The losers

Biden once again opens his mouth and mistakenly speaks the truth

“Folks,” continued the vice president. “If we allow this to be a referendum
on whether people are happy where they are now, we’ll lose, and we’ll deserve to lose if we make it a referendum. … We have to do everything we can to make this a choice, an honest choice.”

Joe Biden seems to be like Cassandra. He keeps putting his foot in his mouth, but no one pays attention to him.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/248137/joe-biden-right-about-one-thing-daniel-foster

Consumer Confidence falls before the November election

In what only can be considered to be more bad news for the party in power, consumer confidence has dropped to its lowest level since February.

NEW YORK (AP) - Americans' view of the economy turned grimmer in
September amid escalating job worries, falling to the lowest point since
February.

The downbeat report, released Tuesday, raises more fears about the
tenuous U.S. economic recovery. It also further underscores the disconnect
between Wall Street and Main Street; consumers' confidence fell further even as
stocks rebounded in September.

The Conference Board, based in New York, said its monthly Consumer
Confidence Index now stands at 48.5, down from the revised 53.2 in August.
Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting 52.5.

The reading marked the lowest point since February's 46.4. It takes a
reading of 90 to indicate a healthy economy - a level not approached since the
recession began in December 2007

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100928/D9IGVOGG0.html

Morris on the coming election

Thanks to the leadership of President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and
Majority Leader Reid, the Democratic Party is facing the biggest defeat in
midterm elections in the past 110 years, perhaps surpassing the modern record of
a 74-seat gain set in 1922. They will also lose control of the
Senate.

Republicans are now leading in 54 Democratic House districts. In 19
more, the incumbent congressman is under 50 percent and his GOP challenger is
within five points. That makes 73 seats where victory is within easy grasp for
the Republican Party. The only reason the list is not longer is that there are
160 Democratic House districts that were considered so strongly blue that there
is no recent polling available.

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/121487-obliterating-a-generation

I also see a tsunami coming the Democrats way, but I’m not sure I see the number of loses for the Democrats as Morris does. I’m thinking more in the 60 seat range.

For Obama, Even the Good News Is Bad

"Young People and Minorities Are All the President Has Left" is the
arresting headline on the National Journal's new poll of Americans,
conducted with the Pew Research Center.

The survey found that the president still retains support among
voters under 30 who helped elect him in 2008, but even there his excellent or
good job rating is only 45%, as opposed to 47% who rate him fair or poor. His
worst numbers are with voters aged 50 to 64, only 34% of whom rate him
positively.

Minority voters are still solidly behind the president, with 76% of blacks expressing approval. A majority of Hispanic voters also still approve.
But among non-Hispanic whites, the bottom has
dropped out. Only 30% score Mr. Obama positively, with 66% rating him fair or poor. Opinions among white voters vary with education but the news isn't
good for Mr. Obama. White women who are college graduates give him a 39%
positive job rating, while he wins 31% of white men with a similar
educational background. White voters without a college degree
have become the biggest headache for the Obama White House: only 31% of women who fit that description rate the president well and only 22% of men.

Those kinds of numbers explain the panic setting into Democratic ranks this fall. In this election cycle, a disproportionate number of key Senate and House races are taking place in areas with older voters and few minorities. Those also are the same areas where voters appear to be most dissatisfied with Democratic rule and most eager to send a message this November

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522160145340470.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

And the bad news gets worse

Many wealthy Democratic patrons, who in the past have
played major roles financing outside groups to help elect the party’s
candidates, are largely sitting out these crucial midterm elections.

Democratic donors like George Soros, the bête noire of the right,
and his fellow billionaire Peter Lewis, who each gave more than $20 million to
Democratic-oriented groups in the 2004 election, appear to be holding back so
far.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/us/politics/30dems.html?_r=3&ref=us

A Political Civil War?

We keep reading about a civil war in the Republican Party with the old guard vs the Tea Party. But the real civil war seems to be going on in the Democrat Party.

With each passing day, I’m beginning to realize that the crux of the
problem for Obama is a handful of prominent progressive bloggers, among them
Glenn Greenwald, John Aravosis, Digby, Marcy Wheeler and Jane Hamsher.”

Daou, a progressive strategist and blogger himself, offered the
explanation in a post provocatively titled, “How a handful of liberal bloggers
are bringing down the Obama presidency,” that put a face on Obama’s critics and
suggested why their criticism might be so irritating.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42864.html#ixzz10utxD6UJ

An explanation of the criticism of the bloggers comes from Greenwald in Salon.

“As we head into a November election that looks more and more like Democrats
are going to get slaughtered, I think they are trying to set up a villain,
someone to blame other than Obama,” he said. “And that villain will be the
left.” Another Leftist offers the Administration another road. If the Dem base
is unenthusiastic, give Dems something to get excited about, or effectively tell
them why they should be excited. If you disagree with Maddow or Greenwald on
what's possible in terms of policy, or if you disagree with the Adam Greens of
the world on politics, explain why they're wrong, rather than spewing epithets
in all directions. Above all, don't vaguely question the right of these various
parties to make those arguments. This is, after all, democracy, and as Obama
himself has repeatedly said, democracy is a messy business.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/09/dear_white_house_heres_how.html

Obama’s right and wrong at the same time

"If people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks
weren't serious in the first place."

Obama is talking to voters as though he is their boss, or
their principal, or their father. He is not any of those things. He is
their employee. And employers don't like it when their employees yell at them --
even if their employees have it right.

For those who believe in the progressive agenda, these are
dispiriting times. They can learn from the continuing doldrums that the
Keynesian policies they have long sought don't work as they thought they would.
Or they can blame Obama for not having implemented them properly.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/blaming_the_voters_1UoJ5PzfnaGL1ZgmE4Qh9J#ixzz10vGrZdDL

An interesting look at the chaos and problems the left has as the election looms.

WSJ/NBC Poll: President Clinton Gets Top Rating

Seeing this headline made me wonder how long it will be until Hillary resigns as Secretary of State to start a challenge to BHO? Obama is unpopular not only with Republicans and Independents, but more and more with parts of the Democrat coalition.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/09/28/wsjnbc-poll-president-clinton-gets-top-rating/

Austerity whips up anger, protests mount in Europe

This is what the Democrats want the USA to be like.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - – Painful cuts by overspending EU countries come head
to a head with mounting social anger on Wednesday when labour leaders call angry workers onto streets right across the continent.

Set for its largest Europe-wide protest for a decade is Brussels
where labour leaders are planning to bring 100,000 people from 30 countries to
say "No to austerity!"

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100928/tts-eu-economy-strike-labour-social-c1b2fc3.html

34 Days to go

Rewriting history again

I appears the liberals can’t simply won’t say what the founders said even when quoting them.

Just seven days after he sparked controversy by omitting the word “Creator” when he closely paraphrased the passage from the Declaration of Independence that says all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,” President Barack Obama again omitted the Creator when speaking about the “inalienable rights” that “everybody is endowed with.”

This time the president was speaking at a Sept. 22 fundraiser for the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, and his reference to “inalienable rights” was not as close a paraphrasing of the
Declaration as it had been the week before.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/75843

Vice President Biden to Democratic Base: 'Stop Whining'

At a fundraiser in Manchester, NH, today, Vice President Biden urged
Democrats to "remind our base constituency to stop whining and get out there and look at the alternatives. This President has done an incredible job. He’s kept
his promises."

