Coulter dismissed Democratic electoral gains as "pathetic" by historical standards
SUMMARY: In her syndicated column, Ann Coulter claimed that the Democratic Party made "pathetic gains" in the November 7 midterm elections. In fact, the Democrats' gains in the House are just slightly under the average for the party out of power in the White House in the sixth-year midterm elections over the past century, and the Democrats' Senate gains are above the average. Moreover, the 2006 elections were the first sixth-year midterms since 1918 in which control of both houses of Congress switched parties.
In her November 8 nationally syndicated column, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter claimed that the Democratic Party made "pathetic gains" in the November 7 midterm elections. As evidence, Coulter pointed to four past elections that were held during the sixth year of a presidency, in which the party controlling the White House lost 43 or more seats in the House of Representatives and as many as 13 Senate seats. She compared those totals to the Democrats' November 7 gains of six Senate seats and at least 28 House seats (with several House races undecided as of this posting). According to Coulter: "Only for half-brights with absolutely no concept of yesterday is this a 'tsunami' -- as MSNBC calls it -- rather than the death throes of a dying party."
In fact, the Democrats' November 7 gains in the House are -- at the moment -- just slightly under the average for the party out of power in the White House in the sixth-year midterm elections over the past century, and the Democrats' Senate gains are above the average. Moreover, the 2006 election was the first sixth-year midterm elections since 1918 in which control of both the House and Senate switched parties.
Coulter wrote:
In fact, if the Democrats' pathetic gains in a sixth-year election are a statement about the war in Iraq, Americans must love the war! As Roll Call put it back when Clinton was president: "Simply put, the party controlling the White House nearly always loses House seats in midterm elections" -- especially in the sixth year.
In Franklin D. Roosevelt's sixth year in 1938, Democrats lost 71 seats in the House and six in the Senate.
In Dwight Eisenhower's sixth year in 1958, Republicans lost 47 House seats, 13 in the Senate.
In John F. Kennedy/Lyndon Johnson's sixth year [1966], Democrats lost 47 seats in the House and three in the Senate.
In Richard Nixon/Gerald Ford's sixth year in office in 1974, Republicans lost 43 House seats and three Senate seats.
Even America's greatest president, Ronald Reagan, lost five House seats and eight Senate seats in his sixth year in office [1986].
But in the middle of what the media tell us is a massively unpopular war, the Democrats picked up about 30 House seats and five to six Senate seats in a sixth-year election, with lots of seats still too close to call. Only for half-brights with absolutely no concept of yesterday is this a "tsunami" -- as MSNBC calls it -- rather than the death throes of a dying party.
Including the elections Coulter referred to, and using Coulter's standard of including vice presidents who have assumed the presidency after a president died in office or prematurely exited from office, there have been 10 congressional elections held during the sixth year of a presidency since 1900. The five others were in 1906 (Theodore Roosevelt, Republican); 1918 (Woodrow Wilson, Democrat); 1926 (Warren G. Harding/Calvin Coolidge, Republican) 1950 (Franklin D. Roosevelt/Harry Truman, Democrat); and 1998 (Bill Clinton, Democrat).
According to data* from the website of the Office of the Clerk for the U.S. House of Representatives, the average gain for the party out of power in the White House in these elections is roughly 32 House seats:
- 1906: Democrats gained 32 seats
- 1918: Republicans gained 25 seats
- 1926: Democrats gained 11 seats
- 1938: Republicans gained 81 seats
- 1950: Republicans gained 28 seats
- 1958: Democrats gained 49 seats
- 1966: Republicans gained 47 seats
- 1974: Democrats gained 49 seats
- 1986: Democrats gained 5 seats
- 1998: Republicans lost 5 seats
According to data* from the Senate website, the average gain for the party out of power in the White House in these elections is between five and six Senate seats:
- 1906: Democrats lost 1 seat
- 1918: Republicans gained 7 seats
- 1926: Democrats gained 5 seats
- 1938: Republicans gained 7 seats
- 1950: Republicans gained 5 seats
- 1958: Democrats gained 16 seats
- 1966: Republicans gained 4 seats
- 1974: Democrats gained 4 seats
- 1986: Democrats gained 8 seats
- 1998: No change
As Media Matters for America documented, before the November 7 elections, Coulter falsely claimed that "[t]he average of the midterm election pickup since World War II is about 40 seats" in order to assert that the Democrats "ought to be picking up 60 or 70 seats" in the House or "they may as well go away as a party."
