He earned 26 percent of the vote despite raising no money and listing the wrong opponent on his campaign website....What's going on in Tennessee? One explanation is Clayton's name appeared first on the ballot.
On his issues page, Clayton sounds more like a member of the John Birch Society than a rank-and-file Democrat. He says he's against national ID cards, the North American Union, and the "NAFTA superhighway," a nonexistent proposal that's become a rallying cry in the far-right fever swamps. Elsewhere, he warns of an encroaching "godless new world order" and suggests that Americans who speak out against government policies could some day be placed in "a bone-crushing prison camp similar to the one Alexander Solzhenitsyn was sent or to one of FEMA's prison camps."
Note: The Democratic Party has "disavowed" him, whatever that means.
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What's going on in Tennessee? One explanation is Clayton's name appeared first on the ballot.
That's a particularly stupid explanation since names are randomly ordered on the ballots with no one name appearing at the top on all of them.
Was he endorsed by Alvin Greene?
What do they mean anti gay? I heard the Dem nominee is pledging in protest that he will never eat at a Chick-fil-A on Sundays.
The Tea Party needs to back his guy, (who's not a witch) just to watch Karl Rove implode.
Like the repudiations of Choom in the primaries, this is symptomatic of the schism inside the Democrat Party, especially in the South.
Clayton sounds like an unsavory character, but it shows how the state Party organizations are breaking down. Choomie is keeping the money donated to the Party for his own campaign and it's effects are beginning to show.
"What's going on in Tennessee? One explanation is Clayton's name appeared first on the ballot."
That's the most likely explanation.
Democrat candidates are notorious for working state election officials for ballot position in primaries - even in states with lottery draws. They know their voters are, on balance, to dimwitted to make the decision before hand and then read down the list to accurately vote for their preferred candidate.
Dumb voters nominate dumb candidates. Then they turn around and vote for them in the general election.
At the national level, Obama's (probably) insurmountable advantage over Romney is that stupid voters are too stupid to learn from their mistakes and change their behavior.
To win, Romney has to convince stupid voters they made a mistake, without, of course, telling them they are stupid.
That's really hard.
What's going on?
Tennessee did not vote for native son Al Gore in 2000. (see Bush, George W.)
Democrats will vote for anyone with a (D) after their name, regardless. (see Grayson, Alan)
Democrats have no need to vet or source their candidates....because "They're Democrats!" (see Obama, Barack).
Tennesseans in general voted for Dem governor Phil Bredesen because he was a conservative and the best choice at the time, Party be damned.
That's what's going on.
Tim,
To win, Romney has to convince stupid voters they made a mistake, without, of course, telling them they are stupid.
Yeah - but all they have to do is ask him about his crazy "beliefs" and then they're even-steven on the Stupid Scale.
Looks like "mistakes" are being made all around,...
Crack - you've gone so over the edge that you have fallen off the face of the earth. Can't you see how ugly your naked bigotry is to everyone? Hate is hate.
Is it my imagination, or does this sort of thing tend to happen more often in Democratic primaries than Republican ones? I don't mean primary upsets by outsiders so much as primary upsets by obvious raving nutters. There certainly have been some Tea Party victories of the Pyrrhic kind, but I can't remember anything as bad as this (or the Alvin Greene debacle, or for that matter the Larouchite takeover of high-level Democratic ballot positions in Illinois in 1986).
Democratic Senate primary upset of the year: Mark Clayton. Republican Senate primary upset of the year: Ted Cruz. I know which I would rather have to my party's credit.
Yeah, but it's the SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER that says he's anti-gay. That ought to tell you something.
Yeah, but it's the SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER that says he's anti-gay. That ought to tell you something.
And it's the Democrat-Media complex telling you he's a raving nutter. That ought to tell you something, too.
The national media should ask every high-level Democrat, including the President, to comment.
They should demand that every Democrat denounce this nominee and follow up with analysts discussing (for a week or two) "Was the denunciation forceful/sincere enough?"
(Because that's what they'd do if this guy won a Republican primary.)
So, who woke up the Tennessee Democrat Party? Sounds like they need new leadership. Anyone with an iota of self-respect would resign in disgrace.
3 things going on in Tenn (where I live):
1. It is easy for a nobody to get on the ballot in Tenn (25 signatures?). I must admit, I prefer it that way. BUT, it is hard to get a 3rd party on the ballot, sooo...crazies will usually end up on one of the two major parties' ballots.
2. The Dem party is breaking down and getting kicked to the curb. They have fallen so far, so fast, they are reeling: they are not even fielding candidates for a lot of races.
3. The press has not reported on a lot of candidates. Republican candidates still get vetted (a local republican lost because of news reports of problems that came out before the election) but nobody looked into this candidate's background until after the election.