The remarks, made to roughly 200 top Democratic activists and
donors, recall comments President Obama made last week to “griping and
groaning Democrats…Folks: wake up. This is not some academic exercise. As Joe
Biden put it, Don’t compare us to the Almighty, compare us to the
alternative.”

You know you are in trouble when you talk to your supporters like this.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/09/vice-president-biden-to-democratic-base-stop-whining.html

Lessons from History for the Insurgency

Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. Here’s an interesting look at polical insurgencies in American History and asks the question what will happen with the TEA Party movement?

Mass political movements have come along several times in American
history. Some have transformed the country, and others have fizzled
out.

The movement that elected Andrew Jackson, against the vicious
opposition of the existing establishment, swept through all levels of American
government, rewriting state constitutions and extending the franchise to all
adult males. Jacksonian democracy caused a permanent and irreversible change in American life.

The Populist movement looked like it would have a similar
impact. Led by the charismatic outsider William Jennings Bryan, this
movement held gigantic rallies and seemed like a revolution in the making. It
provoked fear and a hostile response from the establishment of its day, in both
political parties. Yet the Populists ultimately failed to make a significant
impact on national policy, and were absorbed into the Democratic
Party.

Today’s Insurgency could go either way. Success is not inevitable.

http://rightnetwork.com/posts/1001642112

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Loads-of-campaign-cash-make-Big-Green-a-Democratic-powerhouse-1023166-103889313.html#ixzz10pgKTU3D

Democratic powerhouse UPDATED!

Yes, the Democrats have their special interest groups too. Only theirs want to dedevelop the United States.

Officials of a dozen top Big Green environmental groups contributed
more than $14.5 million to congressional and presidential candidates in 2008 and
through the second quarter of 2010 with 96 percent of the total going to
Democrats, according to an Examiner analysis of federal campaign
data.

The data was compiled from the Federal Election Commission
and included only donations by individuals who listed one of the 12 groups as
their employer or listed themselves as an officer or director of one or more of
the groups. This analysis does not include contributions by individuals who did
not list an employer.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Loads-of-campaign-cash-make-Big-Green-a-Democratic-powerhouse-1023166-103889313.html#ixzz10pgKTU3D

Rep. Alan Grayson's 'Taliban' ad backfires

Rep. Alan Grayson twisting and quoting someone out of context so the meaning is the exact opposite of what he was saying? More news that really isn’t news.

Rep. Alan Grayson's attempt to equate his Republican challenger with
the Taliban is having a big impact — just not the one Grayson may have hoped.

In an ad, Grayson's campaign calls Republican Daniel Webster a
"religious fanatic" — a charge it supports with video in which Webster seems to
encourage wives to "submit" to their husbands.
But FactCheck.org says the narrative crafted by the Florida Democrat's campaign distorts what Webster was actually saying.

"Grayson has lowered the bar even further. He's using edited video
to make his rival appear to be saying the opposite of what he really
said," the nonpartisan site, sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy
Center, wrote on its blog Monday.

"Grayson manipulates a video clip to make it appear Webster was
commanding wives to submit to their husbands, quoting a passage in the Bible.
Four times, the ad shows Webster saying wives should submit to their husbands,"
the site points out. "In fact, Webster was cautioning husbands to avoid taking
that passage as their own. The unedited quote is: 'Don't pick the ones [Bible
verses] that say, 'She should submit to me.'"

Grayson was also reprimanded by the Orlando Sentinel, which posted
a story Monday headlined "Grayson's 'Taliban Dan' Ad Takes Webster's Words Out of Context, Twists Meaning."

"By twisting Webster's words, Grayson risks eroding some of the support he may have won from independent voters," the paper concluded.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42818.html#ixzz10px1nmp6

Obama: Democratic voter apathy 'inexcusable'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Admonishing his own party, President Barack Obama says it would be "inexcusable" and "irresponsible" for unenthusiastic Democratic voters
to sit out the midterm elections, warning that the consequences could be a
squandered agenda for years.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_INTERVIEW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-09-28-07-02-19

When I was in the Navy we used to call this “There will be no liberty until morale improves”

talks. So we now know that the voters are ignorant or irresponsible if they don’t vote democrat. Not a real good sales pitch.

Cancun climate talks hopeless: global warming journalist

George Monbiot is the world's most famous global warming
journalist.

So when his weekly column in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper appeared
Monday under the headline "Climate change enlightenment was fun while it lasted. But now it's dead," people on all sides of the issue perked up

http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2774151

35 Days and counting

One step forward, two steps back

Here’s a study done by Christina and David Romer. You might remember Christina as President Obama's first chair of his Council of Economic Advisers. What makes it controversial is the fact it goes against the basic beliefs of the left. Raising taxes does not seem to be a good idea if you want to raise revenue.

A successful parasite must keep its host alive, finding the point where
it can maximize its intake without killing off its source of sustenance. So,
too, with governments taxing their citizenry. With taxation, governments can
reach the point where higher rates produce less revenue.

An academic study found that a tax increase of just 1% of GDP
causes a recession and then a permanent loss of 1.84% of GDP compared to what it would have been without the tax increase. The results of this study have some really broad and interesting implications.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/09/the_government_tapeworm.html

Kerry sums up his views on the electorate

The Boston Herald reports that Kerry took his pent-up election anger
out on clueless voters (emphasis mine):

"We have an electorate that doesn't always pay that much attention
to what's going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the
facts or the truth or what's happening."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rusty-weiss/2010/09/25/john-kerry-voters-they-aren-t-influenced-facts-or-truth

Two points jump out at me. First is the unmitigated gall of Patrician John Kerry. Second is if he’s right, does “Hope we can believe in” fall into his simple slogan description?

Democrats fear Midwestern meltdown

Two years after President Barack Obama swept the Midwest, Democratic
fortunes in the region are sagging, with the GOP poised to make big gains by
scooping up disaffected independent voters in a wide swath of states hit by job
losses, budget woes and political scandal.

From Ohio to Iowa, there’s a yawning stretch of heartland states
whose citizens voted for Obama and congressional Democrats in 2008, but who have lost patience waiting for an as-yet undelivered economic revival that was first promised in 2006, and then two years later. Now, they look set to stampede
toward the out-of-power party.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42713.html#ixzz10jq2DqCg

Poll: Rocky road seen ahead for Obama

More bad news if you are a democrat.

A significant majority of voters are considering voting against
President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, expressing sour views of
his new health care law and deep skepticism about his ability to create jobs and
grow the sluggish economy, according to the latest Politico/George Washington
University Battleground Poll.

Only 38 percent of respondents said Obama deserves to
be reelected, even though a majority of voters hold a favorable view of
him on a personal level. Forty-four percent said they will vote to oust him, and
13 percent said they will consider voting for someone else.

And by an 11-point margin, voters trust congressional
Republicans to create jobs more than Obama. His approval rating stands
at 46 percent, according to the poll of 1,000 likely voters, conducted Sept. 19
to Sept. 22.

The tea party movement, which has emerged as the
biggest threat to Democrats’ dominance of Washington is viewed favorably
by 43 percent of respondents, compared with 35 percent who view it
unfavorably.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42737.html#ixzz10l4mVizx

Obama's approval to go below 40%?

Here’s an interesting article on what’s going wrong with Obama’s administration.

