"Mark my words - tomorrow is the game changer! Tune in to hear common sense solutions that bury the false accusations that conscientious members of Congress have no solutions to meet America's health care challenges.
If you're like me, shaking your head wondering why all the miscommunication between Washington and the American people who have been saying, "Please hear what we're saying about our desire for health care reform," then tomorrow will be a refreshing time of clarity for all.
All Americans, and especially colleagues of House Republican Leader John Boehner: please listen to tomorrow's weekly GOP national address. Rep. Boehner will highlight a common sense alternative to Speaker Pelosi's 1,990-page government takeover of health care. I urge you to watch for it. For a preview, go to: http://HealthCare.GOP.gov
You'll hear solutions. You'll hear of real choices based on America's proven free-market principles. You'll know once and for all what the GOP and Independents have been saying all along about alternatives to another big government take over. After tomorrow, you'll know that accusations against the GOP and Independents for not providing solutions are false. Those claims are bogus. There are alternatives. Tune in to Rep. Boehner's address tomorrow to hear them.
(Zogby).A poll of 1,093 likely New Jersey voters finds incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine leading Republican challenger Chris Christie by one percentage point (40% to 39%) headed into next Tuesday's general election.
Both Corzine and Christie's bases are holding strong with Corzine's support among Democrats at 71%, yet low for an incumbent; while Christie's Republican support is slightly higher at 77%. The survey showed that likely voters who are independent or unaffiliated are more likely to support Christie (39%) than Cozine (26%), even in this traditionally blue state.
"Less than a week from the election, only a third of likely voters (34%) say they would like to see Governor Corzine reelected," said Hughes Center Executive Director Sharon Schulman. "The majority (59%) want someone new, including 30% of likely Democratic voters and 70% of Independents and unaffiliated voters."
(Newsmax).Sen. John McCain says Americans are in the toughest times he can remember and that President Barack Obama hasn't brought the change in Washington that he promised.
McCain spoke at a town hall Friday to a couple hundred people in a Mesa, Ariz., church, reiterating many of the same points he's made in recent similar events.
McCain criticized Democrats' plan to create a government-run insurance option to compete with private companies and expensive pet projects by individual lawmakers.
McCain says everyone in the audience must know someone who has lost their home or job, adding that "Americans are angry and have every reason to be."
One audience member shouted back, "You bet we are!"
"Well I want him out there all the time, the less governing he does, and the more campaigning he does, the better it is for the country.
He's the best we've ever had out there in speeches, he dazzles, he mesmerizing, co-ed's swoon when he speaks, let the governing be in the hands of John McCain he can foreign affairs and budget cutting and it would be a great Adam Smith division of Labor"
(Fox News).Nearly a year after Barack Obama was elected president, Americans are divided over his performance.
According to a FOX News poll released Thursday, views are split over whether the president is meeting expectations and keeping promises — and if the country is better off under his administration.
Nearly half of Americans — 48 percent — say President Obama is meeting or exceeding expectations, down from 66 percent who thought so in March. At the same time, nearly half — 47 percent — say he is falling below their expectations — twice the number (23 percent) who thought his performance was sub par when polled in March 2009.
Forty-four percent of Americans say Obama is keeping more promises than he is breaking. Almost as many — 39 percent — think the president is breaking more promises.
Half of Americans approve of the overall job Obama is doing and 41 percent disapprove.
Fifty-six percent of voters are satisfied with what Obama has accomplished so far, down from 69 percent in April. Nearly all Democrats are satisfied (90 percent), as are over half of independents (55 percent) and 19 percent of Republicans.
While 42 percent of Americans think the country is better off today than it was a year ago, 43 percent say the country is worse off.
The poll results show a significant partisan divide. Seventy percent of Democrats think the country is better off today, while 72 percent of Republicans say things are worse. Independents are nearly evenly divided with 40 percent saying it's "better off" and 41 percent saying it's "worse off."
In addition, more people say they personally are worse off financially (41 percent) than say they are better off compared to last year (27 percent). One-third of Americans say their financial situation hasn't changed (33 percent).
By a wide 58 percent to 18 percent margin, the public continues to blame former President George W. Bush for the current state of the economy rather than Obama.
On the effectiveness of the economic stimulus and spending plan, sentiments are evenly split — 48 percent think it has been effective, while 50 percent disagree.
A new survey from Neighborhood Research (R) shows that Republican Chris Christie has pulled ahead as voters are breaking late from the undecided column toward the challenger.
General Election Matchup Christie 42 (+6 vs. last poll, 10/6-8) Corzine 35 (unch) Daggett 8 (-3) Undecided 15 (-3)
The survey of 341 voters determined to be "definite" or "very likely" to show up on Election Day was conducted October 27-29. Among just "definite" voters, Christie leads 44-35, which would show that Corzine needs still to motivate his base to turn out. Neighborhood Research's Rick Shaftan states in his polling memo that a visit by President Obama is not having the intended result.
"Christie's lead grew in each of the three days of the survey and could grow bigger if the Obama visit for Corzine, as we expect, backfires and galvanizes conservative support for Christie," he writes.
Shaftan, who ran the campaign of conservative Steve Lonegan in the GOP primary, adds that the Corzine campaign's attacks portraying Christie as an arch-conservative is also backfiring.
"All the movement has been in Christie's direction and the shift has been most pronounced with conservatives and voters in Northwestern New Jersey, the one section of the state Christie had underperformed," he adds.
Republican Chris Christie continues to hold a three-point advantage over incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine in New Jersey's down-to-the-wire race for governor.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state, conducted Thursday night, shows Christie with 46% of the vote and Corzine with 43%. Those numbers are unchanged from earlier in the week and little changed from polling conducted the week before.
The last four Rasmussen Reports polls have shown Christie with a very slight advantage ranging from two to four percentage points each time. Christie now leads by eight points among men while Corzine is up by two among women.
Christie leads by seven points among those who are certain they will show up and vote.
“The American people have spoken. Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have ignored them. Through the month of August, the American people let Members of Congress from both parties know that they didn’t want a government takeover of health care. That hasn’t changed.
“But instead of listening to the American people, Democrats hid behind closed doors and came back with a bill designed to appease the liberal special interests. Three things about Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill are already clear: it will raise the cost of Americans’ health insurance premiums; it will kill jobs with tax hikes and new mandates; and it will cut seniors’ Medicare benefits. The fact that it weighs in at nearly 2,000 pages – more than 620 pages longer than the government takeover of health care Hillary Clinton proposed in 1993 – is as good an indication as any of just how costly and unsustainable Speaker Pelosi’s proposal is.
“There is a better way. Republicans have offered solutions to lower health care costs and expand access at a cost our nation can afford. You can read about them at healthcare.gop.gov. Democrats need to listen to the American people, and work with us on the real reforms families want and need."
(jerseynut.blogspot.com).Yeah, so we've heard about Corzine's late "surge" that is supposed to push him over the top on election day, as a few polls that came out earlier this week showed him with a small lead. But guess what? I think The Beard has peaked a bit early; because as voters go to the polls on Tuesday, they'll be a few things bouncing around their heads:
-Corzine's comment to the New York Times about reviving a project that most New Jersey residents were virulently opposed to - leasing the New Jersey Turnpike to raise cash - could turn out to be a major gaffe. Christie, while campaigning in Hamilton Township, exploited it nicely by telling the assembled townfolk they might face the prospect of tolls being imposed on interstates 195 and 295, both of which serve the town. It also reminds Jersey voters of the imperial "I'll do what I want" attitude of Corzine, as well as his general disdain of the electorate's wishes.
-Yeah, Corzine's been bringing Obama to town. Big deal. You can see that assclown on TV any time you flip it on. Christie's got Rudy Giuliani around this weekend, and he's that rare Republican that New Jerseyans - especially independents - like and respect, not just for his 9/11 moment, but for the way he rebuilt NYC from the ashes of liberal ruin.
-Will Pelosi's release of the 2,000-page health care bill be a "poison pill" for Jon Corzine? The planned government takeover of America's health-care sector costs over $1 trillion dollars, including $700 billion in new taxes and $420 billion in Medicare cuts. With this Halloween horror show coming down the 'Pike, will voters pause before flipping the switch next to Corzine, who has refused to rule out raising state taxes further in his second term?
