Orwellian: Debbie Wasserman Schultz says GOP ‘underperformed’ by winning Fla. special election
By Joe Newby on March 12, 2014 at 12:27 pm
After Tuesday’s special election in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, DNC boss Debbie Wasserman Schultz spun the Republican win in true Orwellian fashion by claiming the GOP “underperformed.”
Republican David Jolly won Tuesday’s election with 48.5 percent of the vote compared to 46.6 percent for Democrat Alex Sink. Libertarian Lucas Overby had 4.8 percent.
“The GOP underperformed tonight in the #FL13 – a district they’ve held for decades,” she tweeted.
Although Republicans held the House seat for some four decades, the district voted for Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 election. According to Fox News, the district is 37 percent Republican, 35 percent Democrat and 24 percent independent.
Sink outspent Jolly by about three to one in television advertising, trying to paint Jolly as an extremist who wants to privatize Social Security and destroy Medicare. Republicans narrowed the gap somewhat with outside spending.
Democrats also brought in Bill Clinton, who recorded a phone call for Sink.
Sink, Fox added, had “cautiously embraced the health law” even as she admitted it needs fixing. She also hurt herself with an insensitive comment regarding immigration.
“We have a lot of employers over on the beaches that rely upon workers and especially in this high-growth environment, where are you going to get people to work to clean our hotel rooms or do our landscaping? We don’t need to put those employers in a position of hiring undocumented and illegal workers,” she said in a debate.
But Jolly’s win, according to Wasserman Schultz, apparently proves that strength is weakness.
“Tonight, Republicans fell short of their normal margin in this district because the agenda they are offering voters has a singular focus – that a majority of voters oppose – repealing the Affordable Care Act that would return us to the same old broken health care system,” she said in a statement.
The National Review’s Jim Geraghty destroyed that notion in one tweet.
“Indeed, as Rep. Bill Young ran unopposed seven times,” he said.
Twitchy said “the rest of Twitter” had a “field day” with Wasserman Schultz’s tweet.
“Evidently ‘underperformed’ is Libspeak for winning,” one person said.
“Fixed this 4 U MT @DWStweets: The GOP won tonight in #FL13 -a district Obama won in 2012 and where Dems outspent the GOP 2-1 so no biggie,” another person said.
“He underperformed so much that he won,” added “talkradio200.”
The election was viewed as a “must-win” for Democrats.
“Since most nonpartisan handicappers and analysts have for years expected this seat to go Democratic when it became open, a Republican victory would likely say something about the national political environment and the inclination of district voters to send a message of dissatisfaction about the president. And that possibility should worry the White House,” said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report
Read more at
http://libertyunyielding.com/2014/03/12/orwellian-debbie-wasserman-schultz-says-gop-underperformed-winning-fla-special-election/#Q8tAOs1s1JO5foBq.99
