Republican Roy Moore lost to Democrat Doug Jones last night.
While he had won the Republican primary, you still had to wonder about someone removed from elective office with the Alabama Supreme Court. Twice.
That’s an impression I was never able to get past, and why I think Senator Thune made the right call in noting someone else would be better.
And now we’re here, having lost what had started out as an extremely safe seat.
Your thoughts?
Women around America are moving against predators, harassers, bullies, rapists. It is inspiring. America will survive with its razor-thin Republican Senate advantage. The people of Alabama did the right thing.
How can you know that they did the right thing? Where is you rock solid proof of Moores guilt? I am not as inspired by the “movement” as you are. It seems to me that in many of these cases it is more about seeking political advantage than anything else. After all, with these types of allegations, you are guilty until proven innocent .
Anonymous 8:26, I can’t know for sure – no one can – but I can and do trust the voters. It’s clear serious policy issues were at play in the election, including ones that have to do with our character as a nation.
The Alabama voters knew that too. Yet, if you read the original Washington Post story, you know the story came from four women who did not seek out the press, who did not know each other, and who surely guessed going public would bring them nothing but grief, came forward and provided first-person details that established a pattern. Thirty people corroborated details. Those pieces of information were more important than policy issues to the majority of the voters.
Last, it’s not up to me in SD to know. It’s up to the voters in Alabama. Roy Moore lost the election because Republican women rose up and raised hell.
Comment at 9:35 is from me.
Many women around America already stayed away from predators, harassers, bullies and rapists. You just didn’t hear from us because we handled the situation right then and there and didn’t take to Twitter to share our “feelings”. What was the percentage of women who voted for Trump? Doesn’t he fall into one of the categories you listed? That’s what Democrats will tell you. What are your thoughts about those women?
I would’ve preferred Strange or Brooks, just like I would’ve preferred Cruz, but those weren’t the choices on the ballots. Not sure America will survive with its razor-thin Republican Senate. Please tell me what promises they have kept so far? Defund PP? Repeal ACA? How about that border security?
Fred. You are a good man.
You are head of right to life. I’m ok with you not supporting Moore but there was not a right choice then.
Todd: “So you wouldn’t be in favor of legislation that said, ban abortion after 20 weeks or something like that?”
Jones: “I’m not in favor of anything that is going to infringe on a woman’s right and her freedom to choose. That’s just the position that I’ve had for many years. It’s a position I continue to have. But I want people to understand that once that baby is born, I’m going to be there for that child. That’s where I become a right-to-lifer.”
Yep, Jones is a pro-death guy, and Moore would have been against the murder of unborn babies. Now a pro-America agenda is in jeopardy because the Republicans already have Collins, Murkowski, McCain and others who are not even close to conservative. The worst that would have happened with a Moore win would be that the Senate either expelled him or refused to seat him and another Republican-more conservative than the aforementioned RINOs-would have taken his place.
The Democrats do not support America as a sovereign nation, and they celebrate the death of unborn babies in the name of convenience. They also support more government control, and that is not a good thing either.
9:11, I agree with you 100% – there was not a good choice in this election. Both were terrible choices, IMO.
Trust me, I closely follow the national debate. I read Jones’ statement about abortion. His response made me viscerally sick.
But what do you do when the other guy, by all appearances, is an idiot with women.
If there is even the smallest silver-lining to this debacle it’s that the Republicans still control the Senate, that a normal, decent Republican candidate should easily defeat Jones in the next election, that the US Senatorial election map has the Republicans at an advantage for the next election, and God-willing, that Roe will be over-turn within the next five years by an expanded conservative majority in the Supreme Court.
by all appearances, is an idiot with women.
By all appearances, might have once been an idiot with women?
I agree no good choice with two flawed candidates, but I would have pulled for Moore given what I know now. Brooks much better, and was hoping he’d grab it in two years but he just announced significant health issues. I was on record last week as saying we should let the people in Alabama decide, and they have.
