RNC chief sees message in Chambliss win

This proves how little the Georgia Republicans have evolved from their close minded past.

Doesn't it more show that simply the citizens of Georgia rejected the idea of liberal mandate?

If this was a win in anywhere but the south he could possibly have a point, but given the republican party won this state in the election shows nothing other than they retain the same southern mentality..The southern states that this may have made this a valid point would have been NC or Va. This proves nothing other than this is an ingrained southern attitude...Good try, but not true..

Please........
Georgia is a red state....what u expect?

Shocking that Georgia voted for a Republican senator. Chambliss' brand of (recently downplayed due to the Palin failure) Atwater/Rove politics are still somewhat viable in the deep south. And that's about the only place. The republicans have marginlized themselves. I hope they keep up the good work!

When you are drowning, a straw looks like a raft.

If wishes were horses...

Hmmmm . . . .
Because one rightwinger from a rightwing southern state won reelection they see this as some message that the Dems are blowing air. Whoa! Man-- the RNC will grab ahold of anything. Pitiful. But I must say--they've learned the Rove playbook pretty well. Poor things.

the idealogy of the country has shifted to the left, just not in the south where the people are perpetually backwards

the south, bleh, who needs em. although atlanta did give us outkast so thats something

HAHAHAHA
Hahahahah
Hah hah heh heh he he ehe...
AHHH HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

Pathetic!

Man, i hope he really believes that so that they don't change a thing and we'll see how well they do in 2010.

A Republican winning in a heavily Republican state is neither news nor a refutation of any side's mandate or lack thereof. Saxby Chambliss remains a despicable politician who stooped to the worst sort of demagoguery in his campaign against Vietnam hero (and multiple amputee, as a result of that war), Max Cleland. I don't need to know any more about Chambliss than the lengths he would go to in order to scare up votes, even to the point of making fraudulent claims against his opponent. I look forward to the day he is drummed out of office, as he will be eventually. He is irrelevant and uninformed.

Is it truly a surprise that a nationwide progressive mandate didn't gain a huge amount of ground in Georgia? If it were that widespread, there wouldn't have been a Republican who won any office this year. Saying, "the liberal mandate is hot air," over a GOP senate win in one of our most conservative states is like saying global warming doesn't exist because the air conditioning keeps your home nice and cool.

Yes because GA isn't incredibly conservative...

also everyone knew Chambliss was going to win the run off, run offs don't end well for the challanger often.

Got to love these Republican spin miesters. They continue to abuse the English language. In their minds defeat is transformed into victory. Disaster is a boon. Nationally a sharp turn to the progressive agenda is interpreted as a center right status quo. And somehow redneck Georgia is a bellweather state. Mike Duncan lives in a looney bin of his own making.

Did you know that there was no mandate for Reagan when he won his re-election bid in 1984, if there was... he'd have won Minn or DC!

Slave State elects Republican. Media alerted.

And Bush had a mandate ? The only hot air is from Palin.

I don't understand how so many are spinning this Georgia election as some kind of a huge Republican victory.

If anything, this should be a moral boost for the Democrats that a Republican incumbent was forced into a run-off in one of the reddest of red states in our country.

For Republicans to be jumping for joy over this is like Laker fans celebrating a 2 point overtime win over the Knicks!

A mountain out of a molehill...after all we are talking about Georgia not Vermont. Or it could mean that Georgia is still looking backwards. Take your pick.

Imagine. Your ship is sinking and as the water crowds your legs a deck chair floats by and you immediately shout, "See, it isn't sinking, this chair will float the rest of the boat." Calling a vote in Georgia indicative of the mood of the nation is exactly the same thing.

this guy is dreaming. too much religion. too much rt wing thinking. too palinesque. no one would follow his leadership. major sbag.

Get a grip, man! Consider the source of this 'mandate'. Once you're outside Atlanta, you're in GEORGIA for cripes sakes!

Duncan is completely wrong! I am a republican who voted for obama, and Demacrates down the line. The only Repug I would have voted for in Ne. if he came up for relection is Chuck Hagel! They just don't get it! It's not just listening to us, but bucking our own party and their idiology to do whats best for us and our country! keep the blasted church base out of telling the party what to do, and how to do it! My familly is 100% repug, and voted 100% Dem this time! Sarah Palins lack of education, intelligence,knowledge stole 65% of my family votes! Yet, they are crazy enough to offer her up to us!

slim pickings there for the rethuglican'ts. Georgia is a retrograde southern state and the fact that Martin got as close as he did the first time out is remarkable. Say goodbye to being a meaningful player in national politics you guys, it's Obama time now.

