So as we watch this unfolding disaster, what are your first thoughts?

[EEO]

We've already hit the iceberg. We are just waiting to see how many compartments are going to be filled with water.

[MaggieD]

1. My first thoughts are...

We knew this was coming. My chief disgust is that Skinner created Discussionsit to give right wing nuts a place to taunt Dems and dance on our graves. Thanks for asking.

[msongs]

2. well the president puts bipartisanship above most other things, so he gets his wish nt

[EEO]

16. Be careful what you wish for. The Republicans are already singing the impeachment song...

Not that they can hope for success in such an endeavor. But they can create quite the spectacle out of it for the next two years.

[kairos12]

42. Impeachment. You can book that spectacle. Loaves of bread and gladiator combat for the

teahaddists.

[Myrina]

47. ... and if they get it, we get President Biden. Not President Cruz.

The Nutters don't seem to realize that if they do 'win' impeachment, they don't get to choose Obama's replacement.
Biden becomes Prez. And that little push of incumbency may do him good in 2016, if he manages to get some things accomplished while he's in that office.

So, let 'em have at it. All they'll do is make asses of themselves like they did during the Clinton Impeachment fiasco in 1997/98.

[EEO]

50. I would actually love to see Biden as president. He was my horse in the 2008 race.

Before it became a two horse race. He says things off the cuff, but would make an excellent president. No appeasing the crazy Republican right.

[Myrina]

55. I agree.

We really need someone in the White House who's going to call a GOP asshole, a GOP asshole instead of always trying to 'take the high ground'. Those crazy Right Wing Kochsuckers wouldn't know the high ground if it slapped 'em in the head. We need someone who's willing to get down in the gutters with them and throw a few punches. Smokin' Joe would do that.

[Cosmocat]

37. Congratuations for doing the republicans job

Yes, it is Barrack Obama's fault the republicans are jackasses and democrats are spineless cowards ...

So, yes, do the republican's bidding in negatively framing the democratic party's leader and by extension all things democrat.

[CAG]

3. My thought: its time for democratic politicians to grow a spine and praise the

economic recovery that the democratic president has delivered, praise the healthcare system that now has controllable costs and greater access thanks to the democratic president, and praise the fact that people's 401K's are quite healthy thanks to the democratic president.

[EEO]

6. I think if liberal policies and socialism were spelled out in really dumbed down ways...

the Democratic candidates would do well (if they are true liberals). Most Americans are woefully ignorant.

[CAG]

8. Not ignorant, just gullible. Never underestimate the power of the propaganda of the rich

[Politicalboi]

7. They should have done that THIS time

But they all ran away from Obama.

[workinclasszero]

11. Totally agree!

I'm sick of yellow democrats! The damned republicans are in attack mode 24/7 365 ALWAYS!

GROW A SPINE democrats or 2016 will be THE DEATH of this country!!!!

Welcome the hate of reich wing baggers just like FDR did and rule America for a generation dammit!!!!

[Cosmocat]

38. FIN A

Just surreal ...

Bush I allows 9-11 to happen and gets re-elected because HE KEPT US SAFE!

This president does a decent job cleaning up Bush's mess and things are not great, but better, but he is framed as the worst human being in the history of man kind.

Democrats need to look at themselves REALLY hard here ...

[napi21]

4. My first thought is "If my son still lived Italy I'd MOVE THERE!

Yes their President was crooked, but all he did was take bribes, he didn't harm the people!

I wonder if Canada is still letting people from the US emigrate?

[EEO]

9. I may be checking on the Canada thing myself...

I am ashamed of America, its selfishness, and lack of foresight.

[LibDemAlways]

5. My first thoughts are that the idiots who

voted for these dirtbags will get the government they deserve. Unfortunately, the rest of us will have to suffer as well.

[EEO]

13. If voting was mandatory the GOP would go extinct.

[pscot]

10. Calm down

We have elections every 2 years. It's not the end of the world.

[EEO]

15. Can't wait to hear the nutters call for impeachment hearings.

Not that Obama would ever be convicted by the Senate. The GOP won't have THAT many seats.

