The Left Coaster: Comment on Democrats Now Have 13-Point Edge For 2006

Comments: Democrats Now Have 13-Point Edge For 2006

And that edge will grow soon. The sadly ironic moment of The Bush White House being indicted for lying us into the Iraq War and the 2000th GI death in said war will, and should, hit hard at the 52% who returned this miserable failure to office only one year ago.

Posted by T2 at October 21, 2005 12:40 PM

Looks like the administration is setting the stage for intervention in Syria.

Think they'll be accused of 'wagging the dog'?

Posted by snark at October 21, 2005 12:48 PM

Gee it's too bad (for you) that we don't elect people to congress via polls. What about all that exit polling data that had Kerry taking SC by a wide margin. Oh that's right, Diebold and Haliburton stole the election for Bush.

Posted by Cyber Sarge at October 21, 2005 12:56 PM

What about all that exit polling data that had Kerry taking SC by a wide margin.Oh that's right, Diebold... stole the election for Bush

sarge,

As one who not only lives in South Carolina but worked in last years election, I can say that you don't know what your talking about. The first exit polls from here had insufficent data to make a call, just the opposite of calling a state for anybody. Also, we didn't use Diebold machines, so they couldn't have stolen anything.

Posted by rlp at October 21, 2005 01:07 PM

A year is a long time in politics, plenty of time to build a wedge issue. Expect the economy to be lousy and expect the GOP to blame the immigrants. Xenophobia worked (very temporarily) for the GOP in California, and I don't think they have many other options to keep America polarized.

Posted by CA Pol Junkie at October 21, 2005 01:15 PM

r.e.Syria...yeah, Bush and Rice are screaming about Syria's alleged involvement with political assassination....funny, when the GOP's Pat Robertson suggested assassinating Venezuela's president Chavez they didn't say a thing. Oh, right. They are Republicans so hypocracy is part of their party platform.

Posted by T2 at October 21, 2005 01:15 PM

Don't bother us
over here with your
useless attempt at humorous
commentary Sarge. I
hear
everything isn't going so well in the

bizarro world you inhabit. Everything
around these parts is just
great without your half-witted drivel.

Posted by snark at October 21, 2005 01:15 PM

rlp - oh, snap! Best takedown I've seen today!

Posted by iamcoyote at October 21, 2005 01:19 PM

I haven't seen this much excitement about predictions, since the "obvious" pre-season pick of the Minnesota Vikings to win the Super Bowl! The only thing standing in the way of the "sure thing" Vikings is that they actually have to play and win the football games.

Posted by muckdog at October 21, 2005 01:23 PM

Bear in mind that this 13% generic advantage is before TreasonGate hits the fan -- I'll bet something like 40-50% of the 'Murkan people don't even know who Patrick Fitzgerald, Valerie Flame, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby are.

When the truth about TreasonGate and the WHIG lies that led us into war come out, Dubya will be swimming with Davey Jones -- and begging Tricky Dick to throw him a lifeline from Hell.

Posted by ck at October 21, 2005 01:23 PM

Just wait for the savagery of the boosted heating costs to hit home over the next four months. Those states which rely on natural gas for heating purposes (primarily the Midwest) will see their home heating costs tearing at the electorate's household budgets this winter. By spring not many Dubya supporters will probably still exist in those Midwest and Plains states who supported the Republicans in 2004. Since the Republican Congressional delegation in dominated by members from the oil and gas producing states who have crafted disastrous energy legislation and the executive branch is shot through with two barrels by guys who came out of the oil patch, the Republicans can't unshackle themselves from their mistakes quickly enough to save themselves. What are the Republicans going to claim -- that the Democrats in Congress held a gun to their heads and forced them to pass the energy legislation that oozed through the process? With the media now suddenly "discovering" that Dubya and the posse have lied to them disingenuously and repeatedly, the administration likely won't get the the cushy treatment they've become accustomed to from the White House press corps. Before long we'll see Cheney refusing to be interviewed by big, bad Katie Couric for fear she might eviscerate him.

Posted by PrahaPartian at October 21, 2005 01:25 PM

Don't worry Steve, the Democrats have a whole year to blow it and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - just like they did in the last three elections.

The potential is there, but they're so beatean and timid I fear they won't take advantage of it. Their silence is deafening.

Sorry for being so pessimistic - but after the last 5 years I have a hard time envisioning the Democrats (in Congress at least) actually getting their shit together and taking back a majority, even without gerrymandering in their way.

Posted by NJ Brian at October 21, 2005 01:28 PM

Brian,

Democratic patheticism notwithstanding, I think the Dems are right to stand silent in the face of these legal problems the GOP is foisting upon itself. No need to give the slime an opening to divert attention to political attacks when the law is having its way with them.

However, next year, as the elections near, the tiger shall pounce as the prey lowers its guard.

Posted by thunderhawk at October 21, 2005 01:34 PM

Steve Clemons has a new post up re: Brent Snowcroft dissing of this Bush administration coming out soon in the New Yorker magazine...
fireworks, champagne and Fitzmas...what else can one ask for?

Posted by John B. at October 21, 2005 01:36 PM

Hey Sarge,

FYI the GAO issued a report on voting machines today.. ya just might want to check it out:

Some electronic voting systems did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, thus making it possible to alter them without detection.

