Art offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist.
GET LIVE RESULTS ON NY-09 HERE.
11:30PM- 51PCT TURNER (R), 49PCT WEPRIN (D)
11:45PM- 53,47. Brooklyn is going huge for GOP tonight. Brooklyn.
12AM- AP CALLS RACE FOR TURNER. GOP WINS BIG- QUEENS AND BROOKLYN GO RED TONIGHT!
The results are flooding in from the special election we did not have to have nor needed at this moment. But thanks to Minority Leader Pelosi and the pious DNC former chair Tim Kaine here we are.
The district carried Obama by 55pct in 2008, so before the Obama folks online claim racism just remind them these same voters voted for Obama a few years ago. What has changed is Obama has become radioactive with a 31pct approval rating in NY-09. A district which also is 3 to 1 Democratic! Queens and part of Brooklyn comprises the district, a large number of Orthodox Jews live here who still usually vote Democratic as part of the New Deal coalition.
But tonight we have another body blow to t he Democratic Party and it is a VERY bad one. Losing this seat, at the heart of New York City, home to so much party history, will be terrible. Weprin’s GOP opponent Turner effectively turned the race into a referendum on Obama, his weakness on the economy and smeared POTUS on being “weak” on Israel. And it appears to have worked.
The seat has been held by Dems since 1923. And those who say “well voter shave no choice, they will vote Obama because the GOP is too scary.” Well tonight voters have shown they will go GOP even if they in the past voted Democratic. Time again for tough questions.
Appropos reading for tonight from Matt Stoller: party crisis.
In previous comments I have said that I can’t stand looking at Obama anymore. When I look, It makes me angry, angry for all the things that could have been. I feel ripped off, tricked, as if I’ve been mugged. I was sure that there were many other people who felt the same way and they would not mind getting rid of Obama as long as their was a democratic congress. But for the life of me I cannot understand what these people think they are gaining by giving the house one more republican; what have they gained so far?
fangio-im pissed! good lord help us. Queens and Brooklyn? Shocking stuff. We lost MA Sen, 63 house seats, 1,000 state lege seats since O has come into office. NYC is such a epicenter of things esp dem, progressive stuff. If O cant get the votes in 2012 much less now usually we would hear a mature debate on the issue. But instead we wont. Axe will ignroe this I suppose. My grandfathers are/were from brooklyn etc.. Disbelief the word int he Obama yrs.
ART;
Weiner’s district is heavily represented by Orthodox Jews. They voted for the Republican and against a Jewish Democratic candidate because the Jewish candidate was a member of the state assembly who voted for the gay marriage amendment and was targetted for defeat by Orthodox Jewish groups in the district. The Orthodox Jews supported the Republican because he was against the gay marriage amendment. In a low turnout election the Orthodo Jews were highly motivated and over represented in the turnout.
As far as Weiner resigning is concerned, It was Weiner who exposed himself, embarrased the Democratic Party, Liberals and Progressives and he did the decent thing by resigning his position. The Democrates can ill afford to have scumbags like Wiener in elected leadership positions in Congress.
Good riddance and the district will turn back over to the Democrats in 2012 as long as they nominate a candidate who does not have the moral values of an alley cat.
More than likely the district goes away in redistricting. There will still be a NY 9 but it will be a totally different animal.
On the other point, not having politicians with the morals of an ally cat, two words : David Vitter.
The GOP is energized like dems were in 08. GOP is having so many victories and a exciting open primary. And here is the Left stuck with Obama, a failed message at best and poor polciies.
Note- public hates Bushonmics. They punished Bush in 06,08 now punish Dems in 2010 and will do so again in 2012. Folks are mad as hell and keep hitting the ballot until remedy occurs. this happened int he Gilded Age period as well.
Volatile is the word- in the spring dems won upstate NY seat with hochul on medicare and obama then has 52 pct approval there. Now in NYC O at 31 pct approval and look what occured. who knows what will be anymore
In hindsight, perhaps Nancy Pelosi shouldn’t have called for Weiner to step down. He was pretty popular in his district. Heck, David Vitter is still in his Senate seat.
you’ll appreciate this piece, lynnette:
http://taylormarsh.com/blog/2011/09/democratic-self-loathing-puts-weiner-seat-in-play/
This is really incredible. Just incredible.
