In Both Massachusetts and New Jersey, two huge Republican wins this year in perennial blue states, Obama won big over McCain in 2008 (62-36 percent and 57-42 percent), but in both states Obama lost big to Hillary in the primary (56-41 percent and 54-44 percent). Yes, Obama is reasonably popular in both of these states today, but he was the second choice of Democratic voters. Are Hillary Democrats the key to Republican victories going forward?
On last night’s Hardball, Matthews listed five Democrats at risk: Reid (Nevada), Boxer (California), Lincoln (Arkansas), Specter (Pennsylvania), and Feingold (Wisconsin).
Clinton won Nevada 51-45 percent, California 52-43 percent, Arkansas 70-26 percent, Pennsylvania 55-45 percent, while Wisconsin was taken by Obama 58-41 percent.
(2008 primary results here)
One other thing: Scott Brown owes his victory to a good bit of luck. I really do think that if this election were two weeks from yesterday, all of the filth thrown at Brown by Olbermann and the mini-Keiths at MSDNC would have entered the local media markets. In the end, Brown only won 51.9 percent to 47.1 percent.
No doubt we’ll now see a concerted effort by the Left to kill all the Republican challengers in their cribs before they have a chance to develop mature campaigns.