The DU Folks are Getting Nervous

Just did my usualy look at the DU boards and there's a not of nervousness over there. I didn't see too much talk of how bad they were going to beat the Republicans... just lots of talk about all of the Republican cheating that's going on.

Get the sympathy towels ready.

Originally posted by Bruzilla

Get the sympathy towels ready.

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If they cry me a river after the polls close, all the votes are counted and they lost BIG time, then...maybe.

DU Boards??? What is that? (Pardon me...my ignorance is showing).

Democratic Underground

DimU

So what are the allegations? How are the republican cheating? Just curious....

Originally posted by Kain99
How are the republican cheating?

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We're still breathing when we vote.

Originally posted by Sharon
We're still breathing when we vote.

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Originally posted by Sharon
We're still breathing when we vote.

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GOOD ONE SHARON!!!!!

Hey Bru... When you get a chance, let us know if the DU are over there kicking out chairs, drawing warm baths and drinking cool-aid this morning!

Well... I am surprised. Like so many other people I was expecting lots of challenges and court cases from the Dems, and that didn't happen. Looking at today's DU, I can see why. I was expecting loads of posts about how the Republicans had stolen some elections, cheated, made deals with the devil, etc., there isn't very much of that.

The atmosphere seems to be split three ways... one is the "what do we do now/dejected and demoralized" crowd. One is the "we got our ### kicked" crowd. And the last is the "Blame Daschle, McAuliffe, and Gephardt" crowd. I don't see much anti-Republican stuff on there. Even more telling is the Headlines section. Up to yesterday they had just about every utterance of McAuliffe listed as a headline... now you can't find his name on there.

Looks like a lot of tissues are getting cried into at DU.

Originally posted by Bruzilla
... The atmosphere seems to be split three ways... one is the "what do we do now/dejected and demoralized" crowd. One is the "we got our ### kicked" crowd. And the last is the "Blame Daschle, McAuliffe, and Gephardt" crowd. ....

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I love it when they turn to canabalism!

My guess is that they're all pretty much still in a state of shock.

Hey Bruz...

...and anyone else who wants to play!

As you have described a sort of schizophrenia...

The atmosphere seems to be split three ways... one is the "what do we do now/dejected and demoralized" crowd. One is the "we got our ### kicked" crowd. And the last is the "Blame Daschle, McAuliffe, and Gephardt" crowd.

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...How about we play some "Wednesday Morning Quarterback" for our good friends from the other side of the aisle?

Let's start, if all agree, that ANYONE can get elected if they run a good enough campaign, shall we? Paris, Mikulski, Clinton(s), Jeffords, Nixon, never mind how they actually govern.

If so, then WHAT WENT AWRY for our good friends from the other side of the aisle?

The "biggies," based on how big a deal was made about the races, are Florida, Minnesoooodah, Joisy, Georgia and last but by no means least...MARYLAND, MY MARYLAND!!!

For instance, I know a person (family) who voted for Ralph Nader 2 years ago BUT voted for Go Bobby Go yesterday. There is no way you vote for Bobby if you voted for Ralph, right? So...what happened???

1st and ten, you get the ball first! Hut, hut!

What went wrong for the Dems...

1. Republican voter turnout. For decades we have heard about the inner-city black vote and senior citizens being the lynchpin in politics because they have the highest turnout rates. But... we heard about these phenominal turnouts when overall turnout rates were below 30%. Most turnout rates for yesterday were around 60%, so I would guess that about 30%-40% more Republicans went out to vote than usual. Another Dem myth bites the dust.

And I don't buy this Dems voting for Ehrlich crap either. They were voting for KKT. It was all the Republicans that finally were called to arms that made the difference.

2. No Democratic Plan. Did anyone hear any Democrat offer any serious plans or ideas during the races? All I heard was how screwed up the Republicans are. That approach will get you the yellow dog Dems but not the Independents.

3. Daschle's desperate quest for the Presidency in '04. Daschle seemed to have a severe case of tunnelvision, and couldn't see past his desire to be Prez in '04. His sitting on judges and bills made him look like an obstructionist, and that doesn't fly anymore. If he had relented on the Homeland Security bill and let some judges get voted on, he probably would have fared better. Now he's most likely out on his duff as a leader and presidential candidate (along with Dick Gephardt.)

4. The Wellstone "memorial"... a double whammy. First, it was a completely unseemly event. Second, the DNC tried to deflect blame by saying that the event was completely planned by the Wellstone sons... yeah... two guys who just lost most of their family and had to make funeral arrangements had time to lay on a full-up rally for Dems with every Dem VIP in attendence. I think that the blamestorming session was the only thing more unseemly than the event itself.

5. Lastly... all of the personal attacks/revenge talk/2000 Vendettas. I think Republicans and Independents just flat out got sick and tired of all the whining and crying about the 2000 elections and said enough is enough. If you don't think Bush got a mandate in 2000, here's an official one for you.

Originally posted by Bruzilla
And I don't buy this Dems voting for Ehrlich crap either. They were voting for KKT. It was all the Republicans that finally were called to arms that made the difference.

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I think a good share of Dems (not the ultra-libs) crossed party lines yesterday and the fact was they didn't like KKT.

I hate to disagree with you Sharon, but I don't see that as the case. Democrat voter turnout was just about where it should have been. If there were lots of Dems voting for Ehrlich you would have seen a much bigger difference in the vote tallies. Since the turnout rate was much higher than normal, and since KKT got a substantial number of votes, and since Ehrlich didn't win by a huge margin, I think it's safe to say that the Dems weren't voting for Ehrlich in any significant numbers. The numbers just don't support the claims. Those votes came from Republicans who made the effort to vote.

Of course I'm sure that the Dems in MD will now try to get on the Ehrlich train by saying they voted him into office, even thought that's a lot of

MINNESOTA (95% Precincts Reporting)

Norm Coleman REPUBLICAN
Number of Votes: 1020410 (50%) Challenger



Walter F. Mondale DEMOCRAT
Number of Votes: 974174 (48%) Challenger


Breaking News on FOX is

MONDALE CONCEDES

Bru

Feel free to disagree all you want.

I haven't seen any stats on voter turnout, if you have any I think they might be very interesting. It still won't tell who voted for whom though. I was going on the fact that the dems outnumber the repubs in MD and the race was very close. Maybe I just don't fully understand what you are saying. I'm still tired from being up so late.

Personally, I think the republicans finally good off their duff and voted because the consequences were too great if they didn't.

JMHO

Historically, voter turnout in MD (and most places) is about 30 percent. And the numbers for Dems to Republicans is about two to one. Also, Dems tend to make up the lion's share of voters in most any election, so I think it's safe to say that in a straight-up, typical, Marland election you would expect to see the Dem candidate get about 60-70 percent of the vote and the Republican would get 30-40 percent.

Most of the estimates yesterday that I have heard put the turnout rates at about double of normal. Remembering that Dems have the highest turnout rates anyway, and noting that there was no real compelling reason for extra numbers of Dems to turn out to vote, it is logical to assume that the majority of those extra voters were Republicans.

Since Ehlich had to overcome a 2:1 deficit in votes just to tie, yet alone go up to 52 percent, he would have needed just about all of those extra 30% voters. Since the Dem's turnout was about the same as always, if large numbers of Dems had voted for Ehlich, Ehlrich would have won by a much larger margin than he did. The only other possibility is that a very large number of Republicans voted for KKT, which offset some of the large number of Dems voting for Ehrlich, and I doubt that.