Former Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina Led Austerity-Loving Tories to Victory

[Jim Lane]

22. As if the Conservatives weren't bad enough, he seems to identify with UKIP

Messina says, "We won that choice by over 20 points last night...."

The popular-vote percentages were: Conservative 36.9%, Labour 30.4% -- a margin of 6.5 points.

So where does he get 20 points? Well, the Conservatives were in a governing coalition with the Liberal Democrats, but the Lib Dems got only 7.9%, so even if you count them in then "We" still fell well short of a 20-point margin.

No, the only way to make his numbers work is to conclude that he saw himself as helping all the parties to the right of Labour -- including the UK Independence Party, which got 12.9%. The Scottish National Party, at 4.7%, is a social democratic party. If you take Messina's "We" as Cons plus Lib Dems plus UKIP, fighting against Labour plus SNP, then Messina's side won, 57.7% to 35.1%, a bit more than 20 points.

Who is UKIP? UKIP is generally seen as being to the right of even the Conservatives, with a platform that calls for anti-immigrant measures, abolishing the estate tax, etc. These are the people Jim Messina is now calling "We".

Either that, or he can't count.