[pscot]

41. Republican fail

I don't think they can govern. Obama hate and Ebola fear aren't much of a program..

[napi21]

23. It's the end of the Obama Presidency! nt

[BlueDemKev]

12. Two Things

1) Democratic voters have to understand that voting in midterms is extremely important.

2) Democratic candidates have to present IDEAS on what they'll do if elected. People are deeply concerned about our nation's problems and they need to know what a candidate plans to do if elected. We have to give people a reason to vote for us. It's not enough to say "Oh, our opponents are lunatics."

[EEO]

14. I agree on Point 1. On Point 2, their opponents ARE Lunatics.

And unfortunately those lunatics can win based solely on their opposition to the president and performing basic governing.

[BlueDemKev]

45. Of course they're lunatics, However...

...that alive isn't going to win us elections. We have to offer voters a reason to vote FOR us, not just against our opponents.

[LuvLoogie]

17. Here is my list

TPP will be fast tracked
Chained CPI
ACA funding will be gutted
Filibuster will be ended

[EEO]

20. A grim list.

Especially because it could all happen.

[HooptieWagon]

18. As long as we nominate GOP-lite candidates...

we'll continue losing, and have sizable numbers of Dems feeling apathetic and not voting.

[FBaggins]

35. AR/CO/NC/IA/KS/KY/GA

Those aren't states that a progressive Democrat is going to win in an off-year election.

[HooptieWagon]

36. Third Way didn't win there either.

At least a real Democrat would fire up Democratic voters and get them to the polls.
I had only third way dems to vote for, inc an ex-puke for gov. State and county party prevented any progressive from filing for the primary, including making threats. The loss is bad enough, but not having a single candidate to vote FOR made it far more depressing.

[FBaggins]

46. They all won six years ago, didn't they?

Also... I'm not talking about a "third way". That normally refers to a fiscally conservative but socially liberal position. Many of these states/candidates flip those two... and many are just moderate overall.

At least a real Democrat would fire up Democratic voters and get them to the polls.

By which you mistakenly assume that Democratic voters in deep-red states are not just as moderate as the candidates that they select?

I sympathize because I'm in the same situation. Hagan was no gem from my perspective (except by comparison to the alternative), but no true progressive can possibly win statewide in NC - absent a mircle.

Lastly... keep in mind that even if "real" Democrats would turn out in larger numbers, so would the far-more-common "real" respublicans who are scared by real progressives, but not so much by moderates.

I'd say that the bigger challenge this year wasn't that we had moderate candidates... it's that the Senate leadership kept those moderates from every voting on issues where they might demonstrate their moderate bona-fides. Instead they were forced into party-line votes on nominees (almost the only thing that Reid would let come to a vote) and they wrote their own death-ads ("X voted with Obama 98% of the time!&quot .

[HooptieWagon]

54. Dems haven't won Gov in Fl for past 5 elections,

and GOP has held legislature for even longer.... just won a super-majority (again). This is in a state in which registered Dems outnumber registered Reps by a million, and went for Obama, twice. . Republican voters turn out in droves, Dems not so much. State Dem Party keeps ramming corporatists candidates down out throats, resulting in either gagging when we vote, or a collective yawn when we don't. Haven't had an exciting state-wide cadidate in decades. "Third Way" State Party bears the blame, they are more concerned with keeping their own spots at the corporate feed trough than they are winning elections. Did I mention that a former State Chair was a GOP lobbyist? Or that DWS squashed progressive challengers to GOP congressmen, whom she described as "friends"? That's what we're up against. State Dem leaders view us as the "enemy", and GOP as their allies. Its like Rahm Emmanuel on steroids.

[Rosco T.]

19. Stupid people that dediced to stay home....

... or vote for an independent and punish the Dem's. Idiots.

[Arthur_Frain]

21. Honestly?

My first thoughts are that the American voting public is even more stupid than I thought, and there is no hope. I do not understand how anyone can look at the events of the past 20 years, at the positions the republicans have taken during that time, the absolute insane, vapid, pablum that has come out of their mouths over that period (all a matter of headlines and public record) and still pull the trigger on voting for these clowns.

