A Post-2002 Election Wrap-up

06 Nov, 2002 by John Hawkins

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A Post-2002 Election Wrap-up: A few thoughts on the aftermath of last night’s election…

– The Dems are going to eat each other after this last big loss. Wave goodbye to McAuliffe, Daschle, and Gephardt.

– At the very least, that grotesque Wellstone “memorial service” cost the Dems Minnesota. But, I also wonder if it helped motivate Republicans across the country to turn out. Something gave the GOP a lift at the end and it’s possible that was what it was.

– I expected a lot of lawsuits after the elections were over, but in most races, the GOP won by such a large margin that there was no point in even bothering for the Dems.

– I wonder if Jim Jeffords regrets switching parties now?

– Here’s the quote of election night 2002, “Three candidates will let us keep the Senate: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. I’m looking for some positive spin, but I can’t find any” — James Carville

– Some people are saying this election was a “referendum on Bush.” I don’t think so. Very few Democrat candidates were attacking GWB, he’s just too popular.

– The poll that was farthest off: Zogby had Colorado: Strickland (D) 53 vs. Allard (R) 44 right before the election. Final numbers: Allard (R) 51 vs. Stickland (D) 45.

– Controlling the Senate will allow to Bush to finally start getting some of his judges confirmed. It also gives W. at least a two year window to push though a conservative justice for the Supreme Court.

– Because the GOP already has 51 seats in the Senate, we don’t have to worry about Lincoln Chafee changing sides.

– A lot of people are saying the Democrats lost because they didn’t “stand for anything.” While that may be at least partially true, the Democrats can’t AFFORD to stand on the issues their constituents believe in. Are the Democrats really going to come out and support raising taxes, reparations, Affirmative Action, stopping animal testing, bigger government, cutting the military, gay marriages, banning handguns and all the other issues that are going to resonate with their base? The Democrats can’t afford to really run on the issues.