Folks, you had to know it would happen. When it became clear on Tuesday that Georgia Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff was going to blow tens of millions of dollars and lose to Republican Karen Handel, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow suggested that heavy rain in Georgia had “partisan implications” that affected the special election.
Speaking to MSNBC elections guru Steve Kornacki, Maddow offered this spin/sad excuse for her snowflake viewers:
Steve, let me ask you one last question on this. If there was a turnout effect from the bad weather today in the district, does that have any partisan implications that you could foresee in terms of what was expected for same day, election day voting rather than the early vote?
Kornacki largely dismantled that idea, explaining how that’s only “potentially” a factor but noted broadly how turnout in the district’s liberal portion of Dekalb County was down based on anecdotal reports.
That being said, Kornacki emphasized to the distraught progressive host:
[Y]ou can attribute that to anything. We'll see if that turns out, but that's something else and obviously, if you get into an election like this where it's going to be decided by a point or two, you could blame anything, whichever side you turn up on.
Later in the hour around the 9:48 p.m. Eastern mark, Maddow again offered a mini-meltdown, this time blaming money in politics for the outcome.
“If nothing else, we're getting a real-time result of what it means when more money is spent to try to win a congressional seat than at any other time and for any other seat in American history,” she fretted.
No, Rachel, I think this proved that just because you had more than $23 million (Ossoff) to your opponent’s $4.5 million (Handel), that doesn’t mean you’ll win the election.
The media have already began spinning the race as yet another moral victory for Democrats. Faux Republican Steve Schmidt told MSNBC viewers in the following hour that Handel’s win should somehow leave moderate GOP district members “nauseous.”
Excuses, excuses.
Here’s the relevant portion of the transcript from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show on June 20:
MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show
June 20, 2017
9:11 p.m. Eastern
RACHEL MADDOW: Steve, let me ask you one last question on this. If there was a turnout effect from the bad weather today in the district, does that have any partisan implications that you could foresee in terms of what was expected for same day, election day voting rather than the early vote?
STEVE KORNACKI: Yeah. Well, and potentially. It all depends where — this is anecdotal and we’ll see when the results come in. There have been anecdotal reports and I've even heard Republicans saying this. That the turnout in Dekalb — this is the Democratic part of the — this is where, if you're Ossoff you want to be getting 60, 61, 62 percent of the vote. You’re expecting that. He got 60 percent in DeKalb. In the early vote, there have been some anecdotal reports that the turnout here in DeKalb less than expected. That could be a same-day effect — you can attribute that to anything. We'll see if that turns out, but that's something else and obviously, if you get into an election like this where it's going to be decided by a point or two, you could blame anything, whichever side you turn up on.
MADDOW: Exactly and when it comes to turnout, we always find that, whatever we say about the anecal information we've got about turnout on election day, weeks later when we finally get the real turnout numbers, it always turns out what you can see on election day, it doesn’t really —
KORNACKI: Take it with a huge grain of salt.
MADDOW: Yeah, exactly. Anecdotes are worth as far as you can throw them.
(....)
9:48 p.m. Eastern
MADDOW: Again, this is the special election in 26th congressional district in Georgia. Democrat Jon Ossoff against Republican Ken Handel. If nothing else, we're getting a real-time result of what it means when more money is spent to try to win a congressional seat than at any other time and for any other seat in American history.
