The Democratic Party's losing Jon Ossoff effort — in Georgia's 6th US House District election — highlights the Party's missing common sense
© 2017 Peter Free
22 June 2017
A down-home kid could have predicted how Georgia's special US House election was going to turn out
That's the contest that pitted (Democrat) Jon Ossoff against (Republican) Karen Handel in reportedly the most expensive House election in history.
The media made a big deal out of it. As if the (Republican) Trump Administration's future hung in the balance.
Three points are pertinent to this foolishness:
A US House of Representatives election virtually never predicts a national tide — so watching those contests for that reason is dumb.
If one party chooses either a poor-fitting candidate, or one who avoids enthusiasm-generating issues (in an anti-establishment revolt), that person is probably going to lose.
Last — running a candidate who does not even live in the applicable southern jurisdiction falls below political moron-i-tude into geographically ignorant imbecility.
My point is that one could have predicted this election result just by looking at the candidates' pictures and where they were from.
Georgia is deep south territory
The state's 6th Congressional District is heavily Republican. You cannot arrive in that humid region acting posturally similar to an Obama-replicant and expect to win popularity contests.
If you are curious just how questionably Jon Ossoff fit the Deep South's leader paradigm, read his Wikipedia entry, here. It is bursting with items guaranteed to raise "he ain't from here" eyebrows.
In selecting "here's a stick in your eye" Ossoff, Democrats appear to have been misled by President Trumps 1 point presidential election win in the 6th. A more accurate "probability" picture comes from the previous five presidential election drubbings, bounded by representative 70-29 and 61-38 (Republican beats Democrat) stompings.
The moral? — A big to-do over a stupid nothing
Jon Ossoff had no workable chance.
He may have been the best Democratic candidate at the time, but that's not saying anything worthwhile. And notice that the huge bulk of his advertising money came from outside the state. That would rankle a lot of locals. It certainly would me.
In my jaundiced view, this Ossoff episode simply demonstrates:
(a) how politically inept (and irrationally optimistic) the Democratic Party is
and
(b) how hysterically silly our American media are.