Primary Night: A Great Night For Schadenfreude, A Bad Night For Media Narratives

[Richardo]

An excellent analysis/editorial from Jason Linkins:

More at the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/primary-night-a-great-nig_n_581715.html

The first big primaries of the 2010 campaign season are in the books and if you're a fan of schadenfreude and watching well-heeled political titans hit the skids, it was a particularly sweet night.

<snip>

Of course, the least glorious loser of the night was the first body to drop: Kentucky Senate hopeful Trey Grayson, whose campaign strategy -- declare himself the frontrunner absent any evidence and then ride a sea of blathering support from every smug prick in the GOP establishment to victory -- finally got mugged by the reality that every shrewd observer knew was laying in wait.

<snip>

Bad night for Grayson backer Mitch McConnell, I guess? I'm not sure how last night was different from any other night in McConnell's life, but that's what the media will say happened. They surely will forget, as quickly as possible, that their darling dear Dick Cheney backed the wrong horse -- and very specifically cast Grayson as the choice for Cheneyism.

<snip>

Speaking of the sad tramps of Acelastan, can we talk about Arlen Specter, whose election night failure will do wonders for Dutch Cleanser futures? Specter had the support of just about every light in the Pennsylvania political firmament. Their bland support for Senator Weathervane was fittingly captured by MSNBC's Chris Matthews who -- when he's not lodging patrician complaints about the quality of DC civil servants and their snowplow efforts -- likes to pretend that he's the avatar of middle-class Pennsylvania, forged in the Centralia coal fire. Yesterday afternoon, Matthews gushed to Specter, "You're the first person I ever voted for!"

<snip>

Of course, if it was a bad night for the White House political operation, the end result wasn't bad for the rattling ghost of 2008 Presidential candidate Obama. Lincoln was nothing but a perpetual drag on the agenda that Obama promised from the hustings of the 2008 campaign. And Specter? Well, I think this picture speaks a thousand words.



<snip>


So, yeah. Last night was a down night for incumbents, unless you were Ron Wyden (oh yes -- he won't be mentioned at all today on the cable news networks!). It was a bad night for the establishment, unless you were Mark Critz. It was a bad night for the left, unless you were Joe Sestak, Bill Halter or a Democratic voter from 2008. And it was a bad night for Trey Grayson. I have no "unless" dependent clause to add to that! Most of all, it was a night of mixed-baggery for the purveyors of conventional wisdom, who just couldn't seem to manage to get their kites very high in the air. It's tough to do when you have no idea which way the wind is blowing.

:patriot: :rofl: :thumbsup:

[kenfrequed]

1. No one on tv suggested once...

Save possibly Olbermann and Maddow...


That there was a progressive undercurrent that was made manifest last night and the disenchantment of Democratic primary voters was an indictment against corporate controlled pseudo-centrist politicians that thought being GOP-lite was the way to victory.

No instead we got the memes:

"anti-incumbent mood swings"

or

"Obama could not win for Spector"

or whatever other right wing enabling pablum the mainstream delivers.

[Richardo]

7. They'll give up their narrative pablum when you pry it from their cold bankrupt fingers

[old mark]

2. Seemed to me that everyone was for Specter except the Democratic voters.

he won only 3 counties, one of them Philadelphia
(which is its own county) and this despite the support of the PA State democratic Party and the administration, althougo they seemed to get a little cautious toward the end...
I kind of expected Specter to lose, but for him to lose this big just makes me smile. And to see ALL the TV smarties deny they ever supported him makes me laugh outright.

The old whore finally goes home. Goodnight, Arlen-live long and prosper and shut the fuck up.

mark

[TK421]

4. Specter won Philly? that is a bit surprising to me ( and weird )

I never did have a chance to look at the breakdowns..just heard about a few close-call districts

considering the heavily Democratic population that is Philadelphia, maybe they just went with the whole "devil you know" philosophy? :shrug: but I'll take a gander

[old mark]

8. He won Philadelphia, Lackawanna and one other northern county I don't recall.

Sestak got all the rest.
Specter is from Philadelphia county, and the unions loved him...at least the union bosses did.

mark

[kenfrequed]

9. Actually...

The unions organized hard for Sestak.

[old mark]

10. I think it depended on the unions - Specter was a favorite of the

Philly area unions for many years.

mark

[eleny]

3. The media was all set for shouting "Congress goes Republican!" and "Obama will be a one termer!"

They had their collective teeth set for that. And then it didn't happen.

So their brains went TILT! , leaving them with sage words straight out of Ralph Kramden,

............."Hommina hommina hommina"...........

[BrklynLiberal]

5. lol Perfect....

[eleny]

6. Hey, straight out of Chauncey St!

:fistbump: