once again, they focused on the coming (and illusory) Red Wave to the exclusion, or at least diminution, of covering the ongoing attacks on democracy, which was clearly the story of the election lead-up. No doubt they will do some post-election ‘soul-searching’, then return to doing exactly the same thing two years hence. BTW, starting to wonder whether polling is a lost art when so few people respond and/or are even reachable. Dana Milbank nails it:
So what happened? Political journalists were suckered by a wave of Republican junk polls in the closing weeks of the campaign. They were also swayed by some reputable polling organizations that, burned by past failures to capture MAGA voters, overweighted their polls to account for that in ways that simply didn’t make sense. And reporters fell for Republican feints and misdirection, as Republican operatives successfully created an artificial sense of momentum by talking about how they were spending money in reliably blue areas.
The news media took the faulty assumption that Republicans would enjoy a red wave and plugged in explanations for the imagined outcome. Democrats blew it because they spoke too much about abortion and democracy, and too little about the economy and crime. (In fact, crime and the economy figured prominently in many Democratic campaigns.)
Of course, they shouldn’t have been focusing on polls nearly as much.
How Rethugs Defeated Themselves. We have to have at least one post-election think piece on what happened. Actually, one will suffice:
But Scott’s hopes of a united GOP response were dashed as soon as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stood to address the same room: Send 20 percent of the money from their leadership PACs, he told the senators, to the Senate Leadership Fund, an outside group controlled by his own loyalists, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Gotta love infighting like that.
From the outside, this year’s elections looked like a virtual Republican lock. Since Lyndon B. Johnson, new Democratic presidents have lost an average of 45 House and five Senate seats in the midterms. Republicans went to the polls Tuesday needing to gain just five House seats and a single Senate seat to take control, amid soaring inflation and broad dissatisfaction with the nation’s direction.
But behind the scenes, nothing came easy to Republicans this cycle, as their historic tail winds collided with the fractious reality of a political party in the midst of a generational molting. GOP leaders spent much of the last year fighting against each other or plotting against their own primary voters. They were hobbled by unprepared first-time candidates, fundraising shortfalls and Trump, whose self-concern required constant attention — right up to the eve of the election, when he forced party bosses to beg him once again to delay a presidential campaign announcement.
Admit it–you want to read this entire delicious post-mortem. It’s comprehensive.
Murdochs Abandon Trump-Go All In On DeSantis:
I’ll close with this observation from an elected official following the Democratic Party’s Tuesday celebration: LBR’s speech made it pretty apparent that she’s looking at running for something other than reelection for Congress in 2024. The possibility of her running for Governor hasn’t yet made it into the lamestream press:
With the midterms now over, all eyes in Delaware turn to the governor’s race, which will likely be the most competitive and highest-profile election in 2024. Carney is limited to two terms in office and cannot run again.
While no one has officially declared their candidacy, the Democratic primary could be crowded. There’s been longtime speculation among Delaware politicos that Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long and New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer could be possible candidates.
In a recent University of Delaware poll, Hall-Long had an approval rating of 65%, the highest favorable opinion when compared with Carney (61%) and U.S. Sens. Tom Carper (61%) and Chris Coons (55%).
We’re not lamestream.
What do you want to talk about?