Childers' election to District 1 MS is a good thing!

[Maddy McCall]

The seat has been occupied by Democrats since Reconstruction, with one exception--Roger Wicker, who took the seat in 1995.

I know a lot of you want to credit Barack Obama's coattails for Childers' win, but the simple, undeniable fact is that this is a Democratic district that always has been Democratic, except for the Wicker aberration.

1873-1877.....L. Q. C. Lamar..... Democratic
1877-1885.....Henry Muldrow...... Democratic
1885-1901.....John Allen......... Democratic
1901-1921.....Ezekiel Candler.... Democratic
1921-1953.....John Rankin........ Democratic
1953-1973.....Thomas Abernathy... Democratic
1973-1995.....Jamie Whitten...... Democratic
1995-2007.....Roger Wicker....... Republican
2008-.........Travis Childers.... Democratic

This victory is Childers' and the people who worked tirelessly on his campaign. Please don't incorrectly attribute his victory today to Barack Obama. In fact, he clearly distanced himself from Obama, when Greg Davis tried to force a Childers/Obama association. See this:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Childers_distances_himself_from_Obama.html

If anything, view it as a rejection of Bush politics. Dick Cheney was here yesterday campaigning for Greg Davis, who probably would have been better off without the Bush albatross hanging from his neck.

[Occam Bandage]

1. It was a Dixiecrat seat that went hard Republican after the Republican Revolution.

It's always been conservative. Minimizing it as a "Democratic district" is grossly misleading.

[Maddy McCall]

3. You evidently know so little about Mississippi politics.

The only liberal Democrat to ever hold a seat in Mississippi was William Winter.

Gene Taylor is a Mississippi Congressman. Do you think of him as a Dixiecrat, too?

Mississippians for the most part are conservative in their views. However, your label of Dixiecrat is offensive, because you attempt to label Mississippi voters as segregationists...it's just not so.

[AllentownJake]

5. I don't know those guys from the 70s to the 1800s

Personally however I highly doubt they were pillars of the civil rights movement.

However if I'm wrong embarass me. I'd love to be made to look like a fool on this.

[Occam Bandage]

12. In your eagerness to play to race card, you concede the point.

The district was--and has been--conservative since Reconstruction. It was occupied by "Conservative Coalition" Democrats of varying pedigree, before being occupied by a Republican slimeball, and in the post-Republican-Revolution decade, the Republican party consolidated its control of former Southern Democratic seats. The capture of this seat is not expected for Democrats; this is not the end of an aberration. This is a major shift for the district, just as 1994 was.

[merh]

20. You forgot to mention that Congressman Bennie Thompson is a dem.

n/t

[terrell9584]

11. they had one Republican, his name was Wicker

The Democratic leadership of the Mississippi legislature for the most part, is from this same area.

The reason that Wicker probably loses in the fall is because and Cochran are from the same town and the rest of the state won't stand for it. Cochran is like a grandfather, Wicker will be seen as just another sign of NE Mississippi cabal domination. The Delta money is looking like it will be going in for Musgrove and Wicker is clearly worried about the coast because he has suddenly turned against the insurance companies, or says he has.

This said, I grew up on the coast, I have no use for this part of the state. But still, if anything is minimizing, it is referring to this as Republican territory, because it's certainly not, and anyone who knew anything about politics in this state would know that

[AllentownJake]

2. Maddie

Even in a unifying message of a democrat winning in a Mississipi district that was GOP for 13 years you have to pull the Clinton vs Obama crap.

Can't we just be happy democrats are beating the republicans.

[Maddy McCall]

4. Nope. I'm responding to the numerous posts...

...that claim that somehow Childers' victory was Obama's victory...

There's even one post saying that Clinton hoped Childers would lose.

Go scold that person, if you're worried about "unifying."

[AllentownJake]

7. Well

I'll say they are being half honest. They also tried to tie him to Nancy Pelosi. So it's also a victory for our speaker.
Can we agree on that. It's a victory for Nancy Pelosi and call it a day?

[Thrill]

9. Actually it is a Barack and Democratic Party win

They used Obama, Rev. Wright, Kerry, etc......And the guy ended up winning by 8 points. A race that polls had been showing neck and neck. This is huge. It shows that Barack won't hinder down ticket races. If anything he'll help more than hurt.

