Day: November 7, 2012

Update--Thanks to John Young, we now have the embedded video! I can't embed the video, but please go watch it over at Gawker. It will become an instant viral classic. It contains very NSFW language, so be forewarned. And it is long, but you need to listen to the whole thing. It is a master piece. It was posted by a conservative activist named Shelly Dankert who is ranting and raving at her fellow conservative and libertarians who did not vote for or support Mitt Romney due to their ideological purity, and at other conservatives who would not share her other conservative links and videos on Facebook and Twitter, which Shelly is convinced would have somehow singlehandedly defeated Obama last night. LOL. I do have some sympathy for her. I remember feeling much like her on November 6, 2004 after Kerry lost, railing against similar liberal purists who loved Dean and would not vote for Kerry because he was not pure enough. Indeed, old Daily Kos readers back then will remember my infamous "F*ck Ohio" post concerning those same purists being upset that Kerry did not contest Ohio. My oh my have the tables have turned. It is quite ironic, since Ohio is the state that clinched it last night for the President (although the landslide was so vast that he did not need it). And now Shelly is pissed. Very pissed. And very drunk.

After Obama Victory, Shrieking White-Hot Sphere Of Pure Rage Early GOP Front-Runner For 2016

I missed on three races: I though Democrat Lynn Newlin would win in the new 11th, she did not. I thought Democrat Trey Paradee would fall short in the 29th. He surprised me, but it is my fault I was surprised. It was obvious that he had the same kind of grass roots campaign that propelled Bryan Townsend in the 11th SD and Paul Baumbach in the 23rd RD to victory. So he upset and unseated Lincoln Willis. And I was wrong on Shirley Price winning in the 38th. You know, if you are a Democrat in Sussex county, you are nearly doomed to losing 60-40, with a couple points up or down of that. Unless you are named John Atkins or Bob Venables. Although, I wonder if we just saw John Atkins win his last election. That was a nail bitter for him last night. He has to sweating for his future chances in the 41st, and the Republicans smell blood. I expect a rematch in 2014. So the Democrats expanded their majority in the House by 1 seat, to 27-14. In the Senate, finally, at long last, we have good news for our local Republicans. They picked up a seat. It was 14 Democrats, 7 Republicans. Now it is 13 Democrats, 8 Republicans. As I expected, Mike Katz lost to Greg Lavelle, and Andy Staton lost to Ernie Lopez. And Dori Connor was finally, finally ejected from the 12th by Nicole Poore. But I was wrong on the 5th SD, as Cathy Cloutier survived yet again, by a very healthy margin. Chris Counihan gave it all he had, two elections in a row, and we owe him a debt for doing so. The other surprise of the night was the close race in the 15th SD, where Senator Lawson barely, barely beat Kathleen Cooke. I guarantee you that will be a rematch.

I thought Markell would win with 62-65%, down from his 72% from 2008. He got 69%. Much better than expected. Lt. Governor Matt Denn did have a much closer race with Sher Valenzeula than Markell had with Cragg, winning 61%. I predicted high 50's, so he did better than I expected, so that is something. Sher had some cross over appeal. I guess we might have to deal with her in the future. Denn v. Sher again in 16? Senator Carper did much better than I expected and deluded documentarian Alex Pires did much much much worse. Carper won 66%. Pires 4%. If Pires was employed by Pires and wasted untold tens of thousands on 4% of the vote in a quixotic, insulting and assine campaign, Pires would fire Pires. The biggest little secret in all this is that Pires was not actually running to get elected Senator, but to film a documentary. The ultimate revenge on Pires and his poisoning of Delaware's politics is to not watch it when it comes out next year. Congressman Carney also won handily. Have we heard the last of Tom Kovach? Karen Weldin Stewart won. I bumped into her last night, literally, after returning from the bathroom, which I escaped to when she took the stage to give her victory speech. I said "Excuse me" and got a blank stare back in return. Delaware Democrats deserve what they get with her. You are all responsible for what she does. Tom Gordon also won. The only thing I have to say on that is newly defeated Tom Kovach should prepare himself to run in a special election to replace the newly indicted Tom Gordon sometime in early 2014. Democrats own his re-election too. Hopefully Gordon is seeking redemption and not revenge. If it is the latter, we are screwed and so is he. Chris Bullock is the wild card. I voted for him, and am interested to see how he governs, and how he works with Gordon and the Council.

Today I want to have all the conservatives who derided the projections I posted all year long in the daily Polling Reports, that denied the polls, that denied reality, that called Nate Silver an effeminate wimp and other more horrible names.... I want them all to line up in the comments and apologize, admit they were wrong, and that they will never do it again. That map above is precisely the map the final polling report projected. And that map looked nearly the same during the entire campaign. We were right. You were wrong. It is time to "man" and "woman" up and admit it.