Post-election video chat: Where does GOP go from here, and does Obama have a mandate?
Here’s the third installment of the Google+ Hangouts that Jay Bookman, Aaron Gould Sheinin and I have been doing. Spoiler alert: You’ll see more disagreement between Jay and me than in the first two…
Please feel free to keep talking on the thread downstairs as well.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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408 comments Add your comment
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
November 7th, 2012
12:17 pm
We spend a year explaining to Conservatives why we think Obama is the better choice and so this morning the Cons want to know…..why Obama is the better choice?
JDW
November 7th, 2012
12:17 pm
“Rush Limbaugh might have said it best…. (paraphrasing) when the choice is between work and santa clause, who votes against santa clause”
Of course you overlook the fact that believing Rush’s drivel is one of the reasons Republicans are becoming irrelevant.
Tom
November 7th, 2012
12:20 pm
Jay, may I respectfully suggest getting a better camera, placing it at a higher elevation, add some lighting, and a cleaner or more appealing background. Your message is a bit diluted by appearing as a circa-2003 dad on Yahoo webcam with his daughter away at college.
Mr. Dithers
November 7th, 2012
12:22 pm
I’m with jimbob on this one. Time to put Mitch McConnell in the attic with Ross Perot’s crazy aunt and keep him there. Is there any truth to the rumor that Mitch’s first utterance last night was “Our number one priority is now to make President Obama a two term President?
iggy
November 7th, 2012
12:26 pm
Dow pull up to 297…
I demand to see Cheesy Grits Birth Certificate- Long Form Please
November 7th, 2012
12:32 pm
So no word on Nate Silver or how accurate the polls were ?
How they weren’t skewed for the Democrats or that there was no media bias in them ?
Figures.
Ivan Cohen
November 7th, 2012
12:33 pm
With a House that is mostly Republican and a Senate that is mostly Democratic, I cannot see how any “mandate” can take place.
@ Finn McCool: Not only will there be four more years of Conservative tears, add gnashing of teeth to the mix.
@HDB: Since Kevin Phillips said that “blacks have no place in the GOP”, Colin Powell needs to get a memo about it, Condoleeza Rice could also be getting a memo. Then again maybe they are just satisfied being tolerated but not appreciated.
George Romney must be turning over in his grave regarding his son’s remarks about needing to increase the white vote and decreasing the minority vote.
MarkV
November 7th, 2012
12:35 pm
“Dow pull up to 297…”
EU Cuts 2013 Growth Forecast as Crisis Weighs on Germany EU Cuts 2013 Growth Forecast as Crisis Weighs on Germany
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-07/eu-cuts-2013-growth-forecast-as-crisis-weighs-on-germany.html
snoqualmiefalls
November 7th, 2012
12:37 pm
Congrats to the Prez. for winning the election without Florida, Florida just didn’t matter this time around.
As for this malarkey about the Left, please tell where Noam Chomsky was a factor, afterall he is the voice of the Left and I never see him quoted in the MSM.
I also noticed that the people who advocated “legitimate rape” and other nutty ideas wer soundly defeated, too bad they were so entertaining.
So now Mitt has been defeated, but he still is the leader of the TEA/GOP, where oh where will these folks go next? Impeachment? More racial name calling? More faux outrage over Benghazi? Please more entertainment from the TEA/GOP I have the popcorn and Scotch ready…. love to watch them go down flaming.
Bruno
November 7th, 2012
12:38 pm
http://www.lupus.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/georgia_home.aspx
TBS–I just donated $100 to the Lupus Foundation in satisfaction of our wager.
HDB
November 7th, 2012
12:41 pm
Ivan Cohen
November 7th, 2012
12:33 pm
You have to change the GOP from within….but if you don’t LISTEN…you can’t blame those who are trying to change it!! Look at what Republicans dod to Michael Steele after the 201 elections! Colin Powell got BOOED at the GOP Convention when he stated he supported Affirmative Action….actions have consequences…..
They BOTH suck
November 7th, 2012
12:41 pm
Bruno
Thank you and those who are afflicted with lupus thank you.
Aquagirl
November 7th, 2012
12:48 pm
Of course you overlook the fact that believing Rush’s drivel is one of the reasons Republicans are becoming irrelevant.