I think Barack Obama will soon dip below a 40% approval rating. He’s
nearing there now. Why? A mixture of both the personal and political. Here
are five good reasons:

1) A bad agenda. Nearly every issue the president embraces polls against him, often at a 3-1 margin

2) Anything, anytime. The president does not conduct himself in a sober and judicious manner and neither do those around him. On any given day he can slur Arizonans as wanting to round up innocents on the way to ice cream. He can slander police as stupidly acting stereotypers.

3) There is no eloquence, period. Part is the fault of the worst speech-writing team in modern presidential memory. They make the most elemental of errors, whether turning Cordoba into a beacon of Islamic tolerance during the Inquisition or claiming “Mexicans” were here in North America before Americans, well before the idea of the nation of Mexico existed. (This is a painful error in Obama's knowledge of history)

4) His team is imploding. We heard all this fluff last year about “Team of Rivals” as if our new Lincoln was going to collect brilliant and ambitious contrarians, and by sheer force of brilliance brew administrative excellence.

5) Obama has been lucky but it won’t last. You say, “No, wait a minute! After all he inherited two wars and a near depression!” Not quite. (Really worth reading)

http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/president-4060/

NJ Gov Chris Christie For President

Much of the talk surrounding Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million donation to
the Newark public school system concerned whether it was an image-building move for the Facebook CEO just as a new movie is coming out that will make him look bad..

But what should be getting more attention is the effect it's having
on the image of Chris Christie, NJ's hardnosed GOP governor.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-christie-running-for-president-2010-9#ixzz10pBbmkGu

November's coming

Upcoming election may be even worse for the Democrats than projected.

Democrat strongholds in the East may be leading pollsters to underestimate the Republican wave that is coming. Everywhere else in the country, the Democrats are in big trouble.

The generic ballot shows Republicans leading
44%-39%. Besides all of the usual regional crosstabs, we also broke it
out by the type of district. We looked at the sample in the 66
Democratic INCUMBENT districts that Charlie Cook lists as either
toss-up or leaning Democratic at the time of the survey. In that key crosstab of
Swing Democratic Incumbent Seats, the Republican lead grows to 49%-31% on the generic ballot. That is a very powerful crosstab that says the wave is coming.

Among the remaining Democratic districts (Likely/Safe Dem, and open seats), the generic ballot is an unsurprisingly 33% GOP/51% Dem — a sign that the historically safe Dem seat will remain so, while the swing seats will be a bloodbath. By the way, in all of the GOP held seats, the generic is the reverse of the base Dem seats — 52% GOP/32% Dem. Very few, if any, Republican incumbents will be defeated.

Likewise, President Obama’s numbers with likely voters are similar
to the national average — 46% approve/51% disapprove. However, in the Swing
Democratic Incumbent Seats. he has a much worse 40% approve/57% disapprove.

(Keep in mind, many of these Swing Seats are held by Democrats despite the fact
that John McCain either won the district in 2008, or, even if losing,
outperformed his national result.

http://pos.org/2010/09/national-survey-highlights-dem-problems-in-key-seats/

Mood of America

Here’s an interesting article by Frank Lutz. I found this concluding statement to be insightful, especially the part about “Changing their government.”

Ultimately, of course, the success of the Pledge will be determined not
by the results on Election Day, but by what happens afterward. Still, there's a
simple lesson for both parties: The American people aren't just mad as hell.
This time, they're truly not going to take it anymore. They'll keep changing their government until their government really changes. So credit Republicans for putting their Pledge on paper. Now, they will be held accountable to the standard they've set for themselves -- and it's a good one.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/09/24/AR2010092402436.html

The Meltdown

The Democrats Melt Down

And the Republicans aren't blowing it for once.

More news that isn’t really news.

It would be unbecoming for us at The Weekly -Standard​—we do have to uphold standards, after all!—to chortle with glee as the Democratic party melts down. It would be unkind to whoop at the top of our lungs as Obama White House big shots quit or get fired, and to cheer with gusto as the GOP leadership behaves sensibly, the Tea Party goes from strength to strength, and momentum builds towards a huge Election Day repudiation of big government liberalism.
So, instead, we’ll simply point out, calmly and quietly, that the Democratic party
is in meltdown, the Obama White House is in disarray, and the voters are in
rebellion against both of them.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/democrats-melt-down

CNN Poll: Obama at all time low

The latest poll from CNN has President Obama shedding eight points in three weeks, and congressional Democrats down nine on the generic ballot:

The president’s approval rating now stands at 42 percent – an all time low
in CNN polling and 8 points lower than where Obama was only three weeks ago.
Moreover, 56 percent of all Americans think the president has fallen short of
their expectations.

The president’s sagging poll numbers couldn’t
come at a worse time for congressional Democrats, themselves facing a nine-point
deficit in the so-called “generic ballot” question heading into the midterm
elections. In fact, the president’s approval rating is the same as that of
President Clinton’s in 1994 – the midterm election year that saw Republicans
wrest control of both the House and Senate.

Also, broad support for tea-party backed candidates:

In even worse news for congressional Democrats, likely voters say they are
considerably more likely to vote for a candidate the president opposes than one
he supports. On the other hand, 50 percent of voters said they would be more
likely to vote for a Tea Party-backed candidate while a third of Americans said
Tea Party support would dissuade their vote for a candidate.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/24/cnn-poll-obama-at-all-time-low/


Hope artist losing hope

The artist whose poster of Barack Obama became a rallying image during the hope-and-change election of 2008 says he understands why so many people have lost faith.

In an exclusive interview with National Journal on Thursday, Shepard Fairey expressed his disappointment with the president -- a malaise that seems representative of many Democrats who had great expectations for Obama.

"Looking at Obama's standpoint on various policies, it was like,
'Why throw all these particular projectiles over the wall... when I could put
all those things in one projectile that I could hurl over the wall,'" Fairey
said in a phone interview from Los Angeles, where he lives. "Obama was the
delivery device in theory. Now, I realize that he maybe is not the
correct delivery device, and I'll just deal with those issues separately."

http://news.yahoo.com/exclusives

Bad Timing for Democrats

The election of a Senator in West Virginia is taking a bad turn for the Democrats.

As we noted earlier this week, though, recent polls suggest that
the race tightening. A Rasmussen poll had Raese within 7 points of
Manchin. And a PPP poll actually had Raese ahead by 3
points.


And now, according to Politico, new information about an ongoing federal investigation into Manchin's administration is casting
a cloud over his campaign. Previously, the governor's office confirmed that the
administration has received two federal subpoenas. And this week, came word, via a special assistant attorney general assigned to the case, that the
investigation is focused on a multimillion- dollar highway project in Manchin's
hometown of Fairmont. Moreover, "anonymous sources" are telling news outlets
that Manchin's former chief of staff, state Democratic Party Chairman Larry
Puccio, is involved in the probe. Puccio, a real estate agent and appraiser, is
also from Fairmont.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42702.html

Betrayed, exhausted, underperforming--The Democrats New Reality

Congress Punts on Taxes

Democrats Put Off Showdown on Bush Cuts Until After November Election

WASHINGTON—Democrats abandoned plans to vote before Election Day on
extending Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class while eliminating them for
better-off Americans, spooked by protests from vulnerable incumbents and bleak
prospects for passage.