So, a Republican won a state wide race in Georgia. That's almost not even newsworthy. Georgia is no more representative of the national mood than Richard Nixon was representative of the thinking of Quakers.

Of course, Georgia was part of a small minority of states that voted for the GOP. Why would anybody expect that they would vote Democratic all of sudden? So far as I know, there is no saying, "As Georgia goes, so goes the nation."

Georgia...SERIOUSLY Georgia was never expected to go blue, thats like California going for John McCain, not in this eon. Saxby Chambliss is the last of a dying breed of Lee Atwater GOPhers. His constiuents are falling off like Georgia pecans and the few that remain have one hope of keeping their children in the GOPher fold, keep them on the farm and away from colleges where their parent's ideology will be rightfully excoriated as divisive political theater debased of any forward looking agenda, or any actionable solutions to any of the problems caused by Reagan's bankrupt puesdo-pragmatic voodou economics. The truth will not set conservatives free, this crisis is a NEo-Con failure, not Freddie and Fannie or poor homeowners, not GM and greedy UAW members, but Neo-cons alone, although we will all suffer for that failure. The question that will hunt this party to the grave is:
How did the few wealthy Americans in this country make record increases in incomes during the past 20 years while the American manufacturing industry died , median incomes decreased, and hardworking Americans who built wealth in this country were being forced compete with communist China, Walmart, and south America in the name of "free" market capitalism" and the invisible hand of "supply-side" economics. It's never un-American to fight for a better life for middle class Americans, that argument can not be made with a straight face, but thats the basis of modern conservatism. (i.e a JOKE, not my statement but your ideology) GM made thousands of employees capable of starting small businesses, Walmart does not. Conservatives love Walmart, Liberals love GM you do the math.

Uh-huh, Mr. Duncan - and Obama's win was just some insignificant little blip on the political radar screen. As I said, 'uh-huh!' Whatever you say, if this consoles you in any way.

I hope the republicans keep thinking that they are a force to be reckoned with. Those thoughts will amuse them, in their own little world until the next election.
In reality, the hoods are off and the emperor wears no clothes.
They call themselves the moral majority, but the hate and predjuice mongers will never have control again.
The true conservatives, like the Eisenhowers and Colin Powell will have to create another party for themselves.
Hate and fear has lost it's grip on the American public.

I suppose this little victory is all that the Republican party has to hold onto right now. With the GOP in such denial, and with the likes of Sarah Palin as their anointed savior (I know their big on saviors), President elect Obama and the Democrats have nothing to worry about for a very long time.

Desperation smells funny.

Georgians refuted any notion that Georgian ideology has shifted to the left. The rest of the country is going to Washington to watch the inauguration.

This jerk must be related to W. I can't believe that he actually feels that a scumbag like Chambliss coming from a red-neck, racist state is idicative of GOPig success. No wonder the party is dumping him. Martin's loss was a foregone conclusion without the black vote. After the way Chambliss was elected in the first place by destroying Max Cleland shows me what kind of person he is, and what kind of state Georgia is.

Unfortunately, Duncan's comments prove nothing but that the Republican Party is going to continue their divisive,"us against them "mentality that they have pushed for the last 8 years. They shouldn't have to be reminded, but apparently must be reminded that it was not the Democratic Party that got us into the massive debt we are in. It was not the Democratic Party that took us to new levels of disrespect and ridicule throughout the free world. If he and his ilk truly care about our country, they will be more anxious to look forward to successes in the country as a whole, not specifically the Republican successes.

Georgia votes Republican is supposed to be a game-changer?

The only thing that Cambils's "victory" shows is that ingorant rednecks still vote the Klan line. These same morons voted straight Democratic for a century till the democrats let colored people have rights.
The story here is this draft-dodging southern racist had to actually have a run off to win.

Mike, the only thing I see is that the votes of black people in the November 4th election don't count enough to be counted by the machines that you use in Georgia to vote. Greg Palast has covered this already, in the days before the election, when he predicted that Martin would not win this election, despite the polling numbers. Isn't it funny that polling works in every other nation of the world to predict election results except in America?

Thank god that in Minnesota, we have actual ballots that can be counted, and REcounted, to acturately determine who wins our elections.

Ok, Ok, you Republicans can have Georgia. We'll just take most of the rest of the states. Please stick to your core, culture-war principles. Please!

Hot air, from the last gasps of the dying helium balloon of the GOP.

Boy is this guy out of touch and clueless just like the majority of Republicans! So Chambliss won in predominantly white, conservative, racist Georgia! Gee big surprise!!! Republicans are not able to win in states that aren't that biased.