From a tweet via Howie Klein (a guy to follow on all things congressional):
As more Brooklyn precincts come flooding in, Turner maintains a better than 2-1 margin over Weprin. Democratic voters pissed off at Obama
Nancy Pelosi and the Dem leadership pushed Weiner out….they were also the same ones who pushed Obama in….these people are morons…so why should we expect anything from these idiots? They never push back on Obama’s Republican lite politicies….in fact, they keep proving what wimps they are. What were they afraid of by keeping Weiner? What sort of disaster was keeping Weiner going to cause? The only thing one would think these losers understand is losing. But clearly, losing big in 2010 didn’t bring any change to the Dem Party. So what does it take?
Keep in mind, Weiner was one of the few Dems who didn’t keep his mouth shut during the health care debate….He didn’t play along with leadership as they betrayed Dem values…He fought back…Think about it…who votes for wimps like the Dems appear to be?
A friend and I were talking about that same thing recently. That Obama & his people wanted Weiner out. Cujo359 made the point in a comment, too.
Pres. Obama just doesn’t get the relationship game. He’s positively clueless about it.
Yes, if you look at who has had “ethics” problems lately, you notice that just about all of them were people who spoke badly of the “leadership”‘s work on HCR. Massa, Waters, Stark, Weiner. None of them did anything that really merited being more than censure, and in Waters and Stark’s case there appears to have been nothing at all.
Go figure.
When those people were under investigation, and yet Pelosi took impeachment off the table for Bush (and Obama, too, effectively), I think it just shows how little accountability means to the Democrats in DC.
They’re corporate gatekeepers who get PAID to lose. Losing is their job.
In Obama’s case, his job was to win and then
1) Give all our money to the banks;
2) Bring the Republican party back to life; and
3) Kill the Democratic party once and for all.
Missions 1 and 2 are accomplished, and 3 is well on its way. As for 2012, his job is to make sure he wins the nomination but loses the general. That makes sure no real Democrat will get a shot, and finishes Job 3 above. Besides, 1 term is better than 2 ‘cuz he gets paid 4 years sooner.
So true. I’m not one for conspiracy theories but Obama and the Dem leadership do appear determined to lose. Every single Democrat who put Obama in power should be removed. And before we start calling the Republicans the idiots, especially the Tea Party, we need to look at what absolute fools the Democratic Party betrayers are. Where are these people from? The same place that ran Weprin as a candidate.
NY-09 has been on my radar screen for quite a while. Nothing reveals Obama’s parlous political situation than this special election. The vote was just what Obama did not need, a early referendum on his Presidency.
While demographic shifts have made the district less blue, there is still no reason a Dem should have lost this election with the NY Dem’s massive GOTV advantage. Ground game usually determines these kind of low turn-out elections.
But Obama is Radioactive, his feckless handeling of the economy and four wars of choice have poisoned the political waters. By not governing nor acting like a Democrat he is vaporizing his base. Obama’s obvious weakness in dealing with the debt debacle is really hurting him. When you give into obvious bullies at home, people wonder if you can be strong abroad.
That is what is behind the meme that Obama is anti-Israeli. Obama could convert to Orthodox Judaism and many Jews would still not tust him. The man has been tagged as weak, vacillating, and craven. No one sees him as a mensch any more.
I can only hope that the Democratic Party finally hits the panic button and gives him a Primary challenge. Someone with political heft needs to have a Dutch Uncle conversation with Barry. The man still does not care to understand that he cannot run the “no drama” campaign of 2008.
Taylor is noting that Obama is making the transition back to Candidate Obama. I don’t know if his political team understands that their candidate now has a record. They must believe that they can follow the template of Reagan; run on likeability. But Barry is not even a dollar-store knock-off of Don Renaldo. You always knew where Ronny stood, you always knew he had core beliefs. Obama, always ready to make a deal, has no such history.