With time running out to plan for 2011, the delay raises uncertainty for small businesses and individual taxpayers over their
future liabilities. It also sets up a titanic battle over taxes after the
election.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703384204575509793142421332.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

I had a blog posting on the word Zugswang which fits here. Zugswang is chess term that means you have to move but any move you make is the wrong one. That sums up this election if you are a democrat

Alarm Bells ringing in Ohio

There's no shortage of political tumult in the Buckeye State this year,
where the Democratic-held governorship and at least six Democratic-held House
seats are in jeopardy. But what makes it particularly notable is that the state
represents several key demographic groups whose changing perspectives will give
serious insight into President Obama's broader political standing for 2012.

The voters Obama is losing -- white-collar managers in Columbus,
blue-collar union workers in Youngstown, pro-life independents around Cincinnati
-- are exactly the types he needs to win re-election in 2012, and they're
backing away from his party in droves. Obama tallied a whopping 60 percent
disapproval rating in Quinnipiac's latest Ohio poll, with nearly
two-thirds of voters disapproving of his economic performance.

That dissatisfaction extends across the board to Democrats on the
statewide ballot. The Quinnipiac poll showed Gov. Ted Strickland down 17 points
to Republican John Kasich and Republican Rob Portman leading Democratic Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher by 20 points in the Senate race. A separate CNN /Time poll was
striking in that the two statewide Democrats were badly underperforming
in nearly every part of the state, among almost every key
demographic

http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/09/what_ohio_tells.php

More Alarm bells are ringing

Pennsylvania 8 has been in the paper the last few days. It represents one of those swing districts which can be used as a good gauge of what is going on nationally in the electorate and the lastest numbers are alarming if you are a Democrat.

Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick Murphy is confronting worrisome new poll
numbers in his rematch against former GOP Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick.

A new Franklin & Marshall survey out Thursday morning shows
Murphy trailing Fitzpatrick by a steep 49 percent to 35 percent margin among likely voters — perilous territory for the two-term Democrat, who occupies a Bucks County-based 8th District seat.

The poll of 379 likely voters was conducted Sept. 14-19. Murphy has
long been seen as among the more electorally safe Pennsylvania Democrats,
raising a mammoth $2.6 million over the course of the cycle after easily
dispatching his 2008 GOP foe, Tom Manion, by 15 points.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42616.html#ixzz10RWrK7q1

Democrat Dreams that Won’t Come True

When facing a tsunami, what do you do? Pray, and tell yourself stories.
I am not privy to the Democrats’ private prayers, but I do hear the stories
they’re telling themselves. The new meme is that there’s a civil war raging in
the Republican party. The tea party will wreck it from within and prove to be
the Democrats’ salvation.

I don’t blame anyone for seeking a deus ex machina when about to be
swept out to sea. But this salvation du jour is flimsier than most.

In fact, the big political story of the year is the contrary: that
a spontaneous and quite anarchic movement with no recognized leadership or
discernible organization has been merged with such relative ease into the
Republican party………….

………. the general public is fairly evenly split in its views of the tea
party. It experiences none of the horror that liberals do — and think others
should. Moreover, the electorate supports by two to one the tea-party signature
issues of smaller government and lower taxes.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/247599/visigoths-gate-charles-krauthammer?page=2

The Exhausted vs the Enraged.

Peggy Noonan captures the problem for Democrats.

"I'm a mother. I'm a wife. I'm an American veteran, and I'm one of your
middle-class Americans. And quite frankly I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted of
defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change
that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are." She said, "The
financial recession has taken an enormous toll on my family." She said, "My
husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the
hot-dogs-and-beans era of our lives. But, quite frankly, it is starting to knock
on our door and ring true that that might be where we are headed."

But it was the word Mrs. Hart used that captured everything:
"exhausted." From what I see, that's how a lot of Democrats feel. They've turned
silent, too, like people who witnessed a car crash and can't talk anymore about
the reasons for the accident or how many were injured.

This election is more and more shaping up into a contest between the
Exhausted and the Enraged.

CNN Poll: Obama at all time low

I do believe when the history is written about the horrible defeat the Democrats will suffer in November, the conclusion as to how it happened will be “THEY EARNED IT.”

(CNN) – President Barack Obama is contending with the lowest approval
rating of his 20-month presidency, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll finds.

The president's approval rating now stands at 42 percent – an all
time low in CNN polling and 8 points lower than where Obama was only three weeks ago. Moreover, 56 percent of all Americans think the president has fallen short of their expectations.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/24/cnn-poll-obama-at-all-time-low/

Now He's Lost Margaret Carlson

If you are ever on the beach and the water suddenly subsides leaving fish floundering and vast expanses of land that minutes before was covered by water, don’t just stand there, run for higher ground. What you are witnessing is a tsunami. Right now the Democrats are seeing sign after sign of a coming political tsunami.

Obama's problem goes far deeper than his insolent style.

If he's lost Margaret Carlson he's lost Middle America. Sorry if
you disagree, but somehow, to our mind, that joke just never gets old. Carlson,
a fixture at Time magazine before jumping to the Bloomberg news service,
personifies liberal Beltway conventionality, and she appears to have turned
decisively against President Obama.

To be precise, she now thinks he's kind of a jerk--that's our
paraphrase; as you'll see, she puts it considerably more gently--which means
that her view of Obama has caught up to where conservatives were two years ago
and Middle American moderate independents this time in 2009.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703384204575509903861383336.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

Initial claims for unemployment aid rise to 465K

More bad news for everyone.

WASHINGTON -- Applications for unemployment benefits increased last
week for the first time in five weeks.

Initial claims for jobless aid rose by 12,000 to a seasonally
adjusted 465,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. Many economists had
expected a flat reading or small drop. The rise suggests that jobs remain
scarce and some companies are still cutting workers amid weak economic growth.
Initial claims have fallen from a recent spike above a half-million last month.
But they have been stuck above 450,000 for most of this year.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/09/23/personal-finance-us-economy_7956012.html?boxes=Homepagetopnews

The Death Spiral Begins

Democrat racism

The standard meme from the left is that only the Republicans are racists. Here we see a Democrat using a racists appeal to keep her seat in congress.

Prepare to be disgusted as you see this liberal Democrat fire up her Spanish-speaking base by telling them that "the Vietnamese and the Republicans are trying to take away this seat."

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/09/027289.php

Obama heckled in New York?

President Barack Obama was heckled multiple times during his speech at a Democratic fundraiser in one of the country’s most Democratic cities.

Demonstrators held signs that said “Broken Promises” and interrupted his
speech to protest AIDS funding and the stalled repeal of “don’t ask, don’t
tell,” the policy banning gays from serving openly in the military that Obama
has promised to lift.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42585.html#ixzz10LWc6OA4

In my 20 reasons the Dems would lose big in November this was one of them.

Democrats Fear Blowout Effect in Battlegrounds

This story reminds me of the scenes in the movie Airplane where Robert Stack keeps saying, ”this was the wrong time to give up ‘smoking, etc.’” I’m sure Sestak and a lot of Democrats must be feeling that way.

With polls showing Republicans well-positioned to win the Senate and
gubernatorial contests in both Ohio and Pennsylvania, House Democratic
strategists are increasingly worried about the downballot drag the top of the
ticket could have in the two battleground states.

Quinnipiac University released polling over the past week that
found Republicans ahead by double digits in the gubernatorial races in both
states and in the Ohio Senate contest. In the Pennsylvania Senate race, former
Rep. Pat Toomey (R) led Rep. Joe Sestak (D) by 7 points in a poll released
Wednesday.

