Op/Ed
Buyer's Remorse In Georgia
A Conservative Blog
by Ed Donath
While Georgians were not quite as eager for change as other Americans on Election Day, they did give their Democrat senate candidate, Jim Martin, enough Obama coattail votes to propel him into a run-off against Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss. Neither candidate received a majority on November 4 in their three-way race with Libertarian Party candidate Allen Buckley, who got 3.4% of the vote.
The result of the Chambliss-Martin race was a surprise to many because Senator Chambliss was holding a strong lead in the polls until the economy tanked in September. When the first-term Georgia senator backed the controversial $700 billion financial rescue package he was vilified by his opponent and prominent Democrat supporters from around the nation.
More surprising was Chambliss' landslide run-off victory. Preceded by a month of even more depressing economic news than Georgia's voters had heard before the first voting round, they went with the more experienced, more conservative candidate nonetheless.
Combined with an Al Franken victory in the ongoing Minnesota re-count drama a Jim Martin win would have put the Senate on ice for the Democrats. It would have removed the weakened Republicans' option to filibuster and, with all three branches of government under complete Democrat control, the Obama-Pelosi-Reid troika would be able to bulldoze its way to a virtual rubber-stamp dictatorship of ever-liberalized US domestic and foreign policy.
Many voters might have considered that prospect a lot more carefully if a second presidential election had been held a month after the first one. Even more might rescind their Obama votes with the knowledge that while the great changer succeeded at eliminating the possibility of "a third George W. Bush term" he appears to be bringing about the decided sameness and potential scandals of the first two Clinton administrations.
How many consumerist article headlines do you spot each day as you surf the web -- articles that warn against making even simple decisions in the heat of an emotional or sensory moment? Never shop for groceries when you're hungry! Don't go to the mall when you're bored or stressed! Never tell the salesman how much you love the car! Of course, the granddaddy of all consumer warnings has always been: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
Just as car dealers hope to maximize volume and profitability by getting customers to deal on the spot and drive off while they're still under the ether of new car shine, smell, styling and status, the Obama Campaign -- and its allies like ACORN that used anti-consumerist tactics to gather a large number of fraudulent names, if not votes -- succeeded at enlisting as many "early voters" as possible to minimize the possibility that a quick turn of current events might derail the Change Train before Election Day.
Barely a month after Barack Obama's metamorphosis from candidate to president-elect, the ether had already worn-off in Georgia. Analogous to the kind of buyer's remorse that some new car owners experience when the first payment is due a month after their impulse purchase, many voters won't ever make the emotional vote mistake again.
With two days of "early voting" allowed before Election Day II, it can be argued that many Georgia voters had actually developed buyer's remorse a week or more before their month-long honeymoon with the president-elect had ended.
A tangential but nonetheless extremely important issue: Election Day should be the only day that Americans are allowed to cast their ballots -- with the legitimate exception of members of our armed forces and of those citizens who can prove hardship or essential travel in order to acquire an absentee ballot from their local election boards.
Genuine change, as proven by the events of the last sixty days, often occurs overnight. In that regard, it catches many people asleep.
[12/7/08 - Edited to correct an earlier error (my humble apology) that "early voting" was not an option in the senatorial run-off.]
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Reader Comments:
I can't say I was particularly surprised. Disappointed, because the campaign Chambliss ran against Max Cleland six years ago was disgusting and shameful, but not surprised. Many centrists aren't enthusiastic about either party having a 60 vote majority in the Senate, and there wasn't enough enthusiasm for Martin or dislike of Chambliss to overcome the basic belief that divided government tends to limit excesses on the part of either party.
Sparticus2
(from Southern Utah Spectrum)
"he appears to be bringing about the decided sameness and potential scandals of the first two Clinton administrations." So hiring former Clinton staffers might cause Obama to have an affair? Are you serious? He's hiring these people because they did an alright job: the 'change' Obama's been touting is supposed to be change from what what most Americans see as the bunch of incompetents that have been in Washington the last 8 years.Anyway, I'd much rather he hire people who've been around for awhile, not go for total newcomers.
Syph01
(from St. Cloud, MN Times)
[Actually, the sexual element never entered my mind -- it was purely a Slick Willie foible. I was thinking more of Obama's Clintonista terrorist-pardoning AG nominee and perhaps the old Whitewater type stuff the Clintons and their cronies' lying and stonewalling never allowed to be resolved. -ED]
Two years from now we will know why they voted the way they did.
WdRGR
(from Salem, OR Statesman-Journal)
Ed: "America, love it or leave it!" There's the door....
Anonymous
[Sounds like you're saying "shut up and love the left or you have no right being here while we're in charge." Sounds like you hate America WAY more than you think I do. -ED]
nice try ed, but incumbent senators win re-election 80 percent of the time, in the south it has to be a lot higher for incumbent republicans. also when you use words like "troika" and "dictatorship" it makes you sound paranoid and foolish, and to keep pounding the Acorn non issue makes you irrelevant and simply a regurgitator of talking points. conservatives got their butts kicked in november because their philosophy of government doesn't work. For heavens sake, you guys screwed up so bad we elected a black guy president, maybe you should spend some time cogitating on that. the change wasn't about left and right, in this case it was simply about competence. Obama has it and so do the people he's bringing in, Bush didn't and didn't even try to make government work well.
