Latest / Commentary - TJ Meadows / Understanding the Governor’s ‘Batting Average’

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Understanding the Governor’s ‘Batting Average’ · Commentary - TJ Meadows

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Politics, baseball, and the art of keeping score. Governor Patrick
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  Speaker 1: Morrissey stepped to the plate the morning after the election
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  Speaker 1: and declared victory a graphic on social media, bold letters,
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  Speaker 1: a major win for morrissey agenda, and right there beside it,
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  Speaker 1: a batting average of seven sixty seven. Now, friends, if
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: you hit seven sixty seven in baseball, they don't just
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: send you to Cooperstown. They build the wing around you.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: But as every old scorekeeper knows, statistics can tell a story,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes they tell the story the scorer once told.
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  Speaker 1: So let's keep score another way. Simple rules. One point
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  Speaker 1: for every endorsed candidate who wins, negative one point for
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  Speaker 1: every endorsed candidate who loses. But if a candidate ran unopposed,
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  Speaker 1: no points. If multiple factions endorsed the same candidate, no
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: points there either. Why because this is not about sharing credit.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: It's about measuring influence, the ability to move vds, to
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  Speaker 1: deliver races to prove political strength. Now, in the Senate,
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  Speaker 1: the governor endorsed twelve candidates, one had no opponent. When
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the dust settled, eight wins, three losses netscore plus five.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: That's respectable enough to preserve the existing balance in the
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  Speaker 1: Senate critics point out most of those wins belonged to incumbents,
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  Speaker 1: fair criticism, incumbency has always been political home field advantage. Still,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: a win is a win. But then there's the House
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  Speaker 1: thirty one endorsements, Yet eleven races never counted at all.
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  Speaker 1: Ten candidates ran unopposed, one had endorsements from multiple camps,
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  Speaker 1: so the real contest came down to twenty races. The
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  Speaker 1: result eleven wins, nine losses, netscore plus two two seats
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  Speaker 1: after millions spent, endless mailers, attack ads floating through the
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  Speaker 1: artificial intelligence ether social media warfare, morning, noon, and night.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Two seats, not exactly the kind of margin that makes
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  Speaker 1: lawmakers suddenly fall into line. And then came another signal,
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  Speaker 1: House speaker Roger Hanshaw telling reporter Amelia Nicely the House
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  Speaker 1: will not forget. Now that matters because Hanshaw is not
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: known for emotional outbursts. He's methodical, intentional, the kind of
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  Speaker 1: man who measures words before releasing them into the wild.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Reaction is impulsive, response is deliberate, and comments like that
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  Speaker 1: are made when a leader knows the room stands with him.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: One source told me lawmakers aren't intimidated. Because the governor
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: targeted members like Vernon, Chris Scott, Heckert, and Clay Riley.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: The feeling under the dome now is not fear. It's retribution.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: And what will retribution look like too early to know.
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  Speaker 1: But as for batting averages in baseball, walks do not
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  Speaker 1: count as hits. Neither does endorsing candidates who are unopposed
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  Speaker 1: or candidates who have the endorsement of the other side
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  Speaker 1: as well, And judging by the reactions from those West
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  Speaker 1: Virginians who saw the Morrissey post, most folks still understand
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  Speaker 1: the rules of baseball and politics.