* The data
are approximate because the House and Senate websites list data about party
division only at the beginning of each Congress. The Senate website includes
the following disclaimer: "Note: Statistics listed below reflect party
division immediately following the election. The actual number of senators
representing a particular party often changes during a congress, due to the
death or resignation of a senator, or as a consequence of a member changing
parties."
knows pathetic. and as noted clinton actually gained seats in 1998.
Her two main tactics here are to move the goal-posts and cherry-pick the data to support her flimsy argument.
Use of the word "pathetic" is fresh from Newt Gingrich's old 1992 playbook.
It is also a bit Rovian to take an opponents obvious strength and deride it into a weakness as she is doing here.
I must say, however, it was quite refreshing that she apparently missed the opportunity to put in her usual smattering of strawmen (as far as I could see) for a change.
My favorite logic Annie used was about how even Superman (Ronald Reagan) lost seats in his sixth year. Interesting. What does that say about her arch-nemesis Bill Clinton who gained seats as you pointed out? He must be even better than Superman. (Gasp!)
I honestly don't know what will ever become of the Democratic party if they keep "losing" like this.
Hey Ann,
Ted Haggert's coming after you cuz your column sounds like you got into his personal stash. Don't you realize your pundit days are numbered too? We ain't done thumpin'!
Hahahaha
(Uncorking the Bubbly)
... just imagine Coulter making these rationalizations as a coach having just lost the Super Bowl. Or as the owner after a horserace (as politics is so often compared).
Getting drubbed and complaining that it was a "pathetic" win, because it should have been much larger ... well, that says two things: First, you LOST, and you're a sore loser(man/woman/?). Second, you believed your "team" to be incapable of holding the contest anywhere near even.
Again, I am reminded of that great scene from Monty Python's "Holy Graile", where the black knight is guarding the river crossing from Arthur's passage. Relieved of all four limbs, the knight fluffs it off as a "mere flesh wound", intoning Arthur to step closer so the limbless knight can bite him.
That's OK. Ann and her limbless ilk can bite ME.
I just watched that yesterday.
My favorite scene is when the poor guy who is digging a ditch start screaming oppression when approached.
Great Monty Python reference.
So true.
"She looks like one!"
Again, I am reminded of that great scene from Monty Python's "Holy Graile", where the black knight is guarding the river crossing from Arthur's passage. Relieved of all four limbs, the knight fluffs it off as a "mere flesh wound", intoning Arthur to step closer so the limbless knight can bite him.
That's OK. Ann and her limbless ilk can bite ME.
- tex
-----------------------------------------------
Hahahahahahahahaha ouch my sides hurt hahahahahaha
Coulter is a moron, and she keeps proving it time and again in her columns. She is a sore loser.
Taking over both the House and the Senate is "the death throes of a dying party"?
Was wondering when she would make an appearence. Please Anne, tell us about how Democrats are out of touch with the mainstream, how this actually bodes well for Conservatives, how overjoyed the terrorists must be, and how irrelevant you are about to become...
She only lists 5 examples to support her point of view. Wow. A blatant distorter of history. Deliberate distorter would probably be more accurate.
In one election, Democrats gained the House, the Senate, the majority of state legislatures, and the majority of state Governors' offices.
By any measure, this election was a massacre.
America's greatest president? Well, maybe if you forget about helping the Nicaraguan contras, the Iran-Contra scandal, giving weapons to Saddam Hussein and standing by as he massacred Kurds that he (or at least HIS government) encouraged to fight against Saddam. Oh yeah, and Reaganomics.
Just in case you didn't catch that bit of Ann Coulter saying Ronald Reagan was our greatest president, that is what I was referring to right there.
tman418 / Friday November 10, 2006 02:22:30 AM EST
I posted the last time she commented about how if the Dems didn't take one or both houses that it would be pathetic.
I think I got it right!! Annie: " I'm melting, I'm melting, I'm Melting..............." Off to the Land of Oz!!!!!!!!!
... - classifying ketchup as a vegetable in poor kid's school lunch program.
- Slashing financial aid for education.
- Greatly expanding the federal debt.
- And lots of really bad B-movies.
Ciao,
Rick
to mention that Reagan left Office with the largest Budget Deficit in History. Not to be undone, George W. beat the Record by a landslide! Love those "Conservative" Presidents.
Okay okay! I don't know EVERYTHING bad that Reagan did. So much of what he did seems shielded and forgotten by the public.
In the dream world that is FOX News, where conservatives viewers are insulated from the painful truths of reality, she's been flapping her gumbs about how pathetic the Dem takeover would be.