Christie has got to - got to - hammer home the additional tax burden (and toll burden!) that faces New Jersey residents over the next four years of Obama/Corzine. They say people vote with their wallets; Christie needs to point out whose fingerprints are going to be all over them until 2013.
The news cycle has given the Christie campaign a late break. Let's hope - for all our sake's - he uses it to maximum advantage...
(POLITICO 44).Chris Christie, New Jersey’s Republican nominee for governor, said Thursday that Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine should quit hinting at his weight with unflattering ads and “man up and say I’m fat.”
Christie declared that he will be “a big fat winner” on Election Day in an interview on Don Imus’s New York-based radio show Thursday morning in which the former U.S. Attorney repeatedly mentioned his weight.
“I’m pretty fat Don,” Christie declared.
“You weigh?” Imus asked.
“550 pounds,” Christie jokingly responded.
The Republican nominee’s weight became an issue in September when Corzine launched a television ad that closes with a shot of Christie slowly stepping out of a car. Earlier in the ad, Christie is accused of “throwing his weight around” to get out of a traffic ticket stemming from a car accident that injured a motorcyclist.
Corzine surrogates have also frequently hinted at Christie’s weight, and when asked if he thinks Christie is fat during an editorial board meeting earlier this month with the Press of Atlantic City, the bald governor responded: “Am I bald?”
Asked about the television ad, Christie said it was “just silly” and “beneath the office” Corzine holds.
“If you’re going to do it, at least man up and say I’m fat,” he said. “Afterwards he wusses out and says ‘no, no, no. I didn’t mean that I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Man up. If you say I’m fat, I’m fat. Let’s go. Let’s talk about it.”
Imus later joked that even though many of New Jersey voters are overweight, Christie should be setting a better example.
“I am setting an example Don,” Christie responded. “We have to spur our economy. Dunkin Donuts, International House of Pancakes, those people need to work too.”
(CNN) – Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele isn't predicting victory yet in the Virginia and New Jersey governor's races, but in Virginia - a race Republicans look poised to win - he sees a "blueprint" for GOP success in 2010.
"You dont win until the last vote is counted," Steele told CNN by phone during a campaign swing in southern Virginia with Republican candidate Bob McDonnell. "We failed in the past by assuming too much. The only thing I am assuming is there is much more to do."
Steele said that while Virginia and New Jersey are very different states requiring different "messaging styles," the gubernatorial races have provided the RNC with a way to "test the waters" before next year's midterm elections. He said the party has been trying out new strategies in both races "in terms of resources we put on the ground, in providing ground support or air support, on the Internet, on television, phones, things like that."
As McDonnell has surged to a lead in Virginia polls over his Democratic rival Creigh Deeds, national Republicans have described his campaign - in which he focused on job creation and downplayed his conservative positions on social issues - as a blueprint for future GOP victories. Asked what specifically in McDonnell's approach represents a way forward for the party, Steele praised the Republican for focusing on issues relevant to middle-class voters while staying true to conservative economic principles.
"If you have just lost your home, are you going to pin someone down on where they are on social issues not relevant to you getting your home back?," Steele asked. "Candidates have to understand what people are valuing at the moment. They don't need to go around and beat their chests about social issues. The liberal media would like us to do that, the Washington Post would like us to do that, but the people don't. The blueprint is one of talking about who you are and what you believe and making it relevant to people."
"All the rest of the issues take care of themselves in time," he said. "Right now America is focused on the economy."
(Rasmussen).Republican Robert F. McDonnell has now opened a 13-point lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds with less than a week to go in the race for governor of Virginia.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state - taken last night just after President Obama made a campaign appearance for Deeds in the state - shows McDonnell ahead 54% to 41%. Only four percent (4%) remain undecided.
Earlier this month, McDonnell led by seven, and last month he was up by nine.
The Deeds campaign and the White House have gone back-and-forth over whether the president should make a campaign appearance in the state. The initial reaction from Virginia voters to the president's campaign stop with Deeds late yesterday in Norfolk isn't reassuring: 39% say Obama campaigning for Deeds in Virginia makes them less likely to vote for the Democratic candidate. Just 24% say it makes them more likely to vote for Deeds, and 36% say it has no impact on their voting decision.
Among those likely to vote, 49% approve of the way Obama has handled his job as president. That’s down four points from earlier in the month.
McDonnell is overwhelmingly trusted more than Deeds on both taxes and government spending. On the transportation issue, 45% trust McDonnell while 35% trust Deeds.
Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters in the state have a favorable view of McDonnell, up three points from earlier in the month and up nine points from last month.
Deeds is viewed favorably by 47%, a number that has been holding stable.
(AP).A Virginia Commonwealth University poll shows Republican Bob McDonnell leading Democrat Creigh (CREE) Deeds by landslide proportions in the governor's race.
The poll was released Wednesday. The 18-point margin is wider than two other polls within the past week that placed McDonnell's lead at 11 percentage points or less.
The survey of 625 likely voters showed 54 percent backed or leaned toward McDonnell, while 36 percent supported Deeds. Eleven percent were undecided.
The results among likely voters have a sampling error margin of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
The poll was conducted in telephone interviews with respondents statewide Oct. 21-25.
(The Virginian-Pilot).Former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney began a multicity swing through Virginia with Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell this afternoon at the Westin Hotel in Virginia Beach.
Romney spoke at a news conference and a fundraising luncheon.
He urged the audience of about 300 to support McDonnell and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, saying Virginia plays a significant part in national politics. Though polls show the Republican candidates with a commanding lead over Democrats Creigh Deeds and Jody Wagner, Romney cautioned against overconfidence.
(Wesley Pruden-Washingtontimes).This is one Mr. Deeds who apparently isn't going to town. The collapse of the Democratic campaign for governor of Virginia speaks volumes - chapters, anyway - about what the body politic is trying to tell Barack Obama's Democrats.
They're learning, painfully, that campaigning without George W. Bush is baffling, frustrating and scary. Worse, it offers a preview of what the congressional campaigning will be like next year. One Obama doorbell ringer, working neighborhoods in Northern Virginia for Creigh Deeds, says even the promise of free pizza can't lure faithful Democrats to a rally.
For weeks, The Washington Post, the house organ of the national Democratic Party, pounded away at Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee, for having written politically incorrect term papers in graduate school, citing his master's thesis, which decried abortion, gender-bending and radical feminism, as proof that he doesn't like women very much.
Only a month ago, Mr. Deeds, the Post's horse in the race, wouldn't talk about anything but the McDonnell graduate-school thesis - maybe a boon to master's and doctoral candidates who can't get anybody but a professor to read their wit and wisdom, but, as it turns out, a bore to voters in Virginia. The public-opinion polls continue to show Mr. McDonnell ahead, despite all the Post's ineffective deeds, and with a lengthening lead.
Suddenly, the White House is treating the bereft Mr. Deeds as if he's on the fourth day of a three-day underarm deodorant pad. Bill Clinton, accustomed to speaking to cheering thousands at a hundred grand a pop, was dispatched the other night to a Deeds rally to set the throng on fire with one of his late-October stumpwallopers. The rally, such as it was, was held not at an arena or a hotel - not even a Motel 6 - but in a campaign office in the Washington suburbs. The "throng" was counted in the dozens, about the size of a PTA meeting. Not even Bubba could dispel the gloom of a wake.
"These polls are either accurate, or they're not," he said, delivering an insight worthy of a Harvard political science professor. "So are the polls right? The answer is yes, no, and maybe." But what else could he say? Dispatched for mortuary duty, Bubba could only sympathize with the preacher called on to say something nice over the grave of the town bootlegger.
Barack Obama himself is offering the mere minimum of presidential support over the past seven days of the campaign, just mailing it in (even if delivering the mail in person). He'll make one last appearance with Mr. Deeds this week in Tidewater. Meanwhile, back in Washington, the president's political aides continue to dish the obsequies over a doomed candidate while pretending to pray for a miracle. So far no one has invoked Harry Truman, patron saint of doomed candidates, but there's still a week to go.
