Fourteen million Australians went to the polls on Saturday to determine the fate of two month old Australian Labor Party (ALP) government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Exit polls in eastern Australia suggest the centre-right Coalition composed of the Liberal Party, the Australian National Party and their associated parties in Queensland made gains in New South Wales and Queensland but not enough to claim control of the government. The Australian Green Party is poised to turn in its best performance in any election and will claim over 11 percent of the popular vote if current trends hold though that may not translate into many seats in Australia's single member districts first past the post system.

A hung parliament remains a distinct possibility despite the exit polls pointing to a narrow win for Prime Minister Gillard's ALP. If it is a hung parliament, it will be the first hung Parliament in Australia since 1940. That time, Bob Menzies led a short-lived minority United Australia Party government. The balance of power hangs on the four independents returned to the House and on the newly elected Green member.

As of this hour with 74.9 percent of the vote counted, the ALP has won 70 seats to the Coalition's 71. Seventy-six seats are required to form a government. The Australian, the country's largest newspaper, is projecting 69 seats for the ALP to 60 for the Coalition. Another noted Aussie political analyst, Anthony Green, is predicting a hung Parliament. His forecast for the final tally is Labor: 71 seats; Coalition: 74 seats; Greens: 1 seat; Independents: 4 seats.

In terms of the popular vote, the ALP has a 38.1 percent share down -5.4 points from the last election in 2007 while the various Coalition parties have a 43.7 percent share up 1.6 points over their 2007 performance. The Greens are so far an 11.6 share up an impressive 3.8 points over 2007 results. Other minor parties have captured a 6.6 percent share and three seats. Adam Bandt of the Green party has claimed victory in seat in Melbourne, Victoria. It is the first seat ever for the Greens in the lower house. The Greens may also win a second seat in Tasmania. Tasmania is the most solidly leftist state in Australia.

Results have yet to trickle in from Western Australia. Labor has lost at least 13 seats but has picked up at least one in South Australia. The Welsh-born Gillard easily won her Melbourne district with over 70 percent of the vote. Tony Abbott, the Liberal leader, has also won his Warringah electorate in New South Wales. Abbott is a conservative family values Roman Catholic while Gillard is a working class atheist who lives with her unmarried partner, a hair dresser. Abbott is typical of the hard right in Australia and a climate skeptic.

Issues in the election centered on a carbon tax/emission trading system (ETS) and concerns of over Australia's mining economy. The Liberal party also focused heavily throughout the campaign on border protection. Its slogan has been "stop the boats", a reference to asylum seekers arriving in northern Australia from as far as away as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Fears about asylum seekers resonate strongly in marginal electorates, despite the fact that refugees make up less than 5 percent of immigrants to Australia.

Labor has fared poorly in Queensland. Labor is suffering a swing against it in Queensland of 5.8 per cent as voters in former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's home state punish the government. The greatest swing against Labour came in New South Wales where there was 6.1 percent swing.

One curiosity to share. The Liberal National Party's Wyatt Roy, the country's second youngest candidate ever, is polling extremely well in his Longman constituency in Queensland.  Longman is a district that is just north of Brisbane. The electorate includes Bribie Island, which is home to some of the nation's oldest voters. The just turned 20-year-old Roy is on track to become the youngest House member ever; it's the first time he has even voted in a Federal election. 

Australia has a complex electoral system. The lower chamber, the House of Representatives, is composed of 150 single member districts using a first past the post system. Its upper house, called a Senate, is elected using proportional voting. Together these two houses form the Australian Parliament. The country is governed by a Westminster style system. The Prime Minister holds office because he/she can command the support of the majority of the House of Representatives. Australia largely eschews voting machines, voting is by paper ballot. Perhaps not surprising since the secret ballot is an Australian innovation dating back to the 1850s. Secret ballots were not used in the US until after the Civil War. Voting is also compulsory in the land down under.

