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We'll just have to be satisfied with our own satisfaction. Regardless of what Alabamians think of Trump, I don't believe Roy Moore without the teenage girl scandal would have lost this election.

Was close to being on air this morning on NPR 1a program. Morning Joe the Baptist from Pensacola and U Bama with Mika was live from Mtn Brook yesterday. The Pants brigade of Opelika Auburn many of them Episcopalian women with Baptist educations were a force in Lee County spotlighted on MSNBC and I guess some of you saw the RNS story on BCOC.net

The two jewels for me were Wayne Flynt on Harper Lee and Bama Values

http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/201 ... alaba.html

And Randall Balmer on Moore as a "con artist" Nov 19 in Wash Post.

A caller on the Rick and Bubba show last week exposed keynote Bama SBC speaker Rick Burgess ignorance. He did not know who George W. Truett was.

And FBC Gardendale's Scott Beason was named on NPR This American Life hr long radio doc on Albertville Alabama and Immigration.

On Morn Joe UMC pastor's son John Archibald, al.com columnist said Tuesday was biggest election since Brewer and Wallace in 1970.

So America mighta learned something about it self yesterday in Bama.

Stave Bannon was sent running back to whatever landfill he came from and that was a sweet Day in Jesus for sure.

Pretty strong.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la ... story.html

Pressler and Criswell and Helms talked about the slippery slope and they were the slipperiest of all

And of course Adrian Rogers who slid on the slope all the way to Steve Gaines, Scott Beason and the alt right and an ignoramus of a devotee Rick Burgess who keynotes for the BAMA SBC and has no clue who George W. Truett was

My goodness. No wonder Roy Moore got so close.

Worth reading. Quite a piece there by Balmer, actually. He nailed it. Resonates with me.

If this were just an isolated incident in Alabama, maybe I'd agree. But this has been a trend that has developed in a number of red states, in special elections from state legislatures to congressional seats. Jones benefitted more from the turnout of African Americans and voters between 18 and 45 than from any fallout from Moore's past behavior. His campaign used the Obama playbook, knocking on over 300,000 doors and making over a million phone calls, but they were boosted by the outsized presence of Steve Bannon, who probably did as much to drive African American turnout as anyone. Their numbers soared, in spite of voter suppression (I hear the photo ID business in Alabama has been booming) they constituted 30% of the electorate, and Jones won them by over 90%. Younger voters also came out in relatively high numbers for an off year election, as did the college educated suburbanites, and Jones won Madison County, with its high tech, high educated population, and Tuscaloosa and Lee Counties, home of the University of Alabama and Auburn University respectively, by almost identical 57-42 margins.

My old friend Sandy can be so astute and informed on so many things...until his wheels fall off and he runs off a cliff and ends up deep in fansasy land...and pardon my mixed metaphors.

Doug Jones didn't have a snowball's chance in a 1940s Birmingham blast furnace until it came out that old Roy liked to date high school girls and, when called on it, failed to credibly and truthfully address the problem. After these things came out the already flawed candidate (sacked, twice from the Alabama Supreme Court; funny financial relationship with his 'ministry', etc.) practically disappeared except for appearance at tiny rural churches. In the heat of the final days, he inexplicably left the state.

No sentient person believes Doug Jones had a chance against any Republican except the worst possible candidate, Roy Moore. Even with the power of incumbency, I doubt many people think Jones will retain his seat in 2020 unless he switches parties or turns out to be a reliable Republican vote on critical issues.

But, hey, opinions are free and harmless.

The old blast furnace museum in Bham is very interesting. I think I was the only person when I visited there a few years ago.

That looks a lot more like an apologetic defense of evangelicals in Alabama than it does a factual analysis of the vote. They are trying very hard to avoid having to own support for Roy Moore, but there's a big problem with that. Too many of them showed up on camera and echoed Trump's words, that because Jones was a liberal, left wing baby killer (he's not but that's the rhetoric anyway) Moore's character didn't matter and it was better to have him than the alternative. Moore is a Southern Baptist, and thus, an evangelical by denominational identification. Lacking any real stand up opposition to him in Alabama by Baptist leadership, I tend to look at Mohler's figures as wishful thinking. An organized, high profile effort to either discourage evangelicals from going to the polls, or to openly support the other side because he was a better moral choice than Moore would have cone a long ward to help out.

The difference in the percentage of evangelical voters in this election, 44%, compared to 47% in 2016 is due to the smaller turnout overall, and the higher percentage of African Americans who showed up. Moore got 80% of the white evangelical vote, virtually equal to the percentage Trump got in 2016, and the only reason for the difference in the total number is the smaller turnout. With the increases seen in African American voters, and the overall Democratic turnout, it is hard to make the argument that a drop in evangelical support was the reason Moore lost. It was a turnout driven election, and the exit poll numbers from the Washington Post show that the Democrats increased their odds of winning by turning out more of their constituency than the Republicans did. And if you look at the reasons, more people cited opposition to Trump as a factor than the accusations against Moore.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics ... 31b1e121aa

Take a look at independent voters. There's Jones' margin. He got 51% of the independent vote. Given the percentage of independents who voted, that accounts for the difference in vote totals.

But John Merrill certified it this afternoon

The story continues in Bama

Certified today. Jones goes to Washington in January. The continued lie from the right of 'massive voter fraud" is once again proven to be nothing more than a diversionary tactic.

Moore should ride off into the sunset on his horse (or is it "on his ass”). But with an audience (the religious right) I suspect he’ll keep crowing.