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November 08, 2010
The most-watched political video of the year was Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC)
getting rough with a two college students, according to
YouTube statistics.
The runner-up and my favorite: Dale Peterson's
primary ad for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner.
The
Wall Street Journal reports that attempts to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are likely dead in the water for "the foreseeable future."
President Obama "has repeatedly said he wants to overturn the policy, which bans gays from serving openly in the armed forces. Advocates on both sides believed the issue had a chance of coming up in this month's post-election session of Congress. Now that looks unlikely."
The Hotline reports that House Republicans could gain at least 10 seats in 2012 just because Republican gains in state legislatures and governorships have given the party significantly more sway in the redistricting process that will follow the 2010 census.
"In the states projected to gain or lose seats after the census this year, the GOP now holds the redistricting 'trifecta' -- meaning the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature -- in the vast majority of them... This is critically important because these are the states where districts will be most drastically redrawn and, in the states that stand to gain a seat, it virtually guarantees that new district will be drawn with a future Republican member in mind."
Next on my reading list:
Washington: A Life, by Ron Chernow.
Salon: "Chernow has gone into Washington's world, almost into his mind, and inhabited it. Under his gaze, from the very first page, that world begins to speak and stir, and great Washington steps before us, as if on an enormous stage, distant but clear, breathing. If I have not said so already, this is far and away the best life of George Washington ever written."
USA Today: "Had Ron Chernow not chosen to write biographies, he would have made a spectacular shrink. The man has a bone-deep understanding of what motivates human beings... In fact, even history buffs who have put a dent in the mountain of books about the Founding Fathers should consider this one because of the quality of the writing and psychological insights."
In an Fox News interview with Sean Hannity to air tomorrow night, former President George W. Bush said he wants his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), to run for president one day but it will not be in the next election.
Said Bush: "I wish he would. He has to run first. And he has made it clear he is not running in 2012. And when the man says, 'I'm not running,' he means it. I wish he would run."
"I am at peace. I was honored to serve the country. I gave it my all. I'm not desperate to try to shape a legacy, because I fully understand that there needs to be time for history to be able to analyze -- for historians to be able to analyze the decisions I made."
-- Former President George W. Bush, in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News to air tomorrow night.
Republicans are trying to lure Sen.-elect Joe Manchin (D-WV) across the aisle to become a Republican,
Fox News reports.
"Aside from his pick of committee assignments (likely the Energy and Natural Resources Committee), Manchin might get support for one of his pet projects -- a plant to convert coal to diesel fuel that has stalled under Democratic leadership in Washington."
The reason: "Republicans believe Manchin is particularly susceptible to the overture because he is up for reelection in 2012 and will have to be on the ticket with President Obama, who is direly unpopular in West Virginia."
Said one Manchin adviser: "He was elected as a Democrat and he has to go to Washington as a Democrat to try, in good faith, to make the changes in the party he campaigned on. Now, if that doesn't work and Democrats aren't receptive, I don't know what possibilities that leaves open."
The
Washington Post snags an early copy of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R) new book,
Leadership and Crisis, and notes he slams a list of sex scandal-plagued politicians, such as John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Larry Craig, John Edwards and Bill Clinton.
Writes Jindal: "Taking advantage of others, or exploiting powerful positions to enrich ourselves or to feed our own appetites, is the opposite of real leadership."
Jindal also criticizes former New York governor Eliot Spitzer (D) for "getting caught with prostitutes" but chooses to ignore Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who also admitted to using the prostitutes.
Here's a sign of the times: Four of the top five
New York Times political bestsellers are by conservative commentators blasting President Obama and his policies.
1.
Obama's Wars, by Bob Woodward.
2.
The Roots Of Obama's Rage, by Dinesh D'Souza.
3.
Trickle Up Poverty, by Michael Savage.
4.
Pinheads And Patriots, by Bill O'Reilly.
5.
Broke, by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe.
First Read: "The most underreported part of Nancy Pelosi's
decision on Friday to run for minority leader: The fact that her announcement (both her Tweet and her full statement) NEVER once mentioned how she plans to lead the House Democrats back to the majority. It was about protecting what had been created (health care, and Wall Street reform), not about how Democrats regain power. We know that Pelosi racked up a considerable legislative record over the past two years, and we also know that she and her team were able to win control in '06. But how does she fix her public image?"
Meanwhile, a
New York Times editorial argues House Democrats need a new leader: "What they need is what Ms. Pelosi has been unable to provide: a clear
and convincing voice to help Americans understand that Democratic
policies are not bankrupting the country, advancing socialism or
destroying freedom."
There are still nine House races that are too close to call and the Republican candidate leads in five of them.
First Read has a good recap.
The undecided races: AZ-8, CA-20, NY-25, IL-8, TX-27, CA-11, KY-6, VA-11, WA-2.
The
St. Petersburg Times notes Sen.-elect Marco Rubio (R), a longtime GOP insider, is already distancing himself from the Tea Party after his victory last week.
