2009 Election, Health Care Vote and the GOP "civil war" in New York

Its been a little over a week since I last had the time to post, but it seems a lot happened during the week I was campaigning in Virginia for Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell. So here is a recap of what has changed on the political landscape over the last week and a half and the implications it has going forward, especially into the 2010 midterms.

In Virginia, Bob McDonnell, the Republican ticket (Bill Bolling Lt. Gov, and Ken Cucinnelli Att. Gen) and Republicans candidates for the Virginia State House of Delegates won so overwhelmingly on November 3rd that the election was called less than an hour after the polls closed. Now Virginia is a state that Obama won in 2008 and a state that Obama must win in 2012 if he wants to be re-elected. Virginia is also a bellwether state. And in this particular election democrats didn't get beat. They put their ideas and policies on the local and national level on the table. The American public has seen what the Administration and democrat leadership on Capitol Hill want to do. And in Virginia they not only said NO, they said it to the tune of a 20 point win by Republicans in Virginia.

A great example from where I was working. Loudoun County Virginia, in the DC suburbs, bordering Fairfax county, home to Dulles International Airport, hasn't been won by a Republican since George W Bush in 2000. Thats nine years of democrats running the House of Delegates in Loudoun and statewide and presidential candidates winning the voters of Loudoun. In this election Loudoun County voted 65% for Bob McDonnell and the Republican ticket. Even when democrats won Loudoun they never received more than 55% of the vote. This is a huge swing away from the "mandate" of Obama just a year ago.

Now switch to New Jersey. Where Chris Christie the republican candidate for governor campaign against Obama and democrats in New Jersey. New Jersey is just about as solidly blue as a state comes. Unions control the elections. In fact so much so that people usually joke that even though GOP turnout operations give Republicans a 4% boost on Election Day, in New Jersey it doesn't matter because Voter Fraud and stuffing ballot boxes gives democrats a 5% boost on Election Day.

This year even the powerful unions couldn't rig the election enough for Jon Corzine to win. The voters spoke in droves against the policies of the White House.

You would think that democrats would have heeded this message and started to move away from Health Care which voters who had a say on Nov 3rd, said they were against it. But no, Nancy Pelosi and Obama want to socialize America. So last night they hid under the idea that a win in the New York 23rd was a great example of the people wanting reform, Obama style.

So after a long day of debate, the House passed a bill that received 220 votes for and 215 against.

The baffling thing about all of this is the democrats total disregard for their own skin. Passing this legislation will spell the end of their leadership in Congress. Republicans will easily win back 40+ of the required 57 needed to get control of the House. And the senate will be even easier, especially if Sen. Lieberman (I-CONN) officially switches to and R.

Now it is very clear that Harry Reid and democrats in the Senate are keenly aware of the ramifications of re-election. There are several members who want to vote YES on health care but know they would lose any bid for re-election. And Harry Reid needs every single democrat to vote yes or he doesn't have the 60 votes needed for Cloture.

So for now we can hope that a capitalist American is safe. Reid wont hold a vote for quite some time, and when he does it probably wont pass. Even if it does pass the senate, the Senate version is so different from the House version that a conference committee will never agree. So for now we can sit back and let the senate once again be the saucer that cools the cup of the house.

But if something does go wrong and this bill gets to the Oval office, rest assured democrats will find themselves very quickly back in the minority in Washington come the midterm elections in 2010.