Senate Democrats: 'The Votes are In, and We Won'

People who stayed up late to follow the elections saw a surprising moment in Virginia's Senate race. Trailing by less than one percent, incumbent Sen. George Allen gave a "see ya next morning" speech instead of conceding. A few minutes later challenger Jim Webb took the mike at his rally.

Established etiquette for political candidates is to give the loser a chance to concede before making your victory speech. Webb began his remarks with an acknowledgement of Allen and the democratic process, saying that "we all go out, we vote, we argue, we vote."

Then he said something unexpected that was met with the roaring approval of his supporters: "But also I'd like to say the votes are in, and we won." On MSNBC, which missed airing Webb's remarks live, Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann reacted immediately with slack-jawed amazement.

This is how the game is played post Bush v. Gore, and if Democrats want the Senate they'll show they learned something in 2000.

Six years ago, George W. Bush emerged from election night with a 1,784-vote lead in Florida and was treated by the media as the winner of the presidential election. This was a dubious claim -- Florida's voting process was a mess and either candidate could have overcome that margin in a thorough accounting of votes cast. As days passed, Gore faced increasing pressure to quit pursuit of a recount, even from members of his own party.

This morning in Virginia, with 99.8 percent of the votes counted, here's the results:

Jim Webb (D): 1,171,813

George Allen (R-Incumbent): 1,164,767

In Montana, with more than 99 percent of the votes cast, here's the results:

Jon Tester (D): 194,194

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Incumbent): 193,179

When you factor in their respective populations, a 1,015-vote lead in Montana is comparable to a 7,046-vote lead in Virginia. Both leads are significantly larger, by percentage of population, than Bush's original lead over Gore in Florida.

If the media treats this election the same way, the votes are in, and we won.

Webb and Tester should be considered the winners of their races, not the candidates who are leading pending a recount. The Democrats have retaken the Senate. With every day that passes -- a recount in Virginia will take at least a month -- Burns and Allen will fall further into the same trap as Al Gore. There's no patience for a drawn-out voting dispute in our short-attention-span media. By next week, if the two Republican incumbents are still chasing votes, they'll be derided as sore losermen.

Politics · 2006/11/08 · 11 COMMENTS · Link

If You Had Told Me in 1986 ...

Trying desperately to find a silver lining in the loss of the House and likely loss of the Senate, rabid Republican blogger Hugh Hewitt writes:

... if you had told me in 1986 that 20 years later there would be a Republican president facing a 20 seat Democratic majority in the House and a two seat Democratic majority in the Senate -- and that the Soviet Union had collapsed -- I'd have cheered long and loud.

The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. That's a very weird use of the "if you had told me x years ago" technique.

If you had told me in 1986 that 20 years later the Democrats would retake Congress -- and that the St. Louis Cardinals would be world champs -- I'd place a huge bet on them and use the winnings to create my merciless robot army.

Sports · Politics · 2006/11/08 · 9 COMMENTS · Link

Election Prognosticators Expect Dem House, Tied Senate

The Drudge Retort's election prediction contest received 51 entries. Leaving out two impossible entries (the Senate will not end up with 0 or 227 Democrats), here's the collective prediction:

Average House prediction: 228.92 Democrats and independents

Average Senate: 50.53 Democrats and independents

Predicting a Democratic House: 44 of 49 entrants

Predicting a Democratic Senate: 24 of 49 entrants

Average prediction for Katherine Harris: 33.78 percent

Politics · 2006/11/07 · 6 COMMENTS · Link

Hallowed Be Thy Republican

During every election, the Wonders of Truth Christian superstore reminds locals that the road to hell is paved with Democratic politicians.

In honor of today's vote, here's the front and back of their signs:

Politics · Jacksonville · Florida · 2006/11/07 · 15 COMMENTS · Link

Election: Predict the Results, Win an iPod Nano

I'm running a prediction contest on the Drudge Retort today.

The Cook Political Report, Evans-Novak Political Report and Rothenberg Political Report have made their final predictions. What's yours? Before 3 p.m. EST, predict the total number of Democrats and independents in the House and Senate after today's election. The closest guess wins a 1 GB iPod Nano.

Anyone can join the site and submit an entry. When the contest deadline's over, I'll compile the average prediction so we can judge how closely the entrants are in sync with the actual results.

Politics · 2006/11/07 · 3 COMMENTS · Link

GOP Makes Millions of Obnoxious Robocalls

Liberal bloggers are trying desperately this evening to get the mainstream media to cover a dirty trick of monumental proportions being waged by the Republican National Committee: Millions of obnoxious automated calls are being made that sound like they're coming from Democratic candidates.

On their blog, the Washington bureau of the Chigago Tribune explains the stunt:

I have received a deluge of emails since last night from Democrats complaining about the flood of last-minute phone calls Republicans are making to voters in an effort drive down the Democratic vote tomorrow.

The e-mailers are upset about "robocalls" -- pre-recorded, automated phone calls containing anti-Democratic political messages.

The calls initially sound like they're coming from the Democratic candidates since they mention the Democrat's name right off the bat.

But they're actually being made by Republican organizations like the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Because the calls come in repeatedly to the same voters, Democrats fear the annoyed recipients of the calls, who often hang up before it becomes apparent that the calls are being made by Republicans, will be turned off to their candidates, blaming Democrats for interrupting their dinner or sleep.

Some people who have received these calls say that after they hang up, they're being called back 5-7 more times. New Hampshire has challenged automated calls coming to people on the national do-not-call list.

Joshua Marshall of Talking Points Memo has more on the story, which he describes as an "election subversion operation."

Politics · 2006/11/06 · 33 COMMENTS · Link

Crist Snubs Bushes on Election Eve in Florida

A weird thing happened in Florida today: Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist refused to appear with President Bush and Gov. Jeb Bush at a huge rally in Pensacola.

The Crist campaign is spinning this as a strategic decision to campaign in more competitive parts of the state than the solidly Republican panhandle, but he was scheduled to introduce Bush at the event in material released by the White House. Karl Rove is openly treating this like a snub:

On a tarmac in Texas where the president boarded Air Force One for the trip east, Bush political strategist Karl Rove mockingly questioned what kind of alternate rally Crist could put together that would rival the expected 10,000-person crowd that Bush was expected to draw at the Pensacola Civic Center.

The White House already had distributed schedules saying Crist would introduce Bush at the rally.

The Palm Beach Post quotes an unnamed Crist advisor who said the White House was insistent that Crist attend, but he rejected them anyway.

As of yesterday, only one Republican running statewide in Florida would commit to attending the rally:

Of the five GOP candidates for statewide office in Florida, only one - Senate candidate Katherine Harris - definitely planned to appear with Bush, while three - Charlie Crist, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, and attorney general candidate Bill McCollum - definitely won't attend the Panhandle rally.

Chief financial officer candidate Tom Lee had not decided as of Sunday afternoon, a spokesman said.

Crist, the state's attorney general since 2003, is Jeb Bush's hand-picked successor and has a 6-10 percent lead over Democratic candidate Jim Davis, according to all but one recent poll.

If his campaign thinks it's too risky to be associated with President Bush on the day before the election, the race must be a lot closer than those polls.

Politics · Florida · 2006/11/06 · 5 COMMENTS · Link

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