Sad, sad, sad.

[cheezmaka]

34. I agree. Too many stupid people voting and ignorant people NOT voting

Here in Michigan the incumbent Republican governor put a tax on SENIOR CITIZENS pensions (in addition to hijacking democracy and union busting)! And somehow he STILL managed to get reelected!

[Cosmocat]

39. Yep

sadly I was where you were 24 hours ago - things went as I expected.

Just mindboggling, but as noted, this is par for the course in my adult life, which began with me being absolutely mystified how the people of this country smiled and enjoying having bullshit spooned down their throats by Rush Limbaugh in the 90s ...

It has, sadly, only gotten worse.

[FrenchieCat]

22. I left DU for a reason to begin with......

Maybe the Dem politicians running this time disowned Pres. Obama....

.....but they may have learned it from DU,
cause disowning Pres. Obama on DU has been the order of the day
ever since he got elected! DU was first on that one!

It is why I left DU after being here since 2003!

I saw the writing on this DU wall...and knew it wasn't going to help us one bit.....
and it hasn't, and it won't ever.....

[JRLeft]

24. I'm glad I live in California.

[FrenchieCat]

25. Me too!

That's exactly what I told my husband!

[JRLeft]

27. I'm hoping 45 passes.

[FrenchieCat]

29. Me too!

We all voted Yes in our house....

[JRLeft]

30. Same here I was sick of the ad with the lying doctor.

[FrenchieCat]

31. The advantage on that one, is when a person reads the prop.....

they will want to vote for it....

But hey, there's a lot of dummies in CA as well....
just not a majority, thank heaven!

[JRLeft]

32. Let's hope common is widespread across the state.

[EEO]

26. I'm glad I live in Rhode Island.

[hotrod0808]

28. My only thought is:

2016 can't come fast enough. Maybe if the DNC would learn to recruit true progressives instead of DINOs, then fund them, maybe we will win an election or two. Until then, we are The Chicago Cubs of politics.

[smorkingapple]

33. Dont underestimate Ferguson and Ebola in all of this

Re: ebola People were scared. When they're scared they vote conservative. That's just reality.

Ferguson shook up a lot of people. Didn't increase turnout on our side but you best believe it did on theirs.

This is why they tried to make Benghazi an issue in 2012, was only way to make Romney competitive towards end.

This got away from us from mid-Aug on. Repubs may have won but it wouldn't have been a wave.

[bklyncowgirl]

44. Don't forget Isis--that was probably the worst. Unfortunately...

Unfortunately the President's reaction to these events did not instill confidence in the small group of persuadable voters left in America.

Isis is a giant screw up of massive proportions. Would it have been better if Obama had armed the Free Syrian Army like McCain and Miss Lindsey have been arguing for the past year? Cut off aid to Iraq when its Shiite leader started screwing the Sunnis. Probably not. If nothing else the Islamic State would have gotten those cool American weapons sooner rather than later. The Free Syrian Army seems to be about as good at fighting as the Iraqi Army. Still going golfing after an emotional speech when an American is beheaded was not the sort of thing nervous people want to see. Who are the persuadable voters most likely effected by these fears? Unfortunately, as we found out in 2004, women. Who didn't turn out to vote as they did in 2008 and 2012, women.

Yes, he was right on the science with Ebola but he was wrong to not address the very real fears people had and still have about this disease. Sure, he's not a doctor. That doesn't matter. I'm from New York where mayors rise and fall on their response to snowstorms. I'm pretty damn sure that if any of New York's recent mayors actually got behind the wheel of a snow plow they'd create their own disaster and fast but we still want to see them sitting in their fleece jackets next to the sanitation commissioner, whose head will surely roll if the outer boroughs don't get plowed and fast. It's theater and yeah, theater is important.

I'm not sure what he could have done about Fergusson except go there himself and I'm not sure that would have been appropriate. A speech maybe calling for all to be calm and doing things to insure that the process of justice went on fairly, maybe.

