Well, a Lot of the Votes were In Early

So, today we're hearing theories about why the loss of a cowboy poet in Montana to a man charged with assault on election day is great news for Democrats or, alternatively, horrible news for the republic.

Normally politicians aren't supposed to physically assault journalists, but there are exceptions. Rep. Duncan Hunter said of the alleged assault, “It’s not appropriate behavior. Unless the reporter deserved it.”

One might be tempted to think (as the Washington Post piece suggests) that we are near a Preston Brooks vs. Charles Sumner moment. But that isn't necessary. Montana has early voting, and a number of partisan votes that might have been embarrassed by the assault were already in. There's no reason to think that the vote represents either 'great news for Democrats' (as they likely outperformed on the actual election day what they would have done absent an assault) or 'rising tribalism' (as many votes were cast in ignorance of the forthcoming assault).

I'm not sure how much to read into the thing. On the one hand, the cowboy poet did greatly outperform Hillary Clinton in losing by six points instead of twenty. On the other hand, he was a far better fit culturally for Montana than Hillary Clinton. He ought to have outperformed her substantially simply by being a native, a cowboy, a cultural icon, and not on record as despising the majority of the population of Montana as deplorable. All else being equal, I'm not sure how different last night looked from any given night. If anything, I'd guess the assault helped Democrats a bit; but not enough, given the early votes.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your missing the point Grim.
Gianforte was elected primarily because he body-slammed a reporter.
Just about everyone in America right now wishes they could body-slam all of CNN.
And ESPN, for that matter.

Anonymous said...


Republicans' 7-point win in last night's Montana election is great news for Democrats

......So the Democrats are going to retake the house by losing house elections?????
Sounds like the same math they use when writing budgets.......

-Mississippi.

Anonymous said...

Given Mr. Quist's history of financial problems, I'd say his being a "genuine Big Sky Montanan," as one newspaper gushed, wasn't enough for his potential constituents. That and being for the ACA before he was against it. Among other things.

LittleRed1

Eric Blair said...

..And the genital herpes. All sorts of stuff comes out in a political campaign.

Anonymous said...


.....Gianforte was elected primarily because he body-slammed a reporter.
Just about everyone in America right now wishes they could body-slam all of CNN.
And ESPN, for that matter.......

Fred Reed Understands how much we despise the press.
The Press does not know America, and they don’t much like it.

Reed more:

https://fredoneverything.org/notes-of-a-reformed-news-weasel-understanding-the-vacuity/

-Mississippi

Grim said...

Unfortunately, since it happened so close to the election, we don't have any polling data to let us know whether the body-slam made it more or less likely that people would vote for the guy. I'm with Duncan Hunter on this one: you shouldn't body-slam people unless they deserve it.