LOL. Limpbaugh is whining teh wimmenz and dark folk are just too dumb to embrace their wonderful GOP role models.
Double down, cons. You can hold the next Republican convention in a Waffle House.
JDW
November 7th, 2012
12:48 pm
I saw Cheesy make a comment about Nate Silver and I expect he is celebrating big time…his biggest miss in a battleground projection for Obama was 1% low in IA…in most cases he is low on Obama by about 1/2 point. On Mittens his biggest miss was 1.7% high in CO…in most cases he OVERESTIMATED Mittens by a point or so…
All that gnashing of teeth and it turns out he slightly underestimated Obama and overestimated Mittens…Rasmussen…BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…not even in the zip code on this one. It will be a race to the bottom between Rasmussen and Gallup.
PROUD NAVY VET
November 7th, 2012
12:49 pm
Tiberius, your a jerk, shut up. You, Rush, Koch Bros, Rove and the rest of you need to quit crying and wasting time. Hilary’s coming in 2016. So bring your lunch. And don’t give me that crap about your neither left or right. The repubs need to realize as long as you keep on the path your on you may never win POTUS again. The US has changed. It will never be the same. People are different. It ain’t how y’all feel it should be so everybody else is wrong. It’s a joke listening to Fox. People have changed to United States forever. The time for old rich white guys running everything is over. The day of the everyday man is here. I’ll wager y’all won’t give up without a fight. The leaders of the right have been using y’all for years. Just pitting people aganist people. Wake up. All you keep doing is making them rich. Look at rush. Ain’t no way a person spouting hate should make millions every year. But God has the final word. and what I’m saying is nobody knows what God is doing. So I’m not trying to say the election was God’s doing, I feel nothing happens without his permission. A very tiny part of me (.000001%) wished Romney won because with Europe the way it is, it is going to get a lot worse for the US, reguardless of who won and I don’t think it can be stopped. so the right will blame the President for what will happpen next year. Get over it.
Lynnie Gal
November 7th, 2012
12:50 pm
The GOP needs to get a clue about the makeup of America. It can no longer rely on the angry, old, white men to win national elections.They can pick up rural and local pockets of racists and self-righteous religious zealots, but they don’t appeal to the broad swath of America. And this crop of GOPer’s were particularly disgusting. I kept asking myself, who do they represent? The GOP attacked women, Latinos, gays, blacks, the poor, the middle class, college students, school children, teachers, firemen, policemen, government workers and the elderly. They represented rich angry old whites and ignorant, poor (or working class) angry old whites.
Kamchak - "Socialism" is just a code word for "fear," the monster under you bed ~ Kamchak
November 7th, 2012
12:52 pm
Bruno
August 24th, 2012
10:17 pm
Special dedication to “We Don’t Need”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ3dAco1czQ
Obama is toast. All Hail Joseph Smith!!
Obama toast?
No, not so much.
Matz
November 7th, 2012
12:52 pm
snoqualmiefalls @ 12:37,
Nice breakdown!!! At some point, the GOP faithful need to take responsibility for their own failure. People who can’t understand why anyone would vote for Obama were not taking an honest look at our choices.
Partisay
November 7th, 2012
12:54 pm
Bruno
November 7th, 2012
12:38 pm
http://www.lupus.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/georgia_home.aspx
TBS–I just donated $100 to the Lupus Foundation in satisfaction of our wager.
_________________________________________________________________________-
You’re a good man Bruno.
Partisay
November 7th, 2012
12:55 pm
And thanks for the link….
Truth Squad
November 7th, 2012
1:02 pm
The truth is that this was predicted over a year ago.
President Obama had his accountability moment last night and came away with another resounding victory.
The question of a mandate is for losers. It is exactly what Democratic Party was asking after Bush won reelection. It was a silly question then. It is a silly question now. Voters did not reelect President Obama to carry out the conservative agenda.
Senator Rubio trying to play lipstick to the Republican pig is a demonstration that the party does not want to change. Best listen to Senator Graham and take his advice.
Bruno
November 7th, 2012
1:06 pm
Thank you and those who are afflicted with lupus thank you.
TBS–My pleasure.
You’re a good man Bruno.
Partisay–All the credit goes to TBS (and Obama).
Maybe TBS will share with us his interest in the Lupus Foundation. I’ve had a few patients with lupus through the years. It is one of those illnesses which is difficult to detect from the outside, yet has pervasive effects on the person who has it.