I am having trouble believe that Alabama has turned purple, but fear this may be a trend if the democrats have imported enough votes to swing this particular election. The establishment republicans not doing anything to separate themselves from the democrats has diluted the GOP brand to where they don’t have any decent alternatives to offer
Roy Moore thought the rules didn’t apply to him. He was a judge who ignored federal law and court decisions. He was a man who in his 30’s trolled malls for high school girls and dated several of them. Then he clearly lied when he denied knowing the girls after first admitting that he knew two of them and that they were “nice girls.” Voters must have found that hard to believe after seeing that he signed at least one high school yearbook. Maybe after getting rid of a philandering governor and a really odd senate candidate like Roy Moore, Alabama is just ready to have a drama free government for awhile.
In an appearance on Birmingham FOX affiliate WBRC6 on Wednesday, Barnes Boyle, who was the manager of the Gadsden Mall from 1981 to 1996, said he had no memory of former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore being banned from that mall.
“Sure, it was part of the job,” Boyle said. “We did have written reports and things. But to my knowledge, he was not banned from the mall.
I never said Roy Moore was banned from the mall. I don’t believe he was banned. I do believe that in his 30’s he was routinely hanging out at the mall to meet high school girls to date. If you had a teenage daughter what would you think about a guy in his 30’s trying to get with her?
You missed my point, but you have often proven to miss the point of comments.
Why don’t you tell me how to raise my daughter? You have such great insight.
Moore asked parents if it was okay to date their daughters, they said yes. Maybe, just maybe times were different 30 years ago? I wouldn’t know, I was like 2yrs old. I have friends whose parents are 10-15yrs apart in age. My husband’s grandparents were 20yrs apart, that gives me some clue things were different back then. To each there own.
KM, Gillibrand said times were different only last year when she clung to Bill Clinton to raise money and get elected, so that goes to show that Demos will claim times were different when it suits them and their anti-American agenda.
Thank You. Some of us can see behind the curtain.
I don’t mind Moore standing up for the Ten Commandments; too many pagans want to squelch Christianity which is not right or moral. I get sick of seeing the billboards by the so-called “Sioux Falls Free Thinkers”, a bunch of Christianity-hating people who think they have the last word on science. I don’t want a bunch of jerks like that trying to say how I should raise my children.
Roy Moore didn’t get any help. First Steve Bannon supported him, and he was trailing badly. He overcame that and looked this weekend like he was going to win. Now that he looked like a winner, Trump jumped on after refusing to endorse him for months. The Trump endorsement was one too many millstones. He can truly say “With friends like mine, who needs enemies?”
Alabama loved Trump. I don’t think Alabama loved Roy Moore prior to these allegations. He consistently only received just over 51% of the vote in prior judge elections. Not a high majority in Republican Alabama.
Republicans have lost winnable Senate races by picking unelectable nominees like Todd Akin, Sharron Angle, Richard Mourdock and Christine O’Donnell in recent years.
Heitkamp in ND was someone who should have lost. Now choosing Moore in Alabama cost republicans.
Republican primary voters have chosen a lot of candidates with narrow appeal in general elections.
These losses will ultimately doom or hinder the Trump agenda.
They need electable people running for office who are principled enough to make the right votes but smart enough to know when they are just being windbags and need to stop talking.
And I believe career or establishment Republicans are the real heart of this disease. They dont respect their primary voters. They don’t change. Primary voters overreact by nominating a nut job. The establishment runs from that person the general election voters often don’t support the very inexperienced conservative candidate.
End of the day this Trump presidency will be a complete waste if republicans lose the Senate or the House.
I get the feeling this is a wakeup call for primary voters. The supreme court is in the balance.
Well said, 8:59
it is a complete waste BECAUSE of the Trump presidency.
Problem is that the Washington Post HELD the story till after he won and they could not switch out candidates.
So when Thune and others were calling for him to drop out it was calling for an automatic defeat.
Unproven allegations from 40 years ago after 8 prior races, I don’t know why anyone would want to run for office and get smeared so badly….
And John Thune was right. Doug Jones IS better.
I like Thune much but when Thune is saying Hillary Clinton is better than Donald Trump it concerns me.
Now only having a one vote majority is better than Moore. I guess he’s playing the long game.
Moore was not a good nominee. I get that. Alabama voters ultimately agreed. If Alabama agrees then obviously Moore was flawed prior to sex allegations.
There is one important lesson to take from this. Elect-ability in a general is important to the “who should I vote for” calculus in a primary. Luther Strange wins in a landslide. No one would be talking about it this election this morning had he got the nomination. He is a rock solid conservative, and would have voted as such on important issues. That is why the President says he endorsed Strange in the first place, and he was right to do so.
