Joe Manchin is such a pain. Honestly, I’m glad to see him go. When we win the senate again, I hope we no longer have to deal with any of these “moderate” senators.
Joe Manchin is such a pain. Honestly, I’m glad to see him go. When we win the senate again, I hope we no longer have to deal with any of these “moderate” senators.
While Manchin is indeed a pain, I am not glad to see him go. He’s best we could do in West Virginia, a state that is lost to Democrats without Manchin.
Edit: Also, Senator Kyrsten Sinema could and should have supported President Biden by voting for McFerran, letting VP Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote.
The Hill Article said that she DID show up just to vote against McFerran. Kyrsten and Joe giving one last double bird to the working class on their way out the door. I wish nothing but the worst for both of those corporate tools.
I stand corrected. It was Senator Marshall who didn’t cast a vote. Given that he’s a Republican from Kansas, I seriously doubt he would have supported McFerran.
Imho, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer should have had the foresight to hold this vote when Republican senators, and possibly also Manchin and Sinema, were absent.
Joe Manchin represents everything the working class hates about Washington. Good riddance. I hope his yacht has an encounter with some Orcas before he leaves DC.
I'm not glad to see him go in an absolute sense: he's 1000x better than any republican in that seat.
But I am glad to see him go in a relative sense. If we had to lose any one senator, losing him was the best outcome for us, with Sinema right after.
He (and she) frequently undermines our messaging and would slow our governing down for no good reason. He sought out moderation for the sake of moderation, rewarding republicans for their Overton window shifting.
It's easy to miss because all of us that come here follow politics extensively, but for most "normies" they only pick up the surface level stuff. A single senator fucking over our messaging gets through to those people. They won't know the exact details, they'll just know that democrats are not united in their messaging, or that democrats held congress but the minimum wage stayed the same anyway. We know why those worked out the way they do, but most voters will not.
I'd still rather have him than not, but Manchin did come with a real cost to our ability to sell the party to voters because of his insistence on going against the party as often as he did.
My sentiments exactly. Yes he was better than any alternative and I'd rather have him than not, but the way he'd run to the press with every grievance or perceived grievance was so narcissistic and bad for our branding. At least Sinema for all her faults pissed people off largely behind closed doors.
We're certainly not winning the Senate back again with only progressives. I could have ended that sentence without the last three words and it would be just as true for the foreseeable future.
Also, what may be considered "progressive" differs in states depending on the appeal of the Democratic Candidates. Senator-Elect Ruben Gallego won the AZ-SEN race and happens to have a staunchly progressive voting record while being an Army veteran and a Latino with a real understanding of the bread and butter issues.
Yeah, and it helped Gallego that he was blunt and didn’t sugar coat things. He’s honest be truthful with his difficult life as a Latino and plenty of Latinos connected with him in that sense.
There is a huge difference between progressive on economic issues and being a culture-war progressive. Middle America has a lot less tolerance for the latter.
I am really disappointed that Democratic Senate Candidate Glenn Elliott didn't get more % of the votes than the less than 30% he got in the WV-SEN election. Although Manchin endorsed him, Elliott was far better on the issues and a real Democrat instead of Manchin who is indeed a pain in the ass.
Per the Guardian, a Democratic West Virginia Delegate mentioned that the WV-SEN race would have been much closer if the DNC was more closely involved. The delegate said that it was a big miscalculation that the DNC and DSCC didn’t invest in the race.
You could be right although the real issue Glenn Elliott faced in his Senate campaign was visibility and getting enough awareness about it to West Virginians across the state.
The issue isn't about whether Elliott would have won or not but rather the support he would need in order to make the Senate race more competitive. From what the West Virginia house delegate, Shawn Fluharty, had said it was that Jim Justice had high negatives coming in. I think he and WV Democrats wanted more involvement in Elliott's Senate campaign as it had very little outside support.
Trump’s strength in West Virginia has political forecasters predicting no surprises in November. GOP candidates are expected to sweep the governor’s mansion and federal offices up for grabs, and party fundraisers and campaign organizations have sent little money to Elliott or any other candidate.
“I think it absolutely was an error,” said Shawn Fluharty, a West Virginia house delegate who has managed to hang on to his seat representing Wheeling for the past 10 years, even as the state has grown more Republican.
“I think that Jim Justice is not as well liked as he was probably two years ago when they started polling that race. And I believe there was an opportunity. If Glenn had the full backing of the DNC, this race would be a hell of a lot closer than what the polls currently show.”
Joe Manchin is such a pain. Honestly, I’m glad to see him go. When we win the senate again, I hope we no longer have to deal with any of these “moderate” senators.
While Manchin is indeed a pain, I am not glad to see him go. He’s best we could do in West Virginia, a state that is lost to Democrats without Manchin.
Edit: Also, Senator Kyrsten Sinema could and should have supported President Biden by voting for McFerran, letting VP Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote.
