President Obama and Democrats, "You have been put on NOTICE"

I agree 1000% with Markos over at Daily Kos and how he summed up last night's elections:

There will be much number-crunching tomorrow, but preliminary numbers (at least in Virginia) show that GOP turnout remained the same as last year, but Democratic turnout collapsed. This is a base problem, and this is what Democrats better take from tonight:

1. If you abandon Democratic principles in a bid for unnecessary "bipartisanship", you will lose votes.

2. If you water down reform in favor of Blue Dogs and their corporate benefactors, you will lose votes.

3. If you forget why you were elected -- health care, financial services, energy policy and immigration reform -- you will lose votes.

Tonight proved conclusively that we're not going to turn out just because you have a (D) next to your name, or because Obama tells us to. We'll turn out if we feel it's worth our time and effort to vote, and we'll work hard to make sure others turn out if you inspire us with bold and decisive action.

The choice is yours. Give us a reason to vote for you, or we sit home. And you aren't going to make up the margins with conservative voters. They already know exactly who they're voting for, and it ain't you.

I have a colleague who knew EXACTLY what was happening and not happening on the ground in Virginia, we decided that Deeds was a done deal. In fact, one field worker was not given the adequate resources to perform her job and was just told to "turn out the black vote". All I can type is "WTF" on that one.

People need to be excited, engaged and feel it is worth their time to vote for a candidate, let alone support a party. Virginia and New Jersey, the voters, especially Democratic and new voters were just not that into the Democratic Party.

Lastly, Barack Obama can only do so much. What we saw with the New Jersey and Virginia candidates were problematic, weak, and/or ran badly run campaigns from these Democratic candidates. Though the voters did not blame Barack Obama or as the media tried to frame it a "referendum" against him, the voters were clearly not happy with what was offered, even though Obama campaigned for both candidates. Just because Barack Obama says vote for these people, will not gurantee the base will come out. Voters right now are tepid and watching Washington, DC very closely, especially congress and don't like what they see.

The Democrats and Obama can play around at their peril. If we don't get a strong comprehensive health care bill and this econonmy start turning around, what we saw last night will be what we see a year from now for the mid term elections.

Voters just not into you....

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Let's talk about the cable desk clerks and why they are WRONG.

Yes, the ones who are on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc., who are continuing to try to dumb down the electorate, a.k.a., you and I, into thinking that what happened in 2 governor races is a referendum on Barack Obama, when every indication is that it is not.

But as Oliver Willis stated, "....FACTS BE DAMNED...."

I wrote a diary on the dismal campaign of Creigh Deeds. You know, the Democrat that ran for Governor of Virginia but was easily swept away? I questioned why he did not follow the Obama roadmap to winning Virginia? Why he did not come across as personable and make the issues about Virginians? If Mr. Deeds had any questions as to how to win, shit, all he had to do was get in his car and knock on the White House door, I am sure they would have been more than willing to answer his questions and help him. Deeds chose not to do that, thus we witnessed tonight, DEFEAT and roundly so. No one is to blame but Deeds himself. He chose not to embrace Obama, was tepid to any advice from the Obama camp and ran a very negative campaign. Thus his obituary has already been written:

In trying to figure out where Deeds went wrong, it’s a mistake not to look at Deeds himself. Even in a state lightly tinted blue and with several photo-ops with a still-popular president, Deeds slipped in recent weeks. For one, Deeds overplayed his hand on a misogynistic-sounding master’s thesis that McDonnell wrote almost 30 years ago, making it one of the central messages of his campaign, and a fairly hollow one at that. He also had several public slips, including a flip-flop on a question about taxes and an embarrassing performance at one of his big debates with McDonnell in Fairfax, Virginia. As election day drew closer, he waffled on how much help he wanted from Obama, wary of associating with a president who he figured undecided voters might be turning off to. When he realized he needed the help, his change of heart looked desperate, and by then the White House wasn’t exactly tripping over itself to help.

Touche.

Next, Governor Jon Corzine. And he lost. Why? One word, "economy". A word that will have the Democrats scared shitless into 2010 Midterm Elections if things out here do not turn around. But, the cable desks clerks who are chatting away will say, referendum on Obama. Again, wrong.

Corzine was in an uphill battle moreso than Deeds. His state, New Jersey pays the highest property taxes in the country, the unemployment rate is up there and people DID NOT LIKE CORZINE. This is a man whose favorability was in the 30s, so did we really expect him to win? For me, the only thing I could see is that New Jersey was a blue state and he would squeak it out, but not to be.

Republican Chris Christie has defeated Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine in New Jersey's gubernatorial race, NBC News projected.

With 71 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Christie had 50 percent of the vote to Corzine's 44 percent.

Christie, a 47-year-old former federal prosecutor, became the first member of his party in a dozen years to win a statewide contest in heavily Democratic New Jersey.

The cable desk clerks are getting it wrong and I don't care if the Republicans THINK this is a referendum on Obama, let them, they have been wrong about the tea leaves for the longest. But the cable desk clerks are wrong in ginning this up to be a referendum. How the hell can it be when Obama is hugely popular, across the board, even if people don't agree with him on everything? Including ME. That was Corzine and Deeds problem. Their electorate did not like them, listen to them nor trust them, thus that independent voter told them ADIOS. While the polling from Virginia and New Jersey states that the electorate has sent a clear message, this is not a referendum on Barack Obama.

It is cable desk clerks, like the ones we are listening to tonight, or have turned the television off from, that makes many of us just not trust shit that comes out of their mouths. And they call themselves journalists? Please, drama queens are more appropriate for this lot.

OK, my rant is over.

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