Don't worry, Ann. Although your party has been reduced to a minority in congress, you'll always be a MAJOR lying, senseless 3rd rate pundit.
Be happy.
Not so fast. The Rightwing/NeoCons paid several huge fortunes to set up their "PR ARM".
For YEARS, the likes of Coulter and Hannity and Limbaugh and Boortz and Savage and a cast of thousands has been employed to assure that the Republicans retained ruling majorities for a thousand years.
The Rightwing punditry has ONE JOB to do ... and they BLEW it. Despite all their best efforts, despite tireless employment of their tactics of spin and lying and shameless promotion of all things Rightwing ... THEY LOST.
The Rightwing punditry was the GOP's Advertising Agency, charged ONLY with promoting the product to be successful over the opposition. They commanded huge wages and bonuses in order to achieve that one, singular goal: to WIN. They were considered the best and the brightest at propagandizing the population, and their vast influence was supposed to seal the deal, and entrench Republicans in power in perpetuity.
It's as if they work at a burger joint, and their ONE JOB was to deliver an order of fries ... and they burned them to a crisp. The FAILED, they were incompetent, they took the money and failed to deliver. They were rejected, their tactics were the WRONG ones, and they showed themselves to be, professionally, frauds.
To the extent they influenced public opinion, it was NEGATIVELY, meaning while they did little or no GOOD, they did lots of HARM. They had every advantage -- the funding, the forums, the support of their clients -- and they screwed up on their singular mission.
We know what happens in the REAL world when an employee completely fails to deliver product, cannot perform, has a NEGATIVE effect on business.
They get FIRED.
In Bushworld, abject failure signals a coming Medal of Freedom.
Great comment!...I enjoyed it.
All these Republican Pundits like Matthews, Limbaugh, O'Riely and most of the so called reporters at Fox News spew out their hateful and false commentary. They just don't get it. They are one of the biggest reasons why the Democrats took back the House and Senate. The voters have smelled them all out and responded by voting to kick them all out of office. Ann should be out of a job too. Out of all the Republican Pundits I find Ann Coulter to have done the most harm to her own cause.
But I must stop here for a moment to put in a rare complement to Rush Limbaugh, who made this statement on how he feels after this election:
RUSH LIMBAUGH: "But the way I feel is this: I feel liberated, and I'm just going to tell you as plainly as I can why. I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried.” “Now, I'm liberated from having to constantly come in here every day and try to buck up a bunch of people who don't deserve it, to try to carry the water and make excuses for people who don't deserve it.”
SAM: I'm so thankful to George Allen who exposed his true character. He committed a freudian slip when he called the young brown skinned man "Macaca" and the Republicans lost the Senate because of it....And Rightfully So!
I'm shedding tears too, just like Chris Matthews and other Republicans, but mine are tears of joy and happiness. The nightmare is not over yet though, because GWB has not been impeached yet and our troops are still being killed like sitting ducks.
Take Care.......Sam
Impeached, shackled and frogmarched to the Hague to stand trial for warcrimes.
Ann Coulter has been playing this little game for weeks, pretending that if the Dems didn't take 67 House seats the elections would be a Democratic failure. Yea, Ann, we're just so dspondent over taking both the House and the Senate... what a failure. Apparently you suffer from some sort of anorexia of the brain Ann. What a moron...
When it comes to congressional majorities, even the most slim margin brings the the power to chair every congressional committee.
Better hold on for at least the next couple years, Annie, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
Oh, and better start digging up all the Coulterisms you can find, you're going to need them to spin the whole situation into good news for your merry band of corrupt, gay, alcoholic and pedophilic criminals who have been booted out of power.
Ann Coulter's spinning like Teacups on speed. Losing both houses is Congress looks like a big "W" for the Democrats. I guess Ann's sore she only got to vote once this election.
won't repeat all of it - some of you may have just eaten - but basically she just tried to pass off the whole thing as a big ho-hum . . . elsewhere she mentioned something regarding Iraq as being on voters' minds as proving "Iraq is more popular than Clinton."
Poor Crazy Annie . . . tries so hard to be her usual lighthearted, inaccurate, elitist, and vindictive self . . . but you know deep down this is KILLING her.
And I LOVE IT!!!
Is she some of Limbaugh's discarded painkillers or something?
I meant "on" some of Limbaugh's discarded painkillers. She's definitely got to be on SOMETHING to write something as boneheaded as this.
