When Republicans picked up a bunch of state governor seats from Democrats in 2010, the pundits were quick to say this would help the GOP in the 2012 presidential elections.
Or, maybe not.
John Avlon writes for The Daily Beast that voters are turning on some of those governors, big time. Gov. Rick Scott rapidly is becoming the most hated man in Florida, closely followed by Republicans in the legislature. Ohio’s John Kasich also is becoming more unpopular by the minute.
And note that both Florida and Ohio have been, um, critical in recent presidential election history. I also went back about a hundred years in electoral college history and never found an election in which a candidate won both Ohio and Florida but not the White House. And as Avlon says, no Republican ever won the White House without Ohio. (I assume that’s true; I didn’t check.)
Avlon also mentions growing ill will toward Paul LePage of Maine and our ol’ buddy Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
I don’t agree with all of Avlon’s comments and conclusions, but I do agree that animosity toward Republicans in state government could swing independents back toward the Dems next year. Heh.
Elsewhere — popularity for New Jersey’s Chris Christie is not in free fall à la Rick Scott, but his negative numbers are slowly but gradually going up. Women in particular are deciding they can’t stand him, although the tough-guy act still wins him points among a lot of men. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to take much to impress men, huh?
Christie won’t be up for re-election until 2014, I believe, but I still say that he could be a one-term governor. However, the Dems will have to find someone to run against him who is not a complete dork, and in New Jersey that’s not something you can count on.
http://wordsmoker.com/2010/02/22/preparing-your-pet-for-judgment-day/
OOPS!, sorry, I dropped that link in the wrong topic thingie…
I enjoy your blog and read often but rarely comment. But I had to on this post if only to rant about how infuriating it is to read this. I live in Florida and it took me all of 10 minutes researching Scott’s background to know he would destroy the state. Not to mention, I tried to inform as many people as I could of the same thing. So now most of the people who voted for him are having buyer’s remorse. So what? The damage he’s already inflicted will take years to reverse and he’s not even halfway done. So few people seem to “get it” – modern Republicans DON’T CARE whether they’re liked or not, get busted telling lies or caught in compromising situations, get insulted and called hypocrites or have recall efforts pursued against them. I sometimes think they don’t even care if they get reelected. Their sole purpose is to get in, do their best to destroy the parts of government that don’t benefit them and their ilk personally, then get out without a single backward glance and no sense of irony and go on to (or back to) insanely lucrative careers taking advantage of all the problems they created while in office. The only thing that surprises me anymore is that anyone ELSE can still be surprised by these people. (Present company excluded, of course, as you and no doubt your readers have been aware of this for years.) Please forgive my commandeering your comments section with my rant. It is just so frustrating and makes me want to proverbially slap people in the face and scream, “Are you ever going to get a clue?” Argh.
Oh, don’t be dissing Rick Scott..He bought the Governorship fair and square, so it’s his to do what he wants with it. The problem with Scott is that he’s not a politician, so he can hardly give a shit about governing or what people think about his governing..His goal is to entrench his own financial empire/network throughout the state of Florida in the time span of one term as Governor. Scott is not governing..he’s laying a foundation for his future wealth….Take a look at former Governor Charlie Crist who didn’t prepare for his future..He’s now working as a television pitch man for Florida’s most famous ambulance chaser
Crist made the cardinal mistake Swami, the worst mistake he could make – he left the Republican Party to run as an Independent, so he dissed them.
Had he stayed, he’d have a high paying Wingnut Welfare job for life, with another potential run for high office in the works.
And this is why the rest of the Governors don’t care. It’s not that tomorrow is the end of the world, A”Rapture Say!,” it’s that no matter how bad their state ends up, even worse than modern Haiti, they’ll have high 6 to 7 figure jobs for life.
It kind of makes you wish the world did end tomorrow…
Hi Maha, everyone!! Glad to be reading your blog once again….I was fortunate enough to travel home to Hawaii and spent the last 7 weeks there with my son and his family of wife and 7 little ones. I was without computer or tv as they are currently renovating an old quonset hut, so, nothing fancy like tv going on there. It was a week before I found out bin Laden’s fate. I have many, many blogs of yours to catch up with. I particularly enjoyed this blog as it confirms to me that people are ‘getting’ the Republican way. I just feel sorry for the genuine Republican leaders who do not participate in the silliness. Leaving a very Republican state like Louisiana to spend time in a very progressive state like Hawaii, with it’s new Democratic governor, Neil Abercrombie, did my heart good.