I have no earthly idea how Obama gets himself out of the corner he has painted himself into. The once vaunted Obama machine, that had its political messaging under absolute control, now can’t keep its talking points for even one freaking day. That Team Obama could not hold Axelrod’s message for twenty four stinking hours tells you everything you need to know about how feckless and over his head Obama is now. Obama must be praying that Perry is the Republican nominee, because he does not have a prayer against a man as focused and disciplined as Mit Romney. I don’t even think that a vicious negative campaign against Mit will work; people will so want Obama gone that they will be willing to vote for the political chameleon that is multiple choice Mit.
If he can get passed the primaries, I really do think that 2012 is Romney’s to loose.
exactly! this is madness
I agree…if Mitt Romney makes it through the primaries…he’ll be the next president. The White House had better hope Rick Perry some how wins the Republican primaries.
That’s a point I hadn’t considered. To me, it’s insane that anyone could make such an accusation and get away with it, and yet Turner did. Mistrust of Obama is one possible explanation.
Mistrust of a man with a track record of selling out Cujo359. Jews got burned really bad by appeasers and have never forgotten the lessons of Nazi era Germany. They vote for mensches, not smedricks.
One last thought. With the results of NY-09 in, Obama’s jobs program is toast. Zero leverage for Mr. Hope and Change. Cantor will play Obama for the fool he is, getting concession after concession from Barry. Satire may become reality as this, http://goo.gl/mAlnT ” In Compromise, Republicans Allow Obama to Create One Part-Time, Job” becomes reality.
expect to see this crap on israel repeated all america esp in FL and PA. the gop made have found a way to link obama’s weak economic hand and fears over israel security to peel enough jewish votes to carry fl and pa in 12.
its hard to even try and say well it was weprin etc.. in the end obama had the rock low approvals in ny09 and weprin paid the price. recall how bush was a huge drag on his party’s seats in 06, 08. fear now is obama is the new drag this time for dem party seats..
Weprin was hand picked by the Dem leadership because he could be controlled. He’s supported Obama all the way. And Obama has the worst record on Israel of any President. (OK maybe he ties Carter, a real joke)And both Bushes were bad. It’s not crap about Obama’s record on Israel. All he has ever done is attack Israel as though the problems were all Israel’s fault. But as the absurd notion of an Arab Spring has shown, this is a nightmare unfolding, all due to the terrible lack of leadership of one Barack Obama, known wimp. And one success with Bin Laden won’t change the narrative. The Arab world is a mess and it has nothing to do with Israel. Maybe jealousy. Maybe unrelenting anti-semitism acquired during their alliance with the Nazis. Maybe the failure to give women equal rights. Tribal cultures, regressive 7th century laws with no reformation in sight…and he gives a speech in Cairo praising the Arab world….for what? No recession in Israel…strong economy…Yes, the Americans finally saw the problem when the embassy wasn’t protected….but like everything with Obama, too late. Too late jobs….too late everything…misguided foreign policy. It’s frightening when a leader is this weak and misguided. It leaves a vacuum..
Well, then, Congressional Democratic “leadership” better have a heart-to-heart with President Fierce Advocate and explain all that to him. I doubt they will, though, which is why I put the word “leadership” in quotes. They won’t even do what’s good for their own party.
Taylor, that is really odd for a man who plays the “go along to get along” game. Maybe that is what really did piss Obama the narcissist off; that Wiener was not going to play that game. I think I just answered my own question.
But the bigger question to you Taylor, how does any Pol get to Obama’s positon, the top of the heap, and not get the relationship game? Is that even possible? Only Dick Nixon had that handicap, and see where that got him. I don’t even count Carter, because he was an odd one-off created in the special vortex that was the immediate after effects of Watergate. Hum, special vortex that was the Post W era? Ponder, ponder, ponder; what say you?
Post of 14 Sep 2022 1:12 am was in response to Taylor’s “Pres. Obama just doesn’t get the relationship game. He’s positively clueless about it.” Clicked the wrong button; thirty lashes with a wet noodle for me.