"Rubio has already made it clear that he will not be a rogue senator. One day after the election, he declared his support for the GOP establishment when he said he looked forward to serving under Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. He did not mention Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, viewed as the more ideologically pure conservative and alternative power center, who championed Rubio's campaign early on."
Ben Smith: "Among Marco Rubio's most impressive political accomplishments this year was to harness the grassroots conservative fervor without being consumed by it, like other conservative candidates, and without having it turn against him, like other Republican Establishment types."
President Obama's complete, unedited interview on
60 Minutes is definitely worth watching. Most interesting was his admission that Democrats didn't compromise
and seek middle ground with Republicans.
Said Obama: "Part of my promise to the American people when I was elected was to maintain the kind of tone that says we can disagree without being disagreeable. And I think over the course of two years, there have been times where I've slipped on that commitment."
See more...
A new
Salt Lake Tribune/Mason-Dixon poll in Utah finds more voters want Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) replaced than want to see him re-elected to another six-year term, 48% to 40%.
Jon Ralston: "From the evening Sharron Angle won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, when the Reid campaign had two lacerating websites ready to go, to the ensuing few weeks, when ad after ad pummeled the Tea Party darling with her own words, the Senate majority leader's political team exemplified the Boy Scout motto. They were prepared -- for anything."
"That assiduous preparation and exemplary execution paid off: Two days after the primary, a Rasmussen Reports poll, flawed though it may have been, showed Angle ahead, 50-39. A month later, Rasmussen had it 46-43, a dead heat."
"Looking back on the most intense and in so many ways, most incredible, U.S. Senate race in Nevada history, I believe Reid won the race in those four weeks after the primary -- or, perhaps, even before that."
Hendrick Hertzberg argues that for President Obama, and for the country, "the next two years look awfully bleak. Capitol Hill will be like Hamburger Hill, a noisy wasteland of sanguinary stalemate. There will be no more transformative legislation; it will be all Obama can do simply to protect health-care reform from sabotage. The economy, like the climate, will be left to fend for itself. And the world will watch, wonder, and worry."
"The only negatives they have on me are my positions."
-- Peter Schiff (R), quoted by the
Connecticut Post, arguing that he could have won Connecticut's U.S. Senate race.
Sarah Palin is preparing to give a keynote address on the Federal Reserve and monetary policy to a trade-association convention in Phoenix, reports the
National Review.
Alexander Burns: "We'll know she wants to run for president, they said, when Sarah Palin starts staking out actual policy positions. Well the former Alaska governor is venturing into unfamiliar territory... grabbing a piece of the anti-Fed action in a dense, wonkishly written speech."
Smart Politics finds that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was one of just eight Democratic incumbents who won re-election by a larger victory margin during the Republican landslide of 2010 than during the Democratic wave of 2008.
The flip side: Of the 230 Democratic incumbents on the general election
ballot last week, 221 had a smaller margin of victory -- or lost
their election outright. One incumbent had the same margin of victory as
in 2008.
The
Washington Post has a great chart showing the companies that profited the most from the midterm election campaign.
Interesting notes: Advertising firms show a very clear partisan divide, while the US Postal Service was used equally by Democrats and Republicans. It also seems that Democrats spend considerably more on liquor and beverages (and bingo) than Republicans.
Politico: "In an election marked by dramatic defections from the Democratic Party, older voters swung hardest, seemingly threatened by President Barack Obama's mantra of change. Voters over 65 favored Republicans last week by a 21-point margin after flirting with Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections and favoring John McCain by a relatively narrow 8-point margin in 2008."
Independent candidate Eliot Cutler (I) says those who cast their ballots weeks early may have cost him the election for Maine governor against Paul LePage (R), the
AP reports.
Many voters who wanted somebody other than LePage cast their early ballots with Libby Mitchell (D), "who three to four weeks before the election appeared to be their best bet. But many of those early Mitchell voters would have voted for Cutler had they waited and seen that Cutler was surging near the end."
In the end, Cutler lost by fewer than 10,000 votes. He finished with nearly 37% of the vote, just 1.5 points behind LePage. Mitchell was way back at 19%.
November 07, 2010
"I'm going to need a job."
-- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), in an interview on
Meet the Press, not ruling out a run for president in 2016.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) beat challenger Bill White (D) "for an historic and unprecedented third four-year term by a whopping 13 points" but
Mark McKinnon notes "what is really surprising is the way Perry won. Sure, he did all the traditional things well. He raised a ton of money. He honed a clear and compelling message and communicated it aggressively with great discipline. And he galvanized the Republican base. But, he also did something shockingly unconventional. He told the press to take a hike."
"Perry didn't receive any endorsements from the major newspapers in the Lone Star State. And, the governor went out of his way to make sure he didn't. Perry didn't attend a single editorial endorsement meeting -- knowing he would, therefore, be unlikely to gain any newspaper endorsements. And he didn't. Which is what he wanted."
Nicholas Kristof: "The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976. As Timothy Noah of Slate noted in an excellent
series on inequality, the United States now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana."
"C.E.O.'s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent."
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