Blue Dog Caucus cut in half

From The Nation:

So, the Pubs, under Tea Party pressure, have shifted their center-of-gravity to the right, while the Dems are losing their own right wing, leaving very few RINOs or DINOs in the center.

Suggesting that the next election will be even more polarized and polarizing.

Interesting times.

Meanwhile, the intraparty war within the GOP continues. Next priority for GOP leaders: Stopping Sarah Palin.

Maybe the Nation would say I’m not a “serious observer”, but Evan Bayh is right.

The Blue Dog Democrats were punished for having the same name brand as the more liberal Democrats. In the swing districts in which they run, this was a big handicap, in this particular election cycle. The Democrats are not going to be successful by having liberals run in those districts, and pointing to liberals who won election is liberal leaning districts is a mistake.

I’m surprised there are an BD’s left. I wonder who will be the first to switch parties.

Any Blue Dog party-switcher will be dead in the 2012 primaries. No way Republican-lite will make it out against an actual Republican.

This just in: it is difficult to hold on to marginal districts. More at 11.

Right. I don’t know what Evan Bayh is gibbering about, but it seems clear that the biggest problem Democrats faced was loss of support from their own base. Gay, educated female and minority voters didn’t show up at the polls, and it showed here.

As for Blue Dogs, it should be obvious that they aren’t going to be switching parties. With Tea Party candidates bumping off traditional Republicans in the primaries, it just means they’ll lose earlier.

Bayh isn’t too bright, and I’m glad he is gone because ideas like that are screwing up the democratic party. A big reason the dems lost is because the economy is shit and dems are seen as the incumbents combined with the turnout variances between the 2 parties (among registered voters the dems lead, among likely voters the GOP led). Like has been said the conservative dems lost the most in this election. And that was largely due to them living in districts that are generally more republican than democrat according to cook.