Month: July 2010

Gallup: Dems Move Ahead of GOP in Generic Preference, 6 Point Jump Is Their First Lead This Cycle

Jon Ponder

graph-gallup-congressional-preference-0710

Gallup says:

In the same week the U.S. Senate passed a major financial reform bill touted as reining in Wall Street, Democrats pulled ahead of Republicans, 49 percent to 43 percent, in voters’ generic ballot preferences for the 2010 congressional elections.

The Democrats’ six-point advantage in Gallup Daily interviewing from July 12-18 represents the first statistically significant lead for that party’s candidates since Gallup began weekly tracking of this measure in March.

Whether the Democrats’ edge is sustainable remains to be seen. Republicans held a four-point or better lead over Democrats in three Gallup weekly averages thus far this year, but in each case, the gap narrowed or collapsed to a tie the following week.

Personally, I think the Bush Policies’ oil disaster in the Gulf has everyone on edge, and voters have been venting their displeasure against the party in power. The plugging of the hole on July 15 could well be a factor in the uptick here.

Why Are Legitimate Journalists Ignoring the Pattern of Race-Baiting on Fox?

Jon Ponder

Megyn Kelly
Megyn Kelly
By now, if you’ve heard nothing else about the New Black Panthers Party voter-intimidation incident, you know that the folks at Fox News are positively in a snit that such a huge, huge scandal is being ignored by what Fox News star Sarah Palin calls the lamestream media.

“No one seems to give a darn,” Megyn Kelly, the newsreader who’s been given the lead in pushing the NBPP story, recently said, with a heartfelt pout.

She’s right, of course, but what her viewers will never know is that source of the apathy isn’t the liberal media giving cover to Pres. Obama (not hardly), it’s the fact that there is no “there” there to the NBPP story.

On the other hand, there is a real story here that traditional journalists are ignoring. The attack by this giant “news” network — with its virtually unlimited resources thanks to its amoral right-wing billionaire owner/sugar daddy, Rupert Murdoch — against a tiny, radical fringe group only makes sense when viewed as part of a pattern of race baiting by the network.

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Unlike Palin, British First Lady Won’t Fly While Pregnant

Jon Ponder

The British prime minister’s wife won’t be coming with him on his visit to Washington, says the Daily Mail via Andrew Sullivan:

Mrs Cameron, 38, is said by friends to be ‘knackered’ as she prepares for the birth of her fourth child. Her fourth child is due in September and although at 36 weeks, most airlines would allow her to fly, she won’t be accompanying her husband to the US this week:

Most airlines allow pregnant women to fly up to and including the 36th week, provided the pregnancy has been straightforward. Mrs Cameron’s baby is understood to be due in early September, meaning she could still travel if she wished.

Sullivan comments: “If she were a real American, she’d not only be flying in a month’s time, but experiencing labor on two transcontinental flights! Honestly, these women who actually behave according to the usual rules of human biology, time and space. They really should be refudiated.”

Tea Party Federation Expels Tea Party Bus Rally Organizers over Ex-Chair’s Racist Rant

Jon Ponder

Tea Party Express bus
Tea Party Express bus
On Saturday, the National Tea Party Federation, a group that appears to be a sort of organizing body for local tea party groups around the country, announced that it had issued an ultimatum to Tea Party Express, the group whose outgoing chairman, Mark Williams, set off a firestorm of criticism after he posted a racist rant to his website:

Last night, the members of the National Tea Party Federation participating in an “All Hands” conference call unanimously decided the following:

The membership of the National Tea Party Federation has this evening suspended and will immediately expel Tea Party Express from any further association with the Federation should they fail to publicly rebuke Mark Williams and remove him from their ranks by 3 pm eastern time Saturday July 17.

The rebuke must take the following form:

1. Mark Williams must be officially removed from the ranks of the Tea Party Express.

2. Notice of Mark Williams’ removal must be placed prominently on the official Tea Party Express website.

3. Tea Party Express must issue a press release articulating points 1 and 2 above.

A message on the NTPF web site indicates the TPE refused the ultimatum:

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With New Senator, Unemployment Bill Should Pass on Tuesday

Trish

CarteGoodwin
Almost Sen. Carte Goodwin
The Senate’s newest, and youngest, member is set to be sworn in Tuesday, just in time to vote “Yes” on a bill extending unemployment benefits. Carte Goodwin, 36, a lifelong Democrat and West Virginian, was selected by that state’s Gov. Joe Manchin to fill the spot left when the Senate’s oldest member, Robert Byrd, recently died.

