November 25, 2012
President Obama finished more strongly in the South than any other Democratic presidential nominee in three decades, "underscoring a fresh challenge for Republicans who rely on Southern whites as their base of national support," the
Washington Post reports.
"Obama won Virginia and Florida and narrowly missed victory in North Carolina. But he also polled as well in Georgia as any Democrat since Jimmy Carter, grabbed 44 percent of the vote in deep-red South Carolina and just under that in Mississippi -- despite doing no substantive campaigning in any of those states."
"Much of the post-election analysis has focused on the demographic crisis facing Republicans among Hispanic voters, particularly in Texas. But the results across other parts of the South, where Latinos remain a single-digit minority, point to separate trends among blacks and whites that may also have big implications for the GOP's future."
November 24, 2012
"The Democratic sweep at the top of Pennsylvania's ballot has so energized the party that three prospective candidates are already sending out strong signals of interest in contesting Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's re-election bid two years from now," the
AP reports.
Tom Wolf (D), Tom Knox (D) and John Hanger (D) have all said they are seriously considering seeking the 2014 Democratic nomination or have already decided to run. Former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) also said he is "very interested" in returning to public service but would not discuss his plans for 2014.
Ruling out a gubernatorial campaign: Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and former Gov. Ed Rendell (D).
Rahm Emanuel: "Too much post-election analysis has focused on voter demographics and campaign mechanics, leaving Democrats in danger of drawing the wrong lessons from our electoral success."
"Demographics alone are not destiny. There is nothing in this year's election returns that guarantees Democrats a permanent majority in the years to come. President Obama and the Democratic Party earned the support of key groups -- young people, single women, Latinos, African Americans, auto workers in the Rust Belt and millions of other middle-class Americans -- because of our ideas. But we cannot expect Republicans to cede the economic argument so readily, or to fall so far short on campaign mechanics, the next time around. So, instead of resting on false assurances of underlying demographic advantages, the Democratic Party must follow through on our No. 1 priority, which the president set when he took office and reemphasized throughout this campaign: It is time to come home and rebuild America."
"With President Obama's reelection a done deal, headhunters are expecting worn-out administration aides to look for new jobs in the influence industry,"
The Hill reports.
"Several Obama aides started making post-election plans well before November, holding discussions with executive search firms in Washington as early as this past spring. Their stock has risen since Obama's victory, but they face a tough job market on K Street, where belt-tightening has become the norm."
Get the latest listings at
Political Job Hunt.
"It's, well, Christmas all over again. The Grinch is trying to steal our holiday. It's been so beautiful, the nation comes together, we sing Christmas carols, we give gifts to each other, we have lighted trees, and it's just a beautiful thing. Atheists don't like our happiness, they don't want you to be happy, they want you to be miserable. They're miserable, so they want you to be miserable. So they want to steal your holiday away from you."
-- Pat Robertson, on
The 700 Club, gearing up for another War on Christmas.
Donald Trump's hatred of President Obama "allegedly led his three eldest kids to do an Obama-vention before the election. Eric, Donald Jr. and Ivanka discussed telling their dad to calm down, then decided collectively to approach Trump and ask him to turn it down a notch with the presidential bashing," the
New York Daily News reports.
Said a source: "The three of them met and went to see their dad in his Fifth Ave. office. They showed a lot of respect, but told him he's worked too long and too hard to build up the reputation he has. They understand completely he's always been outspoken and that he likes attention, but this is too much."
"Ten years after her kidnapping, Elizabeth Smart is preparing her story of being held captive by a homeless street preacher, her improbable rescue after nine months, and how she advocated for children after the ordeal,"
Politico reports.
"The account is being written by Chris Stewart, a congressman-elect from Utah who has authored books with religious and patriotic themes."
The body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is to be exhumed on Tuesday, the
BBC reports.
His body is to undergo tests to find out whether his death in Paris in 2004 was caused by poisoning. Arafat's medical records say he had a stroke resulting from a blood disorder.
Daily Beast: "The move comes just four months after an
Al Jazeera documentary
revealed new Swiss findings of unusually high levels of the deadly
radioactive isotope polonium-210 on Arafat's last personal effects. It
is seen as a last-gasp effort to finally solve the mystery of his
November 2004 death in France."
November 23, 2012
"I think Huntsman would have been a very tough general election candidate. He's a good guy. We looked at his profile in a general election and thought he would have been difficult."
-- Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, in an interview with
Politico, saying Jon Huntsman would have been the toughest Republican challenger in the 2012 presidential race.
New York Times: "Mr. Bush is said by friends to be weighing financial and family considerations -- between so many years in office and the recession his wealth took a dip, they said, and he has been working hard to restore it -- as well as the complicated place within the Republican Party of the Bush brand."
"After Mitt Romney's defeat by a Democratic coalition built around overwhelming support from Hispanics and other fast-growing demographic groups, many Republicans are looking for a candidate who can help make the party more inclusive without ceding conservative principles -- and no one is the subject of more speculation at this point than Mr. Bush."
"To his supporters, Mr. Bush is the man for the moment. His wife, Columba, was born and raised in Mexico. He speaks Spanish and favors overhauling the immigration system in a way that would provide a route to citizenship for people already in the country illegally but otherwise law-abiding."