TBone
November 7th, 2012
1:07 pm
Where does the GOP go from here? Well either they need to start playing as dirty as the Chicago gangsters or don’t bother putting up a candidate cause the GOP is not as accomplished at cheating as the DEMS are.
I SEE RED PEOPLE
November 7th, 2012
1:07 pm
With apologies to Bill Maher, this is exactly what happens when the GOP is forced to “step outside the bubble”.
The real world is not at all in alignment with your echo chamber.
They BOTH suck
November 7th, 2012
1:09 pm
Bruno
Don’t mind sharing at all. My gf has it, but luckily only a mild form. She gets stiffness in her joints at times, but nothing compared to some who have the disease.
Debbie
November 7th, 2012
1:10 pm
While the GOP maintained the House I think it is the voters giving the GOP one last chance to either move to the center socially and economically or be voted out in 2014. The GOP is licking its wounds today, but tomorrow they need to begin to move the conversation of them moving to the table of compromise or I think it will be the end of the GOP. I was a Republican for 35 years I left because the party moved radically to the right on social and economic issues. I is one thing to be conservative and quite another to be radically right. The GOP would be wise to not view holding the House as we won half, as it it only for 2 years. The GOP House would do well to move center and compromise so that in 2016 the GOP is in existence.
Bruno
November 7th, 2012
1:11 pm
The real world is not at all in alignment with your echo chamber.
The final vote total was approximately 50% for Obama and 48.4% for Romney. Must be a pretty big echo chamber if half the country lives in it.
The bottom line is that the freeloaders won. Doesn’t seem like much to celebrate.
I demand to see Cheesy Grits Birth Certificate- Long Form Please
November 7th, 2012
1:14 pm
The bottom line is that the freeloaders won.
A lie.
And this is why you lose.
Bruno
November 7th, 2012
1:16 pm
I think it is the voters giving the GOP one last chance to either move to the center socially and economically or be voted out in 2014.
Debbie–Again, how does 50% to 48.4% translate into “one last chance”?? Given the unlikeability factor that Romney brought to the contest, it sound like it was a dead heat to me. We can only surmise the outcome if either Chris Christie or Marco Rubio had run instead.
mike
November 7th, 2012
1:24 pm
Hatirots, patriots and right wing rubes.
Rednecks, nutjobs and old white goobs.
Hail the Republicans. We’ll always remember you this way.
I demand to see Cheesy Grits Birth Certificate- Long Form Please
November 7th, 2012
1:30 pm
Debbie–Again, how does 50% to 48.4% translate into “one last chance”??
Because those numbers are only going to get worse.
Obama won 60 percent of the under 30 vote.
Dems are winning minorities which are growing as part of the electorate.
The Republican party better move and fast.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
November 7th, 2012
1:35 pm
Again, how does 50% to 48.4% translate into “one last chance”?
Bruno, what you can’t fathom is how badly Obama should been spanked last night. The economy is undergoing an unusually slow recovery.
You folks didn’t lose because of the liberals and the Democrats. You lost because you live in an information vacuum with sources of info that only tell you what you want to hear and not what is reality. Mitt Romney? Hello! Where did you folks dig this dude up?
political arsonist
November 7th, 2012
1:39 pm
hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Matz
November 7th, 2012
1:41 pm
If the Republicans want to do better in the national elections, they need to stop insulting women and start condemning the divisive public speech of those who do. That’s just one step, but it’s a start. The younger generations of women will not be dragged back to an era they’ve only witnessed while watching Mad Men. In fact, they respond to the very notion with traditionally masculine, Cheney-esque verbiage. Heh..
I SEE RED PEOPLE
November 7th, 2012
1:41 pm
First you tell us you’ll win in a landslide; now the best you can muster is “you only won by 50-48%”.
You keep lowering the standards that you want yourselves gauged by. What a pathetic attempt to change the narrative.
ATLien
November 7th, 2012
1:43 pm
So lets look at some statistics shall we. Source Bloomberg news
42% of people with graduate degrees supported Romney. 58% supported Obama
More educated people supported the President. Why am I not surprised. Talk radio and fox news prey on the uneducated masses and get u riled up over nonsense and convince you to vote against YOUR OWN BEST INTEREST. In other words your sheep and they know it and exploit it.
