In my book, it ain’t over until the Associated Press calls it. They don’t jump the gun, and they don’t call the shot wrong. Not saying that CBS and MSNBC are calling it wrong, either, just that I like to err on the side of caution.
That said, those two networks have reasoned that since the tally is 49.5 to 48.1, Fetterman’s favor, with 84% of the vote tabulated, and the remaining votes are coming in from Democratic strongholds Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, in addition to the fact that the early vote was overwhelmingly Democratic, that John Fetterman will prevail.
My reading of the tea leaves was the fact that Fetterman’s war chest swelled after the debate, when the GOP was crowing that he had lost the debate and the race, was what we should pay attention to. Looks like that was right.
11.6 million. Crudite. Who knew. https://t.co/TC3s6GlMQD
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) November 9, 2022
Fetterman said, “It’s official. I will be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. We bet on the people of Pennsylvania – and you didn’t let us down And I won’t let you down. Thank you.”
If Oz has conceded, I haven’t heard it. If he has enough class to concede, I will have some respect for the man.
This is a loss for Donald Trump. Bigly. Yuge. Even Melania liked Dr. Oz.
The pattern that we see tonight is that these key races are very close. It speaks to the issue of how divided we are. That is the sadness in all this.
Speaking of close, Warnock is at 49.45 to Walker’s 48.48 with 95% of the votes in. That anybody sane would vote for Walker amazes me and that 1,868,938 so far have, appalls me. (At 10:20 PST)
and it’s off with the wizard, the miserable wizard of Oz
Always knew in my heart that last night was going to be a mix between good wins and some heartbreaking losses. Good to see Fetterman is the former…he wouldn’t be putting out this statement unless he was dead sure. Unlike Oz, he has no interest in selling people snake oil.
Oh and just an FYI: looks like Warnock and Walker are headed for a runoff in Georgia. If so, find enough energy for one more month to help Warnock, I implore everyone.
I’ll admit to having bounced back & forth between hope and fear too many times in the past month, and settling on more of a maybe we can pull off holding the line but maybe we’ll lose some important ground. But I never really thought there would be a Red Wave. Or a Blue Wave either. I stopped watching election coverage on TV by mid evening last night for my own mental well-being. I’ve got high blood pressure and figured I didn’t need to overwhelm the capability of my meds to handle it! The fact is we still don’t know who will control either chamber of Congress. It’s that close. It shouldn’t be but it is and that’s disheartening to be sure. Make no mistake, if in control of either Republicans WILL act like it was a Red Wave come January.
So, we have a LOT of work to do regardless. However, in a year that by any historical standards should have made for the GOP taking over both Congress and kicking ass downballot the fact that things are this much up in the air offers tangible hope. For most of my life (and I’m a senior citizen now) Democrats have sucked when it comes to showing up for midterms. And convincing Independents to do so and vote our way. It might turn out to have been quite enough yesterday, but I’m not going call making it close a pyrrhic victory either. I think folks in our camp finally understand that it’s much more than about working our asses off in Presidential years and focusing on the federal stuff. I’m thinking back to 2004, and how I felt when Bush 43 won re-election. The morning after when I showed up at work colleagues kept asking me how I felt (and I lived in an area that voted Republican but there were more than a few folks like me) and my resolve was steel – and my reply was along the lines of “As of right now it’s time to get to work on 2006.” And I did. I’d like to think I helped inspire others to do the same, and knocked smarmy GOP asshats who expected a wimpy, whiny response from me back on their heels a bit. But for those who have forgotten, two years later we saw Nancy Pelosi handed the Speaker’s Gavel!
Yes, we had two more years of awful policy but Democrats didn’t get discouraged about coming close to unseating Bush and the GOP, but got their asses to work and made history. So if worse comes to worse in the days ahead there will be worse damage done by the current GOP than happened back then, but OUR response needs to be even more resolve and hard work than those two years after Bush was reelected.
Having said all that, a big part of me is pissed. At an America populated by huge numbers of whiny-assed selfish assholes. Inflation! Crime! That was the GOP’s closing theme. Our side did a shitty job responding to the latter, and not all that much better with the former. If I were back living in my hometown right now I’d be at Pleasant Grove Cemetery, standing at both my father’s and mother’s graves (they are buried in different sections – long and ugly family story) and apologizing to them and their generation who went through SO much more (including and especially on the home front with rationing and high prices) than the current inflation problem. That cartoon I keep seeing that’s got a mom & daughter in Handmaid Tale outfits with the daughter asking “How did you let this happen?” and the mom replying “Well, gas prices were high honey” hits the mark like a laser beam! We are a country that’s spoiled. Not all of us, as the election results are showing but we should have if not by comfortable margins kept things in Democratic control. Howe many Democrats stayed home because they bought into GOP messaging, and/or don’t want to admit it but are pissed about inflation and figure their vote didn’t matter or that maybe the GOP would do better – and didn’t vote?
Whatever happens in the end when all the votes are counted Americans need to take a hard look in the mirror.
All we had to do for these midterms, Denis, was fight them to a draw, which we effectively did. They, on the other hand, had to win-win. No room for moral victories on that side. So last night was a good night.
