What's Wrong With Georgia?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Now that we turned Florida blue Georgia should be next.

I think we can pick up Martinez's seat in Florida. I also doubt the Jebster will run for it. I don't think the Jebster wants to be part of a Republicant Senate minority.

[elleng]

1. Kansas, Alabama, Mississippi,

etc etc etc.

HISTORY

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. We Need To Respect The Right Thinking Folks That Live There

But those states are definitely on the wrong side of history.

[Cattledog]

3. We still have alot of Racists down here...

esp. in rural GA.

[zeemike]

4. Doesn't Georgia use touch screen paperless voting?

No way to tell the intent of the people.

[CurtEastPoint]

6. DIEBOLD all the way... how does an election go from 50/50 primary to...

60 40?

I happened to catch one of the Saxby ads and it was DISGUSTING!!! "Say No to Obama's radical left socialist plans, etc..."

That MF will burn in hell for this.

Obviouisly, I voted for Martin but SOMEONE needs to get these Diebold POS outta here.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. If You Were Going To Steal An Election Wouldn't You Make It Closer To Avoid Suspicion?

Outside of Greater Atlanta there aren't many moderate to liberal bastions in Georgia.

[RebelOne]

11. Yup, I live in Cherokee, one of the reddest counties in Georgia.

I think I am probably the only Democrat in my county. My son and his family live in Dawsonville, also a very red area. He and his wife are rednecks, but they are Democratic rednecks.

[Cattledog]

9. Because we had a 3rd candidate in the GE

a libertarian who got about 30,000 votes. I would guess 90% of those votes went for Chambliss.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. Plus A Much Lower Turnout

~

[ddeclue]

14. Just because WE lost doesn't mean THEY cheated...

we lost because our people were lazy and unmotivated to come out and vote a second time.

Obama should have gone to Georgia to the King Center and rallied the vote in Atlanta - he could have easily won this but he was afraid to risk his credibility in case he lost. The Republicans threw in the kitchen sink - our effort was half hearted. My parents live in Georgia and I saw it over the holiday - about 10 GOP ads to one Dem ad.

Doug D.

[Hippo_Tron]

5. Georgia actually was a blue/purple state until quite recently

They didn't elect a GOP Governor until Perdue in 2002. They also consistently sent Democrats to the US Senate.

Virginia and North Carolina, on the other hand, have been electing Republicans statewide since the 1970's. My theory is that those states have had a taste of Republicanism and they don't like the results. Whereas in Georiga (Louisiana as well) there has been one party dominance for almost the entire state's history and so they're giving the other party a chance.

Give Georgia and Louisiana a decade or so to let their respective Republican Governors run the states into the ground. Let them get a good solid taste of Republican rule and see how they like the results. They will start to trend back toward the blue column.

As for Mississippi and Alabama, those states have demographic problems that are just too hard to overcome at the moment.

[ddeclue]

16. Demographics in GA (as well as NC,VA, and FL) are shifting Dem in the next decade anyways,

Florida and VA have already made the shift.

Had it not been for Hurricane Katrina and mass exodus of African Americans from NOLA, Louisiana would also be on this list.

Doug D.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. It's Not Rocket Science

Unless Republicants can figure out how to attract Latino voters they are bound to go the way of the Whigs...

[ddeclue]

20. Actually they COULD easily attract them if they weren't too busy being racists

The vast majority of Hispanics are Catholics and much of the AA community is a member of a conservative black church - this would be the natural connection - but the Republicans are too busy scapegoating blacks and hispanics and has driven a huge wedge between themselves and these communities. Additionally the GOP would have to stop treating the financial issues of these communities (health care, education, home ownership) as sincere issues but they are antithetical to the GOP message of laissez faire Darwinian economics (well for the poor anyways - the GOP certainly believes in gov't help for the rich...)

Doug D.

[Enthusiast]

8. The "good ol' boy" culture is

firmly entrenched there. A Dukes of Hazzard mentality prevails.

[ddeclue]

18. No it doesn't...

We just didn't go out and vote.

Atlanta had plenty enough votes alone to win this race - look at the actual numbers - less than 2 million voters voted statewide. Had Atlantans showed up Chambliss would be out the door. The problem was that the Democratic Party made no real effort and Obama was unwilling to risk his political mandate from the November 4th election by going down to Atlanta and making an in person effort to win it. He sent surrogates instead and the Atlanta Democrats we less motivated - the Republicans sent in their big guns including Palin and spent far more on TV ads than we did - result: we lost it because we didn't fight for it.

[ddeclue]

12. What is wrong is that a bunch of lazy Democrats stayed home.

There ARE enough votes to win in Georgia - they came very close to winning for Obama on Nov 4th. It's just that these people only vote for President and only when motivated.

Obama stayed home rather than risking his credibility in Georgia so we lost the Senate seat because these people weren't motivated.

Meanwhile the GOP threw in the kitchen sink to win in GA. My parents live there and I was home on the holiday and saw it.

Doug D.

[onehandle]

15. Yeah, Obama knew that his voters wouldn't get to the polls. 78K of them didn't bother to vote...

...downticket when his name was on the ballet.

Lazy is right.

[onehandle]

13. Outside of Atlanta (except for a couple of spots) Georgia is Mississippi.

And the suburbs of Atlanta contain the cheapest new money voters in America.

They hear Democrats and suddenly think that they are going to lose a few bucks to new taxes and that's the game.

Neil Boortz is their hero.

[ddeclue]

23. Over 60% of the population lives within 30 miles of the capitol building

Atlanta IS Georgia... the rest is meaningless...

Atlanta resident 1984-1996,
Doug De Clue

[onehandle]

24. 25 of those miles is the red donut that surrounds Atlanta.

The suburbs I mentioned.

They are responsible for the Democrats demise here.

Atlanta resident since Kennedy was in office.
onehandle

[Vinca]

19. I'm betting Jeb runs for it and he'll be very difficult to beat.

While I don't care for him at all, he's certainly the son that got the balance of the gray matter. Florida will need a Democratic candidate who's a real "rock star." Just showing up with a "D" after your name won't do it.

[ddeclue]

21. Gawd I hope he stays home...

I don't know how beat him..

Stupid Bob Graham should have stayed in the Senate in 2004 instead of making a run for the White House for which he had no chance in hell.

[bunkerbuster1]

22. It's tightened significantly, but there's still a ways to go.

I'm fond of pointing out that in my own county, Obama closed what had been a 160K - 90K vote gap (Bush-Kerry) to an astonishing 145K - 125K vote gap.

But it's still a gap.

As someone else has pointed out, Martin was helped tremendously by the enthusiasm over Obama AND a Libber candidate; even with that he was still three points back. Without a major push akin to the one the Goopers made last week, it just wasn't gonna happen.

It WILL happen; I'm thinking the demographics will be such (between Northeastern transplants and children of immigrants coming of voting age) that the state will be majority-liberal in another election cycle or two, although a crappy economy, paradoxically, will slow that trend a bit.