Rightwing Troll
November 7th, 2012
1:44 pm
“Rightwing Troll expresses a truism: The further to the left Republicans are, the more liberals like them.
It’s the same for center-right Democrats and conservatives, of course.”
Word…
So how do you explain Mittens loss last night? By the third debate he was as far left as he could go without changing parties… Leagues away from where the “severely conservative” Mittens started out during the batcrap crazy primaries. Like it or not, this is a center/center-right country, pulling the GOP so far to the right like 2012’s primaries did scared the hell out of a lot of good people, then topping that off with the non-stop and outlandish lies just drove them away. So Huntsman was a moderate, he served his country when his president asked him to. That neither made him a RINO nor a liberal. Just because he doesn’t believe the female body shuts down the procces of pregnancy in the case of a legitimate rape does not make him a Democrat.
Like it or not, you could have EASILY had an R in the whitehouse, but YOU decided that’s not what YOU wanted.
Rightwing Troll
November 7th, 2012
1:47 pm
“The bottom line is that the freeloaders won. Doesn’t seem like much to celebrate.”
Not just a lie, but a damn lie… of course you have to consider the source.
mike
November 7th, 2012
1:51 pm
After reading a lot of the ignorant comments here, it just shows why the election turned out the way it did. People are just tired of the hate and excuses put out by conservatives. The population is changing and people are fed up with the same old stuff. But the repubs can keep up with the usual and probably in the next election they will lose even more. When history is written the GOP will look pretty darn bad. But heck it is a free country to believe what you want. Right or wrong.
SHM
November 7th, 2012
1:55 pm
People like “Tiberius” are the reason the Republican party is going the way of the Whigs. He spouts off a “non-factoid” about the life expantancy of African Americans, based on his prejudiced, bigoted, maddeningly faulty view that we all probably die before we reach the age of 50. How about you get out a little more. Meet some African Americans. Talk to some of us. You’ll find out that the vast majority of us want the same things as the vast majority of you — an opportunity to live, work and raise our children in the greatest country on earth.
And Bruno, how about the fact that PRESIDENT Obama rescued the country from the brink of financial oblivion, where we were recklessly driven by the Bush/Cheyney/Rove/Nordquist cabral. Good enough reason for ya?
To pull a page from the world of boxing (which is dying on the vine like the Republican Party): “NBC/CNN/ABC/FOXNews all stop the fight at 11:30 p.m., for the winner by Electoral College knockout … and STILL President of the United States of Americaaaaaaa Barack Hussein Ooooooobaaaaamaaaaa!”
Gotta love it! God Bless America!
I SEE RED PEOPLE
November 7th, 2012
1:56 pm
Tea Party II. Coming soon to a theater near you.
@@
November 7th, 2012
1:57 pm
Nice exchange, Kyle. Thinking beyond the obvious is your strongest asset.
jay? Old and tired arguments from the left.
I’m looking forward to a younger crew in the GOP. Ours are looking alot younger than the dems, in fact.
They do have their Wasserman-Schultz’s but GEEZ…she’s a FLUKE…an embarrassment to any self-respecting female with a mind of their own.
Congratulations to Paul Ryan! Can’t win ‘em all but holding onto his congressional seat was good enough for me.
Give ‘em hell, Congressman Ryan! The truth will set us free!
I demand to see Cheesy Grits Birth Certificate- Long Form Please
November 7th, 2012
2:01 pm
One of the biggest winners Tuesday night was health reform. Now that President Barack Obama has won a second term and kept a Democratic majority in the Senate to back him up, Republicans have lost any chance at repealing it.
And with that we join the rest of the civilized world with Universal Healthcare.
We were the only holdout.
Thank god that’s over.
I demand to see Cheesy Grits Birth Certificate- Long Form Please
November 7th, 2012
2:04 pm
Obama won 60 percent of the under 30 vote and minorities ( which are growing not shrinking the way the white vote is ) is overwhelmingly going to the Dems.
The Republicans are in a small box and they better find a way out quick.
The demographics of the American voter is moving away from them rapidly.
Just winning white southern males is not enough anymore.