Mr. Deeds' friends are bitter about the anonymous voices peddling the discouraging word from the White House. "These 'anonymous voices' have decided those hard-working [down-ballot candidates] are just collateral damage in their effort to tell the world that if [Mr.] Deeds doesn't win, it is because he ignored advice," Paul Goldman, a former chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, tells Politico, the Washington politics daily. "This isn't change we can believe in, but the same old, same old we voted out of office. Do they really believe their attempts to shield the president from blame is going to distract [Mr.] Obama's critics, much less change the arc of today's politics?"
Of course it won't, and that's what makes the Virginia race so scary for the president's men. Voters will use whatever club is available to "send a message," and sometimes, as any number of pols could tell you, the club is big, rough and means businesss.
(Washingtonpost). After nine months of being nearly invisible -- a big outing has been to a Dallas hardware store for flashlights -- George W. Bush debuted in his latest incarnation: motivational speaker.
Nearly 15,000 people heard the former president, known more for mangling the English language than for his eloquence, reminisce this week about his White House days. Bush, who is writing a book about the dozen toughest decisions he had to make, used much of his 28 minutes onstage to talk about lighter topics, such as picking out a rug design for the Oval Office that reflected his "optimism."
Looking relaxed and younger than his 63 years, he didn't appear to have an overarching theme, and instead strung together anecdotes and jokes and frequently mentioned his faith in God.
"I don't see how you can be president without relying on the Almighty. Now, when I was 21 I wouldn't have told you that, but at age 63, I can tell you that one of the most amazing surprises of the presidency was the fact that people's prayers affected me. I can't prove it to you. But I can tell you some days were great, some days not so great. But every day was joyous."
His speech came after the crowd at the "Get Motivated!" seminar stood up and danced to the Beach Boys song "Surfin' USA" and batted around beach balls tossed into the audience.
Many people interviewed afterward said they liked Bush, perhaps even because he wasn't the best speaker of the day. He could have said a thesaurus was a big scaly creature that roamed the planet millions of years ago and they would have applauded.
His most memorable story, one after another said, was about Barney, his Scottie:
Mindful of his new neighbors, who have had to endure as many as 650 people a day gawking at the ex-president's new house on a cul-de-sac, Bush said, he took Barney for a walk with plastic bag in hand to scoop poop. That was a moment, he said, when he realized that "man, my life has changed!"
"He is just a normal guy! He wasn't the best speaker. But I was happy to see him!" said Lubbock salesman Patrick Kruger, 50.
"I kept looking for a teleprompter, but I didn't see one," said Joanne Ryan, 35, a financial advisor in the audience who added, "I know the media makes him out to be an idiot," but he seemed genuine and "down-home."
Ryan said Bush seemed more comfortable speaking now than he did as president.
In the crowd of real estate agents in suits, housewives in jeans, students and senior citizens, Chris Clarke, 25, a salesman from Dallas, stood at the back. Like many people, he said that other speakers were better -- Powell was his favorite -- but he thought Bush was good.
In fact, he said, it could turn out that Bush may be more suited to motivational speaking than being president. He said that when Bush misspeaks, it sounds "incompetent if you are president. But here it can be inspiring. It makes him seem like a regular guy, no better than me."
(Gulf News).An Iranian ship laden with various weapons believed to be for Al Houthi rebels was seized Monday off the Yemeni coasts of the Midi harbour in the far northern west of the country, security sources said Tuesday.
The 5-member crew, 4 Iranians and Indian, were taken immediately to the capital Sanaa for investigation.
The security sources believed that the ship was in its way to unload its weapon shipment, which includes anti-armour missiles, somewhere close to Haradh where it could be hidden in a farm before Al Houthi rebels collected them.
The Haradh area is only tens of kilometers from the western frontline of Al Malahaid.
(FOXNews).Independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman said Tuesday that he would back a Republican filibuster against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's health care reform bill if a government-backed insurance plan remains in the package.
The announcement is a blow to the Democratic leader and signals that he does not yet have the votes to advance the bill. While Reid needs just 51 votes to pass the package, he needs 60 votes to crush a filibuster.
"If the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage," Lieberman told reporters, adding that he's willing to vote to bring the bill to the floor for debate.
One week until votes are counted in Virginia, steady-as-she-goes in the contests for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. Republicans lead by at least 2 touchdowns in all 3 contests, with no consequential movement week-on-week. The governor's contest is being tracked by at least 10 public opinion polling firms, All show Republicans leading.
The latest SurveyUSA poll shows McDonnell leading deeds +17 - McDonnell 58% to Deeds 41%
(CQolitics).The National Republican Congressional Committee will announce Tuesday that nine challenger and open-seat candidates have impressed the committee enough with their early efforts to be bumped up to the next rung of the recently retooled “Young Guns” campaign program.
Young Guns is a fundraising and infrastructure system that ranks candidates on three tiers: “On the Radar,” “Contender” and “Young Guns.” No candidate has yet achieved the program’s highest ranking, but as of Tuesday nine GOP recruits will definitely be considered Contenders.
They are Montgomery City Councilwoman Martha Roby in Alabama’s 2nd District, state Rep. Cory Gardner in Colorado’s 4th district, former state Rep. Dennis Ross in Florida’s 12th District, Marine Corps veteran Vaughn Ward in Idaho’s 1st District, state Sen. Andy Harris in Maryland’s 1st District, Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta in New Hampshire’s 1st District, former Rep. Steve Pearce in New Mexico’s 2nd District, former Rep. Steve Chabot in Ohio’s 1st District and former state Sen. Steve Stivers in Ohio’s 15th District.
“The early progress of these candidates is a testament to the Young Guns program and a sign of the changing political environment that Democrats will face next year,” NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas said on Monday.
In a sign that the NRCC intends to continue to expand the Republican playing field in 2010, Sessions is also set to name 32 other challenger and open-seat candidates to “On the Radar” status Tuesday.
All of those candidates whom Sessions will name to Contender status are coming off successful fundraising quarters in which each raised more than $100,000 from June 1 to Sept. 30.
The Young Guns program was originally created by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia and fellow GOP Reps. Kevin McCarthy of California and Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin during the 2008 cycle before the NRCC adopted it as one of its marquee candidate-development tools earlier this year.
Candidates are named to the Young Guns program by meeting individualized benchmarks, which include developing grass-roots support, fundraising and creating a media plan. Those benchmarks become higher and more stringent with each level of the program.
“The goal is to make good candidates great,” McCarthy said Monday. “But also we send a message to the outside: ‘Here’s candidates that are emerging’ ” and have caught the committee’s eye.
(PPP).Chris Christie now leads Jon Corzine 42-38 in the race to be New Jersey's next Governor, a slight increase from our poll two weeks that showed his advantage at 40-39.
Chris Daggett's candidacy appears to be having a major impact on this race. His support is steady at 13% from two weeks ago but whereas before he appeared to be drawing voters away from Christie he now seems to be hurting Corzine. 44% of Daggett voters say that the incumbent is their second choice to 32% for Christie. The previous poll showed those second choice votes going to Christie by a 48-34 margin. 43% of Daggett voters are Democrats to just 9% who are Republicans.
It's clear that Christie's negative ads against Daggett have been effective and money well spent. Where his favorability rating broke down 30/24 positively two weeks ago, it's now 31/36 in a negative direction. His drop has been particularly strong with Republicans. 47% now see him unfavorably where before it was 31%.
There are several indications within the numbers that Christie is in a better position than Corzine one week out from the election. 95% of his supporters say they will definitely vote for him, compared to 79% of Corzine's. 42% of Christie's voters are very excited about voting this fall to 29% of Corzine's who express that sentiment. The comparative excitement levels could have implications for which candidate is better able to get his supporters out.
It's not enthusiasm about Christie that's drawing his voters out, but intense dislike of Corzine. 71% of Corzine's supporters say they're voting more for him than against his opponents. But among Christie voters just 49% say their motivation is to support him while 47% say they're turning out to vote against someone.
(Politico).Gingrich on Greta Van Susteren last night:
VAN SUSTEREN: All right, the 23rd congressional district in New York -- you're getting heat from Glenn Beck and others because you have endorsed the Republican candidate, and many Republicans, like Tim Pawlenty, former governor Sarah Palin -- Governor Pawlenty, former governor Sarah Palin, Steve Forbes, Dick Armey -- they've all endorsed the independent, and you're getting heat.
