Jon Stewart describes Democratic Party’s midterm strategy as ‘D*ckless H. Chickensh*t’

[JonLP24]

Jon Stewart said on Thursday’s Daily Show that Democrats’ midterm election strategy, flawed as it was, had historical roots.

“It’s a well-known political maneuver known as the Chickensh*t Gambit,” Stewart explained sarcastically. “It’s named, of course, for D*ckless H. Chickensh*t — who, when he was asked whether he supported the Emancipation Proclamation, famously said, ‘Huh? What? Huh?’ and then had to pretend to be hard of hearing for the rest of his life.”

Senate Democrats, Stewart said, tried to play a cynical game leading up to Tuesday’s midterm elections: they got President Barack Obama to agree with their strategy of holding off on votes regarding issues like immigration reform and the Keystone XL pipeline so that they could score political points by either ripping the issue or ripping Obama for the delay.

#t=170

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/11/jon-stewart-describes-democratic-partys-midterm-strategy-as-dckless-h-chickensht/

[BarackTheVote]

1. I'd love to see John Stewart as a campaign manager n/t

[INdemo]

35. Lets face it Democrats did this in 2010 2012 and now 2014 and

they say oh well we will just keep our mouth shut and we'll get 'em in 2016 and guess what they will get their ass kicked then because Democrats are about to nominate a candidate that eats from the same trough (Corporate campaign finance) as do the the real Republicans that actually declare their party.

[liberal N proud]

2. Hope someone in the Democratic leadership was listening

[KG]

3. of course not. why should they? losing has no adverse consequences for the careerists

they got stomped and nobody lost their jobs or has the dignity to resign.

[zeemike]

14. Well sure losing has an advantage.

Because once you are out as a politician you can then go make some real money as a lobbyist or sit on the board of some big company and make some real money.
You are unlikely to see one of those who lost fall into poverty.

[roguevalley]

27. first step, kick debbie what's her name out of the chairmanship and hire howard dean.

[rhett o rick]

38. You are making an assumption that they are not ok with the results of the election.

The Democratic leadership works for the same Ruling Oligarchs as the Republicans.

[okieinpain]

40. lol you sound like my oldest son. n/t.

[rhett o rick]

44. But you still believe the Emperor has clothes on. Will you feel the same

when the TPP gets fast-tracked right up our nose?

[HoosierCowboy]

4. Take a look at the Democrats that lost

With few exceptions they could be described as "Invertebrate DINOS for Business as Usual".

Candidates that couldn't stand up for basic principles of the Party and the President shouldn't get Democratic votes, that simple.

Most were elected in 2008 on Obamas coat tails in states not typically Democratic to begin with. Most voted with republicans while in office.

This was a culling of the Invertebrate DINOS.

[Marr]

57. +1

[Adrahil]

5. Stewart is right.

I don't get why people think Democrats can get elected by pretending to not be Democrats.

[ReRe]

8. [phone]

[Moondog]

32. Exactly.

People aren't stupid, and voters aren't blind.

[Demeter]

6. Jon should get a Pulitzer for that, or at least a DUZY

[blackspade]

7. Another Stewart slam dunk

[DinahMoeHum]

9. Agreed, sadly.

At least at the national level.

[dawg]

10. It's easy for us today to look back on history ....

and criticize Senator Chickenshit and the people who voted him into office. But you should have seen the guy who was running against him. Chickenshit was clearly the lesser of the two evils.

[BenzoDia]

17. lol!

[pa28]

25. Hahahahaha

[Maedhros]

36. Elect Chickenshit, get Chickenshit policy. [n/t]

[uponit7771]

45. +1

[Jackpine Radical]

61. That's ol' Dickless on the right.

[ctsnowman]

11. Nailed it.

[Mass]

12. hard not to agree with that. And sadly, we continue.

Party assessment of the defeat: voters are stupid. This is going to help a lot in 2016.

[turbinetree]

13. Issue

As democrat member of this party and a supporter of this party, it is time for this party to admit, that sometimes the politics has to take a back seat and you run on your accomplishments and the future accomplishments.
Our core values are to help people whenever we can and we need those individuals that will say what those accomplishments are to win, not every time, but you win.
We have got to learn to use or core values as a tactic ( Francis Perkins comes to mind in the FDR presidency and before) coupled with the fact what will happen if a republican gets into office, and that is to start in your city council, school boards, mayors, state legislature, governor , and then onto the federal level.

