Stalingrad On Fountain Creek

When politicians suffer reverses, they do their best to spin them into…well, not as bad a loss.  It’s human nature, and it’s Politics 101; never let them see you sweat.

For example, here in Minnesota, after Representatives Paymar, Hausman and Martens’ gun grab bills imploded (during a session in which the DFL had complete control of the governor’s office and both chambers of the legislature), the gun grab orcs did their comical best to spin the results as a victory – with the criteria for “victory” all basically involving “doing the stuff people do in campaigns whether they win or lose”.

The Orcs – a term I used to refer to gun-control advocates, in the full sense that JR Tolkein intended for the word – are doing their best to spin Tuesday’s defeat in Colorado into something else.

It’s a lie, naturally.  Michael Bloomberg – the de facto leader of the Gun Grab movement in America today – bet big on this recall, spending $350,000 of his own money to try to keep the two seats.  The orcs outspent the Real Americans 6:1 in terms of officially-released spending numbers, and by some accounts that’s conservative; most of the orc money came from out of state, and much of that was laundered through local non-profits to make it look less lopsidedly carpetbaggy.

But make no mistake – for the Gun Grab movement, this was not just a defeat; it was a debacle:

…registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the two districts where voters cast ballots (though Morse’s district is more of a swing district than Giron’s more Democratic-leaning territory). And the anti-recall side easily outraised the pro-recall interests. The Democratic losses are a reflection of the fact that enthusiasm was squarely on the opposite side of Morse and Giron.

“The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) is proud to have stood with the men and women in Colorado who sent a clear message that their Second Amendment rights are not for sale,” the NRA’s political arm said in a statement.

While the long-term significance of the election will assuredly be be debated, it’s hard to argue against the proposition that lawmakers in other states will have Colorado somewhere in their minds the next time a push to tighten gun laws begins ramping up.

In the larger debate over gun laws, Tuesday was another victory for the NRA and its allies, who earlier this year demonstrated the power they wield in the campaign to prevent the passage of tighter gun restrictions in Congress.

So let’s recap the year so far:  after being handed two grisly, horrible mass murders to exploit, the Gun Grab movement – on a raft of Bloomberg cash – managed to jam down some meaningless restrictions, none of which will have even the most obtuse effect on crime, on the law abiding citizens of a couple of coastal liberal cesspools, and Colorado.

In response, most of the rest of the country – including liberal cesspools (for the moment) like Minnesota – responded with an epic outpouring of grassroots dissent against the media narrative that Bloomberg paid for, leading to a raft of victories for freedom; sheriffs and legislatures throughout the country nullifying proposed federal laws in advance, the Illinois legislature facing down Orc governor Quinn, and finally Colorado.

UPDATE:  This has also been in the news; Public Policy Polling, the left-leaning polling firm that got the big kudos for being closest among the major polling shops in the 2012 election, suppressed its pre-recall poll that accurately predicted Giron’s stunning 12 point defeat:

Public Policy Polling (PPP) sparked controversy Wednesday after the left-leaning firm declined to release a survey it conducted last weekend that accurately forecasted the successful recall of a Democratic state senator from Colorado.

The survey PPP conducted, but did not release, showed Colorado District 3 Sen. Angela Giron (D) would be recalled by a 54 percent to 42 percent margin.

“In a district that Barack Obama won by almost 20 points I figured there was no way that could be right and made a rare decision not to release the poll,” Director Tom Jensen wrote in a post on the firm’s website. “It turns out we should have had more faith in our numbers because she was indeed recalled by 12 points.”

This is baked wind, of course.  It had nothing to do with “not being right”; it just didn’t sufficiently fluff the narrative – which PPP is still trying to get perked up:

“If voters made their decision based on the actual pretty unobtrusive laws that Giron helped get passed, she likely would have survived,” the firm wrote. “But the NRA won the messaging game and turned it into something bigger than it was- even if that wasn’t true- and Giron paid the price.”

Real Americans – the kinds from both parties that flushed Angela Giron on Tuesday – know the real truth; Chicago didn’t become Chicago overnight.  Every “unobtrusive” law that punishes the law-abiding and leaves the criminal untouched is just another step toward Michael Bloomberg’s dream.