The Hill Article said that she DID show up just to vote against McFerran. Kyrsten and Joe giving one last double bird to the working class on their way out the door. I wish nothing but the worst for both of those corporate tools.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5035142-senate-blocks-nlrb-re-nomination/
I stand corrected. It was Senator Marshall who didn’t cast a vote. Given that he’s a Republican from Kansas, I seriously doubt he would have supported McFerran.
Imho, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer should have had the foresight to hold this vote when Republican senators, and possibly also Manchin and Sinema, were absent.
Once again showing how utterly unqualified he is for this current moment.
Joe Manchin represents everything the working class hates about Washington. Good riddance. I hope his yacht has an encounter with some Orcas before he leaves DC.
No love for Manchin, but I'd actually say Jim Justice represents everything the working class SHOULD hate about Washington.
I'm not glad to see him go in an absolute sense: he's 1000x better than any republican in that seat.
But I am glad to see him go in a relative sense. If we had to lose any one senator, losing him was the best outcome for us, with Sinema right after.
He (and she) frequently undermines our messaging and would slow our governing down for no good reason. He sought out moderation for the sake of moderation, rewarding republicans for their Overton window shifting.
It's easy to miss because all of us that come here follow politics extensively, but for most "normies" they only pick up the surface level stuff. A single senator fucking over our messaging gets through to those people. They won't know the exact details, they'll just know that democrats are not united in their messaging, or that democrats held congress but the minimum wage stayed the same anyway. We know why those worked out the way they do, but most voters will not.
I'd still rather have him than not, but Manchin did come with a real cost to our ability to sell the party to voters because of his insistence on going against the party as often as he did.
My sentiments exactly. Yes he was better than any alternative and I'd rather have him than not, but the way he'd run to the press with every grievance or perceived grievance was so narcissistic and bad for our branding. At least Sinema for all her faults pissed people off largely behind closed doors.
Yep. Starting next month, we'll never again have to worry about a Senator from West Virginia who votes with Democrats "only" 80% of the time.
"When we win the senate again, I hope we no longer have to deal with any of these “moderate” senators."
Sheer geography makes that sentence problematic.
Ok
We're certainly not winning the Senate back again with only progressives. I could have ended that sentence without the last three words and it would be just as true for the foreseeable future.
That's a fair assessment of things.
Also, what may be considered "progressive" differs in states depending on the appeal of the Democratic Candidates. Senator-Elect Ruben Gallego won the AZ-SEN race and happens to have a staunchly progressive voting record while being an Army veteran and a Latino with a real understanding of the bread and butter issues.
Gallego also moderated a lot for his run including getting an endorsement from a police union. And was helped by the biggest asset for AZ dems Lake.
Yeah, and it helped Gallego that he was blunt and didn’t sugar coat things. He’s honest be truthful with his difficult life as a Latino and plenty of Latinos connected with him in that sense.
There is a huge difference between progressive on economic issues and being a culture-war progressive. Middle America has a lot less tolerance for the latter.
Ok
I am really disappointed that Democratic Senate Candidate Glenn Elliott didn't get more % of the votes than the less than 30% he got in the WV-SEN election. Although Manchin endorsed him, Elliott was far better on the issues and a real Democrat instead of Manchin who is indeed a pain in the ass.
Agreed. Elliott was getting some buzz for running a good campaign. I thought he'd at least outrun Harris by 5 points or so.
Per the Guardian, a Democratic West Virginia Delegate mentioned that the WV-SEN race would have been much closer if the DNC was more closely involved. The delegate said that it was a big miscalculation that the DNC and DSCC didn’t invest in the race.
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/18/election-west-virginia-senate
I highly doubt they could have improved more than a handful of points. Not everything's the fault of the DNC.
You could be right although the real issue Glenn Elliott faced in his Senate campaign was visibility and getting enough awareness about it to West Virginians across the state.
The issue isn't about whether Elliott would have won or not but rather the support he would need in order to make the Senate race more competitive. From what the West Virginia house delegate, Shawn Fluharty, had said it was that Jim Justice had high negatives coming in. I think he and WV Democrats wanted more involvement in Elliott's Senate campaign as it had very little outside support.
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/18/election-west-virginia-senate
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Trump’s strength in West Virginia has political forecasters predicting no surprises in November. GOP candidates are expected to sweep the governor’s mansion and federal offices up for grabs, and party fundraisers and campaign organizations have sent little money to Elliott or any other candidate.
“I think it absolutely was an error,” said Shawn Fluharty, a West Virginia house delegate who has managed to hang on to his seat representing Wheeling for the past 10 years, even as the state has grown more Republican.
“I think that Jim Justice is not as well liked as he was probably two years ago when they started polling that race. And I believe there was an opportunity. If Glenn had the full backing of the DNC, this race would be a hell of a lot closer than what the polls currently show.”