Maddow showed a statistic last night that was shocking, there are over 3,658 or more legislatives bodies in this country that are republican majority owned and its getting bigger, and on the democratic side it was less than 300, what does that tell you.
The trees are there we are standing in the forest letting this happen.
Gilbert , Arizona is the most conservative city in America and that town had three tea party hypocrites that were going or still in the process, going to rip pages out of a Biology book because it has abortion in the pages, this last election night those three board members were thrown out of office.
When people see what the issue is and what it really means we can win

Stewart is right in his observation of how democrats have become feckless, they have let the republican fear and hate machine dictate the terms, they go on shows that are so partisan already that when you have another republican debating with the democrat on the show the question is always geared to the republican response as being positive every time. Tweety's (Hardball) show is a prime example .
The democrat when in these formats should stay on message this is what we have done, what has your opponent done, nothing except spread fear and hate on everything, they have no answer, when challenged, none

[JonLP24]

16. Gilbert which is pretty much Mesa also received the same title

It’s enough to make one wonder: In the year 2014, can a major American city be—gasp—conservative? If you believe the results of a recent study from a couple of academic researchers at MIT and UCLA, you’d do well to look to the Southwest to find out. Mesa, Arizona, the researchers found, after analyzing more than a decade’s worth of public opinion surveys, is the most conservative American city of more than 250,000 residents, more conservative than such famously right-wing bastions as Oklahoma City and Colorado Springs. “On an overall basis,” says the boisterous Scott Smith, who was mayor of Mesa from 2008 until early this year, “there’s no doubt it’s extremely conservative.”

It might also be a glimpse of the GOP’s coming urban revival.

Squint, and you can see that Mesa is just one of several places where Republicans are creating a new model of conservatism for the post-Tea Party era, through an appealing blend of fiscal pragmatism and no-nonsense competence. Across the country, Republican cities are building new infrastructure and even embracing trendy liberal ideas like “new urbanism”—all while managing to keep costs in line and municipal workforces small and cost-effective. As the great, Democratic-run cities across the country—Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles—face fiscal calamity, America’s conservative cities are showing that there’s another way.

Most of Mesa, despite its growing population of more than 450,000 (making it more populous than Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Miami and Minneapolis) hardly feels like a city at all. Located some 20 miles east of Phoenix, Mesa sprawls in every direction; at nearly 140 square miles, it covers roughly twice the area of Washington, D.C.

Mesa’s sprawling layout owes much to its history. The area began its modern existence as a Mormon settlement in the late 19th century, and it remained a small frontier community for much of its early years. The town’s population only broke into five digits in the 1940s, when fighter pilots began training for World War II combat at Mesa’s Falcon Field and the Williams Air Force Base—and, equally crucial, when air conditioning became widely available. Because it only really began to grow quickly in the 1940s and ’50s, Mesa followed the classic postwar development pattern most famously embodied by Levittown, New York: miles of modest, single family homes in subdivisions, wide boulevards meant for speedy driving and shopping centers boasting ample parking. In sum, the bulk of Mesa is quintessentially suburban. As former mayor Smith puts it, Mesa attracts those who think “being boring is OK.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/09/mesa-arizona-are-conservative-cities-better-111069.html#ixzz3IOQAEqbw

Luckily redistricting helped the portion of Mesa I live in by represented by a Dem. The most common Mesa complaint is that it is boring.

[hopemountain]

51. agreed, turbinetree

running for office & representing the people on ego or politics alone is porous. most people can see right through the facade. unless you are like the repugs who lie, cheat, obfuscate & bribe.

[Eleanors38]

15. GOP strategy: Demos are Weak & Untrustworthy.

Now, we just do it for them. Willingly.

[Le Taz Hot]

18. THEY ALL LOST!

Last edited Fri Nov 7, 2014, 12:18 PM - Edit history (1)

The blowback from Obama delaying immigration reform until after the election pissed off a whole LOT of Hispanics in my area, which I'm convinced, lowered the turnout among Hispanics in this last election. Andy why? To appease a few politicians from the Gut-Red South and . . . THEY ALL LOST! You want to tell me how that Third-Way strategy is workin' out for ya again, or better yet, why we should move farther to the right (yes, people are actually suggesting this on DU)?

[Maedhros]

37. Having two parties is a horrendous waste of resources.

We should just have one. Think of all the money that can be saved from not having to run campaigns!

[WillyT]

19. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[True Blue Door]

20. For some reason, we prefer to elect weaklings to the House and Senate.

Strength there would be a lot more effectual in significant numbers than in the White House.

Congress controls the budgets, folks.

[kentuck]

21. Talk radio had clip of Jon Stewart..

...saying that he did not vote Tuesday? He said he was busy moving to another state.

Later, that night, he said he was being flip and apologized and said indeed he did vote on Tuesday.

But it was on right-wing radio which I listen to when I am driving. It helps keep me alert.

[AndreaCG]

26. It was in a CNN interview

A very bad place to make such a joke without immediately saying "I'm joking!"

[ChisolmTrailDem]

22. Every single word is true and I, for one, am ashamed of our Dickless H. Chickenshit

party and those we put forth as our "leaders".

Fuck all of them. Fucking chickenshits.

[joeybee12]

23. He's right...they never learn, though, and we'll see Mr. Chickenshit

taking the reins of far too many campaigns in the future.

[JEB]

24. Actual voters, average people, care about policy

( immigration, economy, fairness, clean environment etc.) much more than political gamesmanship. Fucking stand up for something. If they need a role model, look at Bernie Sanders.