Voters who can't read English, probably.
What's going on in tennessee? The basic answer is that TN dems just don't care. They know they can't win a statewide election, so its not worth trying. 10 years ago, you would have called Tn a swing state, but these days, it's redder than Texas. (And doing well for it).
Charles @1:08 — Yes, exactly.
Fickleness, Thy Name Is...
Naked bigotry, naked bigotry,
That's what Alex calls it;
Let earth make just one circuitry
And Alex'll be all for it.
and suggests that Americans who speak out against government policies could some day be placed in "a bone-crushing prison camp
Actually, I think the vast majority of modern dems would get behind this policy.
The Democratic Party has "disavowed" him, whatever that means
Well, obviously he is on a mission: impossible. And they want to shoot him. And a short guy will be playing him in the movie.
Actually, no. The Democrat Party didn't disavow him. They NOMINATED him.
Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.
I too am against national ID cards. I fell in a river in about 1980 and came out without my wallet. I never replaced my social security card till this year. People are starting to require presentation of the actual card and not just the number, which is also problematic. This is what we get for a national ID because no one but the nutters calls it a national ID.
The bone crushing prison camps? Not yet. I had rather say never but I can't.
On the whole this guy is about as sensible as Shirley Jackson Lee. The only thing stopping his election might be that he's running in the wrong race.
Another explanation is that this is the state of Tennessee.
Titus, you're not in contact with reality often, but, when you are...
I'm a Tennessean and by reason of my position am quite familiar with our election laws.
Clayton probably won because he was the top name on the ballot. We don't list candidates randomly.
The state Democratic Party has run out of candidates who are willing to run statewide. The gubernatorial candidate was the son of a popular former governor who could self-fund by reason of the fact that he was the major West Tennessee beer distributor. That's the Tennessee version of venture capitalist or hedge fund trader. The last Democratic senatorial candidate was a former state party head who volunteered to take one for the team. On this go-round there were no sacrificial lambs. The closest thing to an "official" candidate was a crazy lady from Oak Ridge with a voice and accent reminiscent of a lesser country music star. Not that that is a bug in Tennessee politics.
On the other had, through the miracle of redistricting the Republican candidates for the Fifth District (Nashville) congressional seat (currently held by the seemingly unbeatable conservative Democrat Jim Cooper)were a regular Who's Who of the Weirdo-American community. Works both ways.
Obviously, Mother Jones doesn't know what rank-and-file Democrats sound like in Tennessee. Welcome to the real Democratic Party.
I don't see any difference between this guy and Al Gore for instance. Gore thought censoring song lyrics was the path to salvation and if we would just all buy energy credits from him we could save the world. He is sort of the L Ron Hubbard of political crazy.
The only difference with this guy is that his brand or crazy is not as popular. Who knows, maybe he is a prophet like Al Gore and we will all be worried about trade treaties and national IDs like we are worried about carbon now. Whatever distraction the ruling class finds handy to extend their power is what the press will latch onto.
Don't believe me? Right now the first lady has the press up in arms about the pernicious problem of the overabundance of tasty food we produce. You can't make this sort of thing up. Just keep in mind that to the people who like Clayton your favorite politician looks just as batshit crazy. And it is because they are.
Nice thing now is that I am free to vote for whoever the Tea Party puts up against Corker.
OT I know but here is how I have been spending my weekends: in 2008, I bought a rental property that need rehab and soon after the economny collapsed and I was only able to keep up with the mortgage payments until the last year when i finally had the money to start the rehab. So I have been painting and trashing things while paying two high school buddies [unemployed craftsmen due to Obamanomics] have been doing most of the rehab.
So I have a full time job and work weekends on this project while President Obama finds the time to golf more than once every other week!And he tells me "You didn't build that?" WTF is wrong with this picture.
I remember after being a lifelong Democrat, David Duke changed his party affiliation and ran for an open seat in the Louisiana state legislature in a special election after a guy resigned to become a judge.
Former president Reagan, sitting president George H.W. Bush, and several Democrats endorsed one of Duke's opponents in the primary (again, this was an election to the state legislature, yet the highest ranking Republicans in the country were intervening). But that wasn't enough, and Duke and another guy went to a runoff election and Duke won with less than 51% of the vote (the other guy stupidly brought up increasing property taxes and Duke hammered him on it non-stop which led to his victory).
It was like Christmas to the media. They turned it into international news with their coverage that a former Klansman had won an election as a Republican (often failing to mention Duke had been a lifelong Democrat until immediately prior to the campaign). The highest ranking Republicans in the country anticipated how damaging it would be for the party if Duke won. They tried to "disavow" his candidacy so that he'd lose. But it did not work.
