red states rule
02-05-2011, 08:11 AM
The repeal vote in the Senate put the final nail in the political coffins of Democrats and set the stage for the US Senate to flip to Republicans in 2012
On Wednesday, in a 47-51 party line vote -- with Senators Lieberman (CT) and Warner (VA) not voting -- Senate Republicans followed their House colleagues in coming through with their promise to get a vote on repealing Obamacare.
Despite the rhetoric of the left, the vote was far more than symbolic as it forced some key vulnerable Democrats, including Claire McCaskill (MO) and Ben Nelson (NE), to show whether they stood with the citizens of their states or with the arm-twisting of Harry Reid and Barack Obama. In a vote in August, 71% of those Missourians who cast ballots voted to prohibit the government from requiring that a person purchase health insurance, the lynchpin of Obamacare's takeover of the American health insurance system. McCaskill gave those 71% of voters the finger and, I predict, sealed her fate in the 2012 elections, as did Ben Nelson whose state is 2-to-1 against Obamacare.
"Conservative" Democrat Joe Manchin (WV) also voted with the Democrats to preserve Obamacare, proving right his Republican challenger in the 2010 Senate race who said that Manchin's late-in-the-race conversion to being against Obamacare was a lie and that his earlier support of Obamacare represented who Manchin really is. A Rasmussen Reports poll of West Virginia likely voters in August, 2010 showed 69% of the state opposed to Obamacare, with 80% of those "strongly opposed" and almost twice as many supporting the state suing to block the law's health insurance mandate as opposing such a lawsuit. &%^$! the people, says Manchin!
In addition to hurting his own re-election chances (he's up in 2012 because his election was to fill Robert Byrd's unexpired term), it's also good ammunition for Republicans to use against every Democrat in 2012. Arguments along the lines of "see, you can't trust a word they say" and "they don't care what you want, only what Harry Reid wants" won't help Democrats retain their 23 current Senate seats up for grabs in the next election.
Democrats seem to believe that the 2010 elections were not about Obamacare -- and, by extension, that the 2012 elections won't be either. Although it wasn't the only issue -- government spending is also top-of-mind for many voters, even more so now than going into the last elections -- it was a critical issue; Democrats are making a huge error in thinking that repeal of Obamacare is just something Republicans need to "get out of their system really quickly," as Harry Reid put it.
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/02/04/repeal-appeal
On Wednesday, in a 47-51 party line vote -- with Senators Lieberman (CT) and Warner (VA) not voting -- Senate Republicans followed their House colleagues in coming through with their promise to get a vote on repealing Obamacare.
Despite the rhetoric of the left, the vote was far more than symbolic as it forced some key vulnerable Democrats, including Claire McCaskill (MO) and Ben Nelson (NE), to show whether they stood with the citizens of their states or with the arm-twisting of Harry Reid and Barack Obama. In a vote in August, 71% of those Missourians who cast ballots voted to prohibit the government from requiring that a person purchase health insurance, the lynchpin of Obamacare's takeover of the American health insurance system. McCaskill gave those 71% of voters the finger and, I predict, sealed her fate in the 2012 elections, as did Ben Nelson whose state is 2-to-1 against Obamacare.
"Conservative" Democrat Joe Manchin (WV) also voted with the Democrats to preserve Obamacare, proving right his Republican challenger in the 2010 Senate race who said that Manchin's late-in-the-race conversion to being against Obamacare was a lie and that his earlier support of Obamacare represented who Manchin really is. A Rasmussen Reports poll of West Virginia likely voters in August, 2010 showed 69% of the state opposed to Obamacare, with 80% of those "strongly opposed" and almost twice as many supporting the state suing to block the law's health insurance mandate as opposing such a lawsuit. &%^$! the people, says Manchin!
In addition to hurting his own re-election chances (he's up in 2012 because his election was to fill Robert Byrd's unexpired term), it's also good ammunition for Republicans to use against every Democrat in 2012. Arguments along the lines of "see, you can't trust a word they say" and "they don't care what you want, only what Harry Reid wants" won't help Democrats retain their 23 current Senate seats up for grabs in the next election.
Democrats seem to believe that the 2010 elections were not about Obamacare -- and, by extension, that the 2012 elections won't be either. Although it wasn't the only issue -- government spending is also top-of-mind for many voters, even more so now than going into the last elections -- it was a critical issue; Democrats are making a huge error in thinking that repeal of Obamacare is just something Republicans need to "get out of their system really quickly," as Harry Reid put it.
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/02/04/repeal-appeal