Australia also uses various forms of preferential voting. Under this system, voters number the candidates on the ballot paper in the order of their preference. The counting of first preference votes, also known as the "primary vote", takes place first. If no candidate secures an absolute majority of primary votes, then the candidate with the fewest votes is "eliminated" from the count. The ballot papers of the eliminated candidate are re-allocated amongst the remaining candidates according to the number "2", or "second preference" votes. If no candidate has yet secured an absolute majority of the vote, then the next candidate with the fewest primary votes is eliminated. This preference allocation continues until there is a candidate with an absolute majority.

Following the full allocation of preferences, it is possible to derive a two-party-preferred figure, where the votes are divided between the two main candidates in the election. In the two party-preferred vote, the Australian Labor Party has captured 50.2 share of the vote to 49.8 for the Coalition. In the Better PM preference the tally stands at 50 percent for Julia Gillard, 37 percent for Tony Abbott and 13 percent uncommitted.

In the Senate, the Coalition will add 15 new Senators for a total of 31 overall to become the largest block in the upper house. The ALP has gained 13 new Senators to bring their total to 29. The Australian Green Party, however, will control the balance of power in the Senate. Coupled with their three continuing Senators, they have elected five new Senators for a total of eight. The far-right Family First also appears to have elected a Senator. Six seats remain unallocated.

Full results from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Colour and analysis from Sydney's The Australian.

There’s something terribly shocking taking place, and I must admit a failure to anticipate it this soon: the creeping rehabilitation of George W. Bush. He was a uniquely failed president; so miserable was he, his popularity collapsed (not over anything huge, except the negligent loss of an iconic American city) less than a year into his second term. And his crushing unpopularity never relented. Quite the contrary—on Jan. 20, 2009, minutes after his successor had been sworn in, millions of his erstwhile subjects treated the 43rd president to a pretty iconic farewell.

As testament to our collective amnesia, many are now insisting the semi-retarded ersatz cowboy doesn’t look like such an ogre in the rearview mirror. Apparently this includes polite company like Peter Beinart, Mo Dowd, and Eugene Robinson.

Byron York had the story in the Washington Examiner a couple of days ago:

"It's time for W. to weigh in," writes the New York Times' Maureen Dowd. Bush, Dowd explains, understands that "you can't have an effective war against the terrorists if it is a war on Islam." Dowd finds it "odd" that Obama seems less sure on that matter. But to set things back on the right course, she says, "W. needs to get his bullhorn back out" -- a reference to Bush's famous "the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!" speech at Ground Zero on September 14, 2001.

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson is also looking for an assist from Bush. "I…would love to hear from former President Bush on this issue," Robinson wrote Tuesday in a Post chat session. "He held Ramadan iftar dinners in the White House as part of a much broader effort to show that our fight against the al-Qaeda murderers who attacked us on 9/11 was not a crusade against Islam. He was absolutely right on this point, and it would be helpful to hear his views."

And Peter Beinart, a former editor of the New Republic, is also feeling some nostalgia for the former president. "Words I never thought I'd write: I pine for George W. Bush," Beinart wrote Tuesday in The Daily Beast. "Whatever his flaws, the man respected religion, all religion." Beinart longs for the days when Bush "used to say that the 'war on terror' was a struggle on behalf of Muslims, decent folks who wanted nothing more than to live free like you and me…"

Karl Rove even relinquished his butterscotch scone long enough to chime in:

For the moment, with Obama failing to live up to expectations, Bush-bashing is over. It's all a little amusing -- and perhaps a little maddening -- for some members of the Bush circle. When I asked Karl Rove to comment, he responded that it means "redemption is always available for liberals and time causes even the most stubborn of ideologues to revisit mistaken judgments." But won't these Bush critics shortly return to criticizing Bush? "This Bush swoon by selected members of the left commentariat is temporary," Rove answered. "Their swamp fevers will return momentarily."

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A new cn|2 poll released yesterday shows the Senate race in between Democrat Jack Conway and Republican Rand Paul in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to be a statistical dead heat. When asked which candidate they would support if the election were today, 41.7 percent of likely Kentucky voters said Conway and 41.2 percent picked Paul. 16.4 percent remain undecided. The survey of 801 voters was conducted August 16 through 18. The poll has a margin of error of 3.46 points.

