Politics Jon Ossoff's $23 Million Loss Shows Dems Have No Idea How to Win in the Age of Trump

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Denny Crane

Denny Crane

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/karen-...-to-lose-special-election-in-the-era-of-trump

SANDY SPRINGS, Georgia—After $50 million and a congressional contest bigger than some presidential primaries, the special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District to replace Rep. Tom Price ended up where it began, with the Republican House seat still in Republican hands and national Democrats still looking for a way to turn the resistance to Donald Trump into a victory at the polls.

With 81 percent reporting, former Secretary of State Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent.

From the moment Price announced he was leaving the seat to become President Donald Trump’s secretary of health and human services, the race to replace him was a highly nationalized, money-soaked brawl—a referendum, especially for Democrats, on the president in an affluent suburban Atlanta district he’d barely won in November.
 
No amount of out of state money and mainstream media promotion of this candidate was enough.

I didn't write this headline, and the dailybeast is a left wing site.

Finally asking the most important question (at the end):

But after $23 million, a candidate who genuinely ignited the grassroots, and a Republican president who may or may not be (but probably is) under FBI investigation and can’t stop talking about it, the real question Democrats need to answer is: What’s it going to take to win an election in the era of Trump?
 
Who Is Karen Handel, Winner of the Georgia Special Election? - The New York Times
https://apple.news/A0VqK-AXTSnq1SVa9OlmZXQ

Great spin as usual Denny. Handel did it by keeping as much distance between Trump and herself as she possibly could. That is extremely telling. Too, she barely squeaked by in a deeply red district. Yeah, we know, winning is all that matters with you, but it was a much closer race than it would have been if Trump wasn't in office. He hurt her far more than he helped her. And that's my point. Give Trump a little more time as President and the margins will grow even thinner. #winning
 
UncleCliffy'sDaddy said:
Who Is Karen Handel, Winner of the Georgia Special Election? - The New York Times
https://apple.news/A0VqK-AXTSnq1SVa9OlmZXQ

Great spin as usual Denny. Handel did it by keeping as much distance between Trump and herself as she possibly could. That is extremely telling. Too, she barely squeaked by in a deeply red district. Yeah, we know, winning is all that matters with you, but it was a much closer race than it would have been if Trump wasn't in office. He hurt her far more than he helped her. And that's my point. Give Trump a little more time as President and the margins will grow even thinner. #winning
Click to expand...

Hardly. She thanked Trump in her acceptance speech. He pushed for her to win.

She won the district by more than Trump did. She isn't exactly an incumbent running unopposed.

Turns out her strategy of linking Ossoff with Pelosi was the effective message.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/20/politics/georgia-house-results-ossoff-handel/index.html

Handel's victory showed that even with Republicans in power, the GOP's message in recent election cycles -- focused largely on urging voters to reject House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi -- remains potent.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
I'd rather have national initiatives, yearly nationwide ballot measures.
Click to expand...

Naw, I prefer the Representative system with the best available being selected by the people, not by the puppet masters.
Direct voting by the people would be a disaster with all able to vote the wrong way with no effort required.
 
dviss1 said:
Not sure that's constitutional. These "representatives" are supposed to do just that.
Click to expand...

1. The constitution can be changed/improved.

2. There was no way to conduct and tabulate such a system when the constitution was written. States have shown we can easily and accurately do that now.
 
MarAzul said:
Naw, I prefer the Representative system with the best available being selected by the people, not by the puppet masters.
Direct voting by the people would be a disaster with all able to vote the wrong way with no effort required.
Click to expand...

Things would be simpler with less pork and backroom deasl. No way there would have been a 974 page Obamacare ballot measure.

Also when you break things down into issues the look at things beyond parties. For right or wrong liberal California said no to gay marriage. Liberal Oregon said no to taxing corporations to pay for the poor.

It was the citizens of Great Britain that voted to leave the EU.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
Things would be simpler with less pork and backroom deasl. No way there would have been a 974 page Obamacare ballot measure.