Tealiban Party
November 7th, 2012
2:10 pm
Tall
November 7th, 2012
11:33 am
…”Republicans need a systemic change; they can no longer fail to embrace the changing demographic of the nation,
**20 years ago whites were 87% of the electorate, this year only 78%. Romney won the white vote with the same margin as Reagan. Reagan won in a landslide, Romney was soundly defeated.
persist in racial fear-mongering,
**Rush Limbaugh calls Obama economic plan “forced reparations.” Limbaugh, Rove, and Hannity all call President OBama a thug. What about Michelle Bachmann claiming the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the US Government?
voter suppression/intimidation,
Why did many of the GOP-run states reduce early voting?
persist in denigrating an ever-growing segment of this nation, create policies that marginalize a growing minority population….
**Have you really forgotten Romney’s plan to make conditions so bad that Hispanics “self-deport”?
Can you elaborate on all this allegory? This is why Obama won? There is no proof to this nonsense,but if you express it often enough….enough folks and the media will believe it.
*I*gnore the facts at your own peril GOP.
I SEE RED PEOPLE
November 7th, 2012
2:11 pm
I think Romney was too moderate for the Republican Party.
It’s time for the GOP to move as far to the right as they can. Farther. Farther. Can you see Sean Hannity over there? Closer. Closer.
There you go. Feels good, doesn’t it?
independent thinker
November 7th, 2012
2:14 pm
First the cons tell us no way is any president going to win with sustained unemployment around 8% then they tell us that the polls show Romney winning by a landslide and taking the Senate with him to a majority; now they got their butts whooped by Obama/Clinton and they are crying crocodile tears and claiming Obama did not really win because he did not get a mandate. Suck it up cons and take it like a man!
I SEE RED PEOPLE
November 7th, 2012
2:15 pm
Romney didn’t get a mandate either. Romney didn’t get the job, either.
TRUTH
November 7th, 2012
2:20 pm
I think I saw something raw and inexplicable happen last night. A sitting President in the midst of an economic monster no when alive has seen, unemployment prevelant, and a congress in epic gridlock, wins. Hmmm, what’s afoot?
According to the geniuses at the Republican bunker (no doubt hunkered down with former VP “Darth” Cheyney), they poured over their battle plans and set strategic offices up to further the GOP machine….unfortunately, it was targeted at RED STATES that have always been RED. They delighted in the performance of their selected at his first real Presidential debate (Fact Check? We don’t need no stinkin’ fact check!) They all watched as we did the avoidance of facts and substance (something the GOP needs to get its head around, ASAP!! The entirety of the electorate is not and does not resemble the GOP base, nor do they think like them). They allowed money to pour through their coffers in a clear and unabashed attempt to purchase the Presidency (no Mitt, I gues Citizen’s United ain’t a citizen like corporations…). And yet, the guy with the “bad record” lost.
Hmmm, the Gods must be crazy??!! Or the American citizen? Up until the last day, the GOP was pounding its chest, GOP surrogates and pundits alike, declared National Mitt Day. The Mittster in a landslide!!!! (enter crickets..here.) Watching the Romney Victory Hall Soiree’ was about as bad as watching back to back episodes of Cop Rock (I wanted to put my own eyes out…..OH THE HUMANITY!!!). Cut to Chicago and the crowd NEVER looked worried….ever!! Hell, even El Mustachioed D. Axelrod KEPT his face fur in a bet he placed with Georgie at ABC. The electorate knew that the President was going to win. Even the media knew it, but, of course you gotta keep em’ guessing (makes for great ratings and Ohhhh, those advertising dollars!!)
As for the what now? Well GOP’ers, moving to Canada is a poss…wait…what’s that??!!! The devil you say??!!! Canada has UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE??!!! But the GOP wants everyone to pay the insurance companies….oh because of that we can’t get in to Canada??
Find yourselves, GOP. It’s going to be hard for you. You hated on the very people you need to remain relevant…..
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012 (yep, WE WON THAT!!!)
HDB
November 7th, 2012
2:22 pm
There actually was a mandat….to CONGRESS!! Quit obstructing and obfuscating….and get to work WITH the President to SOLVE the problems!! Note the Democratic INCREASE in the Senate…particularly from North Dakota!! The Senate will probably be the place where cool heads prevail and the start of solving problems! We know that fiscal issues START in the House…..but the Senate will be where the sensible approach to solving the nationl issues will be……..