Election denouement
The results are in. The Democrats basically ran the table. Certainly that's the case in the House. It seems that they won almost every contested race, and picked up a few like Kentucky's 3rd District and New York's 19th district that weren't even on the table a week ago.
In the Senate, if Webb and Tester retain their slight leads(which seems likely), they have again won every really contested seat. A few observations:
---President Bush's press conference today was his best performance in the last two years. He was seemingly well prepared, mangled few words, and he was serious, with his frat boy smirk gone. He said all the right things while not abandoning his principles. Whether his expressed desire to work together with the new Congress is achievable on either side, it was the right thing to say and he said it with a pragmatic and accepting tone. Can this possibly be what he needed, to be freed from the demands of his own party and to be free of pandering to the so called "Christian" right with no more elections to win.
---Bush's response to a question on an overall immigration bill was perhaps telling. When asked if having a Democratic congress would give him a better opportunity to achieve some type of meaningful bill, he agreed. In fact he spoke of the Republican's stance almost as if he was not one of them.
---The Rumsfeld "resignation" was notable for its immediacy. No waiting to camouflage an announcement as unrelated to the election. While I nominated Cheney for departure in yesterday's post, this was almost as meaningful an action, perhaps more so because the Secretary of Defense actually runs a huge and powerful operation. And Cheney, well, for Bush he is more effective than the Secret Service.
---For anyone who thought they could categorize the financial markets, the rebound of the equity market as the Rumsfeld news was leaked, and the follow through to market gains later in the day shows that many smart people who manage money were ready for some kind of change.
---Of course, today's good words on both sides could be short lived and lead to a government gridlock that plays into two years of unattractive and unproductive politics leading up to the 2008 election. But for now I would rather be hopeful for better times in Washington, and risk being naive.
In the Senate, if Webb and Tester retain their slight leads(which seems likely), they have again won every really contested seat. A few observations:
---President Bush's press conference today was his best performance in the last two years. He was seemingly well prepared, mangled few words, and he was serious, with his frat boy smirk gone. He said all the right things while not abandoning his principles. Whether his expressed desire to work together with the new Congress is achievable on either side, it was the right thing to say and he said it with a pragmatic and accepting tone. Can this possibly be what he needed, to be freed from the demands of his own party and to be free of pandering to the so called "Christian" right with no more elections to win.
---Bush's response to a question on an overall immigration bill was perhaps telling. When asked if having a Democratic congress would give him a better opportunity to achieve some type of meaningful bill, he agreed. In fact he spoke of the Republican's stance almost as if he was not one of them.
---The Rumsfeld "resignation" was notable for its immediacy. No waiting to camouflage an announcement as unrelated to the election. While I nominated Cheney for departure in yesterday's post, this was almost as meaningful an action, perhaps more so because the Secretary of Defense actually runs a huge and powerful operation. And Cheney, well, for Bush he is more effective than the Secret Service.
---For anyone who thought they could categorize the financial markets, the rebound of the equity market as the Rumsfeld news was leaked, and the follow through to market gains later in the day shows that many smart people who manage money were ready for some kind of change.
---Of course, today's good words on both sides could be short lived and lead to a government gridlock that plays into two years of unattractive and unproductive politics leading up to the 2008 election. But for now I would rather be hopeful for better times in Washington, and risk being naive.
posted by John Borden at 5:59 PM
1 Comments:
Well, you said it. You are naive. After what Rove did to the Democrats for six years, this is going to be trench warfare for two years.
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