[terrell9584]

19. what you forgot is that

Childers came out, formally said he had not recieved an endorsement from Obama, and said it in a way that suggests that....he won't appear with him in Mississippi.

Obama will find that many white Democrats in the South won't appear with him. They will happily take the increase in black turnout he'll engender, but, they aren't gonna want to be seen with him in public.

Alot of those uncommitted superdelegates are southern white Democrats. If it was in their political interests to commit, they would. For example, Taylor. Taylor probably won't commit until the convention and given his maverick reputation, he may end up voting for someone who is not one of the main two.....to give himself political cover back home, even though he no longer needs it, he's now a folk hero

[Maddy McCall]

25. Maybe, if you consider people who crash parties as guests of honor.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Childers_distances_himself_from_Obama.html

Childers distanced himself from Obama. Clearly. Unmistakably.

[Leopolds Ghost]

30. Since Obama is the standard-bearer for the Democratic Party in 2008, it IS Obama's victory.

:shrug:

[Lannigan]

39. Jake

Ja is the correct spelling of "Yes" in PA Dutch. You might want to correct your spelling. It's been driving me nuts.

:hi:

[Thrill]

6. Bottom Line is it was a strong Repuke seat the for 12 years and now its not

They tried to use Obama for the third straight time to hurt a candidate and it didn't work. Thats the bottom line. And it also shows how much discontent there is with the Repukes.

[usrbs]

10. He did distance himself from Obama, and he is anti-gay and very conservative

But I suppose we can't get any non-conservative elected in such a red area.

Here's a link to him running away from Obama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE1oN4bYjyg

[CakeGrrl]

18. But it's the *association* that does the major damage...Wright?

It failed, and it's to Obama's benefit that the Clinton camp can't push the meme that he hurts down-ticket chances to the SDs.

[Maddy McCall]

24. No, because Travis distanced himself from Barack Obama.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Childers_distances_himself_from_Obama.html

[Condem]

8. Had nothing to do with coattails

Just a great win. Yes, indeed!

[BenDavid]

13. You cannot attribute this win by Childers to obama. For the simple

reason that Davis ran an ad showing where Childers said he did not receive any endorsement from obama, but the papers Davis showed in his ad made Childers out to be a liar.Truth is obama did endorse Childers and Childers ran away from obama.

But this was an ugly campaign for both men and now Childers will be seated at the Dem representative from District 1, Miss. These two men will go at it again in November. So, either it will remain ugly or someone will have the sense to run a more respectable campaign.....

Now all we have to do is get Ronny Musgrove elected as the new Dem Senator from Miss. to take Lott's seat.

[merh]

16. And if he had lost, you know damn good and well many

hillary supporters would attribute it to the Obama smears the republicans tried in his district.

[Leopolds Ghost]

31. Which is WHY it was a victory for Obama, and his brand as the party standard bearer.

Not to mention that the racist ads against Childers engendered big black turnout that Childers quietly focused on and encouraged, according to the NYT article.

Apparently Childers disaagrees with Maddy McCall et al. that:

"white working class voters are more key than black turnout in red districts."

(made red by the racism of certain anti-union segments of the white working class that do not belong in the Dem coalition because they are Calvinist, racist and anti-labor individuals whose machismo would never tolerate voting for Clinton in the fall.)

[Maddy McCall]

17. If we can get Ronnie in, it will be a major victory.

He's a friend of mine...I'll be working on his campaign this summer.

If he can beat Wicker, THAT will be a huge coup.

[merh]

14. Like Louisiana voters, the people in Childers district didn't buy the anti-Obama smear

you do know that the republicans tried to link Childers to Obama to defeat him, yes?

Mississippi Republican Runs Ad Against Obama
Updated 3:10 p.m.
By Paul Kane

Another Republican congressional candidate thinks he can get electoral mileage out of linking his Democratic opponent to the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and the controversies around his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Barely two weeks before a special election to fill a vacant U.S. House seat, GOP nominee Greg Davis has begun airing a political attack ad featuring grainy images of Obama, his former pastor and Davis's Democratic opponent, Travis Childers, who is running an unexpectedly strong campaign in a conservative northern Mississippi district.

