[BRIGADE] PJB: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Published: Fri, 11/06/09
By Patrick J. Buchanan
For the Blue Dogs, Tuesday was a fire bell in the night.
Virginia Republicans led by Robert McDonnell crushed the most
conservative Democrat nominee in decades, rolling up a victory that
rivaled Ronald Reagan's rout of Walter Mondale.
New Jersey GOP nominee Chris Christie, whose campaign had been the
despair of its backers, won a 5-point victory over Jon Corzine,
despite huge Democratic advantages in money and voter registration,
two visits by Barack Obama and the presence on the ballot of a
third-party candidate who took votes away from Christie.
Maine has gone Democratic in five straight presidential elections.
Yet voters overturned a gay-marriage state law, 53-47, the 31st
straight victory for traditionalists. This replicates California's
rejection of gay marriage, 52-48, in a year Obama carried the state
by 24 points and 3 million votes.
Democrats see green shoots in the capture of New York's 23rd
congressional district, which has been Republican since Ulysses
Grant. Yet, even here, the conservative showing was impressive.
GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava is a fellow traveler of the Albany
crowd of Gov. David Paterson. She is pro-choice, pro-gay marriage,
pro "card-check" -- a euphemism for eliminating the secret ballot
for workers deciding on whether they want a union.
Disgusted with a choice between liberals, the Conservative Party
put up Douglas Hoffman. While he did not live in the district, his
views did reflect the district's views.
Hoffman was going nowhere, however, until the Tea Party and
town-hall activists and Club for Growth sent contributions and
troops. Hoffman got ignition when Sarah Palin joined Fred Thompson
in endorsing him. He began a rapid ascent from last to first,
dumping Dede into third place. When Dede fell to 20 percent, the
weekend before the election, she dropped out and endorsed Democrat
Bill Owens, who won.
Nevertheless, Hoffman had come, in a month, from nowhere to knock a
liberal Republican out of the lead and out of the race and out of
the party, and closed to within two points of taking the seat.
The good news for the GOP is that, despite the unpopularity of
their brand name -- Republican identification is down to 20 percent
-- this is no longer the impediment it was in 2006 or 2008. The 40
percent who call themselves conservative will rally with energy and
enthusiasm to Republicans willing to go to their capital, be it
Trenton, Richmond or D.C., to battle Big Government.
As for the Democrats, their problems are not easily soluble, in the
short term.
In 2006, the war in Iraq cost Republicans the Congress. Now, Iraq,
like Afghanistan, is Obama's war. In 2008, the financial collapse
on George W. Bush's watch enabled Obama to retake the lead that
Sarah Palin's nomination had given to John McCain. Now, the economy
is Obama's albatross and his party's responsibility.
Going into 2008, 27 percent of Americans approved of Bush. Eighty
percent thought the country was headed in the wrong direction. Over
90 percent thought the economy was bad or poor.
If we can't win with those numbers, said James Carville, we ought
to go into a new line of work.
Obama won, but only because of those appalling numbers. In every
state except Missouri where Bush's approval was above 35 percent,
McCain carried the state.
In 2010, Obama will not have George W. Bush to kick around anymore
and Republicans will not have "Bush's war" or "the Bush economy" to
defend.
If Americans think the country is still on the wrong course, as
most now do, and the economy is still dismal, as most now do, the
only way to protest will be to vote against the party that controls
Congress and the White House.
Despite all the media mockery of the "Birthers," "Truthers," Tea
Party and town-hall "Nazis," it is the populist-conservative
center-right that is not only on fire but came out to vote in 2009.
Young voters and African-Americans who came out in record number in
2008 stayed home in 2009. What will cause them to rally to
endangered Democrats in 2010, after they have endured another year
of what they are enduring now?
After Tuesday's defeats, Obama flew to Madison, Wis., on the first
anniversary of his victory, to remind Americans what a terrible
hand he had been dealt. We had, said Obama, a "financial crisis
that threatened to plunge our economy into a Great Depression. We
had record deficits, two wars, frayed alliances around the world."
Since then, the financial crisis has eased. But millions more are
now unemployed. And deficits are now three times as large as Bush's
largest. And America's prospects in those two wars are more grim
than a year ago. And the Middle East peace process is moribund, and
there is the threat of a new war with Iran. What has the outreach
to Chavez, Castro and the Ayatollah produced?
President Obama is today the victim of a disillusionment caused by
the excessive hopes and expectations that were raised by candidate
Obama.
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