Is she some of Limbaugh's discarded painkillers or something? - JamminJay / Friday November 10, 2006 01:10:10 AM EST
More likely Trannie Annie has been sneeking his Viagra!!!
Oh. Like your self Ann? You just ignored your own "research" (if that is in fact what you did). You happen to ignore the facts which show that even parties that make great gains can lose them just as quickly with these 6-year cycles.
We should expect this from all conservative pundits. None of them will want to fuss about Republican losses and instead try to downplay this win for the democrats as much as possible. They are just doing it to comfort themselves, and it will not work or do anything to change. Only in their minds is this a victory for the republicans.
Ann is so far removed from reality it's sickening. She makes Glenn Close's character in Fatal Attraction seem pretty rational because even that nut could see that the Dems gains are huge and that Americans do NOT love this war. Talk like this should be sending the MSM and right wingers a-runnin' the other way but just you watch, early next year we'll see her pop back up in the media along with frickin' Tom Delay and Rick Santorum doing the rounds.
When will someone ask Coulter where see voted on Nov 7?
I think the Dems didn't hit her projections becuase of her voting in as many districts as she could get to on Nov. 7th. Probably a very busy girl that Annie Thrax.
I just read an article at Raw Story - turns out she forgot to vote! No "I voted" sticker for her...
Ann can't even bring herself around. She's just plain deluded.
Say it with me Ann - M-a-a-a-n-n-d-a-a-t-e. And I'm not referring to something you've been on...
Ann, thank you:
Only half-brights wouldn't recognize this as the "death throes of a dying party".
President Bush: It was a "thumpin"
Suspicions reconfirmed.
Coulter is right about one thing--the Democratic takeover is only a start. It does not go far enough. The trial of Bush and Cheney for high treason might go there. The bankruptcy of the pharma companies might go there. The wreckage of the American capitalist system would do it.
But we take what we can get.
of the scene in The Wizard of Oz where the Wicked Witch gets water thrown on her, and keeps screeching as she melts into oblivion.
re: Reagan, don't forget the HUD scandal. And there was talk of impeachment for him too.
What was that?
The Housing and Urban Development scandal. Steering government funds to costituents that were meant for low-income housing. Thanks for letting me know about that. I guess Ronald Reagan was our worst president.
Guys walks up to a lottery machine...buys $5.00 worth of tickets on the PowerBall. That night he wins $15 million dollars...Annie's next column...man loses $5.00 playing PowerBall. Logical to her...she did research.
Annie Baby, you should be happy now. you have many more targets to go after. This must be like HOG Heaven to you. But beware, there is a new Sheriff in town and he is gunning for you. He was looking for you at your expected voting location but you did not appear. Why not???
Guess Annie will be leaving the country because the new godless religion has taken-over. BYE BYE ANNIE C.
It is tough enough listening and reading the stuff from Annie C. but to see this picture of her. I suggest that you get your staff of thousands to find a picture of her which is viewable and use the new one instead of this. I know it could take months or years but PLEASE help us.
A "pathetic victory?" Is THAT the best you got, Ann? She can spew her sore-loser sour grapes all day and it still won't make me feel bad in any way. Sorry you lost!
Ann Coulter can spin the Democrats' fortunes in this election as "pathetic" all she wants; it just raises the question of what she considers even less than pathetic, since, no matter which way you slice it, the Democrats got more votes and more seats. Not one single Democratic incumbent was defeated. Coulter's argument is much like the Shelbyville residents' "gloating" in the "Lemon of Troy" episode: "Maybe that's why we beat 'em at football nearly half the time".
in the same thread- Nice.
I will (cut me some slack here) back up Annie in one respect; It is pathetic that many races were close, and that there are still millions of people voting Republican,but to try to saddle the Democratic party with that is a little ass-backwards, even for Coulter.
Don't blame me, I voted for Konos.
Ann reminds me of Mr. Burns coming home after a Yale/Harvard football game. He muses to Smithers, "I don't know why Harvard even bothered to show up, I mean.....they barely even won!!"
If not for the Diebold machines and rampant GOP virtual ballot box stuffing, think how many seats the Democrats would have gained? 50? 60? There has been a story floating around about under voting in Florida (Florida again!) in districts won by Republicans, meaning tallies that don't mesh with turnout, as if thousands of people went to the polls just to vote for judges, never mind the House of Representatives. Get real. Fact is, the Republicans did it again. But their cheating just wasn't enough to keep control of the Legislative branch, not without provoking a national outcry.
Answer to where did Ann vote? She didn't!
