[Spoonman]

Chortle

And he's blaming the current legal wife for getting him to endorse Mehmet Oz.

Still more reports are coming in about former President Donald Trump's angry reactions to seeing some of his hand-picked candidates face defeat during Tuesday's midterm elections.

The New York Times' Maggie Haberman chimed in on Twitter with her own dispatch that claimed the twice-impeached former president is now even blaming former first lady Melania Trump for some of his own poor endorsements.

"Trump is indeed furious this morning, particularly about Mehmet Oz, and is blaming everyone who advised him to back Oz -- including his wife, describing it as not her best decision, according to people close to him," Haberman writes.

Haberman also reports that the losses of Trump-backed candidates such as Oz and Don Bolduc may impact his decision to announce his third presidential campaign next week.

https://www.salon.com/2022/11/09/wounde ... t_partner/

They'll be some amount of ketchup to clean off the walls at Mar-A-Lago today.

[Bones McCoy]

There is still time for a couple of nasty stings in the tail, but overall I reckon the Dems will feel very pleased - several bullets dodged, and most of the worst GOP election deniers losing. Democrats in Michigan will be particularly elated at their extraordinary successes.

Especially wonderful to see the genuinely dreadful Lauren Boebert seemingly on the brink of losing her House seat.

EDIT: oh and it looks very much as if Sarah Palin has lost in Alaska again, for the second time in three months

Losing Alaska once might be considered unfortunate...

(You'd need a heart of stone .... [Same author]).

[Tubby Isaacs]

Good win for Democrats in the Oregon governor race, given that there was a Dem-leaning Independent.

[The Weeping Angel]

[Crabcakes]

Arizona looks close, but should be in the bag as Kelly’s lead is slowly growing. Nevada looks bad, but there are a lot of votes left and - crucially - they’re early mail-in and Vegas, which all lean heavily dem. It could be tight, but there’s a reason some republicans are already trying to claim some sort of fraud because they haven’t been declared winners by simply being ahead *at this point*. They know what’s coming.

[Arrowhead]

I get the impression that Nevada is looking just about okay from a Dem perspective, but Arizona could still go the way of the pear. Kelly may get over the line in the Senate race, but the absolutely insane Kari Lake could still bag the Governor’s mansion for the GOP there.

Boebert is still just about clinging on in her House race, but will in all likelihood lose very narrowly.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I agree about Nevada. That and Kelly would clinch the Senate, with the Georgia run off to come. I can't see Walker's vote holding up if that's the case. If control of the senate is still up for grabs then Walker is very much still in it.

Control of the House will likely come down to poor results in New York. And the map of the state not being as gerrymandered as it could have been. What a joke.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Arizona looks close, but should be in the bag as Kelly’s lead is slowly growing. Nevada looks bad, but there are a lot of votes left and - crucially - they’re early mail-in and Vegas, which all lean heavily dem. It could be tight, but there’s a reason some republicans are already trying to claim some sort of fraud because they haven’t been declared winners by simply being ahead *at this point*. They know what’s coming.

I think late counted votes in Arizona are less reliably Democratic than other states, but I think Kelly will probably be OK.

He's a very good candidate, not leftwing, but he's got interesting life experience (not just his own but his wife Gabby Giffords was very nearly assassinated by a lunatic) which makes him stand out. He doesn't arse about like Sinema either.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Good house pick up in NM-2 as well. NM is unusual in being a poor state where Democrats do well. I wonder if there are lessons to be taken from there.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Good result in the Maine governor race too. Paul Lepage, a sort of proto-Trumper who was governor before, has been hammered. Currently 11.8 points down.

Probably a strong element of "time to find someone else" in that, but I note Trump himself did poorly in Maine in 2020 (after coming close in 2016). Lots of Maine ought to be pretty fertile for Trump. Interesting that it hasn't been. Same with New Hampshire, which has re-elected a moderate Republican with a big margin, and the Dem Senator, Maggie Hasan, has beaten a Trumper challenger by about 9 points.

[Tubby Isaacs]

[Tubby Isaacs]

Lauren Bobert may still be in trouble, even though she leads on votes counted.

[Arrowhead]

She’s leading by over 1,200 now, so it looks like she will probably just about squeeze over the finishing line. The Dems will really fancy their chances against her in 2024, though.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Dave Wasserman has seen enough in Arizona. Projects win for Mark Kelly.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I am genuinely nonplussed as to why it takes the assorted states and statelets in the US quite so long to count votes and come to a conclusion. Here in the UK we can get the job done in well under 24 hours, the same in other European countries - but they can take a week or longer.

Why?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Various reasons. In some states, not least New York, the election machinery is poor. But also lots of states allow mail in votes post marked on Election Day, so you can be getting large amounts of votes arriving for days after. And there’s also a process of curing where, as I understand it, people whose votes are challenged on grounds like the signature not looking quite right get a chance to prove that it is them.

There are also some deliberate sabotage like legislatures not allowing mail in ballots to be processed in advance. This was deliberate by state level Republicans to make it look suspicious and fuel the “funny they found more Democrat votes late on” conspiracy.

I would imagine a lot of votes get challenged. When that happened, it’s very slow. See eg Tower Hamlets count one year.

[Andy McDandy]

Historically, many parts of the American democratic process were made as awkward as possible to avoid quick, decisive action that might lead to trouble down the line. For some Americans, lack of due process is the beginning of the slippery slope to tyranny. Indeed, parts of the entire checks and balances thing are designed to produce procedural gridlock, as that's considered better than abuse of power.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I think that's more true of the federal government than the state government. The Senate rules make it very hard to get stuff done. But they're rules only, not part of the constitution, and can be set aside when necessary. Even people like Joe Manchin think that you can set them aside to avoid the government shutting down. In the future it's going to be virtually impossible for Democrats to get 60 senators to vote for stuff, even if there's massive public support for it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He's not taking this well.

“I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen,” Trump wrote in a diatribe that called DeSantis “Ron DeSanctimonious”.

I'm pretty worried that Trump will make other Republicans look moderate. But he's more likely to wreck everything.

[Tubby Isaacs]

You mean this tweet didn't swing it for Blake Masters? How many people think "Kelly is an astronaut? that's really crap! I'm voting for the suit guy!"