The results reflect a 10-point jump for Conway from the last statewide cn|2 poll taken August 2-4. Support for Paul has held steady at around 41 percent mark since June in the cn|2 polls.

However, a Rasmussen Reports poll of about 500 voters interviewed by an automated system released on Wednesday showed Paul with a 49-40 lead over Conway. Four percent prefer another candidate, and seven percent are undecided In all Rasmussen poll to date since January, Paul has received between 46 percent and 50 percent support in match-ups with Conway. During the same period, Conway has earned between 34% and 42% of the vote.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday fell right in the middle of these two polls. This poll gave Paul, a Tea Party favorite, a five point lead over Conway. Paul garnered 45 percent to Conway's 40 percent.

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I've got to run because I'm volunteering on two political campaigns. The thought of Barbara Boxer losing her Senate seat drives me to despair and I'm also volunteering for a local candidate for the Board of Supervisors.

A quick post on the efficient market hypothesis or EMH. “The Efficient Market Hypothesis is not only dead,” noted the financial blog Minyanville on July 29, 2010. “It’s really, most sincerely dead.” Perhaps, first, a quick definition is in order. From Investopedia:

The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is an investment theory that states it is impossible to "beat the market" because stock market efficiency causes existing share prices to always incorporate and reflect all relevant information. According to the EMH, stocks always trade at their fair value on stock exchanges, making it impossible for investors to either purchase undervalued stocks or sell stocks for inflated prices. As such, it should be impossible to outperform the overall market through expert stock selection or market timing, and that the only way an investor can possibly obtain higher returns is by purchasing riskier investments.

The EMH is at cornerstone of our economic model because it lies at the Greenspanian (and conservative) notion that financial markets can be self-regulated, even though financial markets operate very distinctly from normal supply and demand economic principles. As The Economist has noted that “Financial markets do not operate the same way as those for other goods and services. When the price of a television set or software package goes up, demand for it generally falls. When the prices of a financial asset rises, demand generally rises.”

Financial markets are too often guided by a herd mentality that leads to financial asset bubbles. This was true in the Tulip Mania of the early 17th century in Holland and it was true in the more recent Dot Com Stock Market Crash and US housing bubbles. Irrational exuberance trumps information. The EMH is built on the assumptions of investor rationality. 

John Maynard Keynes, however, argued that the stock market should be seen as a "casino" guided by an "animal spirit". Keynes held that investors are guided by short-run speculative motives. They are not interested in assessing the present value of future dividends and holding an investment for a significant period, but rather in estimating the short-run price movements.

Today, Joseph Stiglitz in the Financial Times writes on the need for a new economic paradigm of moving beyond the efficient market hypothesis.

The blame game continues over who is responsible for the worst recession since the Great Depression – the financiers who did such a bad job of managing risk or the regulators who failed to stop them. But the economics profession bears more than a little culpability. It provided the models that gave comfort to regulators that markets could be self-regulated; that they were efficient and self-correcting. The efficient markets hypothesis – the notion that market prices fully revealed all the relevant information – ruled the day. Today, not only is our economy in a shambles but so too is the economic paradigm that predominated in the years before the crisis – or at least it should be.

It is hard for non-economists to understand how peculiar the predominant macroeconomic models were. Many assumed demand had to equal supply – and that meant there could be no unemployment. (Right now a lot of people are just enjoying an extra dose of leisure; why they are unhappy is a matter for psychiatry, not economics.) Many used “representative agent models” – all individuals were assumed to be identical, and this meant there could be no meaningful financial markets (who would be lending money to whom?). Information asymmetries, the cornerstone of modern economics, also had no place: they could arise only if individuals suffered from acute schizophrenia, an assumption incompatible with another of the favoured assumptions, full rationality.

