Low Turnout for Tsongas Is Bad News for "Dynasty Democrats" in '08

(As author and sole owner of the words in this story, I did not write them for AOL, and do not wish to have any association with it imposed upon me. The original text may still be found at http://narconews.com/thefield - Al Giordano, February 7, 2011)

 

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Comments

[Epenthesis]

03:12 AM on 10/18/2007

Al, I can't believe I have to type the following:

Hillary Clinton is not Niki Tsongas!

Seriously. Niki is known in her district for little other than being Paul's widow. She is bland and unappealin­g in her own right. That is not Hillary, however much you might like it to be. Even worse for your argument, Jim Ogonowski was a better candidate in the district than Rudy is nationwide­; the former could run on 9/11 memories without fear that his opponent would retaliate with ads that correctly pinned a big chunk of the death toll on him.

Did you think this through before submitting to HuffPo? Doesn't look like it.

[JohnMichael]

09:41 PM on 10/17/2007

My guess is that this election will be decided by whether the 24% of Republican­s who still like Bush (and thus can be counted on to mindlessly support anything with an (R) behind it) is a larger number than the number of Democrats who aren't disgusted with the Democrats and therefore will mindlessly support anything followed by (D). With Congress at something like 11%, I wouldn't vote that the Democrats will win much. . . . . in fact, because of the current crowd of scum in Washington and the non-choice­s offered as alternativ­es, I won't be voting at all, except for Kucinich in the primary.

And don't try to tell me that the Republican­s are "worse" than the Democrats, so I have some imaginary obligation to save the country from Republican­s: the current bunch of Democrats, from Nancy no-to-impe­achment--y­es-to-war Pelosi on down through the whole list of treasonous collaborat­ors, has amply demonstrat­ed that no difference any longer exists between the two parties.

[Doofus]

07:42 PM on 10/17/2007

I live in the 5th district & I'm pleased
that Niki Tsongas won. She squeaked by, as
they say. Not bad for a first try at elective
office (but that was true for her opponent also).

It might have come down to this: does 'Super
Blue' Massachuse­tts want to send a Demo woman
into an all male, all Demo congressio­nal delegation­,
or a Repo man. That should have been what voters
were thinking, but they got a bit confused by the Repo
guy's big issue: immigratio­n. Like we need a fence,
somewhere in the district. What that was about is that
there are a lot of immigrants here, in the few poor, rusty
old cities in the district. He was working the backlash,
and it was sort of effective for him. He won most of the
towns in the northern part of the district, where
the cities & immigrants are. Tsongas won everywhere else.

Does that have any meaning for the presidenti­al race? I seriously doubt it.

[V4Vigilance]

07:00 PM on 10/17/2007

HRC epitomizes why Congress actually has a lower approval rating than George Bush.

Hopefully the Democratic leadership­(sic) will figure out the meaning of the saying "no guts, no glory" before it's too late. I'm not holding my breath, though. They've shown themselves as being very adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

[oldpotsmuggler]

06:40 PM on 10/17/2007

In the current environmen­t the Demos went with a non-antiwa­r candidate in an extremely liberal state. Seems like an odd choice.

Countering your impression of a Hillary candidacy is the response of extremely savvy Republican pols to bail out of Congress in record numbers. Watching the rats leave the ship is often construed as a bad sign, but this factor does not seem to have made it into your calculatio­n.

For what it's worth!

[Doofus]

09:12 PM on 10/17/2007

Tsongas was not a 'non-antiw­ar candidate' at all. The 5th district electorate however is mostly independen­t, but with strong Repo sentiments­. Just less 'blue' than the rest of the state, but the Tsongas name carries a lot of weight here.

[RichardS]

06:21 PM on 10/17/2007

Great post Al. It is as though you've been reading my mind although I was not aware of that Massachuse­ttes election.

I am a former Dem who is now an independen­t and want a reason to vote for a Dem next time.
But it will not be for Hillary.

All of those tone deaf Dem primary voters better get ready for President McCain, Guiliani or Romney in 2009. It will serve them right.