Tim Kaine clearly has a problem with math.
As Governor of Virginia, he left his successor (Bob McDonnell) a record budget shortfall of $7 billion; McDonnell is still asking for budget cuts to repair the damage more than a year after Kaine moved on to become full-time DNC Chairman.
Now, Kaine’s attempt to spin the results of the 2010 elections revealed his trouble with numbers yet again (The Hill):
Kaine said the Democratic losses in the 2010 midterm elections was American voters’ way of saying the Democrats should try to be more bipartisan.
Huh?
Let’s take a closer look at 2010, shall we?
Republicans won over 55% of the districts in the House of Representatives. It was their best result in over 60 years. Now, Kaine and most Democrats would like us to think that the their ability to hang on to the Senate was a deliberate balancing act on the part of the voters. The actual numbers reveal something very different.
Republicans won a whopping 24 out of 37 seats – or 65%. That was the best Republican result since 1952. The only reason the Democrats maintained a Senate majority was their heavy numbers in the pre-2010 classes of Senators.
In other words, the Democrats have their Senate majority despite the wishes of the voters, not because of them.
Boehner, Cantor, et al can seze on this reality to present their agenda as the future, and any resistance to them as the pre-Teabrewer past.
In the meantime, however, it is yet another example of a reality Virginians learned long ago, but the rest of America is only beginning to discover: Tim Kaine is not very good with numbers.
