All the “no” voters were Republican. Nate Silver suspects the “no” Senators were more afraid of the NRA than of Latinos.
The Mahablog
Politics. Society. Group Therapy.
All the “no” voters were Republican. Nate Silver suspects the “no” Senators were more afraid of the NRA than of Latinos.
YEAH! Congratulations, Judge!
The GOP knuckling under to the NRA was playing to their base.
Losing the Hispanic voters will keep them from expanding their base.
No matter how you look at it, the GOB is base.
I think there is an overall strategy radically different from what Democratic congresscritters did in the years after 9/11. The Democrats were afraid to ever appear weak or sympathetic to terrorists so they enabled GW every step of the way.
Now we are in a period after the Economic Collapse of ’08. The reasoning of the GOP is crass, political and sound. Anything program that they enable or support that works, Obama will get credit for. They don’t see how they can score political points by cooperating on ANY issue. With as many things simultaniously cooking in the WH, they know mistakes will be made, and whatever it turns out to be, they intend to be on the OTHER side of the issue. In other words they can never win by supporting Obama, so they are going to kick him in the shins on EVERYTHING.
The most interesting thing to note is – some GOP Senators aren’t playing. I’m not understating the power of the NRA, but none of these Republicans needs to fear that he NRA will back a Democrat. A grooup of Republicans mutinied on the Sotamayor vote as a matter of principle and this will continue to play out. The GOP needs every GOP senator in lockstep – it only takes a few defectors on major issues for a bill to pass.
I don’t think that Obama expects a ‘spirit of bipartisanship’. He’s just leaving the door open for the occasional welcome GOP defection on key votes. That’s why the WH is not kicking the GOP in the shins.
Wow! I find that particularly scary that republicants are more afraid of NRA than Hispanic voters. What is wrong with them that big corporate interests are more important that their constituencies.
I’m for the American people who treat everyone with respect, these wingnuts are a blight on America and sure show us the “ugly” side of Americans. No wonder the world looks at us as if we are bombastic, bossy and just plain spoiled.