GINGRICH: Well, I just find it fascinating that my many friends who claim to be against Washington having too much power, they claim to be in favor of the 10th Amendment giving states back their rights, they claim to favor local control and local authority, now they suddenly get local control and local authority in upstate New York, they don't like the outcome.
There were four Republican meetings. In all four meetings, State Representative Dede Scozzafava came in first. In all four meetings, Mr. Hoffman, the independent, came in either last or certainly not in the top three. He doesn't live in the district. Dede Scozzafava...
VAN SUSTEREN: He doesn't live in the district?
GINGRICH: No, he lives outside of the district. Dede Scozzafava is endorsed by the National Rifle Association for her 2nd Amendment position, has signed the no tax increase pledge, voted against the Democratic governor's big-spending budget, is against the cap-and-trade tax increase on energy, is against the Obama health plan, and will vote for John Boehner, rather than Nancy Pelosi, to be Speaker.
Now, that's adequately conservative in an upstate New York district. And on other issues, she's about where the former Republican, McHugh, was. So I say to my many conservative friends who suddenly decided that whether they're from Minnesota or Alaska or Texas, they know more than the upstate New York Republicans? I don't think so. And I don't think it's a good precedent. And I think if this third party candidate takes away just enough votes to elect the Democrat, then we will have strengthened Nancy Pelosi by the divisiveness. We will not have strengthened the conservative movement.
VAN SUSTEREN: What is it that they have identified as why they think the independent candidate...
GINGRICH: Well, there's no question, on social policy, she's a liberal Republican.
GINGRICH: On such as abortion, gay marriage, which means that she's about where Rudy Giuliani was when he became mayor. And yet Rudy Giuliani was a great mayor. And so this idea that we're suddenly going to establish litmus tests, and all across the country, we're going to purge the party of anybody who doesn't agree with us 100 percent -- that guarantees Obama's reelection. That guarantees Pelosi is Speaker for life.I mean, I think that is a very destructive model for the Republican Party.
VAN SUSTEREN: It's sort of interesting, the names, especially former governor Sarah Palin and current governor Tim Pawlenty are sort of names that are batted around for 2012. Is this sort of positioning or moving into position, or not?
GINGRICH: Look, I have no idea. I think in the case of Governor Palin, she's clearly part of the conservative movement in a very national kind of way. The conservative movement has gotten very excited about this race, I think largely on misinformation. I think if people looked at this issue of local leadership, local control, local involvement -- the money raised in the district is overwhelmingly going to Dede Scozzafava and is not going to the independent candidate. He's getting his money from outside the district and mostly outside the state.
The fact is that on local issues, she actually knows what she's doing. He's said publicly he doesn't know what he's doing. And so you have to ask a question. If we're going to have representative government, aren't the people of upstate New York allowed to pick their candidate? In the polling data, she's clearly carrying Republicans.
VAN SUSTEREN: So let me ask the trick question. Does this mean, since you differ with Pawlenty, Palin, Forbes and Armey, that you're positioning yourself for the -- to push up (ph) that February 2011 decision earlier about running for president?
GINGRICH: ... trick question. It means that as somebody who worked with Reagan to create a majority in 1980 and somebody who worked to create a majority in 1994, I believe in a Republican Party big enough to have representation in every part of the country, and I believe you don't strengthen yourself by having a purge. You strengthen yourself by attracting more people, not by driving people away.
(Rasmussen). With just a week to go in New Jersey's closely contested race for governor, Republican Chris Christie holds a three-point advantage over incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in New Jersey show Christie with 46% of the vote and Corzine with 43%. While the margin is little changed from a week ago and the week before , the biggest news may be that support for independent candidate Chris Daggett has dropped four points to seven percent (7%). The number of undecided voters is down to four percent (4%). Christie leads by eight points among those who are certain they will show up and vote. A week ago, he was up by five among that group. Christie's supporters are also less likely to say they might consider voting for someone else.Corzine does better among voters who might not make it to the polls.
That's one reason President Obama, former President Bill Clinton and other Democratic Party luminaries are spending time in the Garden State in hopes of encouraging turnout.
(The Arena- Politico).Ron Bonjean Republican strategist :
If Bob McDonnell wins, it means that connecting with voters regarding their core concerns trumps everything else. At this point ideology plays second fiddle to real solutions that will help Americans live better lives. Bob McDonnell is paying attention to the fundamentals by addressing jobs, education and transportation while Craig Deeds is throwing mud over right wing issues. When he wins, it will serve as a national template for Republicans across the country to follow his lead.
*A WABC-TV poll conducted by SurveyUSA has the race for Governor in a statistical dead heat among likely voters: Republican Christopher Christie leads Gov. Jon Corzine 41%-39%. Christopher Daggett, one of ten independent candidates, is at 19%.
*NYT poll: Among all registered voters, Mr. Corzine had the support of 40 percent, Mr. Christie 30 percent and Mr. Daggett 13 percent. When narrowed to those determined to be likely voters, Mr. Corzine is still at 40 percent, while Mr. Christie receives 37 percent — a gap that is within the margin of sampling error — and Mr. Daggett draws 14 percent. In the last two elections for governor only 49 percent of registered voters cast ballots.
(PolitickerNJ).Pollster Patrick Murray says that the turnout model on a Suffolk University poll released this morning is based on a 93% turnout in a race where less than half of the state's registered voters will turn out. The poll, which included all twelve candidates for governor, has Gov. Jon Corzine leading Republican Christopher Christie 42%-33% among likely voters, with 7% for independent Christopher Daggett.
The full text of Murray's statement:
The Suffolk poll vote choice question is interesting in how it tries to mimic the ballot. The 7% they get for Chris Daggett does match the "hard" support for Daggett that I found in our last poll. However, there are a few things in their results that don't gibe with what other pollsters have been finding here in New Jersey.
The first issue is related to party identification. The pollster weighted their party identification question to New Jersey's voter roll's party registration. While that might work in some state's it does not correlate as well in New Jersey, as I explained in a blog post today (http://monmouthpoll.blogspot.com). Even still, this should have a minor impact on the Suffolk poll results. The vote choice split among their independent voters (35% Corzine to 31% Christie) is unlike every other New Jersey poll, which has Christie clearly ahead in this voter group. Are they catching a major voter switch? I'm not sure.
The bigger discrepancy seems to be with their likely voter model. They use a relatively easy screen ("Are you very, somewhat or not very likely to vote?"). Only those who say they are "not very likely" are excluded from the sample. Based on a conversation I had with the Suffolk pollster, 93% of registered voters made it through their likely voter screen. That's in a race where turnout is expected to be below half of all registered voters.
Normally, likely voter models have little impact, as they tend to be only a couple of points different from the results for all registered voters. However, that is not the case in this election. The Monmouth University/Gannett Poll has consistently found a larger than average divergence between the vote choice of registered voters and likely voters. There are quite a few Democratic leaning voters out there who will vote for Corzine if you put a gun to their heads and march them to the polling place, but they won't go of their own volition. Some of them will vote in the end. The question is how many. I doubt it'll anywhere near 93%.
From the NYT: "In the last two elections for governor only 49 percent of registered voters cast ballots".
In the final stretch of this critical election, the New Jersey Republican State Committee is reminding voters about Jon Corzine's record of complete failure as Governor. In this campaign, Governor Corzine has promised to double down on the failed policies of his first term and spend the next four years running New Jersey further into the ground. New Jersey can't afford another four years of Governor Corzine's failure, lost jobs, and high taxes.
#9: As Foreclosures Soared, Corzine Squeezed Homeowners With Tax Increases
The failed economic policies of the past four years have amplified and intensified the foreclosure crisis that persists throughout the state. Governor Corzine raised taxes on homeowners in the middle of a recession, and stripped property tax rebates from struggling families. While New Jersey suffers under the highest unemployment in 33 years, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, and the highest tax burden in the nation, Governor Jon Corzine wants to raise taxes even higher on the backs of already strained middle-class New Jerseyans.
Our families and communities are fighting to keep their homes and the Governor only wants to squeeze more tax dollars from them. New Jerseyans need help, but the Governor only wants to increase taxes at a time when many families are being forced to leave New Jersey altogether. Instead of helping New Jerseyans stay in their homes, Governor Corzine is driving them out.