Isn't Ann Coulter about as relevant as Tom DeLay? Why is she getting any face time. Time to fire her from the NEW lexicon of American politics. Starve the beast!
big papa
but still entertaining.
I'd miss these righty clowns if they were gone, especially now that they're going into super-spinny meltdown mode.
Oh my god. 37 comments so far and not one wingnut even trying to defend this idiocy.
Can we please have the MSM stop misrepresenting Coulter as someone with something intelligent to say now? She jumped the shark months ago. Just put her out of our misery.
Python, Three Simpsons and a Happy Days reference! Can it get any better?
Who cares what Coulter has to say...her act has worn thin and why networks keep trotting her out for her opinion baffles me. ..I guess everyone thinks she speaks for the right wing and always seems to be the one conservative voice that Fox and others think gets the Democrats all riled up...her same old hatred for any non-conservative, non-right-wing, opinion is old and tired...now that the election is over, how about having a moratorium on all these clowns for 90 days or more.
this dimwit who cites the great reagan as the model of constraint, courage, and dignity seems to forget that there were approximately 20,00 HIV related deaths before he mentioned the term. it is also alleged that he was napping in'83 when 283 marines were slaughtered in beirut. what did ole ronnie do-he booked , cut and run, pooped in his drawers, what a heroooo, bongo could have performed with more aplomb. this hypoctitic android allegedly pooped a brick when she found out pat tillman was an avowed lib. and ole rushto thinks liberalism is feminin, getting out of the draft with a butt zit seems quite manly to me. eh rushie boy
How many times in the last 40 years has a midterm election resulted in the House changing hands? I think this only the second time. So, she can spin all she wants. The American people know the truth.
Did it take her an extra day to come up with this pathetic spin? I can see her at home trying to find a way to minimize this monumental "thumping" handed out to her precious Republicans.
It's worthy of note that even Limbaugh isn't as slimy as Coulter. At least Limbaugh recognizes the gravity of the loss and points the finger at the right people. Coulter obviously has no limit how low she will go to shill for her party.
I've been in a GREAT mood since Wednesday morning. I'm not gonna let her vocal flatulence ruin it.
She means Democrats I take it. Is that the same "throes" that Cheney said the Iraqi insurgency was in? If so, Democrats will be in power for a long, long, long, long time. =)
Has there ever been a time in recent history when the districts were so gerrymandered?
Democrats won a ton of seats, and won control of the Senate, something that the media was so sure would not happen that they refused to believe their own exit polling and their own counting of ballots, and therefore they refused to call Virginia and Montana for days, even after they were pretty darn sure that Dems had won those two seats!
Not only did they win all those seats, but they won them given an almost imprenetrable fortress created by gerrymandering districts!
I wish someone would prepare and present some info about the margin of victory in the seats that Dems did not win - we've all see the margins of victory in seats that Dems did win.
I'd like to see how close some of the races were that should not have been close. I'd like to see the results in races that should have been blowouts for the Republicans and see how tight they were. I suspect that the whole story is not simply the seats that the Dems won, but how well they did in almost every district in town. I'd bet that Ron Paul, as incorruptable a Legislator as there is, didn't suffer much from the Tsunami, but I bet most other Republicans' margins of victory were not as large as one would have predicted 2 months or even 2 weeks before the election.
When you look at the margin of error, how many races exceeded the margin of error in favor of the Dems? How many were within the margin of error put leaned Democratic?
Coulter is full of it, and grasping at straws.
It is very refreshing to not have the darn paid trolls here drooling over this site.
We woulda won if:
The sun didn't get in my eyes making me miss that fly ball
Our star player had the flu
The refs made some bad calls (er, not in our favor)
That slap shot should have gone in, but the goalie got lucky.
The democratic winners are faily conservative -- they are practially already members of the Republic party
Choose your sport, choose your excuse. but regardless of the excuse, whining about how you should have won or the other team's victory is tainted because of extenuating circumstances is the tactic of a poor sport and a perpetual loser.
Ann, get over it. Your side lost and your job is in jeapordy. You will rapidly fade into irrelevance. The country has spoken and it's not your ranting that it's using as it's political source code. buy bye.
I mean, a number gained or lost seems only to be significant in proportion to how many they had in the first place, doesn't it?
Or am I just inept at math?
Isn't it nice to see Ann reaching out in this new era of cooperation and bipartisanship? What can you expect from a broad who's so cold everytime she opens her legs the furnace kicks in?
...who were insisting that GWB won "more square miles" of tumbleweed and fenceposts than Gore in 2000?
Honestly, how pathetic can you get.