Outside the Fly’s Polling Place
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I am back at the command post at long last, situated in front of the multiple cathode-ray and flat panel screen monitors, in order to BRING YOU THE ELECTION 2010 MIDTERM RESULTS!
It is now a little past 6:00 PM Eastern Time, and the polls are closing all across the Eastern Seaboard. Early results are beginning to trickle in, and I will update you as they are “called” or at least semi-tabulated.
I am not going to mince the verbiage with you tonight — if the GOP doesn’t secure at least 50+ seats in this House election, I will consider today’s polling a failure. The same with regard to the Senate — I would require at least 8 seats in the Republican column to be “encouraged” for the road forward for this country in 2011-12. I’m optimistic, but optimistic about gridlock for the next two years, for first this Congress should “do no harm” to our country.
We will finish the job, God willing, in 2012.
Breaking: Just caught Nancy Pelosi –smiling like a woman who thinks fossil fuels are made from ground up trilobites she found in the river bed on her ranch property– saying that she thinks the “great turnout” they’ve gotten today will secure her Speakership for the next two years.
It was a fake smile, in case you were wondering.
Updates: So far nothing much from other states, but in my area, we are already showing Rand Paul with 55% of the early vote, vs. opponent Jack Conway’s 44%.
In Indiana Dan Coates, who came out of retirement to vie for Evan Bayh’s retiring Democrat Senate seat, is up 59% to 40% for Brad Ellsworth, his Dem opponent. Both of these are expected pickups for the GOP, so no surprises as of yet.
Stay tuned for more action!
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PS — Market wise, we Jacksonians kicked some butt today. Amazingly, my SLW position had quintupled in size, all-in, since inception (the actual intitial buys are up over 10x). My other picks in the PM sector continue to soar as the dollar rips lower. I will continue to keep you informed as to my moves in that space, no worries.
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BREAKING!! Fox News calls two Senatorial Races — with 4% of the vote reporting Fox calls the Kentucky and Indiana Senatorial Races for Rand Paul and Dan Coates, respectively. That’s one “hold” (for Jim Bunning’s “R” seat in Kentucky) and one “win” (for Evan Bayh’s “D” seat in Indiana) for the GOP. One pickup, seven to go…. developing!
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IN9 district is going GOP 55%-42%. This was hotly contested. Illinois is going GOP for the Senate seat with our early exit polling here. I am also seeing Governor here going Brady with exit polls.
Great news!
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My silver positions are up an average of 51.3%. You’ve got to enjoy exploiting the Fed, even though it’s a double edged sword.
I hope MSNBC is one of those stations. And I am taking names tonight for my buddy Nancy Pelosi. The names will be turned over to the IRS so please vote accordingly.
Is that you Trader Caddy?
Where has he been all day, btw?
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Jake, you had asked for a description of the voting places… here you go:
1) I pull into my local school for voting – I am attacked by stupid people with signs shouting for me to vote for a particular canidate. I wanted to run them over, however there were children included so I refrained. I don’t enjoy people trying to sway my vote when entering the voting terminal.
2) I went in at the busiest time of the day (I’m assuming), about 6:00pm – I’m expecting lines and waiting, however I find very few people inside.
3) After casting the ballot, I spoke with someone I know who is working the table. I say, “So how’s the turnout today? Busy?”, he replies, “Are you kidding me??? It’s been freaking dead all day”. Based on past election days we are running at about 35% of normal turnout.
Not sure what to make of it, but in my area, I’m expecting very low turnout.
Is yours a predominantly Dem area? That’s what we’re seeing here as well.
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Yes, very heavy Dem area… in Ohio! That should mean we should get a new Gov.
Pelosi, fake smile? How could it be anything but. She’s had like 90 face lifts.
Jake,
Just got back from voting and the turn out was very high. Since retiring to this small rural area on the Big Island of Hawaii in 2002, I’ve never seen this great of a turn out. People who could not fit into voting booths were seated around makeshift tables on the floor and out against the building on the back wall.
While unlike yours truly, many of these folks have been transplanted from the west coast, so the turnout may have reflected the liberal bias the population here in Hawaii. On the other hand, I’m hoping the turn out constituted a great many conservative voters such as myself.
On the precious metals front, thank again for all of your help. We did indeed kill it today!
Thanks for the update!
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Two down, 69 to go.
Just switched to MessNBC and caught Olbermann against a fitting blood red background.
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Pretty hilarious, isn’t it. I’m pretty buzzed from Woods drinking game. Nothing but excuses and ignoring the obvious over there.
Well, here in the small bastion of Republican’sville in northern New Mexico the turn out is actually heavier than in the last pres. election. Not that we have much say in things, but we do hold the design for the neutron bomb!
Reassuring!
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We do what we can:)
LIVE FOX NEWS STREAM ON TOP RIGHT OF SITE.
My cup runneth over!
BREAKING — R- Rob Portman holds the Senate seat in Ohio of R- George Voinivich (sp?).
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You’re welcome
Well I am hoping the reps win but I am sure they will screwup as much as the others.