"The highest number of monthly foreclosures ever filed against property owners in New Jersey -- 6,133 -- occurred in June and then fell to 5,813 by July, which was still more than in July 2008." ("Foreclosure bites South Jersey hard", Courier Post, 10/12/09)
"Foreclosure notices filed with the Superior Court statewide and regionally increased from January to July compared to the same period in 2008, according to statistics from the state Administrative Office of the Courts." (Carol Comegno, "Foreclosure Bites South Jersey Hard," Courier Post, 10/12/09)
"According to the ATR, the state's government has increased taxes on each resident by $2,601 since 2002, for a total of over $22 billion in tax hikes, the highest in the nation." (Chris Friend: "Corzine Calls for Billion-Dollar Tax Increase," The Philadelphia Bulletin, 03/17/09)
"New Jersey taxpayers will have paid $114.5 billion in state taxes since Governor Corzine took office."(New Jersey State Treasury, "State Budgets and Briefs - State Revenue Chart," 2007 - 2010)
(Washington Post).Republican Robert F. McDonnell carries a double-digit lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds into the final week of the campaign for Virginia governor, according to a new Washington Post poll.
The Republican, briefly buffeted in the polls by voters' initial reaction to the publication of his 1989 graduate school thesis, has rebounded to big advantages on the top issues, particularly taxes, and is now seen as the more effective leader, more honest and more empathetic.
McDonnell is also buoyed by support outside of Northern Virginia, where he is currently outperforming all other top-of-the-ticket Republican candidates this decade. Statewide, McDonnell now leads Deeds among likely voters by a 55 to 44 percent margin. McDonnell, who narrowly defeated Deeds in the race for attorney general four years ago, has been above 50 percent in all four Post polls in the campaign.
About three in 10 Virginia voters say their vote will be based in part on their perceptions of President Obama, who is scheduled to campaign in Norfolk with Deeds Tuesday. But as many say they will be motivated by their desire to express support for the president as to voice opposition to him, partial evidence that Obama himself may not be able to decisively sway the race. ad_icon
Seven in 10 say the president -- who remains relatively popular with an approval rating of 54 percent among likely voters and 57 percent among all those registered to vote -- won't be a factor in their vote one way or the other. These findings suggest that the Virginia race may not be the early referendum on the Obama presidency that it is often held up to be.
McDonnell is now in a position of significant strength with widening advantages on central issues as the campaign enters its final days.
McDonnell holds double-digit advantages when it comes to dealing with the economy (plus 17 percentage points), transportation (16 points), taxes (25 points) and has overtaken Deeds as the one more trusted to handle issues of special concern to women (7 points). On taxes, which has been a focal point of the campaign in recent weeks, McDonnell has stretched his lead significantly, and now holds a better than 2 to 1 lead over Deeds among independent voters.
(CNN) – With eight days left until voters go to the polls, a new survey suggests that New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has opened up a 9 point lead over his Republican challenger, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.
According to a Suffolk University poll released Monday, 42 percent of likely Garden State voters back Corzine, while 33 percent support Christie and 7 percent back Daggett. Fourteen percent of those questioned said they are undecided.
"That 14 percent figure is high compared to other recent New Jersey polls, which have shown the undecideds closer to six or seven percent," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "That may account for some of the difference between the Suffolk poll and others. If Christie voters are hiding in the undecided category, that may mean a closer race than the poll indicates.
(fredmalekblog).....Less visible, however, and in some ways more intriguing to me are identifying those less visible figures who will emerge over the next five to ten years as leaders in the House, Senate, state capitols, and Presidential primaries. Here is my crack at the top ten, most under 50 and a few just past that age.
1. Bob McDonnell. I predicted many months ago that Bob would be the next Governor of Virginia and that prediction looks very good now. For that reason he is included near the top of the most influential Republicans for the present as well as the future. He has been an enormously effective candidate and I believe will be elected next week. While he will be a great Governor for my home state, his national influence will soar as the first symbol of a Republican comeback and as an example of how to run a model and winning campaign.
2. Mark Kirk. Mark is the moderate, progressive, and effective young Congressman from Illinois who should be elected to Obama’s old Senate seat in November 2010. Illinois has been a blue state for a number of years and has a pronounced registration advantage in favor of Democrats. Because he will capture the Obama seat in a blue state, and because his voice is both persuasive and moderate, he will emerge as an influential consensus builder in the U.S. Senate. 3. Eric Cantor. As the #2 Republican in the House and a master of policy, Eric has been a strong and sensible voice for the center-right arguments that represent the Republican Party and the majority of Americans. He will have an increasingly important role in shaping the Republican agenda for many years.
4. Scott Walker. The 41 year old Milwaukee County Executive has proven he knows how to contain costs, balance budgets, and win elections. In 2008, he won re-election with 59%, in a county Obama won by more than 60%. I believe he will be elected Governor of Wisconsin in November 2010 and represent the new wave of conservative leadership that knows how to bring needed services to the people by providing incentives and ingenuity vs. big spending. 5. Paul Ryan. Another young man from Wisconsin, who at 39 is ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee. He has mastery of budgeting and economic issues and learned his trade at the foot of the late Jack Kemp, perhaps the most influential Republican of our era who never became President. Paul is smart, charismatic, and dedicated and can hold any office he sets his mind to.
6. Rob Portman. Rob has a tough challenge on winning the Ohio Senate race as the State has been tilting blue lately. However, he’s just too good to fail. As a former Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and Special Trade Representative, he has a terrific background to blend with his intellect and charm. He will immediately emerge as a leading voice in the Senate and in the future will be on everyone’s list for the big one or number two. 7. Bobby Jindal. Bobby has proven himself at everything he has done, consistently taking on and meeting great challenges. He is developing into an articulate and charismatic leader whose future holds no bounds. He is a fine Governor for Louisiana and will continue to be a major policy voice in the Republican Party.
8. Meg Whitman. Meg has a long road ahead to first win the primary in California and then defeat Jerry Brown to become Governor. Then, of course, she will have the tough challenge of fixing California. However, she is enormously talented and competent, and I believe she will win. If so, she will vault to number one overall, as the most influential and sought after leader in the Republican Party.
9. Kelly Ayotte. The young and proven Attorney General of New Hampshire is poised to win this Senate seat next year. She has the friendly and reasonable comportment of an Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins but is more center right in her philosophy and thus better positioned for future leadership.
10. Chris Christie. I am hopeful Chris will be elected Governor of New Jersey next week. However, his victory will be more a referendum on Jon Corzines’s out of control spending, high taxes and ineffective governance, all awash in a sea of corruption in the NJ Democrat Party. Nevertheless, a victory in this blue state will give Chris a commanding platform.
(CNN Radio) – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has taken considerable heat from conservative activists for endorsing Republican Dede Scozzafava over Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in next month's special congressional election in New York.
But Gingrich is defending his approach to re-building the Republican Party. It begins, he said, by accommodating those who might disagree with you.
"Both parties have to recognize, you can create a center-right majority in America, which we did with Reagan in '80 and we did it again with the 'Contract with America' in '94," Gingrich said in an interview with CNN Radio. "You can't have a purely right-wing majority; you can't have a purely left-wing majority."
The former speaker claimed that Democrats are doing their part to help the GOP by promoting a liberal ideology. "Today, the Democrats are moving toward a secular-socialist model that is guaranteed minority in America," he said.
"Next year, I think we could win [governorships in] Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, the Senate seat in Illinois. In Ohio, we could win both the governorship and the Senate seat," Gingrich said. He also predicted losses for three prominent Democratic incumbents: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
Along with the New York special election, Republicans are also watching two key gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey. Gingrich predicated the GOP will win in Virginia "by a big margin," but was less optimistic about the party's chances in the Garden State.
"I think we have a good chance to win New Jersey, if people conclude that voting for the third-party candidate just re-elects [incumbent Gov. Jon] Corzine," he said.
(Gallup).Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009, confirming a finding that Gallup first noted in June. Forty percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 20% as liberal. This marks a shift from 2005 through 2008, when moderates were tied with conservatives as the most prevalent group.