"Travis Childers, he took Obama's endorsement over our conservative values. Conservatives just can't trust Travis Childers," the narrator says over pictures of the candidate, Obama and Wright.

-snip-

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/04/28/mississippi_republican_runs_ad.html

They didn't let the Obama smears stop them in doing what is needed by the nation, right for the party, not like some folks do around here.

[Shakespeare]

15. No coattails, but the anti-Obama ads certainly didn't hurt him.

Which, coming from Mississippi, I find very interesting. A very good result in MS, on a number of levels.

[Maddy McCall]

21. No, they didn't. He distanced himself from Obama very clearly.

If he had accepted Obama's endorsement instead of repudiating it, then I'd agree that this would be an Obama victory.

[Shakespeare]

22. LOL--so?

This wasn't about Obama's endorsement, and it really didn't matter whether he distanced himself or not--those ads were going to run and run and run, regardless. And this is at least the second (southern) race where the GOP has tried this tactic, and it's not working.

And you'll note I did NOT say it was an "Obama victory." What this WILL do is show the GOP that Obama is not a negative to use against down-ticket candidates in traditionally red states. And that is significant.

[Maddy McCall]

23. I'm saying that the candidate himself distanced himself from Obama...

The victory tonight was his alone.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Childers_distances_himself_from_Obama.html

[Shakespeare]

26. Why don't you go back and READ my first post on this thread.

I DID NOT SAY it wasn't his win alone. I DID NOT SAY that Obama provided any coattails. In fact, I very specifically said it was NOT about coattails.

I said the nasty (racist bullshit) Obama ads did not hurt him.

You want to continue trying to twist my words for the sake of argument? Don't. Maybe that's too much nuance for you--but I seriously doubt it.

[merh]

27. It was the democratic party's victory and the citizen's of his district

victory, as well as his, despite the efforts to smear with Obama.

Despite the efforts to smear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE1oN4bYjyg

Go to the links and see how they tried
http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&hl=en&q=Childers+obama+endorsement&btnG=Search

Folks didn't buy it, the smears, now did they.

If he had lost, you would be blaming it on Obama and you know it.

[uponit7771]

34. yeap

[OmahaBlueDog]

28. This is a good thing whether you support HRC or BHO

We took a seat held for 12 years in one of the reddest states

We've won 3 in a row in the deep South

Whether or not you support Obama, the attempt to create a linkage between , Pelosi, and Obama backfired

As you said -- Davis would have been better off without Cheney. They're even saying this in Freeperville.

[Maddy McCall]

29. Absolutely....

Thanks for getting my post! I think others posting in this thread go out of their way to not get it.

[Anderson Perez]

32. In fact, Childers distanced himself from Obama

He ran away from Obama like he was a skunk, after the ads linking him to the senator.

[uponit7771]

33. Homegirl you're using a link of what Childress said BEFORE Obama rebuked Wright. Nice try, but this

...is big and the down tickets aren't falling reThug this year because of it.

All arguments for not supporting Obama are gone.

[kikiek]

35. Thank you Dick Cheney! Way to go hah! K&R

[rodeodance]

36. K and REC

[cali]

37. You know damn well that if Childers had lost you'd be screaming

that it was Obama's fault from the top of your roof. And here's a fact: The repukes tried to tie Obama to Childers- and it didn't work. That's not just because Childers distanced himself from Obama.

[MethuenProgressive]

38. That traditional D seat was hijacked by the GOP, glad its back in the fold.

It isn't surprising that Barack Obama was an issue.

[merh]

40. here ya go

-snip-

Democratic victories would be a serious setback for Republicans. But it also would go a long way to reassure nervous Democrats, particularly undecided superdelegates, that Obama would not present a hardship to House or Senate candidates running in tough races.

Democratic losses would give Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton new ammunition to build her case for her presidential candidacy by questioning the sturdiness of Obama’s coattails.

“I think people want to know what chances we’re going to be having in November if Obama is the nominee,” said U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat who has endorsed Clinton.

“There are a host of judgments that superdelegates make,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who has not endorsed either presidential candidate. “Certainly a special election held close to a contested primary like this one could be very relevant.”

-snip-

http://www.timeswv.com/headlinenews/local_story_124015923.html