Democrats have been playing the race card against Republicans ever since.
Titus said...
Another explanation is that this is the state of Tennessee.
edutcher said...
Titus, you're not in contact with reality often, but, when you are...
8/5/12 2:02 PM
Says two Wisconsin Debacle observers/participants...
It is to laugh.....
This is all just another diversion to take attention off the real issues - jobs, economy, voter fraud, etc. And, I can prove it. As an original occupant of the far right-wing fever camps I can assure everyone that we NEVER opposed the NAFTA superhighway. We were and still are opposed to the NAFTA bridge to nowhere, however.
True story. A wackjob in Minnesota changed her last name to "Anderson" and ran for judicial office in the Republican primary. Yup, she won. Of course got trunced in the general election.
Another used her maiden name of "Anderson" while running for Sec'y of State. She won (and was a good person).
Moral of the story....if you want to win elections in Minnesota, change your last name to "Anderson".
"Yeah, but it's the SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER that says he's anti-gay. That ought to tell you something."
Let me guess, it was followed by a fund raising appeal by teh SPLC.
(the other kev)
Yes, the Tennessee Democratic Party has fallen on hard times. Less than twenty years ago, they had the governorship, the state legislature and both U.S. Senators. Now? Their last gubernatorial candidate was the son of the disgraced former governor and the only 'name' Democrat on the ballot Clayton won was actress Park Overall. It was only a few years ago that Harold Ford Jr. was going to lead the Dems back to some kind of 'main street respectability.' Now half his family is in jail, and he's lucky to get fourth billing on a Sunday talk show once in a while.
"Tags: Democratic party, stupid" lol.
I hope the debates are televised nationally.
After watching a sitting Democratic Congressman on the Armed Services Committee question an Admiral about moving 10,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam, the Congressman--stating the 'tinyness' of the island-asked: "Won't the island capsize?" I believe Mr. Clayton is fully qualified to be the Democratic Senatorial candidate for any state, including Wisconsin.
Two Southern friends--one a Democrat, the other a Republican--were arguing about politics. Finally, the Republican, frustrated, shouted, "You're such a yellow dog Democrat! I bet you'd vote for the Devil himself if he had a D after his name!"
The Democrat thought for a moment, then replied, "Well, I wouldn't in the primary."
Toy
"True story. A wackjob in Minnesota changed her last name to "Anderson" and ran for judicial office in the Republican primary. Yup, she won. Of course got trunced in the general election."
A woman in California changed her name back to Sanchez (maiden name) and ran in Santa Ana about ten years ago. With help of about 450 illegals, Loretta was elected. I blame Bob Dornan who was making an idiot run for president.
Her voters have now expanded to Anaheim and are rioting in front of Disneyland. That should work out well.
Jason,
"They NOMINATED him."
That's a completely meaningless assertion in an open-primary state like Tennessee.
"That's a completely meaningless assertion in an open-primary state like Tennessee."
This is why I disapprove of the idea of "open" primaries. The primary is an endorsement of a candidate by the party. It ought to be up to the party and it ought to mean something. If someone doesn't want to declare membership (or obtain membership in any of the potential membership-obtaining ways we could imagine) in a party then they ought not get to have a say in selecting that party's candidate.
The party platform, formed by delegates and conventions ought also to mean something, at least in general terms, if someone wants to run for office and claim to belong to the party.
I think that those who think that not having parties (or brands, or franchises) would make the process better haven't thought it through. And those who think that an "open" primary system is more democratic, also haven't thought it through.
I haven't been a Wisconsin resident for 22 years. And I wasn't involved with or participated in any of the recall nonsense.
I went back for 1 year to help with some family obligations.
But worse, I am a Massachusetts Resident!
Educated in elite Mass. colleges, trained in elite Mass. companies and succeeded beyond my wildest dreams!
Thanks Mass.!
I have been to Gatlinburg and Dollywood though. Loved it long time.
tits.
Synova,
Clearly you are my long-lost twin sister! (Also, simultaneously more eloquent and more patient.)
The D side of the race is not that important as Corker is well respected except for right wing nutjobs like me. Turns out the guy the Democrats selected opposes gay marriage. Like most of Tennessee's citizens. This makes him a hate monger according to the tolerant Democrats.
Sounds like their problem is with Tennessee. I suggest they boycot us.
Trey
Titus, next time you are down our way, be sure to spend some time in the Smokey Mountain park proper. It is just beautiful in those mountains! A trip over the top to Cherokee NC is also recommended. There are lots of silly tourist things to do as well as a very nice Cherokee museum.
I hope you visit again and have a wonderful time.
Trey
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