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Quote of the Day (So Far!)

12:18 PM, Nov 9, 2009 • By MATTHEW CONTINETTI
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The QOTD(SF!) is from Mark Shields's weekend column on Democratic attempts to diminish the GOP victories in Virginia and New Jersey:

All of these rationalizations and excuses are baloney, bunk and bushwa. Off-year elections do matter, especially psychologically. Victories help fundraising, help candidate recruitment and lift party morale. Defeat can leave in its wake anxiety, even panic in party ranks. As Bill McInturff, the trusted Republican pollster, told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, "You cannot imagine the carnage of losing 54 House seats (the number Republicans lost between the 2006-08 elections)."

Shields continues: "To compound the anger of citizens who, according to Hart, 'are equally hostile to Wall Street,' the only groups they see being helped by the government's economic policies - at the expense of people who have lost their jobs or average working families - are large banks and Wall Street investment companies. Those, sadly, are the final returns of 2009."

There's more on this phenomenon in this week's WEEKLY STANDARD cover story and in The Persecution of Sarah Palin.

More by Matthew Continetti

 

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