[Maybe while you're cogitating on racial matters -- which you brought up -- you should consider the fact that the "first black president" had no blacks in his cabinet and that the next president had two African-American Secretaries of State. Maybe you should visit Ground Zero or the Pentagon before you bash Bush out of hand for not trying to make things work. Maybe you should admit that the left has been paranoid for the last eight years and that you guys will do anything to prevent it from happening again. - ED]
Each state should determine the way they choose their electors. The Federal government was originally meant to enforce basically loose rules on the country.
You must be a contortionist, with all this spin. Let me get this straight, an incumbent GOP Senator of a red state in the deep south wins his re-election bid and it's a "surprise"? The more i read these types of "analysis" by those on the right, the more I am reminded of the image of the car crash survivor, stumbling from the wreckage, mumbling about "doing the laundry" or some other trauma-induced nonsense.
tommybones
chambliss winning is no surprise at all. gawgah is a red state and will vote repub. no matter the character or morals of the repub. candidate. what matters in georgia is how preacher says to vote - for Jesus, for guns - against the devil democrats and those evil gays.
[So why was a run-off necessary when the Libertarian got a measly 3.4% of the vote? - ED]
I expect apologist for the failed conservative ideology to bend the truth to fit their world view. But lying (through malice or ignorance) is not unacceptable. Early voting did occur in the runoff election - see the url below. http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/cobb/stories/2008/11/12/early_voting.html Patrick Hunt
[Sad but true. I stand corrected...thank you. Nonetheless, some voters had buyer's remorse a week sooner than the rest. - ED]
Perhaps the good voters of Georgia wanted to give this country the gift of a non-filibuster proof Senate. Thank you Georgians, much obliged.
olrdtrk
(from Great Falls, MT Tribune)
great blog! i really enjoyed it. i actually went to georgia to work for chambliss, and i must say that i am very encouraged by the results. the chambliss race was the first election of 2010, and the obama machine FAILED.
to clear up one point in your blog, however, they did allow early voting for two days before the election. (the tues and weds before the election.) keep up the good work!
...i really love your concept of "buyer's remorse." i think you've got it spot on. i keep telling my friends that the largest, most innovative, most luxurious, most venerated, most over-hyped cruise liner in the world -- hit an iceberg and sank -- on her maiden voyage.
nationalrazor
(from Reno, NV Gazette-Journal)
Buyer's remorse...yeah, right. You right-wingers even try to spin your victories...they've been so few lately. And all that spinning has made you dizzy. It wasn't buyers remorse that kept Saxby Chambliss in office, it was just plain Southern ignorance and racism. Saxby Chambliss got into office by smearing Max Cleland, a man who gave BOTH LEG AND HIS RIGHT ARM in defense of this country, and Chambliss had the nerve to compare him to Saddam Hussein and Osama BinLaden. Chambliss is low-life white trash and I don't believe in hell, but if I'm wrong, and there is a hell, then Chambliss is going to burn in agony for eternity when he dies. I can only hope.
Please know that Barack Obama is not going to be a good president, he's going to be a GREAT president so get used to it.
CoachEd
(from Asbury Park, NJ Press)
[Playing the Georgia Race/Ignorance Card Coach? I'm surprised that a sharp guy like you doesn't realize how large the African-American communities are in Atlanta and other Georgia cities and how un-agricultural the rest of the state has become. Industry is everywhere. No, Chambliss is not a model for Compassionate Conservatism, let alone a posterboy for Christian ethics. That makes it so much more interesting that he was able to prevail -- strongly -- in a supposed Democrat year with a magical presidential candidate barely a month after his monumental election. IF Obama turns out to be a good president it will, apparently, not be as a result of the overwhelming change he implied during the campaign. I'm already "used to" what is about to transpire as a result of surviving the first two Clinton Administrations. - ED]
Considering the fact that Chambliss ran one of the most disgusting campaigns in 2002 against a primary opponent, if I were you, I'd question why McCain and Palin chose to lend him support. It takes a lot of nerve to question the patriotism of a decorated war veteran (Max Cleland) who lost both legs and one arm in the service to his country. But Saxby, who claimed his bad knee prevented military service, stepped up and did just that in TV ads and campaign speeches. Saxby's victory is certainly nothing to be proud of and reflects poorly on you, the voters in Georgia, and the Republican Party. Your time would be better spent reflecting on why the majority of your candidates lost and what the Republican Party needs to do in order to connect with more Americans. Otherwise, you're in danger of marginalizing yourselves right off the page.
LUVSTJ
(from Louisville, KY Courier-Journal)
[The piece is about the likelihood that Georgians may be representative of a remorseful anti-Obama and/or anti-Democrat voter trend. That a candidate carrying the kind of baggage you mention could score such a decisive victory just a month after failing to get even a squeak-out majority makes my point that much stronger. -ED]
I think the voters in Georgia are having remorse concerning obama. The mainstream medias attempt to smear Mr Chambliss and put every bit of economic woe on the republicans backfired. Perhaps the good people of Georgia are more on the ball than many in the liberal media think.
desserttrek
(from Palm Springs, CA Desert Sun)
© Copyright Ed Donath
Op/Ed & eddobloggo
December 5, 2008
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