Obama a partisan?

What We Learned from Obama's Rolling Stone Interview

He's a hyper-partisan.

Earlier this week, Rolling stone published an extensive interviews with President Obama in which the commander in chief went after his Republican opponents with notable venom. The interview sadly confirms what many
of us have long known: President Obama's transformation from post-partisan
healer to hyper-partisan attack dog is complete. Why has this happened?
Certainly, even those most skeptical of President Obama in January 2009 would
have been a little surprised to read an interview that drips with contempt for
so many of the president's fellow citizens. Was President Obama always like
this, and just hid his partisan side very well during the campaign, or is this a
new attitude?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-democrat

Peggy Noonan nails what’s going on with the Democrats

Everyone talks about the tensions between the Republican establishment, such as it is, and the tea-party-leaning parts of its base. But are you looking at what's happening with the Democrats?

Tensions between President Obama and his supporters tore into the open
this week as never before, signifying a real and developing fracturing of his
party. Mr. Obama, in an interview in Rolling Stone, aimed fire at those
abandoning him: "It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to
stand on the sidelines in this midterm election." The Democratic base "sitting
on their hands complaining" is "just irresponsible. . . . We have to
get folks off the sidelines. People need to shake off this lethargy, people need
to buck up. Bringing about change is hard—that's what I said during the
campaign. . . . But if people now want to take their ball and go home,
that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place."

At first I thought this was another example of the president's
now-habitual political ineptness, his off-key-ness. You don't diss people into
voting for you, you can't lecture them into love. The response from the left was
fierce, unapologetic—and accusatory. Mr. Obama had let them down, he'd taken
half measures. "Stop living in that bubble," shot back an activist on cable. But
Jane Hamsher of the leftist blog Firedoglake saw method, not madness. She
described the president's remarks as "hippie punching" and laid them to cynical
strategy: "It's about setting up a narrative for who will take the blame for a
disastrous election." She said Mr. Obama's comments themselves could "depress
turnout."

Take the blame? Disastrous? Setting up a narrative?

This isn't the language of disagreement, the classic to-and-fro
between a restive base and politicians who make compromises. This is the
language of estrangement. It is the language of alienation.

There is a war beginning in the Democratic Party, and the president
has lost control of his base

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524340160716872.html

10 Senate Seats the GOP is Likely to Win

Instead of the wilderness years, it’s been the wilderness months for
Republicans.

The conventional wisdom in the political community is that
Republicans will probably win the House in the midterm election but fall short
of capturing the Senate. Maybe, but Republicans have at least a 50-50 shot
at taking the Senate, too.

My estimate for Republican pickups is 60 in the House and 10 in the Senate. Not a bad haul for a party that was supposed to be in the wilderness for a decade or more. Instead of the wilderness years, it’s been the wilderness months for Republicans.

I’ve given you the first and last paragraph of this story. To find out which 10 Barnes thinks the Republicans can win read about it here.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/10-senate-seats-gop-likely-win

McMahon Pulls Even With Blumenthal, Faces Blistering Attack From National Dems

Former WWE CEO Linda McMahon's sudden surge against the once-invincible Dick Blumenthal in the Connecticut Senate race has put Blumenthal, the Democratic
state attorney general, on the ropes and bolstered Republican hopes of taking
control of the upper chamber.

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday shows Blumenthal leads McMahon by just 3 percentage points, erasing the 41-point lead he held in January. And the reliable Cook Political Report has deemed the race up for grabs.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/30/mcmahon-pulls-blumenthal-faces-blistering-attack-national-dems/

This is a good demonstration of the wave type of election 2010 appears to be developing into. When Chris Dodd (who was in serious trouble with the voters) decided not to run again, the Democrats had a collective sigh of relief as Dick Blumenthal threw his hat into the ring. As the story points out he was 41 points ahead. But since that time the landscape as turned bad for the Democrats.

Looking at the Real Clear Politic Senate numbers we see what was once consider safe seats either now up for grabs or actually in the lean or likely Republican column. In the House, if you look at the Democrat and Republican seats that aren’t considered safe seats, you have 117 democrat seats and 16 Republican seats.