Democrats are worried that the enthusiasm gap among voters in the
two states could be exacerbated if it appears by Election Day that Republicans
are headed for blowout victories in the marquee races.

"There's no question it's a problem. When the top of the ticket is
hurting, it absolutely makes it more difficult for a Democrat in a swing
district to win," said a Democratic strategist who has worked in both states.
"Voters will be looking at the gubernatorial race and going, 'If [Ohio Gov. Ted]
Strickland is down 10 points, why the heck am I going to go out and
vote?'"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20100923/pl_cq_politics/politics000003737693;_ylt=AhcH5s3.v7G_5AafKi1SPh34R9AF;_ylu=X3oDMTJxdG1jaDU5BGFzc2V0A2NxLzIwMTAwOTIzL3BvbGl0aWNzMDAwMDAzNzM3NjkzBHBvcwM3BHNlYwN5bl9wYWdpbmF0ZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3

QEc2xrA2RlbW9jcmF0c2ZlYQ

AP-GfK Poll: Independents as upset as Republicans

More bad news for the Democrats—Independents are also mad

In an Associated Press-GfK Poll this month, 58 percent of independents and
60 percent of Republicans said politics is making them angry, compared with 31
percent of Democrats who said so. About 7 in 10 independents and Republicans
were disgusted, compared with 4 in 10 Democrats, and independents and
Republicans were likelier than Democrats to be disappointed, depressed and
frustrated.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100923/ap_on_el_ge/us_ap_poll_irritated_independents;_ylt=Ai1wU81u3XugNFSzRUZFqtas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTQ1YmxyNWU2BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwOTIzL3VzX2FwX3BvbGxfaXJyaXRhdGVkX2luZGVwZW5kZW50cwRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzcEcG9zAzQEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNhcC1nZmtwb2xsaW-

Climate change enlightenment was fun while it lasted. But now it's dead

Here’s more “news” that really isn’t news. I follow this topic closely. The volume of articles is way down a sure sign of the death spiral for AGW.

The closer it comes, the worse it looks. The best outcome anyone now
expects from Cancun this December is that some delegates might stay awake during the meetings. When talks fail once, as they did in Copenhagen, governments lose interest. They don't want to be associated with failure, they don't want to pour time and energy into a broken process. Nine years after the world trade
negotiations moved to Mexico after failing in Qatar, they remain in diplomatic
limbo. Nothing in the preparations for the climate talks suggests any other
outcome.

But nobody cares enough to make a fight of it. The disagreements
are simultaneously entrenched and muted. The doctor's certificate (death
certificate) has not been issued; perhaps, to save face, it never will be. But
the harsh reality we have to grasp is that the process is dead.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/20/climate-change-negotiations-failure

Dahlia Lithwick: It’s “Weird” for a Senator to Consider the Constitutionality of Legislation

Here’s an interesting piece. Should the Republicans consider whether a bill is Constitutional?

David Bernstein reminds Dahlia Lithwick that each member of the House and Senate takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

Lithwick in Slate

O’Donnell explained that “when I go to Washington, D.C., the litmus
test by which I cast my vote for every piece of legislation that comes across my
desk will be whether or not it is constitutional.” How weird is that, I thought.
Isn’t it a court’s job to determine whether or not something is, in fact,
constitutional? And isn’t that sort of provided for in, well, the
Constitution?

Short answer: Senators swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. Of
course they are obligated to determine whether a bill they are considering is
constitutional. Where did Lithwick get the idea that courts, and only courts,
should be concerned with the constitutionality of legislation?

http://volokh.com/2010/09/22/dahlia-lithwick-its-weird-for-a-senator-to-consider-the-constitutionality-of-legislation/

Poll surprise of the day: Barney Frank in trouble?

The Sean Bielat campaign has declared themselves within reach of unseating
Barney Frank in Massachusetts’ 4th CD, one of the presumed safest districts for
Democrats in the nation. The poll, conducted for the campaign by
OnMessage, shows Frank falling below the 50% mark despite the D+14 composition of his constituency. Bielat comes within nine points, even though the poll shows that he still badly trails in name recognition.

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/09/22/poll-surprise-of-the-day-barney-frank-in-trouble/

Here’s another take on it.

Frank knows better. He does not underestimate Bielat, nor will he
underestimate the real negatives that he faces.

Why will President Clinton give the endorsement, and not President
Obama or another Democratic leader? Frank needs to separate himself from the
economic policies of the Obama adminstration in which he has been a major
player, and associate himself with the economy of the Clinton years. Further,
Frank surely remembers that in the Democratic presidential primary of 2008,
Hillary Clinton soundly beat Obama, and that Obama’s highly publicized visit to
Massachusetts to endorse Coakley was not effective. Frank is even running away
from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even though he has until recently been their
champion in Congress.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/is-barney-frank-nervous-bill-clinton-coming-to-rescue-in-ma/ \

This may explain Frank’s conversion from Fannie and Freddie’s biggest defender to someone calling for its dismemberment. Barney Frank was one of the main culprits in the financial crisis that the Democrats like to blame on the Republicans and Wall Street.

Democrats blame the First Amendment for their impending losses.

As Democrats head for what promises to be a midterm election fiasco of
historic proportions, a pre-emptive excuse has begun to circulate: It’s all
because of Citizens United. Team Donkey fans claim the January 21 decision, in
which the Supreme Court overturned restrictions on the political speech of
corporations, triggered a flood of negative advertising by what President Obama
calls “shadowy groups with harmless-sounding names.”

http://reason.com/archives/2010/09/22/ad-rage

Well, it’s better than putting the blame upon themselves or having tirades about how “stupid” the voters are. Wait a minute, that’s probably next.

Another sign of impending doom for the Democrats

Six weeks before the election, President Obama couldn’t fill the
ballroom at the Roosevelt Hotel, despite cheap tickets on offer. And then he was
met by hecklers.

Who would have thought that six weeks before a cliffhanger
election, President Obama would have to reach down to the D list to fill a room
to listen to him? Most of us low rollers arrived early to see President Obama up
close and personal. Our tickets for the general reception at the Roosevelt Hotel
in New York were only $100. Some thought the email invitation was a joke. Some
bought tickets for $50 from their desperate Democratic committeeman. Some bought the same day.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-23/obamas-fire-sale/

Warren Buffett to CNBC: "We're Still In a Recession"

Warren Buffett tells CNBC that by his own "common sense" definition, the United States is "still in a recession."

41 Days, but who's counting?

More CEOs Seeing Obama As Bad Hire

More news that really isn’t news.

The Presidency: He doesn't look or sound radical. President Obama, in
fact, is so calm, almost regal, he makes government takeovers and redistribution
schemes seem almost reasonable. But the facade is wearing thin.

Fortune 500 leaders who believed Obama's moderate rhetoric, and
even raised cash and voted for him, have soured on him. They now believe he's
bad for business and hostile to the American free enterprise
system.