[christx30]

30. Exactly.

Why should a voter get out of bed and go to the poll if nothing is going to change and nothing is going to get done?
Stand up for something, or you find yourself out of a job.
The GOP is pressing forward with lawsuits against ACA and abortion and getting stopping gay marriage. What are our leaders doing? Anything? Just more 15th level chess?

[Shoonra]

28. The Democrats abandoned Obama, maybe Obama should abandon them.

It was truly shameful how so many Democratic candidates (and incumbents seeking re-election) distanced themselves from, and even denounced, Pres. Obama.

Now that the Democrats still in Congress are mostly ornamental and ineffectual, it would serve them right if Obama distanced himself from them and embraced the Republican leadership as warmly as can be managed.

[maddiemom]

60. Tom Wolf, in PA was an exception (although the imcombent was highly unpopular).

Appearing in Philly (Temple U.) just before the election Wolf and Obama had a rousing welcome.

[LiberalLovinLug]

29. On a side note Obama looking weary

Is it just me or does he look increasingly worn down and grumpy.

I just hope, HOPE, that some of that weariness is an inner realization that his third way (more like 4th way) approach and shutting out the progressive wing of his party may have been a huge mistake. Together with his negotiation method of card playing of folding before one round had happened in hopes that the other side would throw him a chip or two, his catering to Wall Street and protecting them from prosecution, his appointments to high positions going to Republicans, his decision to only listen to corporate shills for advice in his inner circle from Rahm on down, and his laziness or fear of using the bully pulpit to explain the very real benefits of things like the ACA, flawed though it is.

One of the greatest orators in the line of Presidents ever seemingly refused to take advantage of it to actually explain his and fellow Democrats accomplishments. I'm sure I'm not alone in having much higher expectations of having a real communicator-in-chief for a CHANGE, after that brilliant "no blue states, no red states, but the United States" speech in the convention before he ran, and also the many great speeches he gave in his actual run and then the awesome election night acceptance speech.

As Bernie Sanders said:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/217668-sanders-obama-should-use-bully-pulpit-more

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sanders said while the president “has done some very good things” and “the level of obstructionism that he has had to face has been unprecedented,” Obama should’ve been more aggressive in using the bully pulpit.

“I think he should’ve understood from day one that the Republicans were not going to cooperate with him. I think he should’ve gone to the people in a more aggressive way” and issued a call to action for supporters of the minimum wage increase to descend on Washington, he said.

He “just can’t sit in a room and negotiate with people who refuse to negotiate,” Sanders added.


If he had been more "aggressive" in that way, even DINO Dems would have had to think twice about slagging him in their own ridings.

[navarth]

33. You echo many of my sentiments. kicking

[hopemountain]

46. and thinner. his suit

during the press conference was hanging around his shoulders. they flicked him off like a booger and they couldn't do it fast enough. fucking cowards. did they even once stop to think about the people who elected them?

[bigwillq]

31. Bravo, Mr. Stewart.

K and R

[samsingh]

34. we dont even put up a good fight

[LawDeeDah]

39. Glad Grimes is getting an earful for her fucking idiotcy.

Or her truly disgusting non thinking and following orders from some idiotic fucker.

[NobodyHere]

41. So if Jon Stewart was her campaign manager

and embraced everything Obama did, do you seriously think she would've won?

[LawDeeDah]

42. the winning is in what you believe in

losing with honor is better than losing as a coward.

does no one remember this shit anymore?

[hopemountain]

47. if she was that weak, someone else should

have been the dem candidate. furthermore, i agree with rachel maddow. something fishy about the polls showing her ahead of mitch only a few days before the election and then poof! he wins by such a large margin.

[LawDeeDah]

49. Yes, there is that. Election fraud, not voter fraud.

Coup d'etat, everyone is in it, except us.

[JonLP24]

54. Her worst defeats were suffered in coal country so it didn't work anyways

Should have embraced Kynect which is popular in Kentucky but avoid calling it "Obamacare".

[The Midway Rebel]

43. Yup. Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

In my area the Democrats got swift boated by their association with Obama and they just played along and did nothing to fight back and own the administration's success and hit back with the GOP obstructionism.

[Township75]

48. So was Stewart out there promoting his winning strategy before the election or is he only doing it n

After he results are in and he has 20-20 hindsight? Don't watch him so don't know.

[LawDeeDah]

50. He is not into strategery, he's into comedianery.

FYI

[Township75]

52. So he isn't seriously criticizing the dem strategy this election and really has no thoughts about it

[LawDeeDah]

53. He is not a strategist for the Democratic party. He is just doing his schtick.

And sometimes it's absolutely right on.

What exactly do you expect of him? I forgot your question/angst.

[whereisjustice]

55. And his twin brother -> D*ckless N Chickensh*t eom

[silvershadow]

56. It was a pathetic campaign. Someone needs fired. I'll say it again: Can we get

Dr. Dean back please? I'm truly thinking of leaving the party, and I've been a stalwart for decades now.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

58. And then they wonder why people won't bother to vote.

[Major Hogwash]

59. Jon Stewart didn't vote.

He said that he had recently moved. and that he didn't have time to register to vote.