Poppinjay

Elizabeth Dole and I share a special connection. She grew up about 12 miles from my university. She spoke at my graduation.



In the 90's I moved from NC to Kansas for a job. There I met and reported on Bob Dole's meteoric fall in 1996. I was the first to ask a question on his thank you tour. "Will your wife run for president?"

So then I move back to NC. I meet and talk to Elizabeth Dole after she became my senator. What. An. Asshole. I felt favorable towards her until then. She came off as a jerk.



And now, after running a last-minute dirty campaign, she's going home. Oh, not to Salisbury. D.C. She spent almost no time in NC.

That, in addition to my good friend and hometown girl Bev Purdue getting elected governor have made my day.



I live in VA now, everything here went my way and I'm happy.

Who got elected that you're really excited about? Who got unelected? Share your joys and concerns at the church of schaudenfreude.

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I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

dc_dux

What pleases me most is how the Democratic tent continue to expand and not just in numbers.

Most of the Democratic wins in the House and Senate are not on the extreme left of the party but are more center-left. Hagen in NC, Warner in VA are good examples....neither one is a raging liberal.

The Democratic party is becoming much more of a reflection of where the country is than the Republican party, which continues to lose by running House/Senate candidates who are unelectable for being too far to the right for most voters.
-----Added 5/11/2008 at 09 : 05 : 06-----
We will be hearing from the Republicans that the country is still center-right This appears to be their new talking point.

As long as they believe it....they will continue to lose.

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"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
~ Voltaire

Poppinjay

That's a good point. The GOP sent Jim Gilmore to run against Mark Warner because he called in chips on the primary process. While the entire state got to vote on Mark Warner in the primary, Gilmore constructed a scheme where he was chosen by committee.

The guy was not the popular choice. His record as governor was absolutely horrible. Plus, Mark Warner is a demi-god in VA. The only way he could be challeneged would have been if Macaca ran against him.

Send up some more softballs, GOP, we'll be happy to hit them with our Louisville sluggers.

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I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

JBX

I thought this was going to be a Hillary Clinton thread? My bad.

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"Youth and Strength is no match for Age and Treachery"

samcol

The two I was really hoping got unelected didn't get unelected. My governor Mitch Daniels and congressman Mark Souder both make me throw up a bit in my mouth.

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It's time for the president to hand over his nobel peace prize.

Paq

you have NO idea how happy i was dole was BOOTED out. Not voted out, BOOTED out. She was horrible. HORRIBLE and ran the dirtiest campaign i've seen in local elections except for dick mulvaney against norrell.

DCdux, i think the new fox news catch phrase is "the country is center right"...and that may be true, but maaaan, it's like every 20 seconds....

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Live.

Chris

Poppinjay

You should have seen the Helms-Gantt race. I received a card from the Helms campaign saying I would be arrested if I tried to vote.

Then there was the Sue Myrick campaign where she said, "I don't have to take this shit!" live on the air.

And was re-elected.

__________________
I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

Paq

Sue myrick..wasn't she in nc or Sc way back when? i remember seeing her commercials for some reason and i doubt it was for VA/DC

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Live.

Chris

Poppinjay

She was first Mayor of Charlotte, then congressman from the 13th district.

edit: Also, Helms-Gantt refers to Jesse Helms v. Harvey Gantt, another former Mayor of Charlotte.

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I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

Glory's Sun

Yes I"m very pleased with how the NC vote turned out. A lot of people didn't think Hagan could win and if she did it would be by a slim margin.. haha she slaughtered Dole.

I was surprised that McCrory bailed out as quickly as he did.. not that I'm really complaining or anything..

Willravel

Dear Libby,
ROFL.
Love, Atheists.

YaWhateva

The places I was looking at nearly all went the way I wanted.

New Mexico:
Tom Udall beat out Steve Pearce which is great because Udall is a great man and Pearce is pretty much an asshole.
Martin Heinrich won over that horrible man Darren White

NC:
Hagan over Dole was a great win

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“If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.” - Bill O'Reilly

"This is my United States of Whateva!"

Poppinjay

I'm kind of sad it looks like Al Franken will not get his seat. I was so looking forward to his first floor speech.

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I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

Troublebot

I'm a little sad that Missouri didn't go Obama, but I guess that was asking too much. HOwever, my home state of Ohio turned. My jaw just about hit the floor.

Crazy how Obama didn't take our state, but we still ended up with a democrat governor, treasurer, etc. Could Missouri democrats have come out and voted for everything but the presidential race. Very, very, possible.

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Howard Moon: The wind is my only friend.
Wind: [whistling] I hate you.

Mojo_PeiPei

I would've shit a brick if that clown would've gotten elected. Look to Minnesota republicans Pawlenty and Coleman to be a big part of the needed party reconstruction, just need to keep that nut job Bachman away.

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To win a war you must serve no master but your ambition.

Dammitall

I'm pretty psyched about Heinrich's victory. I designed his campaign website!

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If one million people replaced a two mile car trip once a week with a bike ride, carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 50,000 tons per year. If one out of ten car commuters switched to a bike, carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 25.4 million tons per year. [2milechallenge.com]

Willravel

That would have been an awkward conversation with your gastro-intestinal doctor.

laconic1

I was thrilled that Marylin Musgrave lost her race for the US House here. She is a corrupt, close minded, bigoted homophobe, and runs the trashiest campaigns I have ever seen. When the local media fact checked the ads running on their stations around here most of her ads were found to be completely false. Not true, not true but misleading, not partially true, but false. Her last two campaigns before this one were incredibly nasty since her opponent in both races, Angie Paccione took the troll bait, and the two just had the nastiest flame wars. Musgrave's opponent this time, Betsy Markey, ran negative ads, but they were truthful, and nowhere near as distasteful as the crap Musgrave put out. Marylin Musgrave is the poster child for everything that is wrong with the Republican party and I couldn't be happier that she is out.

jewels

I don't give a damn about these local politicians here in Florida.

What freaks me out was our equivalent of California's Proposition 8. I can't believe the fear is so great that marriage has now been defined as a union between "a man and a woman".

How does one learn tolerance for ignorance?

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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

smooth

the more I think about it, the angrier I become
how the hell is the state dealing with transgenders?
can a therapist "diagnose" someone as a male or female? can I sell funny pills for homosexual couples to differentiate who is the male and female?

I feel like reading the statutes and finding out how closely they define single man and single woman...I'm tempted to push for annulling marriages between heterosexuals who have been divorced! I'd love to see these fucking hypocrites vote down a law that is straight up scripture-based.

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"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman

SecretMethod70

Sadly, I'm in a similar position. I can take solace in the fact my Congressman is at least a socially moderate Republican, but he never takes a stand against his party when it matters, he's never authored a bill that has become a law, and aside for being totally ineffectual, he is also kind of a prick. I'm not sure why so few people notice the irony of a naval reserve intelligence officer blaming his support for the Iraq war on faulty intelligence.

My district went overwhelmingly for Obama and then voted for a bunch of Republicans who stand in opposition to him. So much for "the best-educated Congressional district in the country."

Then there's prop 8, Franken maybe losing, and TED "CONVICTED FELON" STEVENS winning. I have to admit, I'm really not nearly as happy about Obama as I should be.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling