FiveThirtyEight.Com: Democratic Gains In Midwest Slower Than Needed To Become National Majority

FiveThirtyEight.com:

The Midwest is the swing region of the country. That's true in presidential elections, for sure, especially in what I call the "Great Eight" states; in fact, every winning presidential candidate since 1920--an amazing 23 consecutive cycles--has carried at least four of the eight Midwest states that border the Great Lakes and/or Mississippi River (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin).

Read the whole story: FiveThirtyEight.com

Comments

[beanchihuahua]

I live in Wisconsin and will happily vote for Feingold in 2010. I don't know if my congressional district can find someone to beat Paul Ryan though. We shall see..And hope.

[Dark Sphere]

Very true, Conservatives now outnumber liberals in all 50 states. If Obama keeps up his soci.alist agenda, there will be landslides in 2010 and 2012...At least Bill Clinton had the sense to go along with the Republicans (he implemented 85% of the Contract with America), so he would get re-elected.


http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/52602

[Shadow08]

Whats really true is your weak and sophmoric defense mechanism trying to explain away why you kids cant win an election.

CNS news, yeah right...(lol).

[postman66]

Been voting for 40 years, never saw Conservative on the ballot.

[DontFeedTheBeast]

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/no-to-government-healthcare

[Dbos]

Democrats have always been an unwieldy bunch. Philosophically they are all over the place, liberal to conservative.It is almost impossible to get them to march in lock step they are too smart and opinionated. Hence some say Democrats eat their young,I hope we are not doing this now.

[Dark Sphere]

They have too many groups to coral when needed...

[Shadow08]

All the groups came home in 2006 and 2008 to put you guys out of power and to change the entire face of the US electoral map. Our groups deliver, your group just whines.

[Chili4me]

Why would self-sufficient people need the Democrat party any way. When you work, produce and take care of yourself and your family Democrats have nothing to offer.

[DontFeedTheBeast]

they don't understand charitable giving - they think thats the responsibility of the government

[Dark Sphere]

Yes, libs love to bloviate and talk of how giving and caring they are; all the while spending other people's money to promote their "giving".

Libs are the least charitable; while Conservatives are the most giving...

[DaleR]

The picture of you in front of the capital building says everything anyone needs to know about you.

Let me guess, gun owning white male from a southern state?

[DontFeedTheBeast]

try using your own mind once, instead of borrowing others. it may hurt the first time, but you'll get used to it.

[Chili4me]

Correct, a place where democrats will never make any ground with their current direction.

[PengieP]

Oh man are you ever naive. Do you not think most of the world works their a$$ off and tries to take care of themselves and their families? Yet still most of the world is poor.

[Dark Sphere]

Most of the world is Socialist, they form of philoshy crushes the human spirit....just look at the inner cities...

[Shadow08]

Millions of self suffient people are democrats. The reason "why" is simple, the republican party is the party of hypcrorisy, liars, cheaters, false christians, greed, corruption, h a t e r s, r ac is ts, bi go ts, and, the party who never does anything when in power, other than create w a r s they can't finish or end, they create economic ruin, depressions, high unemployment, and they cater to the rich. There are only 2 kinds of repub lickans, rich ones and f00ls, and I'll bet you aren't rich.

Keep blowing the rightwing/insanerhetoric, while we continue to win elections and repair your mistakes. We prefer winning over making excuses as to why we can't win, like the gop.

PS. Thanks for the laugh.

[Chili4me]

Your welcome.

You never answered the question

[fredamae]

Let the "persuasive Mental Masseur's" begin gliding the masses towards "going backwards" Politically as a Country.

[madatrepubs]

What amazes me is the short-sightedness of so many. Independents who voted Democrat due to the bad economy have expected a miracle overnight. It does not work that way. Our society wants immediate gratification for everything. For people to turn around and now expect Republicans to have the answer..? Insanity.

[whit4brains]

I couldn't agree with you more.

[donttasemebro]

Faved.

[JayDubs]

I'm an independent and I still like Obama. It feels like it's the liberals who don't...

[madcat007]

I'm a liberal independent. I still like Obama, but I'm getting concerned with his tendancy to quickly back down to conserevatives and blue dogs.

[tigerakabj]

I heard that.

No president has gotten healthcare reform done in a century (even FDR) and yet Obama is closer than any one of them have been at yet he is being called a failure by his own side?

Same thing with the economy, the wars, etc.

People really thought he would walk into this crap storm of epic proportions (in fairness to Bush, some had been building long before him i.e. oil dependence) and change things overnight.

[Wilbur]

I live in Wisconsin. My state has voted for the DEmocrat for prez ever since the 1988 elections (yes, we Badgers DID vote for Michael Dukakis, something that now very blue Illinois didn't even do that year!). That being said, elections almost always are fairly competitive here for seats in the state Legislature. The Dems had majorities in both legislative houses from the early 1970's until the 1994 elections (debacle year for Dems). They never gained control of BOTH houses until just this past election cycle (2008). Similar situations occurred in Michigan and Minnesota. The Midwest is not as liberal/progressive as afre the East and West Coast areas, and probably never will be, given that the region has more rural areas than do the Coasts, and thus has more of a conservative base. And states like Indiana and Missouri have had GOP tilts in them for quite some time. The Midwest is not a monolithic bloc politically.

Wilbur

[Bettysdad]

Democrats control the WH, both sides of the Capitol, represent the majority of the population, and represent the states that matter.

If there are a few midwest and former Confederate states that are in play, fine.

Democrats represent real Americans; people with indoor plumbing.

[BigShotBob]

Every winning presidential candidate since 1920 has won at least 50% of the big midwest states. But yeah. They live in flyover country. Let's write them off. Good thinking.

[DontFeedTheBeast]

patronizing attitudes like that will keep the conservative base strong for a long time to come

[DaleR]

Please state republican base, not conservative base. The republican party of cut tax for rich and spend republicans have nothing to do with conservatisim.

[Social Construct]

All that statistical data convinced me of was that both too big to fail political parties have become just that: too big. Once a social institution becomes so large and entrenched in bureaucracy its priorities shift to self preservation and growth; its original priorities (ideological based social concepts) become secondary to self protection by alliances with other status quo institutions within a society. Citizens expecting any radical, meaningful and socially beneficial improvements from either of these sides of the same coin should consider that the RNC and DNC are more interested in gaining allegiances from a finite pool of politically powerful donors than providing for the true general welfare of this nation's citizenry.

[Chili4me]

Absolutely!!

[DontFeedTheBeast]

agreed

[frappe]

Well, if the Democratic party continues to foolishly compromise on health care reform when it doesn't have to -- when it seems to be far too willing to sacrifice essential and popular aspects of health care reform -- I wouldn't be surprised it they lost the District of Columbia, too.

[Prakosh]

Contact the president and let him know how you feel!

www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

and then call your Senators and let them know what you think. Don't give up on this. The battle is just beginning for health care reform. We have to make our voices heard loud and clear that we will not stand for any more watering down of health care reform and that we will not accept anything less than a public option.

[Luke3]

Add yet another news outlet for the liberal media. I think this is why Fox News dominates in the ratings. If you don't believe the media is liberal then go to UCLA's website and read the study done by the their political science chairman. He took a panel of 10 liberals and 10 conservatives and did a year long study. It is also important to point out that he did this study without excepting any money from anyone. His findings were, "a strong liberal influence" in our media.

[iswideopen]

Luke3:
Fox News dominates because they sell raw, rabid hatred to people who live on it and for it. No one will change them; they will die that way. As I type this, I am watching the news. In this area, employees (white) have had the gall to hang a noose in the workplace and the boss said it was "no big deal". This is a major company. The news anchor interviewed a white male customer and he said "this is shocking, we live in a civilized society for which this has no place". Good job, Fox News, et al. The employee is filing suit. Wait til the word spreads. Another one bites the dust, along with it's advertisers.

[frappe]

Your "strong liberal influence" is a figment of the far right's imagination. It's part of their perpetual paranoia.The far left sees a "strong conservative influence" in the media. And, given that only five companies own over 80% of the media, I think that it's clear that the media favors the corporatocracy more than anything else.

[viflyer]

Paranoid!

[DigitalAquarius]

Reality has a liberal bias.

[Prakosh]

Another right winger who doesn't know the difference between "accepting" and "excepting"!!!

[OttotheScourge]

General Lee confused these words when he surrendered.

[KidMohair]

Neo-klowns...(hint, hint, chili)

Need that to hang onto that lie...

it's all they have.

[Luke3]

I wrote that post very quickly. I find it very interesting that you attack my misspelling and not my argument. My argument is irrefutable. Except it.

[Luke3]

lol

[iswideopen]

And btw, President Obama did not win Missouri.

[smchp]

By less than 4000 votes. Will get them next time.

[Lee Andrew]

How many votes were needlessly disqualified, I am certain they exceeded the 4,000 victory margin - at least twentyfold.

[DontFeedTheBeast]

quit talking about things you know nothing about. i live in missouri and nothing remotely close to that happened.

[Gainsbourg69]

I have a republican friend from Missouri that was very proud of that fact. Missouri will go blue as will Texas. The baby boomers will last another twenty years, give or take, and the republicans don't appeal to very many other demographics. We'll rid ourselves of the republicans in my life time.

[Chili4me]

You don't know much about Texas or politics!

[iswideopen]

The republican party has shown itself to be in some sort of "southern style confederate time warp". It is 2009 and they act as if it is 1960. If you win on your "comeback", so be it. However, from what I am hearing, no one wants to be associated with you and your blantant racial hatred fear mongering. I've heard that you are becoming an embarassment to many Americans. I don't have to lie, just pick up on the "local town talk", as long as you are not in the south; they love you down there.

[Prakosh]

I think you mean "1860" not "1960" The Civil War was from 1860-1865! And as Michael Lind pointed out in his book, Made In Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics (2003) from the early years of the Bush Administration, the Republican party seems to be stuck in the 19th century. The racism is only one aspect of a party that as many have said is "wrong for America." Do they have support from the area of the country that has still not gotten over the civil war, a war by the way, whose history has mostly been written by those who lost it, and the reconstruction that followed it. This anger is race-based but it is not limited to this aspect of the Southern mentality. As well as this latent, and often manifest racism, is a strong distrust and hatred of the federal government and a resistance to taxation at any level. These are the three legs of the current Republican stool.

[Michaela1976]

I agree with you. The Southern Confederacy still cannot get over losing that war, so now the government, essentially the government that "won the war" is a terrible thing for them.

[KidMohair]

These people want to be the victim AND the master race.

They want to simultaneously excercise their privilege of being white, but if you mention that fact then you are demonizing them.

[Luke3]

This article is proof of this websites bias in reporting the news. I used to take huffpost seriously. I will no longer.

[viflyer]

Then go away, PLEASE!!!!

[viflyer]

If ONLY you had something to contribute?

[Lee Andrew]

Luke, Luke, Luke sure you did says he who has TWO friends.

[Michaela1976]

The go to the right wing blogs. What are you doing here ?