Even die-hard Obama fan Tom Wilson, head of Allstate, says the
president could have used some executive experience on his all-academic
economics team. Not a single former corporate executive is in Obama's Cabinet or
among his top economic advisers. "I think it was a hiring mistake for the
administration," Wilson told CNN last week.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/548002/201009211903/More-CEOs-Seeing-Obama-As-Bad-Hire.htm

Obama is losing the environmentalists vote

So what to do? As enthralled as environmentalists and progressives once were
about Obama’s promise, we cannot ignore that for all his fine rhetoric, his
accomodationism and reserve are allowing the planetary crisis to deteriorate and
leaving America behind in the race for a clean energy economy. It pains
me to say it, but success will require a new president -- and that
means that after the midterm elections, we need to start
looking for a primary challenger who has the heart and soul
required to save the planet from catastrophe and rescue American from its
economic morass -- even as we throw ourselves into grassroots action to do what
we can to save the planet despite the president’s interference.

http://www.grist.org/article/environmentalists-need-a-new-president

Obama’s illegal aunt speaks out

Jimmy Carter had his brother Billy, Reagan had his son and daughter “Ron and Patty” and Clinton had Hugh Rodham who embarrassed them. Here’s Obama’s crazy old aunt in the attic.

“It’s a great country,” she said. “It’s nice to live here. You can do
whatever you want when you live here.”

Despite what’s she’s been given, Zeituni Onyango said flatly that she owes this country nothing in return. “But, it’s given you so much?” Elias
asked. “So? It’s a free country under God,” was her terse response.

When asked why the taxpayers should be burdened with her needs,
the feisty Zeituni said, “This country is owned by almighty God. You people who
preach Jesus Christ almighty God and the rest of it, you are here to help
people, help the poor, help other countries and help women. That’s what
the United States is supposed to do? And you have to give me my right
light, every person’s right.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/247345/auntie-zeituni-gift-keeps-giving-mark-krikorian

It never ceases to amaze me how those who are given so much in tolerance, support, etc. seem to be the least grateful.

Senate deals blow to proposed 'Don't ask, don't tell' repeal in 56-43 vote

Sometimes the remarks I make write themselves, but don’t ask and don’t tell what they are.
The Senate on Tuesday dealt a significant blow to the Obama administration’s efforts to repeal the ban on openly gay people serving in the military. This also confirms what I said would happen. Waiting so long for DADT legislation hurts Obama and the Democrats. Those who are invested in this rather than being fired up are likely to not bother to vote.

In a 56-43 vote, Senate Democratic leaders fell short of the 60 votes they
needed to proceed to the 2011 defense authorization bill, which included
language to repeal the Clinton-era “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law. Every Senate
Republican present and three Democrats voted to block debate on the bill.

http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/defense-homeland-security/120029-dadtnosenate-deals-blow-to-dont-ask-dont-tell-repeal

The Next Two Years

Here’s an interesting op-ed on Progressivism and how they have attempted to rule (not govern). It concludes as below.

This is one American who has no interest in finding a middle ground
with such people in whatever arena they operate. If Republicans win big in
November they might consider that such a victory--so shortly removed from the
America left's predictions of multi-generational progressive ascendancy--is
indicative of the electorate's desire to obliterate progressivism, not
accommodate it. If they need courage, they might want to ponder how often
Democrats accommodated them in the last four years. It might even be useful to
remember what president Obama himself said about accommodating the wishes of the opposition, which can be summed up in two words:

"I won."

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0910/ahlert.php3

Is any Democrat safe?

Here’s two different polls, but it makes you ask the question, “Is any democrat safe this election cycle?”

Flame-throwing Republican Carl Paladino is within striking distance of
overtaking longtime gubernatorial frontrunner Andrew Cuomo, a shocking new poll finds. Among likely voters, the Democrat Cuomo has a paltry 49% to 43% lead over Paladino, the blowhard Buffalo businessman who won a shocking and decisive victory last week in the GOP primary, the Quinnipiac University poll finds.
Quinnipiac's findings are in stark contrast to a Rasmussen Reports poll released
Monday that showed Cuomo with a more robust 54% to 38% lead.

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2010/09/oof-paladino-within-six-points-of-cuomo.html

Pelosi, again, insisted the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't an oncoming train.

I’m not sure if this is part of keeping a positive attitude or being delusional.

ROBERT: If your party does lose the House would you step aside as
leader?

PELOSI: First of all , I don't accept that premise in any way shape
or form. The momentum is with us. We are out there to dispel many of the
misrepresentations that have been going out there for nearly two years by the
Republicans and the special interests, the oil industry, the health insurance
industry, the banks and their allies.

We're out there. Our members are great articulate spokespersons for
their point of view into their districts. And district by district we feel very
confident about the election. And we believe that six weeks from today, six weeks from Wednesday of this week we will have no regrets but instead we will
have a great Democratic victory

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2010/09/21/130027010/nancy-pelosi-momentum-is-with-us

Healthcare in the courts.

The fate of the new healthcare law in the courts is of enormous importance. If it is found constitutional, we will have precedent that says the congress of the United States has unlimited power over its citizens and will in effect nullify the Tenth Amendment

The lawsuits—more than 15 so far—argue that Congress has no such power. Last
month, federal district Judge Henry Hudson, of Richmond, Va., rejected a Justice
Department motion to dismiss a similar suit by Virginia's attorney general. But
some leading legal experts, especially defenders of the new law, confidently
predict that if any federal appeals court strikes it down, the Supreme Court
will step in to uphold it, with some predicting a margin as lopsided as 8 to
1. Critics of the law's constitutionality scoff at such predictions. They're
confident that they'll get at least the four conservative justices' votes and
that they have a good shot at swing-voting Justice Anthony Kennedy. Nobody seems to doubt that the four more liberal justices will support the new law. They
appear to see Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce as virtually
unlimited, except by the Bill of Rights and other specific constitutional
amendments.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/20/will-the-supreme-court-strike-down-health-care-reform.html

Poll Watch - Hope for the Dems?

Both the Real Clear Politics Congressional Generic average and the new Gallup
track show similar national trend lines - Dems gaining ground, GOP
dropping. Similarly, the Gallup track has Obama's approval rating improving by 10 net percentage points in the past month, from 42/51 to 47/46 (RCP has shown movement despite 2 clear outlier Rasmussen and AP polls).

http://ndn.org/blog/2010/09/poll-watch-hope-dems

This may or may not mean something. It is impossible to plot a trend from a single point as this article seems to want to do. We need to watch to see what happens in the next few weeks to see if there is anything to this.

Electoral College

And so the dominoes continue to fall. The D.C. Council yesterday approved
the National Popular Vote plan that has been pending before several state
legislatures. D.C.’s approval comes less than two months after Massachusetts
approved the plan.

Two procedural steps remain before NPV is officially enacted in D.C.: The mayor must sign the legislation and Congress has 30 days to review it. If these two hurdles are overcome, then D.C.’s approval will bring the total number of entities supporting the bill to seven: Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington. These six states and D.C. together hold 76 electoral votes. NPV goes into effect when states holding 270 electoral votes are committed to the pact.

I posted this because it appears to me to be another bad idea by the Democrats that most likely will come back to bite them on the butt in the future. Much like independent prosecutors this is a law they like because it would have given them the presidency in 2000, but they will hate it if and when it adversely affects them. Small states would do well to avoid approving this since the Electoral College gives them better representation.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/247368/electoral-college-takes-another-hit-tara-ross
Paul Ryan on Casey’s ‘Non-Solution’
September 22, 2010 10:00 A.M.

Here is an excellent look at what will happen if we continue with the economic course the Democrats have put us on.