Manchin plans to assume the seat himself in November, and appointed his former legal counsel as a place-holder until the voters can choose. Let’s hope Manchin has better luck with that than Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. When Crist picked his most trusted counsel, George LeMieux, to fill the seat vacated by former Sen. Mel Martinez last year, LeMieux looked like a safe and loyal pick. But after Crist left the Republican party to run for the Senate with no party affiliation, LeMieux — seen by many as having further political ambitions — abandoned his former boss and friend and announced he was supporting Republican/Tea Party candidate Marco Rubio.

Goodwin, whose wife Rochelle is state director for West Virginia’s other senator, Jay Rockefeller, has also been described as a “rising star” in party circles. As Manchin’s general counsel, he helped craft new regulations in response to West Virginia coal mining disasters in 2006. At the same time, he opposes limiting carbon emissions in proposed cap and trade legislation, because he says it threatens old technology energy jobs.

For the present, his vote on the unemployment compensation extension will be party-line. With Goodwin, 59 Democrats are expected to vote in favor of the bill, with only Nebraska’s Ben Nelson opposing. All Republicans except possibly Maine’s Olympia Snow and Susan Collins, are expected to vote against it.

Verbatim

Trish

I’ll be the only one that hasn’t run as a Republican in the past.

–Florida Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, commenting on his competition in the race: former Florida House Speaker and Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio, Gov. Charlie Crist, who recently went NPA, and millionaire Jeff Greene, who has been a Florida resident and a Democrat for less than two years.

Florida’s Dropping Unemployment Rate Should Benefit Democrats But It Won’t

Trish

CharlieBikersAn announcement that Florida’s jobless rate, among the highest in the nation, fell for the third straight month should be good news for Florida’s elected officials. But for those running for the next office, what’s good for the state can be bad for campaigns.

Speculation is whether the news benefits Democrats, who share party affiliation with Pres. Obama, or Republicans, who have done less than nothing to facilitate a recovery, unless you consider holding your breath and stomping your feet, “facilitating.” But Florida’s Gov. Charlie Crist is neither fish nor fowl thanks to a recent move to “No Party Affiliation,” making him the true beneficiary of the drop from the March high of 12.3 percent to June’s still high but better 11.4.

The awkwardness of their positions was evident in the reactions from Crist’s rivals for the Florida Senate seat. If things are going badly, it must be the governor’s fault. If they’re going well…hmmm.

The winner is… Gov. Charlie Crist, NPA

“There are clear signs that we’re moving from recession to recovery, but growth is fragile and much more work needs to be done,” Meek said on Friday.

Republican candidate Marco Rubio has harped on the loss of jobs in Florida while lambasting efforts by President Obama and Governor Charlie Crist, an independent candidate for the Senate, to stimulate the economy.

If the rate continues to drop, Crist looks better and better. All the heat he took from Republicans for accepting federal stimulus funding will seem more like what it was — blustering and posturing at the expense of residents who need work. If the rate even holds steady, Crist can still take credit for moving the needle. Rubio has less to criticize (although a lack of facts hasn’t stopped a Republican from being critical yet), and Meek will be stuck with his, “good but could be better” line.

CA Sen: Fiorina Blames Latest Gaffe on Surgery – Lags Behind Boxer in Donations 12 to 1

Jon Ponder

Fiorina referring to her chemo-related hair loss at a campaign event last year
Fiorina referring to her chemo-related hair loss at a campaign event last year
The last anyone in California (or anyone anywhere else, probably) heard from the GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, she’d made a huge rookie blunder in memory. On the first day of the general election campaign, she was caught on video dissing the hairdo of her 69-year-old opponent, Sen. Barbara Boxer.

“God, what is with that hair?” Fiorina, 55, cackled, working her Blackberry and preening like a 14-year-old mean girl. “Sooo yesterday.”

That was the first week in June. Now, in mid-July, Fiorina is in the news again because of a gaffe. At a press conference in Clovis on Wednesday, Fiorina criticized Boxer for skipping the GOP-dominated San Joaquin Valley during a series of job-related events the week before.

“Last week Barbara Boxer was in California,” Fiorina said, during a brief press conference. “She did not bother to visit the Central Valley.”

Wrong. Boxer spent two days in the Central Valley as part of her jobs tour. She attended jobs-related events in Fresno on July 7 and Stockton on July 8.

As is its practice, the Fiorina team has not offered an apology, nor will one be forthcoming. (Carly still hasn’t apologized to the senator for the tacky comments about her hair.)

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