were in the ballpark
of most polls,
unlike 2016.
Senator Bob Menendez
won in New Jersey,
where it appears that
a corrupt politician
gets great respect
for staying out of jail !
President Trump,
a "master salesman"
to fellow Republicans,
began Wednesday,
November 7
bragging about
a "great victory".
If one looks only at the Senate,
the President's party
gaining Senators after two years,
was very unusual.
Bill Clinton's party
lost 8 Senate seats in 1994,
after his first two years.
And Barak Obama's party
lost 6 Senate seats in 2010,
after his first two years.
Trump's party did a lot better
in the Senate, but the
majority party there
actually needs 60 votes
to end filibusters,
and accomplish their agenda.
Republicans losing control
of the House is not
good news for Trump.
But it has happened before:
It happened to Bill Clinton,
after his first two years
-- his party lost 52 House seats
in 1994.
Turned out to be good news
for the country -- Clinton
was an old school liberal
willing to work with,
and compromise with,
Republicans.
Very few of those old school
Democrats exist these days.
It also happened to Barack Obama,
after his first two years
-- his party lost 63 House seats
in 2010.
That also turned out to be
good news for the country
-- House Republicans
reduced Obama's ability
to weaken the economy.
Obama still left behind
a record low average
of only +1.5%
annual economic growth
over his eight years
... but it could have been worse!
Republicans losing control
of the House in January 2019
is not good news for Trump,
or the nation.
The Democrats hope
to win the presidency
in the 2020 election.
To win in 2020,
House Democrats believe
they must oppose
anything that would benefit
the US, because in 2020,
Trump will take credit
for all good news
in the prior two years.
In the wild Trump
press "interrogation"
( aka "press conference" )
on Wednesday,
after the election,
the pro-liberal media
were even more nasty
than before the election,
and that had been really bad.
CNN's Abilio James "Jim" Acosta,
or "Rude Jim", was finally banned
from future press conferences
( two years too late, in my opinion ) !
CNN (and MSNBC)
is so hostile to Trump,
usually fact-free,
that you'd think they
were the official
Iranian news station!
In October 2018,
the pre-election month,
the lame Hallmark Channel
had more viewers
than CNN did
Non-stop investigations
of Trump, and his
campaign supporters,
have been ongoing
for almost two years.
Expect House Democrats
to expand investigations
to Trump's Cabinet members,
and his businesses.
I expect a subpeona for
Trump's business tax records
that will cause a big
"Constitutional showdown".
I also expect my
Election Circus blog
to get lots of new material,
because the political circus
in Washington, D.C.
is going to be ramping up,
in spite of no evidence
of Trump wrongdoing.
Did you notice that the fake
"Trump - Russian collusion"
charge was never mentioned
by Democrats during
the 2018 campaign?
The only area where
Trump and Democrats
might agree ... maybe ...
is on infrastructure spending,
where they both generally
want to spend money
like drunken sailors
on shore leave!
Except that Democrats
oppose all walls, however!
But anything Trump wanted
in the past two years,
the Democrats have opposed,
and I don't see that changing
for the next two years.
Politicians
blathering platitudes
about "working together
for the American people"
after winning an election,
make me want to throw up,
after watching the
unbelievable political circus
for the past two years,
and the wild
"press interrogation"
of Trump on Wednesday
after the election!
In his 2016 campaign,
Trump grossly
over promised
what he could deliver
in four years.
It's true that
the Senate Republicans
could have changed the
ridiculous filibuster rules
with only 51 votes.
And then Senate Democrat
filibusters could have been ended
with 51 votes, rather than a
near-impossible level of 60 votes.
https://electioncircus.blogspot.com/2018/04/senate-must-end-filibuster-rule-to-make.html
Without rule change,
legislation coming
to the Senate,
from the
Republican-controlled House,
usually died there,
lacking those 60 votes.
It's too late
for filibuster rule changes,
because House Democrats
take control of the legislation
that goes to the Senate,
starting in January 2019.
Changing filibuster rules
would have taken courage.
Republicans don't have courage.
So Trump is likely to
be facing re-election
in 2020 with:
-- No border wall,
-- The same stupid
"catch and release"
immigration rules,
-- For the EPA,
the Trump Administration
announced various
deregulatory proposals,
but did not actually
repeal very much,
including Obama's
very powerful
carbon dioxide
"endangerment finding",
https://elonionbloggle.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-trump-epa-is-failing-to-deregulate.html
-- Government deficit spending
over $1 trillion a year,
which some Republicans
actually oppose, and
-- Government spending
still rising year after year,
even without an active war
-- I imagine we'll still be
inside Afghanistan,
pretending we are winning.
What will Trump
campaign on in 2020?
Will he brag about
cutting corporate taxes in 2018,
after corporations had
near record profit margins
and near record stock valuations
in 2017, and didn't need a handout?
The Democrats in the House
are very interested to find out
how the Trump tax cuts
benefitted Trump's corporations.
They already suspect
Trump pays a low
effective corporate
tax rate, common in
the real estate business.
That's most likely why
we have not seen
at least one
Trump tax return
by now
(not that the law requires that,
releasing tax returns
before an election,
was just a tradition ).
Democrats will work hard
to make a Trump
tax return public.
I have to expect that
someone inside the IRS
will eventually leak
one or more
Trump tax returns !
Over two years
of an Election Circus
did not give the Democrats
the "big blue wave"
they wanted in 2018,
just a small blue wave.
I hate to give them
good political advice, but
the "We Hate Trump"
/ Democrat Party
may want to consider
a positive agenda for 2020.