New York Times: "Come January, more than two-thirds of the states will be under single-party control, raising the prospect that bold partisan agendas -- on both ends of the political spectrum -- will flourish over the next couple of years."
"Twenty-four states will be controlled by Republicans, including Alaska and Wisconsin, where the party took the State Senate, and North Carolina, where the governorship changed hands. At least 13 states will be Democratic, including Colorado, Minnesota and Oregon, where control of the legislatures shifted, and California, where the already dominant Democrats gained a supermajority in both chambers. (The situation in New York, where the potential for single-party control by the Democrats rests on the makeup of the Senate, is still uncertain.)"
When the
Democratic Dream Mug is filled with coffee all 50 states turn blue.
Jonathan Chait: "The first few weeks after a losing presidential election are an awkward period for the most devoted ideological polemicist. Months of optimistic spin about your candidate must be cast aside for an entirely different sort of spin -- where before the candidate was a budding juggernaut boldly carrying the party banner onward to victory, now we can see in hindsight that he was a hapless loser unable to articulate our side's clearly winning vision. Transitioning from one line to another can often take months of careful tip-toeing.
Commentary editor John Podhoretz offers up a magisterial postelection essay,
The Way Forward, that instead simply takes the full plunge all at once."
Wall Street Journal: "The tea-party movement is trying to regroup after taking some licks in this month's elections. Several groups already are setting their sights on 2014 congressional races, in which they plan to promote their preferred candidates and hope to weed out Republicans they consider insufficiently conservative."
"Many tea-party activists say they remain dumbfounded by the Nov. 6 defeat of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and favored GOP candidates for the Senate, and opinions are swirling over how the movement should push forward."
November 22, 2012
Ynetnews notes that while little was heard from President Obama during the military confrontation between Israel and Hamas, behind the scenes, while visiting Burma and Cambodia, he was working overtime to pressure both sides into agreeing to truce.
"Throughout his trip
in South East Asia he was constantly on the phone with both Morsi and
Netanyahu, before and after his meetings with the leaders of China and
Japan. The president even made time to speak with both leaders during a
dinner held as part of a summit of East Asian leaders."
"His goal - creating the conditions needed for a ceasefire. Publically
he praised Morsi and Netanyahu, and behind the scenes he was pressuring
them to bring the conflict between Israel and Hamas to an end."
Wonk Wire notes that GOP lawmakers in Michigan have proposed a tax credit for unborn fetuses, less than a year after they eliminated a tax credit for children.
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) told the
Knoxville News Sentinel that he "never intentionally misled voters about his past and stressed that he has no plans to resign over recent revelations that depict a private life starkly at odds with his public image as an anti-abortion, family values congressman."
In his first extensive remarks since the release of a court transcript from his 14-year-old divorce, DesJarlais conceded that he often used "very poor judgment" during his first marriage and said he is not the same man who supported his first wife's decision to have two abortions.
The physician-turned-lawmaker said he also deeply regrets sexual relationships with multiple women, including two patients and three co-workers.
I'm thankful for the greatest readers on the planet. Enjoy your day!
Just published:
Dogfight: The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse by Calvin Trillin.
Hilarious.
Staffers for Linda McMahon's (R) failed U.S. Senate campaign in Connecticut tell
WTNH-TV they were not paid after Election Day.
One who complained publicly said he was later handed a check but also got a little something extra in his envelope.
Said the campaign worker: "Basically he handed me a check with a condom in it, told me I was screwed. That's the rudest gesture you can ever do to a person, it's like spitting in a person's face."
His check also bounced.
As Congress faces negotiations about averting the "fiscal cliff," Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) told
WMAZ-TV that he's not willing to be bound by the anti-tax pledge he once signed.
Said Chambliss: "I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge."
When asked if he thought anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist would hold it against him during his next re-election bid in 2014, he said he probably would.
"But I don't worry about that because I care too much about my country. I care a lot more about it than I do Grover Norquist."
Mark Blumenthal takes a deep dive into the Obama campaign polling operation and notes they never conducted a nationwide survey.
Instead, it conducted polls across 11 battleground states (Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan,
Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and
Wisconsin) at regular intervals throughout the campaign. These were supplemented by state tracking polls and parallel surveys to refine its microtargeting models.
Campaign manager Jim Messina says this gave him a deeper understanding of
"how we were doing, where we were doing it, where we were moving --
which is why I knew that most of the public polls you were seeing were
completely ridiculous."
Jill Kelley -- a central figure in the investigation of Gen. David Petraeus -- in March 2011 was awarded a prestigious medal from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the
New York Post reports.
The award, the country's second-highest honor for a civilian, was given to acknowledge Kelley's "selfless contributions" and "willingness to host engagements" for top pols and military brass. Petraeus recommended her for the award.
"It's just something that's gotten totally out of control. It's been bad for years, but no one has had the guts to say it until now."
-- GOP strategist Charlie Black, quoted by the
AP, on Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R)
coming out against the Ames Straw Poll.
The
Washington Post says although liberals "rejoiced over their strongest election showing in decades" many are now worried that "what seems like a liberal 'morning in America' could turn out to be a false dawn."
"The focus of their distress is none other than Obama, who many left-leaning Democrats fear will go too far in reaching an accord with Republicans on the "fiscal cliff." Liberal groups are gearing up media campaigns aimed at pressuring Obama and congressional Democrats to hold the line on proposed GOP cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs."
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