Giving credit where it is due
Well, let's give national congradulations where they are due-The Democrats had a very good night, especially in the House.Democratic 234
Republican 201
Net: Democrats +33
Democrats have a majority of 11
Democrats GAIN control of the House of Representatives.
Pelosi will be Speaker, but from her victory speech last night it sounds as if (unlike some others in her party) she is not deluding herself into believing that this victory is a victory for liberalism, or the social policies of the left wing of the Democratic Party. The Democrats won this victory by running a series of candidates that ran the gambit in swing districts from center-right to downright conservative-example number one of that trend is the victory of Heath Shuler in North Carolina's 11th District. Shuler is pro-life, pro-gun, and when he lived here in East Tennessee (which was around two years ago-at least the last time his residence was here, if I recall) he was a Republican. To win, the Democrats ran candidates that weren't all that different philosophically from Heath Shuler, so this was no endorsement of the Left.
The Senate is tight as a pin-prick, with Virginia about to undergo a recount (Democrat/Republican Jim Webb-Ronald Reagan's Navy Secretary, has a narrow lead over George Allen), but we can safely call one key Senate race in the Republican column:
United States Senate-Tennessee
| Winner | Candidate | Incumbent | Votes | Vote % |
| X | Bob Corker (R) | 925750 | 48% | |
| Harold Ford, Jr (D) | 876445 | 47% | ||
| Ed Choate (I) | 10721 | 1% | ||
| David Gatchell (I) | 3727 | 1% | ||
| Bo Heyward (I) | 3541 | 1% | ||
| Gary Keplinger (I) | 3015 | 1% | ||
| Chris Lugo (I) | 2564 | 1% |
Let me personally congradulate Harold Ford, Jr. on one of the classiest and most decent concession speeches I believe I have ever heard. He ran a Hell of a race and I can only say that I wish the man's rhetoric matched his voting record-if it did, he would have gotten my vote. As it was, I simply did not believe-based on his record-that he would be the kind of Senator he was claiming that he would be. The record is all that the informed voter has to go by, Congressman.
This was not an endorsement of the Left, it was a protest vote over a war that should never have been waged, and I hope the Democrats and the Republicans both remember that reality.
We'll have a "bonanza" of election results and analysis later this morning so stay tuned.
Labels: Elections
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 7:37 AM
1 Comments:
Well said!
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