Bad models lead to bad policy: central banks, for instance, focused on the small economic inefficiencies arising from inflation, to the exclusion of the far, far greater inefficiencies arising from dysfunctional financial markets and asset price bubbles. After all, their models said that financial markets were always efficient. Remarkably, standard macroeconomic models did not even incorporate adequate analyses of banks. No wonder former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, in his famous mea culpa, could express his surprise that banks did not do a better job at risk management. The real surprise was his surprise: even a cursory look at the perverse incentives confronting banks and their managers would have predicted short-sighted behaviour with excessive risk-taking.

Stiglitz also points to the work at the George Soros funded Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) that was founded in October 2009. Its mission is to create an environment nourished by open discourse and critical thinking where the next generation of scholars has the support to go beyond our prevailing economic paradigms and advance the culture of change. Two of my favorite economists are associated with the Institute: Simon Johnson of MIT and Richard Koo of Nomura Securities whose book on Japan's lost decade The Balance Sheet Recession has been my guide for looking at our economic situation.

Here's a short video on the INET:

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While former Alaska Governor, Fox News media personality and Twitterer galore Sarah Palin has caused a splash with her high profile endorsements of Mama Grizzlies and Papa Bears, her record, so far, hasn't been anything to brag about. Meanwhile, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina as The State put it seems to have "the Midas touch." He's 6 and 2 overall with some of those six wins knocking off big name GOP establishment picks. If DeMint were a big game hunter, you might say he's the RINO killer.

It's true that nationwide, in the three US Senate Republican primaries in which both Palin and DeMint made endorsements, each has picked two winners — Rand Paul in Kentucky for both, Carly Fiorina in California for Palin and Dino Rossi in Washington for DeMint — but DeMint is quietly amassing key wins in other races where Palin didn't make an endorsement. While the Palin endorsed Carly Fiorina did wallop Chuck DeVore in the high profile California GOP Senate primary, DeMint has now returned the favor as his pick in Washington trounced the Palin-backed Clint Didier. 

Moreover, candidates that Palin supported in Senate races in Kansas, Wyoming and now Washington state lost their primaries despite her high-profile endorsements. Most embarrassing was the loss by Karen Handel who fell short in her runoff contest against Rep. Nathan Deal for Georgia governor just a day after Palin flew to Atlanta for a last minute appearance. Hopes of putting Handel over the top were dashed. Instead, Rep. Deal, who was backed by Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich, eked out a narrow win.

Now, Alaska's Senate primary on Tuesday is shaping up as another embarrassing defeat in her own backyard. Senator Lisa Murkowski is expected to dispatch the challenger Palin has endorsed in the Republican contest proving that the Murkowski dynasty still rules the roost in the Last Frontier. In New Hampshire and Maryland, Palin-backed candidates also seem headed for defeat.

DeMint, however, is riding high having backed Marco Rubio in Florida early on. His endorsement of the former Speaker of the Florida House 14 months ago when he was trailing Governor Charlie Crist badly has proved both pivotal and prescient. The Cuban-American Rubio rode the Tea Party wave and blessed with a $421,000 infusion of cash from DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund PAC crested in the polls. As Crist faded, he was forced to leave the GOP to run as an independent. Score one for DeMint with bonus points for shooting a RINO.

DeMint publicly backed Rand Paul, the libertarian Tea Party darling, on May 5 — a day after US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell endorsed Paul’s GOP primary opponent, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson. When the dust settled in that race, DeMint bagged his second RINO and bonus points for putting a shiner on McConnell in his home state.

The conservative South Carolinian also caused a buzz in the Beehive State. After Senator Bob Bennett was eliminated from the nominating process at the Utah State Nominating Convention, DeMint endorsed Mike Lee. DeMint's endorsement for Lee was delivered at the convention through a video message that was played for the delegates before they cast their votes on the final ballot between Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater. So far, DeMint's PAC has contributed $217,000 to Lee who faces Utah Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission Chairman Sam Granato in the general election. 

Another contrarian pick by DeMint came in Colorado where he backed Ken Buck over the John McCain and establishment pick Jane Norton, another RINO hit. DeMint's PAC, by the way, sent $375,000 Buck's way. 