Next year, when Obama loses the general election and Republicans make further inroads into the house and recapture the senate; you need only to look in the mirror, you have only yourself to blame. Instead of demanding a primary challenge to energize the base, you want to lean on the crutch of racism and the first African-American President as the sole reason to remain quiet. Politics is a blood sport. They shoot the wounded.
What happened in NYC tonight is one more coming attraction of the 2012 election. How many burning bushes do you need for it to click in your mind. America will not give Obama a second term, nor does he deserve one as leader of the Democratic Party.
Obama has poor judgement. He believes he can befriend Republicans in 2012 and govern. That alone requires a primary challenge.
These are not your Eisenhower Republicans; nor are they your Rockefeller or even Nixon Republicans. This is a Koch brothers’ funded takeover of the US government – an investment expense, if you will, to crush the middle class, their wages, and their rights as citizens. They want you to consider Obama’s race and hold back, so they can have their way with you. Don’t be used; don’t be a chump.
The stakes cannot be higher.
I understand and somewhat agree with you about a primary challenge against Obama…However, Dems don’t want a repeat of Jimmy Carter vs. Kennedy…it only help to further weakening Carter for the general election.
A primary challenge will not scare Obama in to finally acting like a Dem….the guy is seriously delusional.
Next year, when Obama loses the general election and Republicans make further inroads into the house and recapture the senate; you need only to look in the mirror, you have only yourself to blame.
tpaz – As a political analyst, not a movement progressive, the quote from you above is simply ridiculously off the mark.
What movement progressives like Art and others around here need is a mechanism for registering their displeasure, aka an organization with the clout to put the heat to Obama.
Is labor offering that opening? No.
Is PCCC offering that? No.
Russ Feingold refused to challenge Obama.
Howard Dean will not.
Many singular movement progressives are raising hell, but they need a vehicle to manifest an effective challenge.
Our politics is built on establishment parties. Unless a part, however small, of the establishment decides to break away to challenge Obama, if only as a sacrificial exercise to have a much needed policy debate, there is no avenue through which movement progressives can effectively make their case.
A House Progressive Caucus member could mount a challenge, but they are not. That’s the problem and where the fault lies. Because it’s been obvious for months that there are activists ready to join someone brave enough to pick the fight.
The last thing anyone should want is a suicide mission by rank and file movement progressives, who have been the conscience of the Democratic Party ever since Obama came into office.
I agree with most of what you said Taylor but with one caveat, Progressive have got to be willing to take Obama all the way down and mean it. They have to be like the TEA Party, willing to let the other party win just to prove a point. That is a very difficult thing to do to the first African American President of the US.
African American approval for Obama still sits at a ridiculously high percentage. That means a primary challenge is dead in the water once it gets to Dixie. All Obama has to to is pick up a smattering of guilty white liberals and its game,set match in SC,NC and other parts of the South. It is identity politics all the way. Racial pride is drowning out all other consideration; that and the Republicans have been such obvious racist jerks to Obama. Obama can play the race card to beat any Dem challenger to death, and not even break a sweat.
Granted that is not the only part of the equation of political cowardice the leaderless left suffers under, but it is a sad fact that does not get due attention. We got our post-partisan, post-racial, transformational President and now we have to lay with him. Maybe the results of NY-09 will finally have some brave soul screw themselves up for the challenge. The writing is no longer just on the wall, it is now on top of a huge building in ten foot letters of flashing neon. Barry needs a rhetorical beat down boys and girls, and he needs it yesterday.
I’m hoping that someone does an after-election poll similar to the done by democrats.org after the loss in the MA Senate race. In that one, the two things that turned off potential Democratic voters were:
1. the economy
2. the health care bill
I warned at the time that this was a portent, as did others. Didn’t do any good, though. They just passed the crappy HCR bill that the MA voters didn’t like, then they punted on the economy. Jane Hamsher commissioned those polls on a few Blue Dog congressmen that said that they were in trouble because of the economy and the lousy HCR bill, and all the “experts” could do was tell us how flawed those polls were. Then they lost big in 2010, and all the same people are still in positions of leadership. But to hear these guys talk about it, I and all those other people are the idiots.
