Our constitution does not provide for any limits of government -that's a huge problem. Together with the fact that the Supreme Court cannot rule a law to be unconstitutional, that means we got no checks whatsoever. Oh, and did I mentioned government television (I'm not talking about C-span now, it's much more extensive)? Among the things that have been promoted on government television during the past years are male breastfeeding and Fidel Castro (no known connection between them).

The Swedish system is parliamentarian, meaning you cannot have a government without support from the parliament. It may sound complicated but it's not so hard to understand. It's a very boring system though, none of these exciting midterm elections or primaries that you have. It is designed so that no-one will ever be interested in politics, because knowledge is the socialist's greatest enemy.

Btw, in the last election we had our first television ads in Swedish politics. One of them was kind of cool, it was an attack ad showing kids and teenagers saying stuff like "When I grow up I want to collect welfare", "After I've graduated from high school I want to go into early retirement", and then the voice-over at the end of the ad asked "Do you want to go back to welfare-Sweden, or do you want to move on and create new jobs and companies?". The point was that before our current right-winged government took over, all kids could dream off was to end up on different forms of welfare. We had people as young as 22 years old forced into early retirement (because those in early retirement aren't counted as unemployed, making unemployment look lower).

The government was re-elected six weeks ago, but unfortunately without a majority in the parliament - we have a hung parliament now, and we'll see how long that lasts. It's a bit unstable, to say the least.

/John

You're welcome!

Latest word on Colorado Senate race from the AP:


That's my signal to go to bed!

Hello all, I'm a little late to the party

I don't have time to read through all the posts, but I'll give my short take on things before heading to bed and a few hours of sleep.

It looks like right around a pickup of 65 house seats which is huge. Of course we're at a pickup of 6 Senate Seats with 2 undecided. I don't know how Washington will go, but I'm hopeful for Buck in Colorado to pull it to a gain of 7.

I'm sure you discussed the incredible gains with the Governors and the State Legislators. I think this is the most under-reported part of tonight that will have huge implications going forward.

I think one of the real stories is that this could have been much worse for Democrats. So why wasn't it? I honestly believe Democrats were scared to death and went into survival mode. I think this helped save Reid in Nevada and potentially Murray in Washington. In West Virginia Manchin went so far to repudiate Obama that he is going to be a more reliable vote for Republicans than Collins and Snowe. As you know he has to run again in 2012 so he knows every vote he casts is a potential 30 second commercial. I also think Republicans got complacent to some degree. I had said in one of the threads in the Huckabee part of the forums that I felt good about Miller, but on 2nd thought I think the revelations about why he was fired from a law firm probably was his downfall. I believe it is a lesson for all politicians that if you've got skeletons in your closet to go ahead and drag them out before you get into the closing days of an election. Also I think many of us just underestimated how tough it would be to win in some of these very very blue states. The good news though for 2012 is that many more Democrats will be running in Red States come the 2012 cycle.

Overall though I feel very positive. Republicans gained the House where they can initiate legislation, but it will be up to the Democratic Senate to take those bills up and up to the President to sign them. So Republicans don't have to get things done but just do their part in passing the legislation and sending it on. It will be Obama and the Democrats that will ultimately be held accountable. So far what I'm hearing from Republicans causes me to be hopeful. This is not a time to be celebrating or crowing as Republicans because as Marco Rubio has said this is a vote for Republicans to have a 2nd chance to get it right. If they keep that kind of a humble attitude and understand they serve the voters and not the special interests that have been waiting for them to get back in power so they can get the gray train on track again then they will do very well in years to come.

WOOT! (just catching up here; lost my internet last night!)

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"Never, Never, NEVER GIVE UP" Winston Churchill

I agree. I think it was a great night for conservatives but not that great for the tea party and their leader Sarah Palin (which I am thankful for). She lost in her own state. And I agree, Marco Rubio is a great candidate and in my opinion didnt need the tea party to win. Huckabee/Rubio 2012!!

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thanks ColoradoMom for the link to the cool NYT map

http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/results/governor

We are still waiting here in Illinois for Governor. Does anyone want to take Chicago off our hands? geesh!!

Florida gov is also very close. Hucabee really needs that to be Rep.

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Mike up next on Fox!

SO GLAD you mentioned this, Iowans Rock. Maybe it seemed to people outside of FL that Rubio was a tea party canddiate, but although he was later supported by tea party people, this is not how he began. I lived in FL for almost 4 years (just moved when I was married in May), and I first heard about Rubio here on HA back when he was a Huckabee supporter (there are videos of him supporting Huckabee here in our archives) and learned he was a past FL Speaker of the House. No, he definitely was not supported by the GOP establishment who foolishly got behind Gov. Crist, but he was a Republican in his own right, not a product of the tea party. Of course FirstCoastTerp (who led our Huckabee volunteer group back during the Presidential campaign) or someone else who has also lived in FL longer than I may say if this is a misunderstanding on my part....

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"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”
"Duty is ours; results are Gods."
-quotes attributed to President John Quincy Adams

HuckPAC donor code R23742

I find it so aggravating that Chicago essentially picks our governor. Brady is trouncing Quinn in virtually every county in the state, and all Quinn has to do is win Chicago. Most frustrating.

I definitely agree. Rubio was a regular GOP candidate following the traditional path to higher office. His candidacy was clearly different than that of Joe Miller and Christine O'Donnell.

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Ken

Exactly the same situation that happened in Nevada. It was all one county that gave Reid the lead and the win. All the other counties had twice as many votes for Angle. Very frustrating...

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"I've always believed the mission is greater than the man..." -Governor Rick Perry
"We're not choosing a pastor-in-chief, we're choosing a commander-in-chief." -Pastor Michael Youssef

Thanks for weighing in on this, Ken. Miss you guys down there in Florida!

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"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”
"Duty is ours; results are Gods."
-quotes attributed to President John Quincy Adams

HuckPAC donor code R23742

True. The only difference is that Illinois has a lot more counties and a lot more population, thus making it seem that much worse. If you look at the map here (http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/results/governor) and zoom in on Illinois, you can see how it played out. Brady won by 20-40 points in dozens of counties, lost by a similar margin in ONE, and that one was enough to turn the tide.

I remember it was similar on Super Tuesday back on '08, when it looked all evening like Huckabee would win Missouri, only to lose by a narrow margin when St. Louis went for McCain. Maybe we should make all these big cities become their own states. Whaddya think?!

The same thing happens here in California. California is geographically a red state, yet the entire state swings left due to the huge populations of Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area, which are both heavily Democrat. If It weren't for L.A. and San Francisco, the Republicans would have won California yesterday.

Obama flipped the bird to the house earlier today. Things are gonna get ugly the next two years.

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The only ones who can kill are those who are prepared to be killed.

Seriously? As in, literally?

In a manner of speaking. He essentially told the Republicans to get stuffed because he is not changing the course. Blamed it on messaging as always.

I could hardly believed what I heard.

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The only ones who can kill are those who are prepared to be killed.

Music to my ears because if his arrogance continues like this with a deaf ear to the electorate he will have no chance at re-election in 2012.

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"We fought, we dreamed, that dream is still with us."
Ronald Reagan, 1976

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Bennet is claiming victory, and the Denver Post is backing him up. Ken Buck hasn't conceded yet, as there are still some provisional ballots being counted, but it doesn't look good.

Last night Fox News said more outside money was pumped into this race than any other race in the country. I believe it. Bennet ran an extremely negative campaign, non-stop . Looks like it worked.