Today's installment of campaign-related news items that won't necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* Apparently Fox News is on the anti-Republican polling scandal that's been denounced on Fox News: the network's new national poll shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by five, 48% to 43%.
* After the "ladylike" developments yesterday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) told MSNBC this morning that her challenger, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) "makes Michele Bachmann look like a hippie."
* On a related note, NRSC Chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas) said yesterday that as far as he's concerned, the U.S. Senate race in Missouri "is not a winnable race" for Republicans.
* In New Hampshire, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows Obama leading Romney by seven, 51% to 44%. The same poll shows Maggie Hassan (D) with a narrow lead over Ovide Lamontagne (R) in the state's gubernatorial race, 47% to 45%.
* In North Carolina, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows Obama maintaining a narrow lead over Romney, 48% to 46%.
* In Nevada, which Obama won with relative ease four years ago, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows the president ahead by only two points, 49% to 47%. The same poll shows Sen. Dean Heller (R) leading in his re-election bid by six points.
* In Virginia, where most recent polls show Obama leading by a healthy margin, a new Suffolk poll shows the president up by only two, 46% to 44%. The same poll shows Virginia's closely-watched U.S. Senate race between Tim Kaine and George Allen tied at 44% each.
* In Indiana, where Republicans are clearly concerned about the Senate race, a Howey/DePauw poll shows Rep. Joe Donnelly (D) inching past Richard Mourdock (R), 40% to 38%. The same poll found Romney cruising past Obama in the Hoosier state by double digits.
* And in Minnesota, a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll shows Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) cruising to re-election with a 29-point lead over her Republican challenger, Kurt Bills (thanks to reader R.B. for the tip).
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Re Todd Akin, I guess if you can't compete on substance, you attack the other person's style.
Unlike McCaskill, Sen. Debbie Stabenow is cruising to re-election in Michigan--but I imagine she would love for Pete Hoekstra to call her "unladylike" and a "wildcat." Because her constituents want someone who will fight for them.
Todd Akin is playing to his base (misogynist men and their dutiful wives), but I don't think he will get any independents with that line of attack.
I thought the same thing. McCaskill should embrace Akin's remarks. How about "Todd Akin called me a wildcat and said I was unladylike during our recent debate. Well, I will continue to fight like a wildcat if that is what it takes to protect Missouri and America from Todd Akin's extremism. If that makes me unladylike, so be it."
Good name for Akin: Todd Apeman.
Me Tarzan,,,
McCaskill can very much improve her chances of re-election simply be running those clips of Akin wanting to pr ivatize Social Security and declaring that Medicare is unconstitutional. Missouri has a higher than normal percentage of older, poorer people. They won't take kindly to someone who wants to eliminate those programs.
I wonder how many of the youger single women who didn't vote in 2008 will be super motivated to cast a vote this time with much more on the line with respect to reproductive rights.
The idea of outlawing the pill,, should (in most parrallel realities) have the republicans polling in the single digits.
What does Akin know about being "ladylike". He is not even conducting himself like a man. A man would not personally attack a woman. He has no respect for women. We can no longer afford to be intimidated by men, not if we are to move forward in restoring our planet, and healing what men like Akin have destroyed.
He knows less about ladylike than he knows about ladybits.
To call Akin unmanly for (verbally) attacking a woman, is to reinforce the exact same gender stereotypes that he assumes in calling her "unladylike."
Call him rude, call him cowardly, misinformed, even misogynistic. But "manly" is too close to "gentlemanly" (which is what you really mean vis a vis his comments). And gentlemanly is the flip side of ladylike.
The proper adjective both sides should be striving for is "senatorial."
In Fla. a constitutional amendment is on the ballot allowing use of taxpayer money for religious organizations. Another is to allow the legislature to overturn supreme court rulings with a majority vote. Another to prevent penalties for not getting insurance, another to limit tax increases. A couple that did not make the ballot; to give the legislature power over all branches of govt. personhood,and descrimination against alternative unions. The GOP power grab continues. Please read the lengthy amendments before going to vote.
Boy, all that gator-bait trash down there really want their privileges without the attendant responsibilities, eh? They must all be a bunch of Dimmycrats.
/snark
That sun screen must be affecting peoples brains down there.
I echo your words. They sought to distort & confuse voters with language that leaves the voter bewildered by the language which seems to say opposite of what is meant & could easily mislead what they really mean. Florida is so deep in voter hijinks. No matter what the court says they are continuing. They are also trying to assure those judges who are trying to keep dignity in this election will not be retained. The league of Woman's Voters stated people would need a smart attorney to explain these 11 proposed amendments because of the very confused way they have been written & of course that was to deliberately confuse.
They seem determained to turn florida into an aynrand banana republic experiment
We have coherent government here in iowa , yet still the same thing happened with the language presented when the wingers successfully had one of our supreme court judges voted out in 2010 , a YES vote meant the judge would be unseated , I read the ballot 3 times and could not figure out what was what , and had to ask for it to be translated ..... it had the judges name , then yes or no check points , then the explaination was a paragraph of confusion, it was disgusting to watch the out come after that , conservatives bring out jim crow every election now
Ovide Lamontagne - wow, like Reince Priebus, these are both "Republican names." As in, if you'd been given these equivalents of "A Boy Named Sue" and been chased home as often as they were, you'd be a Republican too.
When a campaign comes down to stripping the rights of women and demeaning them with this kind of name calling, you know it is not just a candidate, but a party that needs serious re-assessment. I can't believe a single voter would agree to have Akin represent anyone in any governing body.
Then I see what Scott Brown is trying to do to Elizabeth Warren and honestly believe racist and sexist attacks are open season now. There appear to be no scruples left in this party on the ropes. What al ow point in American political history.
Mitt Romney slams Mitt Romney for not agreeing with what Mitt Romney said yesterday, says he likes what Mitt Romney said two days ago
Here is a woman who knows (as in personally) Mitt Romney. http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/election2012/6370/mitt_romney%E2%80%99s_best-known_mormon_critic_tells_it_all._one_last_time._/
I can't say for sure, but it was not long ago that Akin's beliefs and attitudes toward women were pretty mainstream. For a woman to aspire to public office was considered kind of unnatural and 'unladylike.' Many married women did not know how much their husbands made, and were doled out a cash homemaking allowance to work from. I remember as a child seeing an episode of "Batman" in which the city government was taken over by women, who were then immobilized by a plague of . . . mice. Yes, it was a campy comedy, but the attitude was not far from the truth.
I recall feeling very uncomfortable with the idea of interracial marriage; an attitude that was later expressed by my own family when I decided to marry a white woman (see my last name?). It's really not been too long since Akin was firmly in the middle of the spectrum, if not a bit to the left. After all, he doesn't openly say that his opponent should just stay in the kitchen.
When Moses took his people out of Egypt, eventually God had to let them wander in the desert until the older generation died out before he could let them enter the promised land. He could not make them change their minds and attitudes, shaped by generations of life in Egypt and slavery. So, too, it seems with this nation.
As Rogers and Hammerstein put it: "You've Got to be Carefully Taught"
An interesting tidbit from that IN poll: it has Romney-50/Obama-42, while showing Donnelly-40/Mourdock-38. Only 8% of Hoosiers haven't decided who they're going to vote for as President, while 22% haven't yet made their choice for Senator? Mourdock's got an "R" behind his name, for pete's sake!
As a Hoosier, that tells me three things. First, a majority of Hoosiers don't like President Obama (who knew?). Second, an awful lot of Hoosiers don't seem to like Mourdock. Finally, if those polls are at all accurate, it's gonna take a lot of split tickets for Romney to take this state.
Personally, I like purple...