Northwest Indiana Discussion

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091102/ap_ ... ection_rdp
GOP victory Tuesday won't erase party's problems

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By LIZ SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer – Mon Nov 2, 6:31 pm ET
WASHINGTON – For Republicans, an election win of any size Tuesday would be a blessing. But victories in Virginia, New Jersey or elsewhere won't erase enormous obstacles the party faces heading into a 2010 midterm election year when control of Congress and statehouses from coast to coast will be up for grabs.
It's been a tough few years for the GOP. The party lost control of Congress in 2006 and then lost the White House in 2008 with three traditional Republican states — Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia — abandoning the party.
So even if political winds start blowing harder behind them and even if they can capitalize on Democratic missteps, Republicans still will have a long way to go over the next year because of their party's own fundamental problems — divisions over the path forward, the lack of a national leader and a shrinking base in a changing nation.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/ ... round-zero
NY-23: Teabagging Republicans pick a strange ground zero
by Jed Lewison

Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 07:46:01 AM PST
The strangest thing about today's election is that Republicans have come to see NY-23 as ground zero in their bid for renewed relevance. Leave aside the fact that the GOP candidate has withdrawn from the race and endorsed the Democrat, these teabagging Republicans have convinced themselves that electing a conservative like Glenn Beck Doug Hoffman in NY-23 will prove that they have come back from the dead.
To make the case that a Hoffman victory would be remarkable, teabaggers point to the Obama-McCain vote in the district, which tilted narrowly to Obama. (President Obama carried NY-23 by 5 points, compared to a 27-point margin in the state as a whole.) But the thing that teabaggers don't like to mention is that for at least the past three decades, Democrats have been unable to break the 38% mark in any election. Check out the Democratic congressional performance in the district since 1982:
That span includes two open seat races -- 1982 and 1992 -- but Democrats couldn't crack the 30% barrier in either of those years.
Now, in 2009, the Democratic Party -- for the first time in decades, if not ever -- actually has a shot winning the seat.
Even if Hoffman manages to win this election, how can the GOP possibly claim tomorrow's results as some sort of big win? Sure, teabaggers will be excited that they rolled Scozzafava with a right-wing loon, but they'll also have turned NY-23 into much more competitive seat than if Scozzafava had won. Suddenly, the NRCC will be forced to defend a seat they had expected to take for granted.
If that sort of scenario is what qualifies for a victory these days in GOP circles, then this won't be a story of a party that has finally found its footing: it'll be the story of a party that doesn't have any idea how far it's fallen.