The Obama Eight

Pic unrelated. But oh how I wish it wasn't.

2008 was a pretty good year for the Dems, wasn't it? They won the White House and also secured a commanding majority in both houses of Congress - expanding daily!

During and immediately following the campaigns, my discussions with Dems followed one of two broad formats:

a) "♥Yay! Democrats foeva!!!♥"
b) "Shit. We're screwed in 2010."

You may place my pessimistic tuchas squarely in group B, because of this:

District	Incumbent	Dem Registration	GOP Registration	2008 Presidential Results
3rd	Dan Lungren	38%	40%	49% Obama 49% McCain
24th	Elton Gallegly	36%	42%	51% Obama 48% McCain
25th	Buck McKeon	38%	39%	49% Obama 48% McCain
26th	David Dreier	35%	41%	51% Obama 41% McCain
44th	Ken Calvert	35%	42%	50% Obama 49% McCain
45th	Mary Bono Mack	38%	42%	52% Obama 47% McCain
48th	John Campbell	29%	45%	49% Obama 49% McCain
50th	Brian Bilbray	31%	40%	51% Obama 47% McCain

These are the Obama Eight, the California Republicans whose districts were all won by the Democratic presidential candidate. Oh, and every one of these Republicans was re-elected.


2008 was, in my opinion, a huge missed opportunity for the Dems. In 2010 they will have an uphill battle trying to unseat the Obama Eight Republicans.

Fortunately though, not everyone in California is salivating over Ellen Tauscher's seat.