"Changes among political independents appear to be the main reason the percentage of conservatives has increased nationally over the past year: the 35% of independents describing their views as conservative in 2009 is up from 29% in 2008."
The 2009 data are based on 16 separate Gallup surveys conducted from January through September, encompassing more than 5,000 national adults per quarter. Conservatives have been the dominant ideological group each quarter, with between 39% and 41% of Americans identifying themselves as either "very conservative" or "conservative." Between 35% and 37% of Americans call themselves "moderate," while the percentage calling themselves "very liberal" or "liberal" has consistently registered between 20% and 21% -- making liberals the smallest of the three groups.
Changes among political independents appear to be the main reason the percentage of conservatives has increased nationally over the past year: the 35% of independents describing their views as conservative in 2009 is up from 29% in 2008. By contrast, among Republicans and Democrats, the percentage who are "conservative" has increased by one point each.
As is typical in recent years, Republicans are far more unified in their political outlook than are either independents or Democrats. While 72% of Republicans in 2009 call their views conservative, independents are closely split between the moderate and conservative labels (43% and 35%, respectively). Democrats are about evenly divided between moderates (39%) and liberals (37%).
In addition to the increase in conservatism on this general ideology measure, Gallup finds higher percentages of Americans expressing conservative views on several specific issues in 2009 than in 2008.
*Perceptions that there is too much government regulation of business and industry jumped from 38% in September 2008 to 45% in September 2009. *The percentage of Americans saying they would like to see labor unions have less influence in the country rose from 32% in August 2008 to a record-high 42% in August 2009. *Public support for keeping the laws governing the sale of firearms the same or making them less strict rose from 49% in October 2008 to 55% in October 2009, also a record high. (The percentage saying the laws should become more strict -- the traditionally liberal position -- fell from 49% to 44%.) *The percentage of Americans favoring a decrease in immigration rose from 39% in June/July 2008 to 50% in July 2009. *The propensity to want the government to "promote traditional values" -- as opposed to "not favor any particular set of values" -- rose from 48% in 2008 to 53% in 2009. Current support for promoting traditional values is the highest seen in five years. *The percentage of Americans who consider themselves "pro-life" on abortion rose from 44% in May 2008 to 51% in May 2009, and remained at a slightly elevated 47% in July 2009. *Americans' belief that the global warming problem is "exaggerated" in the news rose from 35% in March 2008 to 41% in March 2009.
(Toby Harnden-daily Telegraph).Perhaps we should not be surprised that the land of the permanent campaign has produced a president like Barack Obama. During his White House bid, Mr Obama's staff argued that his masterful oversight of the machinery that ultimately got him elected was his highest achievement.
In many respects this was true, though Mr Obama was more chairman than CEO. Even Republican political operatives acknowledge that the Obama '08 campaign was a thing of beauty.
Essentially, however, Mr Obama won because of his persona – post-racial, healing, cool, articulate and inspirational. In a sense, therefore, his greatest achievement in life is being Barack Obama. Or the campaign version, at least.
Therein lies the problem. While campaigning could centre around soaring rhetoric, governing is altogether messier. It involves tough, unpopular choices and cutting deals with opponents. It requires doing things rather than talking about them, let alone just being.
Mr Obama is showing little appetite for this. Instead of being the commander-in-chief, he is the campaigner-in-chief.
After a disastrous summer that saw his approval rating drop more than any other president at the same stage since Harry Truman in 1953, Mr Obama has temporarily abandoned the campaign-style events promoting his stalled health-care reform initiative.
Now, he is stumping for Democratic candidates in states he won last year but which are now in danger. Last Wednesday in Hackensack, Mr Obama took to the stage to proclaim: "Your voice can change the world. Your voice can elect Jon Corzine, governor once again of New Jersey." Change the world? Mr Corzine is a former Goldman Sachs executive whose political career was launched when he spent $57 million of his own money on a Senate seat in 2000.
The rally was an attempted 2008 reprise. There was the spontaneous (or not) cry of "I love you!" bashfully acknowledged by Mr Obama with a "I love you back."
There were the Obama-led chants of "Fired up! Ready to go!" and the ubiquitous "Yes We Can" signs.
And as he always does, Mr Obama blamed every economic woe on the Bush years, conveniently forgetting that Republicans are no longer in office and it's been his mess for nine months now.
Campaigning and raising cash is what Mr Obama does best. Next week's fundraising events in Florida and Virginia will bring to 24 the number of such functions he had headlined since entering office in January. During his first year in office, Mr Bush attended just six fundraisers.
Just as instructive is Mr Obama's war on the cable channel Fox News.
Everyone knows that Fox leans Right and contains some of the most virulent critics of the president. Most prominent is Fox's weeping, ranting Glenn Beck, who fulminated bizarrely in July that Mr Obama "has a deep-seated hatred for white people".
Rather than ignoring or even repudiating Fox commentators, the White House has instead sought to marginalise Fox News in its entirety. Top Obama aide David Axelrod even lectured that Fox was not a news organisation and the rest of the media "ought not to treat them that way".
This was the same Mr Axelrod who advised Mr Obama in a 2006 campaign memo: "You care far too much what is written and said about you."
Also in the doghouse is the US Chamber of Commerce, which Obama aides have branded as representing "special interests" and a Bush agenda. Never mind that moderate Democratic candidates across the country proudly tout endorsements for the Chamber, which is hardly part of any radical Republican fringe.
All this says much about Mr Obama's priorities at a time when he is sitting on an urgent request for 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, seemingly unsure about whether the counter-insurgency strategy he announced in March is the right one.
Late-night comics, although unabashedly liberal and at a loss last year as to how to poke fun at the rather humourless Mr Obama, are having a field day portraying him as a do-nothing prevaricator obsessed with his own image.
"President Obama agreed to commit an additional 40,000 troops to help fight Fox News," quipped NBC's Jay Leno. "Senior White House adviser David Axelrod told reporters that Fox News is just pushing a point of view. Well, yes, but at least they've got a point of view." Mr Obama was elected on a promise of being post-partisan to Washington and transforming the country. Thus far, he has won the support of only a single Republican for his health-care plan and has shown himself to be as aggressive a Democratic partisan in office as anyone in the fabled Clinton war room.
Beyond the grand announcements, fine speeches and his eager acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize, Mr Obama has yet to achieve anything of substance. It is time for the campaign to end.
(politicsdaily).Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker and perennial big thinker in the Republican party, said this morning that he will likely run for president in 2012 if he and his wife, Callista, assess the field of candidates in 2011 and feel "a requirement as citizens that we run." His comments came during an interview on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning. The full exchange and video are below.
C-SPAN: "If you were to run, what factors would you take into account? What would lead you to think about running?"
GINGRICH: "Callista and I are going to think about this in February 2011. And we are going to reach out to all of our friends around the country. And we'll decide, if there's a requirement as citizens that we run, I suspect we probably will. And if there's not a requirement, if other people have filled the vacuum, I suspect we won't."
(Huffpost).Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) predicted on Sunday that health care reform would pass, while a fellow Republican senator was more skeptical.
Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," McCain said that the man he battled for the presidency in 2008 had "the vote" now to get health care legislation through Congress.
"I think that Blue Dogs bark but never bite, so I don't think they have a problem over in the House side," said the Arizona Republican. "I think in the Senate, Democrats are very aware that they don't want a repeat of the Clinton failure in 1994. So I think it is likely they will get something through but it is not clear to me what it is."
McCain went on to whack the president for abandoning a campaign pledge to hold deliberations around health care in transparent, public settings. "The fact is there has been no change," he said. "There is a room where there are a few Democrats in it and some administration officials and they are writing this entire bill. I don't think the American people like that very much.
For the first time in recent years, voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 key electoral issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports. The GOP holds double-digit advantages on five of them.
Republicans have nearly doubled their lead over Democrats on economic issues to 49% to 35%, after leading by eight points in September.
The economy: * Republicans 49% * Democrats 35%
Taxes: * Republicans 50% * Democrats 35%
Health care: * Republicans 46% * Democrats 40%
Social Security: * Republicans 45% * Democrats 37%
National security and the War on Terror: * Republicans 54% * Democrats 31%
The War in Iraq: * Republicans 50% * Democrats 31%
Government ethics and corruption: * Republicans 33% * Democrats 29%
(Haaretz).Iran on Friday failed to accept a United Nations-drafted plan that would ship most of the country's uranium abroad for enrichment, saying instead it would prefer to buy the nuclear fuel it needs for a reactor that makes medical isotopes.