While DeMint didn’t endorse Nevada's Sharron Angle, a Tea Party favorite, until the day after her June 8 Republican primary win, he has now made up for that by contributing $312,000 to her campaign.

With these endorsements and campaign cash, DeMint has now quietly positioning himself as the de facto leader of the conservative wing of the GOP. Whether the Republicans take back the Senate or not, it's likely that come January Senator DeMint will be in a leadership role. The conservative website Red State is pushing for DeMint as the next Republican Conference Chair arguing that he is "tough as nails, and knows that the best compromise is getting the other side to concede." Red State finds such a development  to be "pure bliss."

Further down the line, Senator DeMint who will win re-election to a second term in the Fall in a cakewalk — 70 percent is not out of the question — has to be seen as a viable Vice Presidential candidate. He'll also play a decisive role come the 2012 South Carolina primary where his choice may end up as the GOP nominee. 

Here are some other stories that are making the rounds today.

General Motors has filed for a public stock offering. The company said that it would offer both common stock and preferred stock in the offering, which could begin as early as October. The deal is being lead-managed by Morgan Stanley. The US government has invested about $50 billion in GM and holds a 61 percent share. The IPO will allow the Treasury Department to bring its holding below the 50 percent share but the filing made clear the government will continue a sizable portion of the automaker. The company has already repaid about $6.7 billion in loans, but most of the rest was converted into equity and can be repaid only by selling those shares. The full story in the New York Times.

Afghan and coalition security forces captured or killed several Haqqani Network and several Talban leaders to include a dual-hatted Taliban sub-commander and Al Qaeda group leader in Afghanistan during 36 separate operations this week according to the ISAF. The Afghan-led operations resulted in more than 110 suspected insurgents detained and more than 20 insurgents killed.Afghan locals in Kunduz province. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that as of Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010, at least 1,130 members of the US military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Additionally since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 7,529 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department.

In a military-related story, Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, has a post on Big Think that looks at the disturbing rise in military suicides.

A Federal grand jury has indicted former All Star pitching ace Roger Clemens on charges of making false statements to Congress about use of performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens last pitched in the Majors in 2007 after a long career mostly with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. The New York Times has more on the story.

President Barack Obama made four recess job appointments to his Administration, including a new US Ambassador to El Salvador, postponing the need for Senate approval. Recess appointments, which have been made by presidents of both parties, allow a president to temporarily bypass the Senate confirmation process required for senior Federal posts by filling vacant positions while lawmakers are on vacation. Mari Carmen Aponte is the new envoy to San Salvador. More on her background from Foreign Policy.

Felix Salmon writes on the Treasury Bubble meme.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has told the Des Moines Register that he feels "being pulled along" into the 2012 Presidential contest and that he's "very encouraged by everything that’s happening.”

Since that first visit last October, when Santorum spoke to a few dozen social conservatives in Des Moines and gave a speech in Dubuque, he has logged four more Iowa trips, more than any GOP prospect weighing a 2012 campaign.

Santorum has handed out three checks to Iowa Republicans and campaigned for seven. He has also enlisted the help of a small circle of Iowa advisers to help him make inroads, including Nick Ryan, a longtime senior aide to former Iowa Congressman Jim Nussle. And on Tuesday, Santorum met with about 80 Republicans in Gull Point State Park near Milford. Santorum and other Republicans eyeing the caucuses have made Iowa contacts while campaigning for candidates running this fall. But Tuesday’s event marked Santorum’s first in Iowa strictly aimed at putting him in touch with party activists.

Santorum also headlined four events for candidates across western and northwest Iowa on Monday and Tuesday, in key Republican hot spots such as Sioux Center and Spencer. He’s the first caucus prospect to dig that deeply into that GOP-heavy part of the state at this early stage in the campaign.