Also when you break things down into issues the look at things beyond parties. For right or wrong liberal California said no to gay marriage. Liberal Oregon said no to taxing corporations to pay for the poor.

It was the citizens of Great Britain that voted to leave the EU.
Click to expand...

I don't think that last one really supports your position.

barfo
 
SlyPokerDog said:
For right or wrong liberal California said no to gay marriage. Liberal Oregon said no to taxing corporations to pay for the poor.
Click to expand...

Two very good examples.

Who puts this shit up for vote? Hell neither should be eligible for vote.
Changing the meaning of a word should not be something to vote on.
Giving a majority the opportunity to tax a minority for the benefit of the majority is ridiculous.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
I'd rather have national initiatives, yearly nationwide ballot measures.
Click to expand...

You know, I could go for this under one condition. Not only is the vote not secret, but everyone is forced to wear a badge that indicates which way they voted for the next 5 years or so. That way there will be some accountability for stupid decisions, and maybe a little bit of motivation to actually study an issue before voting on it.

Alternatively, there could be an exam before voting where you would have to prove you understood the ramifications of what you were voting on. And it wouldn't be an easy exam, either. Trump wouldn't get to vote on most things.

barfo
 
riverman said:
not fair barfo....nobody would see you wearing your badge in your basement anyway.....you'd have to leave the house at least!
Click to expand...

C'mon, get real.

It's not my basement, it's my mom's.

barfo
 
How about making voting compulsory? Australia does it. Maybe you get entered in the lottery if you vote.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
How about making voting compulsory? Australia does it.
Click to expand...

And if you don't vote because both candidates are corrupt and more of the same. What happens? You get thrown in the already overused US prison system?
Regardless of the penality, where does the $ come from to fine the people who exercise freedom of choice.

Stop trying to force corrupt candidates down the throats of Americans because "It's time for a woman president"... And there will be a turnout to vote.
(frankly I don't care if it's a female or male in office, to use gender as a qualifier or dis-qualifier is ignorant)
 
Rastapopoulos said:
How about making voting compulsory? Australia does it. Maybe you get entered in the lottery if you vote.
Click to expand...

Not voting is a vote of sorts.

Is "compulsory" one of your favorite words? I have problems compelling people to do something they don't want to do.
 
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/21/nancy-pelosi-fallout-georgia-special-election-239804

Pelosi faces growing doubts among Dems after Georgia loss
There's a lot of grumbling by rank-and-file members, but no leadership change is imminent.


House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats put a brave face on Wednesday morning after a disappointing loss in the Georgia special election, yet there is no disguising the unhappiness in the party ranks.

There is no challenge to Pelosi’s leadership, and none is going to happen at this point, said numerous Democrats. But it’s clear frustration is growing with the longtime Democratic leader following the extensive losses Democrats have suffered over the past half-decade.
 
The "great" Molly Ball.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...ia-ends-a-losing-season-for-democrats/531072/

ATLANTA—Around midnight, hours after their candidate conceded he had lost the Most Important Special Election in History, the last remaining supporters of Jon Ossoff took over the stage where he had recently stood. One of them waved a bottle of vodka in the air. Together, they took up the time-honored leftist chant: “This is what democracy looks like!”

Sometimes, this is indeed what democracy looks like: you get outvoted.
 
It was a gut punch to Democrats’ confidence, a reality check to the idea that vast swaths of the country were ready to deliver a backlash. And it was the capstone to a losing season in which Democrats failed to capture any of the four Republican-held seats vacated by Trump’s cabinet appointees.

...


But it was in Georgia, in this well-off, well-educated suburban district, where Democrats had focused their attention, in a much-hyped battle that attracted the hopes and donations of activists across the country. Though both Ossoff and Handel tried to avoid it, they were cast as proxies in the national partisan fight, with enough hype and money—more than $50 million, or nearly $100 for every potential voter—poured in to make it by far the most expensive House race in history.
 
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