So, I’d like to see another of those polls. I hope someone has the nerve to commission one this time. I bet that the voters’ first problem will be with the economy. Health care might not be the second-biggest issue, but it will be in one of the principal areas where the Obama Administration has been such a huge failure – the wars, the perpetual state of fear, the failure to regulate the banks. They’ve given us voters plenty to choose from.
Minor correction: it was Democracy For America who commissioned that poll, not democrats.org.
But, but, but, isn’t this just all Bush’s fault?
I live in an adjacent CD to the NY CD-9
In TM’s earlier posts on the subject, I had indicated that there was more than just Pres Obama and his Presidency involved in this. Machine politics, local political scores to settle and fight, and other issues. Pres Obama was an issue but I still don’t believe he was “the” issue. I still believe that and I will state that I would be surprised if the CD was not carried by Pres Obama in 2012. Once Turner starts voting against Soc Sec , Medicare and Medicaid it will go blue again. The Party machinery will make it so. Lets not overplay this loss. Despite polling suggesting The Pres is in trouble in NY , NY will stay blue in 2012.
Did the Dems deserve to lose this seat-absolutely , they kicked out a strong Rep in Weiner, then on the local level they played heavy handed machine politics and selected a weak candidate to run. This is embarrasing to them on so many levels you lose count. Not least of which as many have indicated that Nacy Pelosi refused to investigate the Bush Admin for crimes but was quick to kick out Weiner. Massa deserved to go , he basically admitted his very poor and questionable sexual behavior with his staff.
This to shall pass. This should be a wakeup call to the Dems, that not fighting and acting like Repubs is a loser strategy. start fighting for the middle class, unions, the poor, Soc Sec , Medicare, and Medicaid. This is a wake up call for the Dem’s in DC and Pres Obama to change course and not continue to go right, which is probably their thought right now, but to veer left, strongly. They’ll lose many battles but the have to appear to fight for the base. If not 2012 will be a blood bath despite the crazieness of the Repubs.
Stoller makes many great points in his article it is well worth the read.
I acknowledge I’m repeating myself, again, but as long as unhappy Dems and/or progressives / liberals look to Dem party leadership for drastically needed changes the two party system will continue trading positions, but not much else.
You all can analyze this win all you want, but, the fact of the matter is that the American public is not as stupid or mis-informed as the progressive democrats believe and they can see that your liberal policies do not work.
They are sick of being in debt, of prices for everything going up, for their retirement plans going to the pooper. Obama promised a lot and delivered nothing. The dems has the house and senate since 2007, got the whitehouse, and Nothing has become better, it is worse.
Liberalism doesn’t work and the American people now see this.
Obama is no Liberal. He is to the Right of Dick Nixon, who was a Moderate Establishment Republican with a dash of social Conservatism.
Obama failed by not being liberal enough; by cow-towing to Blue Dog Democrats and a Republican Party out to ruin him.
As for the other bits of the Fox screed, I will let a real economist and former Labor Secretary Of Labor dismantle all the stupid lies you have spewed in your post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8uf-ZXLABE
Now go back to FReeper Land where the kind of drivel you just spewed is seen as mana from heaven.
This is a sickening harbinger of things to come. In 2010 Obama’s fecklessness (insensitivity to the plight of most citizens and alignment with Wall Street elites) delivered many of the states into Republican hands. This has been devastating in my state, Michigan, where democracy itself is being systematically dismantled (Emergency Manager Law) along with education, workers’ rights, and what was a recovering economy (thanks to Gov. Granholm’s efforts). I’m afraid that in 2012, he’ll deliver the entire country into even worse hands than the corporate puppets that are destroying Michigan.
If there was ever a time when the principles and values of the once-Democratic party would resonate with the nation, a nation where there is desperate poverty and increasing anguish associated with fear and insecurity, it would be now. The failure of the Obama administration and the cowards in Congress to invoke these principles and values, and to translate them into action dooms us to a truly horrible future which will include the loss of the remnants of our democracy.