While Iran did not reject the plan outright, state TV reported that Tehran was waiting for a response to its own proposal to buy nuclear fuel rather than ship low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment.
Iran has often used counterproposals as a way to draw out nuclear negotiations with the West.
A U.S. official on Friday said that Washington would await a formal response from Iran on the proposed nuclear draft, while French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was quoted as saying that indications received from Iran were "not very positive."
"I cannot say that the situation regarding Iran is very positive. Now, meetings are being held in Vienna. But via the indications we are receiving, matters are not very positive," Kouchner said during an official visit to Lebanon.
Meanwhile, officials in Tehran said on Friday they were was awaiting a "positive and constructive" response from world powers to its proposal on providing nuclear fuel for the reactor, state television reported.
"Now we are awaiting a positive and constructive response on Iran's proposal from the other party on providing nuclear fuel for Tehran's reactor," TV quoted a member of Iran's negotiating team, who attended the Vienna meeting on Oct 21, as saying.
(Charles Krauthammer-Daily news).Rahm Emanuel once sent a dead fish to a live pollster. Now he's put a horse's head in Roger Ailes' bed.
Not very subtle. And not very smart. Ailes doesn't scare easily.
The White House has declared war on Fox News. White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Fox is "opinion journalism masquerading as news." Patting rival networks on the head for their authenticity (read: docility), senior adviser David Axelrod declared Fox "not really a news station." And Chief of Staff Emanuel told (warned?) the other networks not to "be led \[by\] and following Fox."
Meaning? If Fox runs a story critical of the administration - from exposing White House czar Van Jones as a loony 9/11 "truther" to exhaustively examining the mathematical chicanery and hidden loopholes in proposed health care legislation - the other news organizations should think twice before following the lead.
The signal to corporations is equally clear: You might have dealings with a federal behemoth that not only disburses more than $3 trillion every year but is extending its reach ever deeper into private industry - finance, autos, soon health care and energy. Think twice before you run an ad on Fox.
At first, there was little reaction from other media. Then on Thursday, the administration tried to make them complicit in an actual boycott of Fox. The Treasury Department made available Ken Feinberg, the executive pay czar, for interviews with the White House "pool" news organizations - except Fox. The other networks admirably refused, saying they would not interview Feinberg unless Fox was permitted to as well. The administration backed down.
This was an important defeat because there's a principle at stake here. While government can and should debate and criticize opposition voices, the current White House goes beyond that. It wants to delegitimize any significant dissent. The objective is no secret. White House aides openly told Politico that they're engaged in a deliberate campaign to marginalize and ostracize recalcitrants, from Fox to health insurers to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Fox and its viewers (numbering more than CNN's and MSNBC's combined) need no defense. Defend Fox compared with whom? To CNN - which recently unleashed its fact-checkers on a "Saturday Night Live" skit mildly critical of President Obama, but did no checking of a racist remark CNN falsely attributed to Rush Limbaugh?
Defend Fox from whom? Fox's flagship 6 o'clock evening news out of Washington (hosted by Bret Baier, formerly by Brit Hume) is, to my mind, the best hour of news on television. (Definitive evidence: My mother watches it even on the odd night when I'm not on.) Defend Fox from the likes of Anita Dunn? She's been attacked for extolling Mao's political philosophy in a speech at a high school graduation. But the critics miss the surpassing stupidity of her larger point: She was invoking Mao as support and authority for her impassioned plea for individuality and trusting one's own choices. Mao as champion of individuality? Mao, the greatest imposer of mass uniformity in modern history, creator of a slave society of a near-billion worker bees wearing Mao suits and waving the Little Red Book?
The White House communications director cannot be trusted to address high schoolers without uttering inanities. She and her cohorts are now to instruct the country on truth and objectivity?
Via Red State: Marco Rubio More Electable Than Charlie Crist (redstate.com).A new Rasmussen poll knocks the props out from the main argument why conservatives who would prefer to be represented in the Senate by Marco Rubio should nonetheless support Charlie Crist. Crist, his supporters say, has two things going for him: he’s going to win the nomination anyway, and if nominated he’d do better in the general election. Certainly nobody would try to convince Republicans with a straight face that Crist would be a better Senator, given his support for the stimulus bill and other Obama initiatives.
Well, there’s been a bunch of polls showing Rubio gaining ground on Crist in the nomination fight, but now Rasmussen reports that Rubio would be a stronger general election candidate, as a new poll shows he would beat the leading Democrat in the race, Congressman Kendrick Meek, by 15 points:
(washingtonpost).Democrat Creigh Deeds may be holding rallies with Presidents Obama and Clinton, but we hear Republican Bob McDonnell has a few bold names coming into the state for him too.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who serves as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, all are scheduled to campaign for McDonnell in the next two weeks. All have been mentioned as possible candidates for president in 2012.
All four possible GOP presidential hopefuls have been in the state for McDonnell before, and are scheduled to return before Nov. 3.
Giuliani is scheduled to be Northern Virginia on Oct. 28, and Romney will participate in several events. We'll bring you details as they become available.
(By MITT ROMNEY-unionleader.com).The world is fast becoming a more dangerous place. Liberty and peace are threatened in new and frightful ways. Russia is returning to its authoritarian ways, fueled by its energy stranglehold on Europe.
China has married the power of free enterprise with the oppression of Communist rule. Violent jihadists are fighting to crush people and nations across the globe.
And rogue nations with maniacal autocrats are recklessly pursuing nuclear capabilities that put the world in jeopardy. Left unchecked, a nuclear race will be joined by many, many others.
This is one reason why I am so very concerned by the current drift in our government's relationship with Israel. In pursuit of a peace process, the United States today has exerted substantial pressure on Israel while putting almost no pressure on the Palestinians and the Arab world.
Consider how little we ask of the Arab world. Why is it that only Egypt and Jordan have peace agreements with Israel? What about Saudi Arabia? The Saudi government will not even sit in the same room as the Israelis, let alone normalize relations or work toward a realistic peace agreement. In 2007, at the height of the Olmert-Abbas peace talks, the Saudis were demanding that more U.S. companies comply with their boycott of Israel.
Israel, on the other hand, has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to a lasting and realistic peace. In 2005, for example, Israel handed over the Gaza strip to the Palestinians. This generous, unilateral act was met in return with rockets fired into Israel, with a coup by Hamas in Gaza and with two wars -- one on the Lebanese border and another in Gaza.
We can encourage both parties in the conflict, but we must never forget which one is our ally. Nor must we forget that Hamas, like other violent jihadists, does not have a two-state solution as its objective. It has the conquest and annihilation of Israel as its objective. The notion that Hamas and violent Jihadists are motivated by "shared interests" and "common goals" is naive in the extreme and dangerous to the entire free world.
My concern extends to our entire foreign policy. If the U.S. government engages tyrannies and autocracies -- countries like Iran and North Korea, Syria and Russia, Sudan and Zimbabwe -- based on the conviction that we are dealing with common interests more than competing interests, it will not end well.
Keeping our word to our allies is a matter of honor, but it is also a matter of self-interest. The United States needs allies for economic, political and national security reasons. Good allies and strong alliances allow us to share the burdens we carry, complement and supplement our efforts and present a united front against those who wish us harm.
When we treat any ally in a desultory manner -- and especially if we act in a way that causes them to question our reliability, our resolve, our commitment and staying power -- then they as well as our other allies, all of whom are watching closely, will turn to others for their security.
When Poland and the Czech Republic are humiliated by us, they lose confidence in America's support for them, and they may decide that they must incline more toward Russia.
If our friends in Latin America like Colombia become convinced that we are turning our back on them, they may feel compelled to become more accommodating to Hugo Chavez.
If Japan believes the United States is weakening its commitment in the Pacific, it may distance itself from America and draw closer to China.
When defenders of democracy and the rule of constitution and law in Honduras find that we have sided with their pro-Chavez illegal opposition, freedom fighters across the world, recalculate their chances for success.
