Depressing
In what's seen as a referendum on Paul Ryan's fiscal plans, Democrat Kathy Hochul has defeated Republican Jane Corwin (and alleged Tea Party candidate Jack Davis) in an upstate New York congressional race.
The message seems clear. Hands off Medicare. Say what you want about Ryan, at least he's trying to deal with a problem. But the message from the voters, as usual, is cut spending, just not our programs. If this is how the public feels, reform will be difficult, perhaps impossible, while a bad situation only gets worse.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:17 AM
4 Comments:
How depressing? She won 47 percent of the vote to 43 percent, with 9 percent going to the fake tea party guy. This is actually a pretty good result. I'd say the real lesson is about third party candidates. The Ryan plan appears to have held up pretty well. (The story you linked had no numbers, BTW. Pretty basic omission.)
Whats depressing? The people are only the fount of wisdom until they act contrary to your belief system?
Anon 1: This is still a Republican area. Even losing by a plurality isn't great. The real question to me is this--did the Republican fail to defend Ryan's plan properly, or does it not matter how you go about it (or run away from it)?
Anon 2: I don't know who you're talking to, but I'm not a person who constantly points to the "wisdom of the people." Democracy may be better than any other system, but the people get it wrong plenty.
Another point worth noting, President Obama won 46% of the vote in this district in 2008. So I don't think it signals a change in public attitudes as much as the need for the NY Republican Party to get their act together.
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