Obama pollster: GOP is trapped in the 1980s, ‘out of gas’

[jaxx]

Posted at 11:46 AM ET, 11/08/2012
Obama pollster: GOP is trapped in the 1980s, ‘out of gas’
By Greg Sargent

This morning I talked with Obama’s lead pollster, Joel Benenson, and he offered fresh detail on the campaign’s theory of the race and on why the President was able to win reelection amid such a bad economy.

“From the start, you had a theory on the Republican side: They were going to make this a referendum on President Obama, using the old Ronald Reagan question,” Benen told me, in a reference to Reagan’s famous “are you better off” line.

“But the American people were focused on, which candidate is going to make my life better over the next four years?” Benenson continued.

“Overwhelmingly, Americans viewed the economic crisis and recession as an extraordinary circumstance — not as an ordinary recession,” Benenson continued, adding that “the more Romney and Republicans tried to talk about this as an ordinary recession,” rather than a “massive crisis,” the more they seemed “out of touch and tone deaf.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum..._blog.html

The GOP is definitely living in the past....

[sandnsea]

"amid such a bad economy"

For most of us, since we didn't go off a cliff into a full scale Depression, our financial circumstances are exactly the same as they've been since Bill Clinton. When we hear all this terrible economy talk, it comes from people who are much better off than we are and didn't suffer at all the last few years. We don't know what the hell they're complaining about.

[cannae1]

Quite true, sandnsea.

What I think is saving the GOP is gerrymandering: the redistricting that came after the 2010 census.

Gerrymandering protects legislators from voters. It makes it very hard for an incumbent to lose.

[sandnsea]

(11-08-2012 02:10 PM)cannae1 Wrote:  Quite true, sandnsea.

What I think is saving the GOP is gerrymandering: the redistricting that came after the 2010 census.

Gerrymandering protects legislators from voters. It makes it very hard for an incumbent to lose.

I was looking at results for DeFazio. Art Robinson, lunatic extraordinaire, actually won 4 of the 7 counties that make up our house district. Thank god they have so few people in them! Still, that's scary to think there are that many places so close to me that would put this joker in Washington DC. He ran on making sure everybody who paid into social security gets their social security, which I actually support. Except he said DeFazio raided social security which is shocking because DeFazio is one of the few who was calling bullshit on Clinton's budget surplus way back in 2000. But I guess people just believe that crap because they want to.

[pappy]

(11-08-2012 02:20 PM)sandnsea Wrote:  

(11-08-2012 02:10 PM)cannae1 Wrote:  Quite true, sandnsea.

What I think is saving the GOP is gerrymandering: the redistricting that came after the 2010 census.

Gerrymandering protects legislators from voters. It makes it very hard for an incumbent to lose.

I was looking at results for DeFazio. Art Robinson, lunatic extraordinaire, actually won 4 of the 7 counties that make up our house district. Thank god they have so few people in them! Still, that's scary to think there are that many places so close to me that would put this joker in Washington DC. He ran on making sure everybody who paid into social security gets their social security, which I actually support. Except he said DeFazio raided social security which is shocking because DeFazio is one of the few who was calling bullshit on Clinton's budget surplus way back in 2000. But I guess people just believe that crap because they want to.

Another example comes from Ohio where the Republicans gerrymandered the north coast to pit Dennis Kucinich against Marcy Kaptur. That guaranteed one less Democratic seat. There are plenty of ways they could have changed the map to pit Democrat against Republican. They chose not to do that.

Ohio had a measure on the ballot to create a non partisan board to redraw districts after a census. That issue failed.

[sandnsea]

(11-08-2012 03:31 PM)pappy Wrote:  Another example comes from Ohio where the Republicans gerrymandered the north coast to pit Dennis Kucinich against Marcy Kaptur. That guaranteed one less Democratic seat. There are plenty of ways they could have changed the map to pit Democrat against Republican. They chose not to do that.

Ohio had a measure on the ballot to create a non partisan board to redraw districts after a census. That issue failed.

Yeah but Marcy Kaptur beat Joe the Plumber - so YEAH!!! And didn't Tammy Duckworth beat the other goober in a district made up partly from Dennis'? Not my area so I don't pay that close of attention.

[pappy]

(11-08-2012 05:11 PM)sandnsea Wrote:  

(11-08-2012 03:31 PM)pappy Wrote:  Another example comes from Ohio where the Republicans gerrymandered the north coast to pit Dennis Kucinich against Marcy Kaptur. That guaranteed one less Democratic seat. There are plenty of ways they could have changed the map to pit Democrat against Republican. They chose not to do that.

Ohio had a measure on the ballot to create a non partisan board to redraw districts after a census. That issue failed.

Yeah but Marcy Kaptur beat Joe the Plumber - so YEAH!!! And didn't Tammy Duckworth beat the other goober in a district made up partly from Dennis'? Not my area so I don't pay that close of attention.

Nope, wrong state. Tammy beat Joe Walsh in Illinois.

[sandnsea]

(11-08-2012 05:15 PM)pappy Wrote:  

(11-08-2012 05:11 PM)sandnsea Wrote:  Yeah but Marcy Kaptur beat Joe the Plumber - so YEAH!!! And didn't Tammy Duckworth beat the other goober in a district made up partly from Dennis'? Not my area so I don't pay that close of attention.

Nope, wrong state. Tammy beat Joe Walsh in Illinois.

I will have to think longer to remember the district arguments from several years ago, when Tammy ran. Progressives had put someone up and they were mad she got more Dem backing, said she was in the wrong district, bla bla bla. Seems like I remember a woman in the district adjoining hers.

So anyhoo, where did the rest of Dennis' district go? And still, yeah for Marcy Kaptur being Joe the Plumber, even though she's goofy on some issues.

[pappy]

(11-08-2012 05:19 PM)sandnsea Wrote:  

(11-08-2012 05:15 PM)pappy Wrote:  Nope, wrong state. Tammy beat Joe Walsh in Illinois.

I will have to think longer to remember the district arguments from several years ago, when Tammy ran. Progressives had put someone up and they were mad she got more Dem backing, said she was in the wrong district, bla bla bla. Seems like I remember a woman in the district adjoining hers.

So anyhoo, where did the rest of Dennis' district go? And still, yeah for Marcy Kaptur being Joe the Plumber, even though she's goofy on some issues.

I would have to compare the old map with the new one to be sure but Dennis' and Marcy's districts abutted each other and basically they eliminated the dividing line merging them.

Dennis also had parts of the southwest suburbs (Parma) and some of that went into a new district stretching from Cleveland South to Canton merging Betty Sutton(d) and Jim Renacci® districts. Renacci beat Betty Sutton narrowly.

Ohio lost two seats. By pitting marcy against Dennis they were guaranteed that one would be a be a Democratic seat. They could have done that with Betty Sutton and Tim Ryan also since their old districts abutted. Why they didn't I cannot answer.

[Brewman_Jax]

The 1980's was not the timeframe I had in mind, more like the 1950's.

[jaxx]

I look forward to the day the wingers will suddenly realize Reagan is dead.

[pappy]

(11-09-2012 06:48 AM)jaxx Wrote:  I look forward to the day the wingers will suddenly realize Reagan is dead.

Reagan is dead? I thought I saw him standing behind Boehner, Cantor and McConnell. Come to think of it, he was looking a little translucent.