From: coolidge@speaker.wpd.sgi.com (Don Coolidge)
Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.fan.dan-quayle
Subject: Re: Extra! Dan is a Genius!
Date: 6 Oct 92 21:00:27 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.

In article <1992Oct6.134632.3903@doug.cae.wisc.edu>, saunders@luther.che.wisc.edu (Brian E. Saunders) writes:
|> In article <qojojm8@twilight.wpd.sgi.com> coolidge@speaker.wpd.sgi.com (Don Coolidge) writes:
|> >In article <1992Sep29.183808.18034@anasazi.com>, best@anasazi.com (Mike Best) writes:
|> >|> This intellectual tirade has stunned me.  Let me just ask one question, if
|> >|> this guy is so dumb then how did he defeat the veteran Birch Bayhe (sp?)
|> >|> in Indiana?  Perhaps you would care to conclude that the people of Indiana
|> >|> are dumb too (hey, they elected Birch Bayhe :))
|> >
|> >He did it the usual way - tons of money, both his own and from outside
|> >the state. Bayh's seat was targeted by the Republican National Committee
|> >as one they felt might be vulnerable to a massive infusion of dollars and
|> >Ronald Reagan's coattails. They were right. So Our Man Dan is a flesh-and-
|> >blood living example of the Evils Of Big Money in our election process.
|> 
|> Though this is besides the point, Birch Bayh was vulnerable for more reasons
|> than money being pumped into a campaign.  Old Birch was responsible for
|> passing bills which were very unpopular throughout Indiana, and were thought
|> to have cost Indiana 1000's of jobs.  Of course, part of it was a sign of
|> the times too, as the whole midwest was in a bad recession.  But who better
|> to blame in a predominantly Republican state than a fairly liberal
|> democrat.
|> 
|> Bayh got elected the same way his son got elected governor.  He was a good
|> speaker with a good academic background, who said things which impressed
|> the average Hoosier.  Indiana had a fairly large union population, so that
|> certainly doesn't hurt a Democrat.  Unfortunately for him, Birch ticked off
|> everybody but the union members, so he got in trouble.  To blame it on
|> Republican money is ridiculous.

How soon they forget.

Bayh had been vulnerable before, for all the reasons you mention, but had
survived repeatedly, so your assertion is irrelevant. He survived because 
he brought home the bacon, in the typical incumbent manner. Liberal, 
conservative, Democrat, Republican...most voters will re-elect somebody who
they can see does them some personal good, and Bayh fit that description. 
It wasn't until Dear Danny ran against him with the strenuous and munificent
assistance of the Republican national machine that Bayh was finally defeated.
To blame it on Republican money is not only reasonable, it's also upheld by
all the pertinent history. 

|> Of course more media exposure helps a
|> challenger against an incumbant.  Otherwise people wouldn't have reason to
|> make a change, so they'd say "He hasn't screwed up yet, so let's keep him".

It was indeed the extra media exposure that put it out of the minds of the
Hoosier electorate that Bayh had repeatedly "done good". Bayh was tarred
mercilessly by being associated in the media with dread Liberal policies
(not *all* of which he deserved). If media exposure were unimportant, 
Willie Horton would still be "Willie Who?", and George Bush and Our Beloved
Danster would not be in their singularly undeserved positions of responsibility
and authority.

|> Hell, I don't think it makes a rat's ass difference who gets elected in
|> most cases, because it really doesn't affect the average Joe's life.

As good a reason for voting Republican as I've ever heard! :^)

Of course, I disagree. The average Joe has been devastated by twelve years
of oligarchic plutocracy. Implementation of, say, Bush's America 2000 
educational "reforms" would make that devastation total and nearly
irreversible. 

Rat's ass, indeed!

- Don Coolidge
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