I appreciate Senator Casey’s effort to contrast my invitation for solutions
with his non-solution to exacerbate our uncontrolled fiscal trajectory, standing
idle with icy indifference as the social safety net implodes. Senator
Casey’s “do-nothing but demagogue” plan will result in painful austerity:
job-killing tax hikes; deep cuts to current seniors; and a debt-driven economic
crisis. I put forward a plan for prosperity — a proposal that makes no
changes for Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries in and near retirement,
and offers future retirees — those now 54 and younger — the same health and
retirement security options that he himself enjoys as a Member of Congress.
My Roadmap protects and strengthens these critical programs for
current and future retirees, lifts our crushing burden of debt, and restarts the
engine of economic growth and job creation. I will continue to call upon
my colleagues — including Senator Casey — to accept the invitation to offer
solutions of their own so we can get on with the business of meeting our most
pressing fiscal and economic challenges.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/247365/paul-ryan-caseys-non-solution-kathryn-jean-lopez


UK Proposes All Paychecks Go to the State First

Here’s what happens when liberals need more of your money

The UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all
employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.

That sounds pretty farfetched, but 30 years ago gay marriage, cap and trade, amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants, etc. also would have sounded crazy.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39265847/

Black Panther case roars back to life

It appears there is more than a little hanky panky going on in the Obama Justice Department.
Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights, is in big trouble.

Much more can and will be said about the gold mine of information unearthed
by Judicial Watch, which continues to press for the release of more documents.
For now, this much is clear: The department's claim that political appointees
were not involved in the case appears to be false. If so, Mr. Perez should be
held to account for his sworn statements to the contrary.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/20/black-panther-case-roars-back-to-life/print/

Liberals becoming more disenchanted with Democrats, USA Today/Gallup poll finds

Ominously for Democrats, the poll shows they are facing a problem from key elements in their base, those who define themselves as liberal or very liberal. A year ago, an absolute majority of the very liberal and close to half of the liberals approved of Congress, but now a majority disapproves.Though Democrats tend to enjoy an enrollment edge over Republicans, GOP voters tend to be more enthusiastic and more likely to vote, according to most polls. That is especially true this year, when conservative candidates have ridden the popular discontent and anger to capture GOP nominations in half a dozen states. Democrats have yet to offset that "tea party" movement enthusiasm edge.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-congress-liberal-disapproval-20100921,0,5295847.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fpolitics+%28L.A.+Times+-+Politics%29

Economists: Extend Bush tax cuts for everyone

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- With income tax rates set to go up on Dec.
31, Congress is hotly debating what to do next. But most economists agree: Keep
them where they are.

One option, to let the tax cuts passed during the Bush
administration expire for only the richest 3% of taxpayers while renewing them
for everyone else, is popular among Democrats and the choice of the Obama
administration.

But a majority of a panel of leading economists surveyed by
CNNMoney.com said that the tax cuts should be renewed for everyone.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/19/news/economy/what_to_do_economists_survey/


American Media vs the Arab Street

Here's a fact you're not likely to see on tonight's evening news broadcasts: According to a recent poll, Arabs living abroad are more likely to be opposed to the "Ground Zero Mosque" than the American media are.

According to a recent survey by the Arabic online news service Elaph
(Arabic version here), 58 percent of Arabs think the construction should be moved elsewhere. And according to a Media Research Center study released last week, 55 percent of network news coverage of the debate has come down on the pro-Mosque side.

The MRC study also found that on the question of whether opposition
to the mosque demonstrated a widely held "Islamophobia" among Americans, 93
percent of network news soundbites answered ion the affirmative. In
contrast, when asked whether the United States is a "tolerant" or
"bigoted" society, 63 percent of Elaph respondents chose the
former.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/lachlan-markay/2010/09/20/survey-shows-arabs-more-opposed-gz-mosque-american-media#ixzz109cRiqTA

Sarah Palin more in touch with real voters than Obama

Fifty-two percent (52%) of Likely U.S. Voters say their own views are
closer to Sarah Palin’s than they are to President Obama’s, according to a new
Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Just 40% say their views are closer to the president’s than to
those of the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential
candidate.

Among the Political Class, however, 68% say their views are
more like Obama’s, while 63% of Mainstream voters describe their views as more
like Palin’s.

With the Democrats and Obama you have slick packaging which the MSM has touted over and over again. The problem is the dogs don’t like the dog food. With Sarah Palin you have the opposite case. The MSM has absolutely castigated her, yet her message hits home with a majority of Americans. So they don’t like the package, but they do like the dog food.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/september_2010/52_of_voters_say_their_views_are_more_like_palin_s_than_obama_s

The TEA Party Challenge

There is a lot of chatter these days about the effect of the Tea Party movement on American politics. In the short term, the answer is blindingly obvious: It’s a huge boost for Republicans. The energy and enthusiasm the Tea Party movement is generating will work for GOP candidates and against Democratic candidates in almost every race in the country. Democrats are on course to be administered an epic defeat, one that will exceed, perhaps by a sizeable margin, even the one they experienced in 1994.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/wehner/360166

Healthcare under the Republicans

For starters, Republicans say they will try to withhold money that
federal officials need to administer and enforce the law. They know that even if
they managed to pass a wholesale repeal, Mr. Obama would veto it.

“They’ll get not one dime from us,” the House Republican leader, John
A. Boehner of Ohio, told The Cincinnati Enquirer recently. “Not a
dime. There is no fixing this.”

Republicans also intend to go after specific provisions. Senator Orrin
G. Hatch of Utah, a senior Republican on the Finance Committee, has
introduced a bill that would eliminate a linchpin of the new law: a requirement
for many employers to offer insurance to employees or pay a tax penalty. Many
Republicans also want to repeal the law’s requirement for most Americans to
obtain health insurance.

Alternatively, Republicans say, they will try to prevent aggressive
enforcement of the requirements by limiting money available to the Internal
Revenue Service, which would collect the tax penalties.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/health/policy/21repeal.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

And now the end is near…..

Senior Democrats are reluctantly concluding that it's time to hit the
panic button. They understand that it's not a characteristic of a tsunami to
make a U-turn, and the hour is growing late.

Cautious Republicans are rightly wary of "peaking too soon," which
haunts the dreams and wishes of every candidate and campaign consultant, but the tsunami seems to be still building, already capable of crushing everything in
its path. You could get testimony to this from both Republicans and
Democrats.

Suddenly it's fashionable in certain skeptical precincts to start being nicer about the "tea party."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/20/pruden-a-wave-of-rage-with-no-u-turn/

Not what the Democrats were hoping for

Republican Joe Miller has opened up a commanding lead in the Alaska
Senate race, even with defeated Republican Lisa Murkowski joining the contest,
according to a new Rasmussen poll. Some Republicans had feared that
Murkowski's decision to launch a write-in bid would split the GOP vote, paving
the way for Democrat Scott McAdams to squeak by with a victory. In fact, the
poll suggests that Murkowski is actually taking more votes from the Democrat
than she is from Miller.

In the poll released this morning, Miller is the choice of 42
percent of Alaskans polled, Murkowski is at 27 percent, and McAdams is at 25
percent. In a two-way poll taken at the end of August, Miller was at 50
percent and McAdams was at 44 percent.

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/09/21/rasmussen-miller-has-double-di

Unemployment rose in 27 states last month

Most of the decline was due to the loss of temporary census jobs

WASHINGTON — More than half of U.S. states saw their unemployment
rates rise in August, the largest number in six months, as hiring weakened
across the country.