President Trump tweeted this today: “If last night’s election proved anything, it proved that we need to put up GREAT Republican candidates to increase the razor thin margins in both the House and Senate.” He is exactly right.
Agree JLB. Many forget that Trump campaigned against Judge Moore. The President flew to Alabama and held an event during the GOP primary. That’s…unusual to say the least. But it all seems to have vanished down the memory hole.
And I love the non-falsifiable hypothesis:
Q “If Red-State Alabama voters elect Roy Moore, does that prove Alabama voters are terrible sexist, racist, homophobes?”
MSNBC Dem: “Yep, for sure, 100%”
Q: “And if Red-State Alabama voters DON’T elect Roy Moore, what does that prove?”
MSNBC Dem: “NOTHING!”
Conservatives need to look at the long game here and how best to achieve our agenda. The Dems are doing everything possible and unethical to regain control of this country. I would have voted for Moore if I lived in Alabama for two reasons . The first is as above. The second is the questionable reliability of the accusations; he had run other campaigns in the last 40 years and why wasn’t any of this unearthed in prior races? Why now (well, actually that is evident)?
Not to say we have to nominate the best candidates possible, but sometimes it comes down to which is the better candidate for the long term conservative agenda.
BTW, I think the seemingly contrary positions of Trump and Thune were actually coordinated because they wanted Moore to win so they could expel him.
Trump position was to rally the base. Thune’s position was to assure all the people morally appalled by the scumbag he wouldn’t represent them for long.
I think they were hoping together this could get to 50% and they were almost right. If Trump hadn’t campaigned, the predator would have gotten 40%. If Thune and others hadn’t promised an Ethics Investigation and likely expulsion, the predator would have gotten 40%.
And if Moore had been elected and then kicked out, just how many minutes would it have taken for the Dems to demand removal of president Trump? This whole issue is the latest weaponization by Dems and establishment to get rid of Trump IMO. The Dems were not the least bit concerned when this was Clinton or Ted Kennedy involved. And Franken doesn’t count because the Dems know that sacrificial lamb will quickly be replaced by another lib Dem.
I think there is something to what you say, Troy. If Moore had won, I think he would have been expelled which would have set up another special election where the Alabama Republican Party would have picked an electable candidate. The national party would have appeared to take the allegations seriously and handled them, and gotten a mulligan election that nobody other than Roy Moore would lose. They almost pulled it off.
https://www.facebook.com/impeachandimprisontrump/photos/a.1798436043729121.1073741828.1798425827063476/1978219345750789/?type=3&theater
I don’t think Moore is too broken up about it. It’s not the first time he came in a little behind.
It is interesting to find South Dakotans pontificating about how wonderful it was to defeat this terrible person in Alabama. However, we have sitting in our State Senate a man who was accused of standing naked in a woman’s bedroom trying to remove her clothing, and we have done nothing, the legislature has done nothing and from what i can hear no one has called for his resignation. He is still in the Senate and gainfully employed as a professor at Augustana University. Why don’t we take care of our own state?
Roger,
Liberals have different rules than what applies to the rest of us. I can’t find it in the book but it must be so. Their men can abuse, assault, rape and harass women without consequence. I guess they have needs and the women are just collateral damage.
Frankly, I don’t want to live under those liberal rules. If you abuse, assault, rape or harass women, there are consequences. If Moore had been a real man, he’d have admitted his pursuit (even if he never did nothing) of minor women was wrong, he was sorry, and changed his life by Grace. But he didn’t. I’m proud of Senator Thune for never succumbing to cheap grace, false forgiveness, or the liberal rules of no consequences.
Troy
I agree with you. I think Thune did the right thing and I don’t think Roy Moore belonged in the US Senate. I was just pointing out we might look toward our own state as well. I am not even aware the legislature investigated the Senator from Sioux Falls or even considered his expulsion for his actions. I know Augie did nothing about him and they have received my last dollar. I am a graduate too but then it was only a College.
Roger,
I knew we agreed. You asked a rhetorical question which gave me a chance to expand on it by naming the reality- liberals see women who are victimized by liberal men as collateral damage, Joy dolls to be blunt.
It is also how they feel about the poor people they harm by the programs they use just to keep themselves in power.