Obamacare website debacle, sorry but who goes live with a website without testing it? If your opponent's argument is that government can't do anything right handing them an issue on a silver platter doesn't help.

As much as I like President Obama and as smart as he is, he seems to be lacking in what the trendy pop-psych types term emotional intelligence. We all hated Maureen Dowd calling him Spock, but to be honest, the name fits. He's a logical sort of guy and not very good at feigning empathy for other people's irrational fears. Now I'd prefer having Spock on the deck of the Enterprise over the hyperbolic Dr. McCoy but the guy who I really want running the ship is Captain Kirk, the guy who is smart but who has emotions and understands that other people may not see things through a logical lens. The ability to emote on cue is important for a modern politician. It's no mistake that one of the most politically successful presidents in the modern era was Reagan, a professional actor. Bill Clinton too has this skill. Barak Obama does not do 'emote'. Hopefully after this butt kicking he can learn.

[kydo]

40. first thoughts; apathy kills, money is king, and we are now officially the uca

united corporations of America. Democracy in the USA ended in nov of 2000. It died last night. Yeah rich conservative old white people will eventually be the minority. But their idiotic system will endure much longer. Its going to be a miserable 2 years and really rough six years. I feel sorry for the President. I feel sorry for my fellow Floridians, gawd we are stuck with a monster as a leader. He will run this state even further into the ground. When things turn to mega shit on these idiots they will only have them selves to blame. It ain't Obama's fault, he doesn't have any influence on the local gov. Stupid stupid people. Can stand in lines for days to buy cheep shit from wally world and iphones but could careless on election days.

[kairos12]

43. Dark Money and Disenfranchisement was the strategy and it worked. This was the warm up for 2016.

Rethugs know they can't beat Clinton fairly in 2016 so prepare for more SCOTUS decisions that open, what is left, of the dark money floodgates and more restrictions on voters. That is all they got in a Presidential election year. The Kochs can't contemplate this country run by Clinton.

[Myrina]

48. The Dems have to STAND FOR SOMETHING ...

... not spend their time playing nice & dodging & weaving.

Come out and say "Look you stupid motherfuckers, we're trying to get you jobs. And healthcare. And education funding. And fix up the nation's infrastructure. And here's how." And fucking MEAN IT. Not just wishy washy "compromise" bullshit.

As much as we hate the GOP and the Teahadists, they STAND FOR something. It's 99.95% evil, but they don't shy away from any of it.

[Awsi Dooger]

49. It's much easier for Republicans to have a wave election

That's my overriding thought and concern. The math works against us because there are considerably more self identified conservatives than liberals. And our voting base doesn't show up in midterms, specifically single women.

Consequently the other side has more margin for error. They don't have to be popular. If the Democratic leader or party is unpopular in a given cycle, the tilt is severe. That's particularly true given the new realities of campaign funding.

I warned about this on MyDD more than a decade ago. Chris Bowers was leading a push to cleanse the party by getting rid of moderates. I posted countless times on that site and elsewhere that is was an ignorant and incredibly dangerous strategy because if politics became more polarized and moved toward the extremes, then the GOP was the inevitable beneficiary. Their far right candidates have a much easier time feigning acceptable and fooling the voting public. It leads to a few percent here and few percent there and once it attaches to cycle after cycle you're swamped in bottom line numbers.

I always prioritize governorships. That's the foundation of a party, IMO. The current numbers are exactly what I warned Bowers the governorships would look like if we continued the push moderates aside.

[Todays_Illusion]

51. We don't have many Democratic in office in DC, we better stand big and loud behind them.

After all they are hiding this election theft on the lie they promoted the last four months, that we don't like our President?


Is this true? Do you believe it?

[fredamae]

52. My First Thought

is that it was too bad Dem Leadership has ignored the progressive base over the past decade. Clearly, if you look at local races, ballot measures etc..We are a Center Left Nation...but the pols (including Dems) tell us we're Center Right and That is Wrong, imo.

[RussBLib]

53. the Dems got out-maneuvered

fear
money
theft