It is easy to alter a file defining how a ballot appears, making it possible for someone to vote for one candidate and actually be recorded as voting for an entirely different candidate.

Falsifying election results without leaving any evidence of such an action by using altered memory cards.

Access to the voting network was easily compromised because not all digital recording electronic voting systems (DREs) had supervisory functions password-protected, so access to one machine provided access to the whole network.

Supervisory across to the voting network was also compromised by repeated use of the same user IDs combined with easily guessed passwords.

The locks protecting access to the system were easily picked and keys were simple to copy.

One DRE model was shown to have been networked in such a rudimentary fashion that a power failure on one machine would cause the entire network to fail.

GAO identified further problems with the security protocols and background screening practices for vendor personnel.

Color me funny, but you are asking me to trust a private company with a financial interest in having one party win an election? Especially, since it would be extremely easy to make a safe, secure and accountable electronic voting system, which Diebold has resisted doing at every turn.

You tout how important it is to forcefully spread democracy around the world, yet are just happy as a clam at high tide to undermine it at home.

Sorry for stating the obvious.

BTW, don't forget to leave your email before next week *8^)

Posted by Simp at October 21, 2005 02:19 PM

Congress NOW!
Impeachment TOMORROW!

Kinda like how Frank Costanza says it.

Posted by idiosynchronic at October 21, 2005 02:40 PM

Did anyone actually go to the link and READ the poll questions? There was one that asked whether you wanted to see you elected offical re-elected next year. Yes 41%, No- 38%. Since the GOP controls both houses, I could just a easily point to this poll and say the Dem's were in major trouble.

It's just silly to point to any of these polls and deduce anything about the 2006 elections:

1 - It's still a year away. And you can't draw a straight line from today to next November.

2 - Of all the seats up in the House, only 20-25 are competitive. The Dem's would have to win almost all of them to regain the majority. I'll admit the Senate is a bit more problematic for the Republicans. I wouldn't be surprised to lose a seat or 2 but a majority switch is just not likely.

3 - The Dem's will have to have a plan. Just blaming the GOP for everything won't work. And I'm not going to hold my breath on that.

4 - I know your giddy about nailing Rove. But it's obvious to anyone looking at this objectively that if he is indicted it won't be for the initial crime of revealing Plame's name. It will be for cover-up. If this happens, I can guarantee you it will fire up the Republican base with anger that will carry thru to next year's election. It may be a case of being sorry what you asked for.

Posted by Th Real Truth at October 21, 2005 03:13 PM

Cyber Sarge, about those Diebold voting machine problems, you may want to check this out:

GAO Confirms Flaws in Voting Machines

Put that in your Kool Aid and drink it.

Posted by ann at October 21, 2005 03:14 PM

like sarge cares about democracy. please.

Posted by at October 21, 2005 03:19 PM

Actually, there are more that 20-25 House seats in play.

Posted by Steve Soto at October 21, 2005 03:51 PM

Simp, you're right. It's all fixed. You might as well just stay home on election day and drink beer. But you forgot a few bullets. One of these just might be THE TRUTH!

* Nobody has ruled out that Rove has a time machine, and was able to stop time in order to alter ballets.

* Lights seen in the evening sky indicate possible alien influence in election results.

* Nobody checked under the polling places to determine whether or not the Bush Administration had built a series of complex, networked tunnels, and were replacing the voting machines with altered machines after the polling locations closed.

* Transportors. Like in Star Trek. Yes, it is real. C'mon, you kind of knew all along, didn't you?

Posted by muckdog at October 21, 2005 05:00 PM

Nobody has ruled out that Rove has a time machine, and was able to stop time in order to alter ballets.

I didn't know Karl was fond of the Dance. Didn't know he was connected with the Log Cabin guys at all. Hmm. Gannon's myriad visits to the WH make more sense now, huh?

Posted by iamcoyote at October 21, 2005 07:36 PM

The GAO Voting report is an Interesting report... to summarize - there were possible technical issues possibly at some locations but no details are provided. In the review that is included are two interesting quotes:
The first set regards sources:
Although the bibliography in Appendix V of the report lists numerous studies on the
security and reliability of electronic voting, few if any, of these studies are cited or
footnoted within the body of the report. The report generally refers to “security experts
and others” without providing any specific reference to the individual sources or the
reports on which the statements that follow such generalities are based. Including
specific citations where appropriate would lend much needed support to various broad
statements and generalizations made throughout the report regarding the lack of security
and reliability of electronic voting systems.

...and...

"The EAC is concerned about instances of electronic voting system failures highlighted in
the report that do not appear to have been thoroughly researched and analyzed."

secondly the report contains technical errors: "TECHNICAL COMMENTS
At our meeting on September 7, 2005, EAC identified a number of technical corrections
related to specific facts or statements made in the report. In addition to the items
enumerated in writing, our discussions produced several other technical errors that
needed correction. For your convenience, an updated list of technical comments has been
attached to this letter as Appendix “1”. - but Appendix I is not included with the report...

Kinda sad that a GAO report is founded on little more then rumors and inuendo and contains no actual details of issues that actually can be shown to have occured.

Posted by OutsideTheEchoChamber at October 21, 2005 10:34 PM