I noted this earlier in the week but the Iowa Republican polled 399 likely Iowa Republican voters on their preference come 2012. Former Arkansas Governor and current Fox News talk show host Mike Huckabee finished on top garnering 22 percent while former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney finished second with 18 percent. Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House from Georgia, finished "surprisingly well" in their view with 14 percent in third place. Sarah Palin finished fourth with 11 percent. Texas Congressman Ron Paul garnered 5 percent, while Pawlenty, and South Dakota Senator John Thune each received 1 percent. Former US Senator Rick Santorum garnered support in the poll but it did not surpass the one percent threshold. He clearly has some work to do.

It is difficult to foresee Rick "man on dog" Santorum differentiating himself in what's likely to be a crowded field. He's not especially well versed on economic issues which will likely dominate both the GOP contes and the general election. Neither is Sarah Palin but she has a ready made cult following though I suspect that her support will continue to erode slowly but surely over the next 18 months.

Of course a year and five months out, anything can happen but Santorum faces an uphill climb on fundraising and name recognition. The field of 2012 Republican prospects includes far better-known names, including national figures Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney not to mention next door neighbor Tim Pawlenty who has also made frequent visits to the Hawkeye State.

The opposition in this year has already imported into this campaign a very interesting thing, because it is foreign. They have imported the propaganda technique invented by the dictators abroad. Remember, a number of years ago, there was a book, Mein Kampf, written by Hitler himself. The technique was all set out in Hitler's book - and it was copied by the aggressors of Italy and Japan. According to that technique, you should never use a small falsehood; always a big one, for its very fantastic nature would make it more credible - if only you keep repeating it over and over and over again. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, The Fala Speech

With nearly one in five Americans believing that Barack Obama is a Muslim and with 55 percent thinking that he is a socialist, I have been reflecting on FDR and in particular a speech he gave on September 23, 1944 to a meeting of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. It was an election speech with FDR in the midst of a presidential campaign against Thomas Dewey. That speech is remembered as the Fala Speech as it references FDR's Scottish Terrier, Fala.

Then, as now, the GOP did what it does best - it employed the big lie. Among the lies the GOP was plying then was that the Great Depression was caused by Democrats even though the stock market crash came in October 1929 when Herbert Hoover was President. But while elephants never forget, the noxious pachyderm that is the GOP hopes that you do. Both Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Rep. Steve Austria of Ohio had the temerity to suggest last year that FDR caused the Great Depression. Nor is that unlike the meme that the GOP has floated now that the cause of our economic trouble now is all attributed to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The parallels on the big lie are so striking that they now even include the White House pet. In 1944, GOP operatives accused FDR of leaving Fala in the Aleutian Islands and then sending a destroyer back to find him. In Obama's drama, Bo, the Portuguese Water Dog, stands accused of being shipped by the White House on a separate jet to Maine on purpose. That's not some nutcase blog pushing that misinformed meme, it is a group with ties to Rick Perry called GOP-USA. GOP-USA is described by its owner Bobby Eberle as a news/information/commentary outlet, and is, as its name implies, a Republican and "conservative" advocacy group. The reason that Bo was flown separately is that the President's B-747, the normal Air Force One, was too large to land at the the small Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton, Maine. Instead, several smaller craft flew the President and his detail. Bo went with one of the President's agents, his personal aide Reggie Love. Hardly some conspiracy to defraud the taxpayers.

As with the right wing noise machine generally, lies are produced daily if not hourly in the hopes one sticks in the national media. The disinformation over the Islamic Cultural Center in lower Manhattan is, for example, traceable to Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugged website and Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch website.

There are many differences between FDR and Barack Obama, and let's be frank, Obama lacks the humor and grace of FDR but the President needs to find his voice if not his spine. His strange and perturbing aversion to political confrontation is about to sink the Democratic party, the progressive agenda for perhaps the rest of this decade.