And we were ALWAYS going to have do more work after this. Yes, yes, it would be nice if a lot of us could go back to not giving a damn about politics but having seen the cost of that up close… A few days ago, I said that this is a fight that will go on beyond the scope of our lifetimes. Last night proved me right on that much. And for the things that matter to me, I’m ride-or-die. How about everybody else?
I remember election night in 2008, and that memorable gathering in Grant Park in Chicago. As always Obama was elegant and in so many ways he was master of the moment. Watching the crowd (and in the time afterwards) I felt (and it turned out to be true) that overall people in general were too caught up in the moment and either didn’t hear, or blew off a crucial part of what he said that night – that the real, hard work was just beginning. That it wasn’t just about that one election, but that the same energy and passion was going to be needed again and again.
He was of course right about that. But far too many people didn’t listen. There was one group of people who did and it was Republicans. Mitch McConnell was literally already gathering key folks in DC to begin plotting out how to ensure the failure of the Obama administration and make him a one term President. And they went to work with a vengeance. In just two short years they engineered a brutal takeover of state houses and redistricting that is still crippling this country. And will continue to do so through at least this decade! (Because in 2020 we didn’t work like we should on down ballot stuff – many states wound up with outsized GOP control to continue extreme gerrymandering and Congress – both chambers – were much too close which set us up for problems THIS year!) I think, or at least hope that 2018 marked the start of a change. As I said, we dropped the ball below the Presidential level but turnout this year was awfully good for Democrats in a midterm/off year election. Not good enough in my opinion BUT it looks like maybe, just maybe Democrats are on a wider scale FINALLY getting the memo so to speak.
ANY failure to get out and get out strong to fight the GOP in every election, no matter the odds is not only important but crucial. Even in state races way down ballot, EVERY race needs a good Democratic candidate running and campaigning. Even in hopeless races they can’t possibly win because it gets out votes that otherwise wouldn’t be cast. And you can’t gerrymander and entire fucking state!
That’s why I referred to the resolve we showed after 2004. But it can’t be just then or 2018, a now and then thing. It needs to be EVERY fucking election. Because I promise you and everyone this – the GOP/conservatives NEVER take an election off. It’s why even though they are the minority in this country and barely, if at all the majority in some states they have outsized influence! I can promise you, they will be out there in force in every future election for a long time to come. As you say, driving them into also-ran status will likely take beyond our lifetimes. But for anyone who wants to leave a country (and world) worth living in for future generations we HAVE to go all-out every single election.
It’s official…John Fetterman is the Projected Winner with 50.1%…OZ 47.4%!! Bye Bye Oz, it’s back to New Jersey with you! Josh Shapiro is the Projected Winner in the Governors race! PA done good!!!! 🙂
I’m glad some of these contests turned out well. Sorry to be a downer, but it still sucks to be a democrat living in Texas. The Dallas Morning News is saying that Abbott and company received a mandate and of course he will double down on Trump-like behavior. We’re still stuck with the insufferable Patrick and Paxton. Beth Van Duyne won and I’m not sure about Tim O’Hare.
As a recent escapee from TN, I get it. It DOES suck for y’all. The one consolation is that their taint remains contained for the moment.
Someone should have persuaded Beto not to run. He lost to Cruz for crying out loud-that should tell him he is not a viable candidate for state-wide races in TX.
And who would you have put in his stead that could have won, Spike? FYI: “anybody else” is a copout answer.
Texas is a freaking mess. I have a friend who’s a young woman down there (22-years-old) and I’ve encouraged her to get the hell out of Texas. She grew up there but emphatically doesn’t fit in there.
WAY TO GO MR. FETTERMAN!!! This is good thing.
I was not surprised Warnock and Walker are headed to a runoff. After 12 years in GA, I long ago stopped being shocked by racism, religion, misogyny and sheer stupidity.
Herschel was,a,UGA and NFL star. He could pick up a machine gun and mow down the entire Crimson Tide team and marching band and be found not guilty in court. Football IS part of evangelical cult, embodying toxic masculinity at its finest (or worst, if you consider domestic violence appalling). He is a,Manly Man™ who keeps his,women in line lie the Bible says to.do if they don’t do what you tell them to exactly as you tell them and when you tell them to.St. Paul has a lot to answer for when it comes to hatred of women. Sure,,Herschel.paid for a couple of abortiins,,held a gun to.his wife’s head, has nothing to do with several of his bastards,,but hey, he got Jeeeeeeezzzzzzzzeddddddddddddd (said I in my best imitation of a,slimy televangelist),so all is forgiven. Just like with Trump. Hypocrisy, they name is Southern Evangelical Christian.
What worries me is that the libertarian likely took some of the votes from Walker. In the run-off, those votes will break for him, not for Warnock.
Only in a,red state could an incoherent babbled who belongs in jail or a nursing home for his CBT because he is,a danger to everyone around him,have a goid chance of winding up in the Senate.
For all.those reasons, don’t count t him out. He could still pull.off a victory unless he tramples a Trump flag or shoits,Brian Kemp. His voters aren’t much smarter than him, and they hate,Warnock and the Ebenezer Baptist Church for its relationship with MLK. Never underestimate the power of illiteracy, stupidity, and hatred.
Conversely, quit OVERestimating them as well. Fact remains that Warnock came out ahead of the overall vote count, a total that is likely to get bigger in the runoff. You know, like last time Warnock was on the ballot. In short, this is a WIN in the making, so let’s act accordingly.