The jobless rate increased in 27 states last month, the
Labor Department said Tuesday. It fell in 13 and was unchanged in 10 states and
Washington, D.C. That's worse than the previous month, when the rate increased
in only 14 states and fell in 18. It's also the most states to see an increase
since February.

Nevada, plagued by a vicious housing slump, reported the nation's
highest unemployment rate for the fourth straight month, at 14.4 percent. That's
a record high for the state.

The next highest rates were in Michigan, with 13.1 percent, and
California, at 12.4 percent.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39288720/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/

42 Days to Go!

Republicans Gain Ground Among Independents

A new comprehensive national survey shows that independent voters—who voted for Barack Obama by a 52%-to-44% margin in the 2008 presidential election—are now moving strongly in the direction of the Republican Party. The survey, conducted by Douglas E. Schoen LLC on behalf of Independent Women's Voice in late August, raises the possibility of a fundamental realignment of independent voters and the dominance of a more conservative electorate.

Today, independents say they lean more toward the Republican Party than the
Democratic Party, 50% to 25%, and that the Republican Party is closer to their
views by 52% to 30%. This movement comes in spite of independents' generally
negative views of the GOP—a majority of independents (54%) view the Republicans unfavorably, compared to 39% who have a favorable impression. (The poll also revealed that 48% of independents were either "sympathetic to or supporters of the tea party.")

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703904304575497762602678210.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Lots of statistics here basically showing the Democrats have lost the independents vote anyway you look at it. This is one of the big reasons November 2nd will be a nightmare if you are a supporter of Obama and the Democrat Party.

67% of Political Class Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction, 84% of Mainstream Disagrees

Here is an example of why there is so much anger and confusion in the election this year. The political class and the MSM keep talking about how the TEA Party is a negative for the Republicans. Yet poll after poll shows that Independents view the TEA Party favorably and the Republicans are significantly ahead of the Democrats in generic polls. This gap between the elites and the voter should bring about a tsunami this November which may change politics for the next generation.

The gap is just as big when it comes to the traditional right
direction/wrong track polling question.

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 67% of
Political Class voters believe the United States is generally heading in the
right direction. However, things look a lot different to Mainstream Americans.
Among these voters, 84% say the country has gotten off on the wrong
track.

“The American people don’t want to be governed from the left, the right
or the center. The American people want to govern themselves," says Scott
Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. “The American attachment to
self-governance runs deep. It is one of our nation’s cherished core values and
an important part of our cultural DNA.”

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/august_2010/67_of_political_class_say_u_s_heading_in_right_direction_84_of_mainstream_disagrees

Federal Pay Still Inflated After Accounting for Skills

From the Heritage Foundation

The Heritage Foundation has conducted two separate studies that both
reach the same conclusion: Federal employees are paid substantially more than
comparably skilled private sector workers. Defenders of the federal pay system,
including the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), have mischaracterized
The Heritage Foundation's analyses by suggesting they ignore skill differences
between the public and private sectors, resulting in an "apples to oranges"
comparison. On the contrary, Heritage has carefully accounted for skill
differences, always comparing apples to apples.




While federal employees do earn more partially because they are more
skilled than the average private sector worker, controlling for skills does not
eliminate the federal pay premium. Depending on the methodology employed, the
average federal employee receives as much as 22 percent more in wages than an
equally skilled private sector worker. Including both wages and benefits,
overpaying federal workers costs taxpayers approximately $40–50 billion per
year.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703376504575491861627732550.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTSecondBucket

Somehow when I read the story above I’m reminded of Jack Nicolson’s speech in the movie “A Few Good Men.” When he said, “I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it. I prefer you said thank you, and went on your way,” Do you get the feeling that is what the public unions think?

The TEA Party from A to Z

What would we do without the Tea Party? For well over a year, this
rollicking muster of citizens—mocked and feared in equal measure by the
Democrats and, indeed, by many Republicans—have offered more than just
whizz-bang political entertainment. Starting out as a loose-knit posse of loudly
disaffected conservatives, the movement has become better organized and
improbably daring; in fact, it is now a full-blown political uprising. As we gird our national loins for the mid-term elections in November, here is a brisk primer on the movement.

A is for anger, the jet-fuel of a movement that Nancy Pelosi, in a rare moment of wit, pooh-poohed as Astroturf (i.e., not grassroots). …..

B is for Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart, the two gaudiest Tea Partiers in the American media, and for Scott Brown, the Massachusetts senator whose astonishing election to Ted Kennedy’s seat in February was the earliest indication that the Tea Party amounted to more than just a rabble …..

Y is for young, which Tea Partiers are not. A NYT
poll found that 75% of Tea Partiers are over 45, 29% over 64, and only 7% under
30 years of age. One thing the movement’s members tend to have in common,
irrespective of age, is a petit-bourgeois fondness for yard signs. My favorite:
“Remember, November 2, 2010: Take Out the Garbage.”

Z is for the zeitgeist, which in our unhappy nation at present happens to mean,
alas—on both left and right—zero tolerance for views with which we
disagree.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-18/tea-party-an-a-z-guide-to-a-militant-movement/3/

Kind of a fun read.

The end of the Pelosi Era?

The Washington Post's Paul Kane and Karen Tumulty have a big story this morning about Democrats fleeing the speaker:

Democrats from a number of states, including Texas, Ohio and North Carolina,
are running away from Pelosi in a harsh political climate. Distancing one's self
from the speaker is nothing new for many Democrats, including [Rep. Chet]
Edwards, but the number of incumbents criticizing the party House leader is
larger than it has been in past election cycles—and the volume of their
criticism is louder.More than a few Democrats have said they are wavering on
supporting Pelosi as their leader next year. At least four House Democrats are
running ads stating their opposition to the speaker's agenda, and one Democrat
running in Tennessee called for her resignation.

Everything is going south for the Democrats. Much like Napoleon’s grand armee it appears the Democrats got too ambitious and went too far left. The results for Napoleon was Of the 690,000 men that comprised the initial invasion force of Russia, only 93,000 survived.

http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/09/20/the-end-of-the-nancy-pelosi-era.html

Don’t the rubes know the recession is over?

WASHINGTON – The longest recession the country has endured since the
Great Depression ended in June 2009, a group that dates the beginning and end of
recessions declared Monday. The NBER, a panel of academic economists based
in Cambridge, Mass., said the recession lasted 18 months. It started in December
2007 and ended in June 2009. Previously the longest post World War II downturns
were those in 1973-1975 and in 1981-1982. Both of those lasted 16 months.


The four quarters since they said the recession ended growth rates


1.6 5.0 3.7 1.6


The four quarter since they said the recession ended growth rates
for Reagan’s recession


0.3 5.1 9.3 8.1

So the recession may be over, but it sure doesn’t feel like it.

Even Chris Matthews knows the difference between a tax cut and a government check.

“I have one small tweak to make to what the president said today -- he
should stop saying that giving people tax cuts is giving people money. It`s
their money! A tax cut is when the government doesn`t take our money. It`s an
important distinction.


He talked today, for example, about people getting a check from the
government in the form of a tax cut. That`s not the way it works. If tax rates
are kept lower, it`s a matter of the check going to the government being
smaller. Again, it`s an important distinction.”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/09/20/matthews-scolds-obama-stop-saying-cutting-taxes-giving-people-money-its-their-money#ixzz109CwBghO