Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, nails it:
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Democrat concedes House race in New York and another race is looking good for the GOP (Update: Another concession). “Ben McAdams won the seat from Republican Mia Love in 2018. Now Burgess Owens is taking it back. So this puts the GOP at +9 in the House (+10 if Tenney, mentioned above, wins) and thee are still a couple more close races where the GOP could pick up additional seats.”
For a guy who supposedly lost, Trump had coattails; for a guy who supposedly won, Biden sure didn’t.
Go here to comment. The Presidential race result should get a Pulitzer Prize in fiction.
The explanation from the never Trumpers will be ticket splitting: People hate Trump and want him gone, but they fear giving Democrats free rein, so they tried to check them by voting Republican down ticket.
It’s b.s. of course. But Fox News will put a glorious shade of lipstick on that particular pig.
My bet is the republicans will squander the opportunity again like the Tea Party and Trump.
The explanation from the never Trumpers will be ticket splitting: People hate Trump and want him gone, but they fear giving Democrats free rein, so they tried to check them by voting Republican down ticket.
It’s a nonsense explanation. There’s always segment of the soi-disant Republican population which is dissatisfied with the Republican president. In re Nixon, Reagan, and Bush-the-Younger, the observed proportion was shy of 10%. In re Ford and Bush-the-Elder, the observed proportion was north of 20%. Trump’s approval ratings with self-identified Republicans (per Gallup) are nearly identical to Nixon’s, Reagan’s, and Bush-the-Younger’s. There is no NeverTrump constituency in the populace at large, just the usual background discontent. NeverTrumpers, like Obamacons, are of a mess of grifters and word-merchants looking for swag from the Democratic Party and it’s extensions in the media if they’re not already on the payroll. There are those for whom there’s nothing in it for them or who live off endowment income from foundations. George Will doesn’t need the money and Mona Charen collects a salary from the Ethics and Public Policy Center. What strikes you about their complaints is how contrived and ultimately vacuous they are. Charen prates about ‘decency’, then tells you to vote for Hunter Biden’s accomplice papa.
You should’ve seen how many personal TV attack ads run in Utah and Idaho against Burgess Owens, heavily funded by the DNC congressional committee. They were intended to divert attention away from Ben McAdams 90% voting record with Nancy Pelosi, And the district comfortably tilts conservative but gets its info from the infamously insidious Leftwing SLC Tribune and the TV alphabet news networks.
As often as possible, in fact I would say never in the TV ads, Ben McAdams never mentioned that he was a Democrat. He just rambles on the personal attacks aganst Owens and that Owens “was going to take away people’s healthcare,” Pure BS of course but DNC talking point philosopher’s stone.