2012 ElectionJeff Soyer on 18 Oct 2012 05:11 am
Did Obama’s Gun Control Slip Cost Him The Election?
That is what one pundit thinks:
President Obama is in a fix over firearms. He needs to win undecided voters in the swing states to be re-elected, but these areas are largely pro-gun. So after years of trying to dodge the issue, Mr. Obama let it slip in Tuesday’s presidential debate that he’d push a gun ban in a second term. It’s a revelation that could sway the election.
Read the whole thing. I’m not sure that his statement is going to sway any voters. I think that most voters who are ardent absolutists about gun rights (like me) were never considering casting their ballot for Obama anyway.
8 Responses to “Did Obama’s Gun Control Slip Cost Him The Election?”
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on 18 Oct 2012 at 11:13 am # Rich
I think you are right about the absolutists on both sides and I don’t see too many people in the middle taking this as a sign to vote against him. It is not enough on their radar, they have something else which is more pressing to them.
That said it may indicate to them that they cannot trust him to stay a previous stated course when he has nothing to lose.
on 18 Oct 2012 at 1:36 pm # comatus
Here’s a perfect example of why it’s so unsettling to live under majority rule: the sort of thing that sets old curmudgeons like AZR and me to cavilling over the difference between a democracy and a republic, and how you probably could have one without the other.
At the old company gun club, where it was just assumed you were a democrat (what else is there?), the Fudds watched the coming of the Clinton bans with equanimity. “Don’t git all worked up, Maaahcy will take care of yez, we’ll still be allowed to hunt.”
Nobody wants to feel (”know”) that their most important personal rights are safe only because, even though two branches of government are arrayed against them, they probably don’t have the votes in one or the other chamber, this term, to put y’all back in chains with the stroke of a pen.
If you want to keep a rights-based republic (or get one back), you have to remember that there are plenty of people who see their “right” to [abortion, affirmative action, “healthcare,” you-name-it], as just as central as you see your right to arms — and then convince them that, behind the partisan sand thrown in their eyes, they have some permanent unassailable right independent of government largesse, executive orders, or the whims of a stampedable House at 2 AM on adjournment night. It might not be the right they thought they had, but it has to be something. That sure is a long sentence, isn’t it. I tried, but couldn’t make it any shorter.
on 18 Oct 2012 at 1:39 pm # Roger
With respect, you may be incorrect about changing some minds.
At my gun club (http://www.hrpclub.info/) there are several devout and outspoken dimocrats, all of which have defended the Obungler vociferously. They had frequently stated that “He’s not going after our guns.”
Yesterday after my regular smallbore prone practice, two of them (both benchrest shooters) were discussing the election with several others. The two dimocrats were were in agreement that he WAS going after our guns and both saying that no way were they voting again for the Obungler. Both felt that they had been deceived by him and his minions. A third member, a financial consultant and a devout dimocrat announced to me and a few others at our monthly meeting Tuesday pm that he was no longer going to vote for the ONE. A fourth member has regretted his vote for O for two years now. So there’s 4 formerly solid dimocrats now voting against the Obungler, two specifically due to the admisson about “assault rifles”.
Admittedly, a small sample, but the polls are showing now that folks are abandoning the Obungler like rats abandoning a sinking ship. Or is that dims abandoning a sinking economy???
on 18 Oct 2012 at 3:39 pm # AZRon
RE Comatus:
“old curmudgeons like AZR and me”.
Coming from you, I take that as high praise and pleasant company, although many others might disagree.
Meanwhile, we’ll vote various Zerox Joe Blows into two branches of Federal Government, and allow the elected offal, who have zero regard for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the natural rights of citizens to seat Justices in the highest courts in the land. The Supreme court is hanging on by a thread and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is often so aggressive in their decisions that they should start their own “democracy” somewhere else and leave the U.S. Republic alone.
Therein lies the rub.
on 18 Oct 2012 at 4:59 pm # Keith
If I had a vote in your election (clearly I don’t) I’d spoil it.
The myth that you choose, therefore whatever they do to you, you voted for…
stinks.
If will of a majority, magically made bad deeds good… well, let’s look at some examples of will of a majority:
Gang rape
Lynching.
Looting.
Those three examples pretty much sum up the kind of evils that are sanitized by electing people to coerce us.
on 18 Oct 2012 at 7:49 pm # AZRon
RE Keith:
“If will of a majority, magically made bad deeds good… well, let’s look at some examples of will of a majority:
Gang rape
Lynching.
Looting.
Those three examples pretty much sum up the kind of evils that are sanitized by electing people to coerce us.”
Those are 3 great examples of political-correctness, pandering for votes, and the death of individual responsibility. (although I can’t remember the last time that I set a nice bonfire for a good old fashioned lynching. seems like a coons age) This happens because idiots are allowed to vote, knowing nothing about issues other than their own selfish needs.
Rapists should be allowed exactly one infraction before it is impossible to repeat offend.
Looting victims should be allowed to beat the offender within an inch of his life, without fear of juris reprisals.
Lynching. Hell, I don’t know, there’s not that many tall, sturdy trees where I live. Plus, since I haven’t heard of one in decades, it usually doesn’t enter into my train of thought. Maybe I’ll plant an Oak and see where it takes me in 50 years.
Also: “If I had a vote in your election (clearly I don’t) I’d spoil it.”
I’m at a loss here. Am I supposed to know who you are, where you’re from, and somehow shrink in awe of your fearless wisdom?
And don’t worry about spoiling the election. That’s what gang-bangers, rapists, dead people, illegal aliens, Disney characters, the media, and liberal progressives are for. We’re screwed just the same without your interaction.
on 18 Oct 2012 at 11:00 pm # comatus
Gosh, Keith, is it at all possible that you are 180 degrees out in your understanding of what’s been said here? Just a suggestion. And I apologize again for those long sentences.
Do you mean you’d “spoil” your vote, or spoil “our election”? We don’t count spoiled ballots here. Not any more. Not this time.
The thing is, we don’t have “majority will.” Don’t really trust it. We use election to fill the jobs in our government, but nobody gets to choose the ruler here, because we don’t have one. See what I’m getting at? And when things start to drift, there’s a bunch of stuff we can do about it. We’re doing one of those things now.
We’re always having to explain that, to foreigners and fellow-citizens alike. Especially the press: those guys get lousy educations, but we’re working on it, and the problem is taking care of itself.
on 19 Oct 2012 at 10:41 am # Scott
Ahem…I was a “dimocrat” registered voter for 30 years.
It’s just what was done in my neck of the woods (the South, eastern NC more specifically), and I don’t ever recall even seeing a republican around there until I was a grown man.
I ended up ignoring my registration and voting republican more and more over the intervening decades (yes, I voted for Reagan too).
Even Bill Clinton’s AWB - which I hated - was not enough to force a change as I considered many local democrats to still be worthy of voting for.
And yes, I voted for Bush the elder, Dole the dull, and Bush the younger (twice) during this time frame.
However, the current administration and the current democrat party has become so corrupt, even now down to the local state level, that this past July I changed my voter registration to republican.
As an example, a person who has quit smoking usually becomes the most intolerant of other smokers - I too have become extremely intolerant of democrats.
I wonder how many others have done likewise and if there is a movement now to change voter registration that the media is keeping a lid on…