Btw, that insertion of God willing seems like something O$ama would say …
Or the Fly?
Or 91% of America?
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This Megan babe is something else. I’m going to have to start watching more Fox Snooze.
Of course, my fellow (high school) alum, O’Blowhard is also on, which again chases me away.
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Honest question Jake…. Why do people think the repubs are going to do anything different? Isn’t it going to be more of the same? Big promises, nothing delivered? Am I just disenchanted? Are both parties inexorably fucked in the head?
I voted mostly republican for the first time since I’ve been legal, only because I “hope” they can bring some semblance of fiscal sanity to the equation….
All that being said, and I know I am grossly ill-informed, why do we think the republicans are going to do any better than when Bush was in office? I am writing this as I am leaving work so I can’t remember if the Repubs held majority in the Senate and House during Bush’s terms or not… Or was it gridlock?
My take:
In 1994, Republicans took back Congress for the first time in 40 years. They did so after Clinton spent his first 2 years governing very much to the left. One reason why Republicans won was they promised a return to fiscal sanity (one plank in the contract with America was a line item veto, another was to freeze spending and balance the budget)
At first the Republicans, held to their principals but they began to deviate from the small government ideals that got them elected in the first place. In 2000, Bush was elected. Bush was never a Conservative and didn’t adhere to small government, fiscally responsible government. When 9/11 happened and the Iraq war started, Bush and the Republicans abandoned all pretense of fiscal conservatism. They spent like drunken sailors and soon lost Congress.
The hope is that Republicans get back to small government fiscally conservative principals that helped them gain Congress in 1994. After the last 6 years or so, I can certainly understand why people would be skeptical about the Republicans return to fiscal sanity however the Democrats have never been fiscally responsible.
I’ve attached the conclusion of a paper written by Dean Baker of The Center for Economic & Policy Research entitled “The Myth of Expansionary Fiscal Austerity” to inject a dose of reality:
> There has been a considerable effort to tout the merits of fiscal austerity as a route to restoring
growth. This argument has been put forward in direct opposition to arguments for increased
stimulus for boosting the economy. While there may be a case that lower deficits can foster growth
under some circumstances, the evidence presented in the Broadbent and Daly paper does not
suggest that a movement toward lower deficits in the current economic situation in the United States
would be expansionary.
Very few of the countries in which fiscal austerity was associated with more rapid growth adopted
austerity at a time when the economy was far below its potential level of output. In none of the
cases were they are as far below as the United States is today. In all of the cases where there was a
substantial output gap, the country was far more engaged in international trade than the United
States. Trade provided a source of demand that cannot have anywhere near as large an impact in the
United States at present.
Finally, all the countries that successfully used austerity to boost growth had much higher interest
rates than the United States does at present. This meant that there was substantial room for rates to
decline following the imposition of austerity.
The differences between the United States in 2010 and the countries that have successfully gone the
route of fiscal austerity to boost growth are large and are very central to the adjustment process. In
short, in the current economic environment, the circumstances do not exist for fiscal austerity in the
United States to lead to more rapid growth. While a quick return to normal levels of unemployment
may not be important to those who are primarily dependent on profits or run large corporations, for
most of the country, it is essential to their well-being. <
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/austerity-myth-2010-10.pdf
Short term pain, long term gain. Think of the children!!!
As Fly posted … Is the GOP really prepared to put deflation back on the table? If not, along with their spending cuts they better be able to get corporate America to start spending, investing and hiring or they are fucked in 2012.
Gridlock is good. The Repubs will “do” a lot just by taking away some of the barriers to a free economy that the Dems have erected int the last four years.
Sometimes, doing nothing is preferable, but getting out of the way is even better.
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True but maybe not during times like this … it’s been reported that other countries are moving to the center and making drastic compromises to move forward which could hurt us internally if we don’t do the same.
Could you specify what they are doing which is good? I’ve seen Canada cave in and foolishly overspend like crazy with no restraint. Is that what you mean?
Good? Not saying that it’s good. It’s what the fiscal conservatives want out of fear of expanding deficits. In Britain the conservatives have come together with the liberals to take draconian measures … a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. Higher Taxes! That would never happen under a GOP House here would it? Britain and other Euro-nations are biting the bullet which could see them outpace the US as we deal with gridlock and more deflation should Ben fail.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/%22expansionary-fiscal-contraction%22-can-the-u.k.-cut-its-way-to-growth-535554.html?tickers=EPV,IEV,VGK,FXE,TBT,TLT,GLD
What they fail to realize as summarized above by the Dean Baker report is that during slow periods of growth there must be room for interest rate reductions to counter the spending cuts – something we don’t have. The private sector must also step in and provide spending, investment and employment – something that US corps don’t seem interested in doing as long as profits continue to expand with payroll reductions from offshore production. Ironically, our savior may be our retreating $ as that reduces labor costs for foreign companies willing to invest and manufacture here like the proposed Daimler-Benz auto factory. Maybe the Chinese will build factories here then we really will be working for China!