Rising Hegemon
Democrat Travis Childers picks up yet another former GOP seat in Mississippi, by 8 percentage points, in a district that went for Bush in 2004 62%-37%. As Eric at Talking Points says, it denotes a disturbing trend for the Republicans:
• The Republican strategy to tie down-ballot Democrats like Childers to Barack Obama has failed. Even in a district that Obama is unlikely to win, it doesn't appear that an Obama-based attack can actually cause real damage for a relatively conservative Democrat.
• The GOP is in serious trouble overall. They have now lost three special elections in what should be safe seats: The Illinois seat of former Speaker Dennis Hastert, the Louisiana seat of former Rep. Richard Baker, and now this.
• Dick Cheney's visit to the district didn't help -- or at least didn't help enough.
• Republican morale is probably going to be even lower now as it was before, as they have been reduced to 199 House seats, down from 232 seats after the 2004 election.
When could a visits by Dick Cheney ever help? It used to be most, but now I'd guess every STD is more popular.
No comments:
Post a Comment