Looking at the prospects of moving back home, the number one problem is the rental prices…waaay too high for me. So, the decision will be whether to move out of my little apartment here to move in with the family in Makaha. A dilemma I have not begun to think about yet. The Mississippi is rising but won’t be damaging much here in BR.
I hear you PattiP!! It’s how I felt all the time before I discovered this blog….and I do not comment very often either…everyone here says it so beautifully. I have truly missed you all…..Aloha Kakou!!
The Borg have anticipated this reaction among the inferior species and are busy implementing a counter response. Namely, voter suppression. Have been reading about the legislation the Wisconsin assembly is ramming through before the citizens of the Badger State kick them out, and high on the list is more restrictive voter ID requirements. Of course this is selectively designed to affect populations who usually vote Democratic.
Voter supression is all they have now, they’ve all ready showed their asses. The American people have seen first hand what they are about, and as far as I have observed, the American people don’t want nothing to do with them.
Voter suppression has been a centerpiece of GOP ‘reform ‘ this year in Florida. The first bill makes it much harder for a felon to get voting rights restored. OK. How many felons (liberal or conservative) are affected? The second bill restricts voter registration drives. The League of Women Voters will NOT be registering voters in Florida. That’s how bad that law is. The last one I heard about will curtail early voting. By half. This is off the top of my head from different NPR reports. No one in the media is putting it all together to describe the strategy of voter suppression. But it’s there.
At least here in Cheeseland we can recall. Six Republican state senators up for recall in July, along with three dems. So now the republican controlled state house is passing every lunatic right wing bill ever thought up by Rush, Sean and the gang. Voter Suppression, I mean, Voter ID, yup, just passed it. Conceal and carry, gonna have that next week. Walker will get recalled next year but by that time the damage is done and will take years to undo the damage these psychotics have wrought on our state.
Welcome back, Kathleen!
Yes, Kathleen, welcome home!
And buckyblue, the sad thing, even if Walker gets recalled, he’ll be a hero on the right forever.
So will Scott and Kasich.
And they’ll be the blueprints for future Repbulican Governors:
Lie about being a moderate, and then do whatever damage you can as fast as you can, and leave the Democrats to pick up the pieces. And if they can’t do fix the damage fast enough, well, another Republican will get his/her turn to do still more damage – unless the stupid people in this country figure this out, which with Rush and talk radio, and FOX, will likely be never in many areas.
Of course, somewhere on exhibit in the “Museum of the Hard to Believe” is the history of Rick Scott being partners with G. W. Bush in the ownership of the “Texas Rangers”. Rick believed in public investment then and the Rangers got a new stadium built on the taxpayers’ dime, which increased the value of the team a great deal. So, they sold and took their profits. This Galtian capitalism thing REALLY WORKS!
But, high speed rail for Florida is entirely different. Public investment is just a waste of money now.
On a recent trip to Florida, I got to talk to a lot of friends whose retirement will be adversely affected. Some have severe disabilities and meager pensions. As bad as it is, and as bad as it is going to get, people never seem to learn. The damage will take a long sustained effort to reverse and political will in this country seems to wither in the effects of sustained propaganda the latest twist on old talking points.
Let’s hope the Rapture does come, the Tribulation can’t be any worse than what the Republicans have in store.
Republicans are trying to actively suppress votes in this country.
First, they’re trying to shorten the election period in states that have early voters. They’re also trying to make sure people have appropriate picture ID, college students can’t vote out of their home state, and other things to minimize the types of voters who might vote Democratic.
The other thing they’ve been working on to suppress voters is create an atmosphere of disgust with government, politics and the electoral process, so that less and less people feel involved in the process and show up to vote. After all, ‘government doesn’t work,’ so why bother to go vote.
Welcome back, Kathleen! Don’t fight the Hawaii move! 😉