Some fights are worth having and all lies are worth exposing. The failure to fight back on these lies and to mock the Republicans into submission has been Obama's greatest flaw. Bipartisanship is dead, it has been dead for a generation. To believe much of  the GOP sane and rational is insane and irrational. Pick just about any Republican candidate for office and the insanity drips like wax on a candle. Sharron Angle thinks our laws are based on the Bible, Rand Paul thinks it is okay to discriminate on the basis of race, Dan Maes thinks a bike-sharing program is the path to UN tyranny, the Florida GOP wants to bring back internment camps for illegal immigrants, the Iowa GOP rants on about a non-existent 13th Amendment that banned honorific titles, the Idaho GOP wants to bring back gold and silver currency, the Maine GOP is against the UN Treaty of the Child that tackles child soldiers and child-trafficking, the Wyoming GOP opposes all government competition with private enterprise including the Post Office. At some point, the President has to call them out or he will be confined to the trash bin of history.

A video excerpt is below and you can listen to the full speech here.

If Obama is to save his Presidency, he'd better take a few lessons from Roosevelt and quick. The full text of the Fala Speech is below the fold.

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The U.S. Senate race down in Florida has to be the most fascinating contest in this year’s mid-term elections for me. I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently because of these volatile polls that have come out. Supporters of Marco Rubio, the beleaguered Republican golden boy, were first elated when Mason-Dixon and Rasmussen released polls showing Rubio +5. The pendulum shifted again when Quinnipiac released its most recent survey showing Gov. Charlie Crist ahead by 7 points. On the Democratic side, Rep. Kendrick Meek demonstrates why it’s hard out there for a small-time politician. Ever since Gov. Crist (the orange, unprincipled one, for the casual voters) pole-vaulted out of the Florida GOP to independence, Meek has been a non-entity. And for his part, President Barack Obama hadn’t been showing the brother any love. And while he’s keeping his options open by continuing to flirt with the orange governor, Obama did put on the charm offensive yesterday and ordered a sandwich for the congressman during a trip there.

The Hill:

Even though the president still hasn't headlined a fundraiser or campaign event exclusively for Meek, the congressman's campaign used every chance it could Wednesday to get him close to the president. 

Meek was on the airport tarmac to greet Obama when he arrived, and the two later made a stop at Jerry's Famous Deli in South Beach for corned beef sandwiches.

After purchasing Meek's sandwich, the president joked, "Don't say I never gave you anything."

This race is a welcome, fun departure from an otherwise bitter and depressing political climate.  The two Democrats are both essentially good guys. I can see how some view the White House’s past treatment of Kendrick Meek (an early supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton) as the epitome of its decadence. I tend to cut the president some slack on this one. (We all misread the tea leaves sometimes and have to pay the price, Kendrick!) Besides, Meek’s primary opponent, Jeff Greene, who was once gaining, is a charming politician—a kind of vulgar charm, no doubt. (Jeff Greene is like Bill Clinton with a billion dollars and no Hillary to instill a modicum of discipline.)

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Hat tip to Fired Up, Missouri, one of the best state-focused blogs on the web today.

Last night, the Roy Blunt campaign posted a gross web video with an image of 9/11 rubble and a Robin Carnahan statement about the proposed Park51 project. As Randy Turner writes, "Blunt apparently wants us to be deeply offended because Robin Carnahan said she wasn't going to tell the people of New York what to do about the construction of a mosque in the Ground Zero area and she didn't want New Yorkers to tell us what to do in Missouri."

The Blunt campaign pulled the web-only ad after receiving push back. This morning, Robin Carnahan released the following statement:

Robin Carnahan Demands Apology for Congressman Blunt’s Shameful Ad Exploiting 9/11 Victims and Families

Congressman Blunt releases ad exploiting 9/11 victims and their families to avoid talking about role in $700 billion Wall Street bailout

St. Louis, MO – Today Robin Carnahan released the following statement after Congressman Blunt released a web video shamefully exploiting 9/11 victims and their families for political gain in a desperate attempt to avoid talking about his role in passing the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

“Congressman Blunt’s desperate attempt to avoid talking about his role in the $700 billion bailout by exploiting victims and families of the 9-11 tragedies is the very worst kind of Washington politics,” said Robin Carnahan. “Congressman Blunt should immediately own up to what he did, take responsibility for it, and apologize to the families of the 9-11 victims, whose tragedy he exploited for his own personal political benefit."

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