What a bone head. He didn't win my much margin in Georgia. I don't see how he can claim a Republican mandate. This whole idea that America is a center-right nation is hogwash. Look at the overall election climate. Gee, it looks like the Dems have a clear majority in Congress and Obama won by a landslide. I'd say America's a center-left country.

The idea that this election represented anything more than "Jethro Bodeen" in a tuxedo, is nothing more than Repuglican BS. The sleeves are too short, and the lack of socks is evident. The base of the GOP is basically comprised (after this past general election), are evangelical mouth-breathers with one hand in their pants and the other on a Budweiser. Let the Repuglicans believe their own tripe and cater to this rabble along with the followers of "Sister Sarah", and their time in the desert will be prolonged by their own hand.

Oh, please. This is Georgia we're talking about, which went for McCain in the general election, remember.

Chambliss' win over the unknown Martin is not a sign of anything other than the backwards mentality of Georgia.

Could it be that Georgia is out of step with the rest of the country? Maybe Mike Duncan and the RNC would be even prouder if Georgia started flying the Confederate flag everywhere and started proceedings to secede again- that will show that they are ahead of the curve. Why not actually stop the spin and have some intelligent discourse when asked to share one's views with the public? Now that would be a uniquely shocking move.

I am a California transplant living (for 11 years) in Tennessee. I can tell you without a doubt, Chambliss winning in Georgia was NOT a success for Republicans. He won for one reason only -- racist southerners are rabid Republicans; the rest of the nation, thankfully, believes that Obama will bring positive change for ALL Americans. You can quote me here: "In two years the Democrats will pick up MANY more seats needed for a majority rule."

All this shows to his fellow republicans is that a racist can still be elected overwhelmingly by the people of Georgia. But that does not work anymore on the national stage.

Let me get this straight.... the incumbent Senator wins a runoff against a pretty weak contender, in the South, in a state Obama didn't win, and that proves there's no mandate for change? The sad GOP couldn't even take down a congressman in Pennsylvania who called his constituents rednecks and racist. In Pennsylvania! Maybe if we ignore the GOP they'll fade away quietly like the Whigs and the Bull Moose Party.

A republican senator winning in a republican state there isn't much to talk about or analyze from that. The RNC and most republicans are politically illiterate and out of touch with the rest of the country. THATS why they LOST!

Actually Chambliss lost the first election (the one with Obama's name on the ticket), but they stopped counting just before it hit 50% so they could do a re-election. They knew that not as many people were going to go to the re-election to vote, so he won. Big surprise.

The media is really pushing a liberal mandate message now. The media message these days is Jindal is the man and Palin is a joke. Jindal is a muslim who says he converted to Christianity. Palin will rise above all this and surprise you all. Palin 2012!

The Georgia election only proved that the republican party is racist and on its last legs. 58 senators are quite enough, thank you.

Wow, are these people deluded...

Note to GOP...PLEASE run Palin in 2012. PLEASE!!!!!! (an then again in 2016, 2020, 2024...)

To Gwen, #51:

Do you even realize how much of a backwards racist hick you sound like? Or are you oblivious to it, the same way that the GOP is oblivious to Palin not being the solution to any of their problems?

Wow. Slavery. Segregation and now Chambliss. Georgia really is about change we can believe in!

Like this was a huge surprise since he was ahead in the general election anyway. Nice try making a big deal about it though. Pathetic, but a nice try.

A friend of mine went to Georgia back in the early 70s to work in a box factory. He saw a sign posted announcing a KKK meeting. He knew his friends back in California wouldn't believe it so he took the sign down and then had to fight to keep it. Looks like things haven't changed much.

Georgia Repuglicans have evolved? How can you tell?

There's something to be said for secession.

Keep on thinking and talking nonsense and the GOP will stay exactly where they are today...in the tank. I have not seen one repub say anything intelligent since the election ended. I had to wait eight years to see it but it was worth it.

Interesting - in a RED state - a RUNOFF was forced - how can he look in the mirror and claim victory! It shows the sad state of the GOP that a runoff election was even needed! Nice try - just another republican hot air comment. I am so tired of that party dealing with fiction......if he wanted to be credible - he would come out and talk about how good it was to recapture a red state for the GOP - - but to make those comments - just shows how little credibility that party has - - and this guy continues to bang nails in that coffin

The champagne uncorked via a Chambliss win does send a message...That is that GOP got lucky in a red state. So distant from anything looking like a win, one senator seat will not help the philosophical blunders the GOP platform planks have wrought. Eight years of Bush, backing and filling, making excuses for a president who never listened to the people. Mr. Duncan who are you trying to fool? Or is that fool me once fool me twice...won't get fooled again. Oops, who said that? Pegging your hopes to Sara will show that the GOP will never learn, let alone learn from their mistakes.