And if Arab nations believe that we will accommodate Iran's ambition to dominate the Middle East with nuclear weapons, they will move closer to that very nation.
Whenever or wherever America steps away from one of its friends and allies, or shrinks in the face of belligerent tyrants, those who are allied with us may understandably or inevitably step closer to our foes. The advance of human rights and the defense of liberty demand that America stands firm with its allies -- all of them.
(ABC).Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin used her Facebook page on Thursday to endorse Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman over Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava in the special election for New York’s 23rd congressional district.
“Political parties must stand for something,” wrote Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee. “[T]he Republican Party today has decided to choose a candidate who more than blurs the lines, and there is no real difference between the Democrat and the Republican in this race. That is why Doug Hoffman is running on the Conservative Party’s ticket.”
The former House speaker Newt Gingrich recently threw his weight to Scozzafava.
After he took heat from some conservatives for his decision, Gingrich wrote: “The choice in New York is a practical one: We can split the conservative vote and guarantee the election of a Democrat in a Republican seat in a substantial loss of opportunity. Or we can find a way to elect someone who has committed to vote for the Republican leader, has committed to vote against all tax increases, has committed to vote against cap-and-trade, and is a strong ally of the NRA.”
Obama, in an interview with NBC, at first attempted to deflect a question about the White House's criticism of Fox News, saying "the American people are a lot more interested in what we're doing to create jobs or how we're handling the situation in Afghanistan."
The interviewer then pressed, noting that Obama's advisers have targeted the network openly.
"I think that what our advisers simply said is, is that we are going to take media as it comes," Obama said. "And if media is operating, basically, as a talk radio format, then that's one thing. And if it's operating as a news outlet than that's another. But it's not something I'm losing a lot of sleep over."
O'Reilly Slams Obama: "He's Fighting Harder Against Fox News Than the Taliban"
(PPP).Almost a year after his election as President, Barack Obama's lead for re=election shrinks, although he continues to lead his most likely 2012 rivals in hypothetical contests for reelection,it seems to be a much contested race,Huckabee and Roney the 2 front runners bring down his lead less then 50% to a 4-8 point difference.
Obama leads Mike Huckabee 47-43, Mitt Romney 48-40, Sarah Palin 52-40, and Tim Pawlenty 50-30.
Romney is actually the most popular of the Republican candidates with independents, sporting a 38/28 favorability rating with them and holding Obama to just a 41-40 lead. One thing he'll probably have to contend with to a greater extent if he gets the 2012 nomination is his religion- 34% of respondents say they have an unfavorable opinion of it to 21% who look on it positively.
Romney's is viewed overall favorably by 34/34 % Huckabee is viewed overall favorably by 33/29 %
Romney is viewed favorably by 18-29 yr olds (31/20) and 65+ (44/32), and does best against Obama with 18-29 yr olds trailing Obama by only 2 points 46-44%.
(New York Times).Democrats lost a big test vote on health care legislation on Wednesday as the Senate blocked action on a bill to increase Medicare payments to doctors at a cost of $247 billion over 10 years.
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, needed 60 votes to proceed. He won only 47. And he could not blame Republicans. A dozen Democrats and one independent crossed party lines and voted with Republicans on the 53 to 47 roll call.
The Medicare bill has become a proxy for larger issues in the debate over legislation to overhaul the health care system.
Mr. Reid said the bill, by averting big cuts in physician fees, guaranteed that doctors would continue accepting Medicare patients. But since none of the costs were offset or paid for, Republicans said it was fiscally irresponsible, and some Democrats said they shared that concern.
By addressing doctors’ fees in a separate bill, Senate Democrats could hold down the cost of the broader health legislation, keeping it within the limits set by President Obama. House Democrats are considering a similar tactic. Republicans said it was a transparent ploy to hide the cost of a health care overhaul.
Democrats had hoped that by passing the Medicare bill they could appease doctors and secure their support for the broader legislation.
Senate Democratic leaders said the bill to protect doctors’ fees had strong support from the White House, the American Medical Association and AARP.
Among the Democrats who voted against the party leadership were Senators Evan Bayh of Indiana, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bill Nelson of Florida and Ron Wyden of Oregon.
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said he felt vindicated by the vote.
“In the Senate’s first vote on health care spending this year,” Mr. McConnell said, “a bipartisan majority rejected the Democrat leadership’s attempt to add another quarter-trillion dollars to the national credit card without any plan to pay for it. With a record deficit and a ballooning national debt, the American people are saying enough is enough.”
(DAILY NEW).Former Republican President George W. Bush has landed a new gig as a high-priced motivational speaker.
The 43rd President and his wife, Laura, have signed on to the popular "Get Motivated" seminar program. Bush will headline his first event this Monday in Forth Worth, Tex., then follow it up with an appearance in San Antonio in December.
"Maybe it can be like, 'Do what I say, not what I do,'" University of Virginia political science Prof. Larry Sabato cracked of Bush, whose approval rating at the end of his presidency dipped to a dismal 22%. "Or maybe it'll be, 'I'm the model of what you shouldn't be.'"
Guffaws aside, Bush is likely laughing all the way to the bank. Although "Get Motivated" did not return calls, financial disclosure forms in the past have shown other big-name pols - among them former Mayor Rudy Giuliani - pulled down $100,000 for an hour-long pep talk.
Among those slated to round out the day-long seminar with Bush on Monday are Giuliani, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Fox NFL analyst Terry Bradshaw.
The seminars tend to draw mostly salespeople looking to up their game. What they get is a mix of how-to business and motivational tips, often framed in Christian, patriotic themes of the kind Bush often invoked as President.
Cheney: "Recently President Obama's advisors have decided that it's easier to blame the Bush Administration than support our troops, this weekend they leveled a charge that cannot go unanswered, the President's chief of staff claimed that the Bush Adm. had not asked any tough questions about Afghanistan and he complained that the Obama Adm. had to start from scratch to put together a strategy.
In the fall of 2008, fully aware of the need to meet new challenges being posed by the Taliban, we dug into every aspect of Afghanistan policy, assembled a team that both traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, reviewing options and recommendations, and briefing President elect Obama's team, they asked us not to announce our findings publicly, and we agreed, giving them the benefit of our work and the benefit of the doubt"
(Gallup).In Gallup Daily tracking that spans Barack Obama's third quarter in office (July 20 through Oct. 19), the president averaged a 50-53% job approval rating. That is down sharply from his prior quarterly averages, which were both above 60%.
In fact, the 9-point drop in the most recent quarter is the largest Gallup has ever measured for an elected president between the second and third quarters of his term, dating back to 1953. One president who was not elected to his first term -- Harry Truman -- had a 13-point drop between his second and third quarters in office in 1945 and 1946.
More generally, Obama's 9-point slide between quarters ranks as one of the steepest for a president at any point in his first year in office. The highest is Truman's 19-point drop between his third and fourth quarters, followed by a 15-point drop for Gerald Ford between his first and second quarters. The largest for an elected president in his first year is Bill Clinton's 11-point slide between his first and second quarters.
Rasmussan Daily - Obama's approval at 47%:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -13. That’s just a point above the lowest level ever recorded for this President. It’s also the sixth straight day in negative double digits, matching the longest such streak.
Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-three percent (53%) disapprove.
PPP - Obama's approval at 51%:
Barack Obama's approval rating in our national survey for October is 51%, the fifth month in a row it has fallen somewhere in the 50-52% range
The contest for the 2010 Republican Senate nomination in Florida is a little closer this month, but Governor Charlie Crist still holds a 14-point lead over former state House Speaker Marco Rubio.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP Primary voters in the state finds Crist outdistancing Rubio 49% to 35%. Four percent (4%) like some other candidate, and 12% are undecided.
The fact that Crist has fallen below 50% in a primary against a lesser known opponent suggests potential vulnerability.
Both men seeking the Republican nomination to become Florida’s next U.S. senator lead their likely Democratic opponent by double digits.
A new Rasmussen Reports survey of Florida voters shows Governor Charlie Crist leading Representative Kendrick Meek by a 46% to 34% margin. In August, Crist led by 19 and in June he was ahead by 21.
Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio leads Meek by a similar margin, 46% to 31%. In August, Rubio led by 13 percentage points.
