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:
* President Obama may have picked up endorsements from Colin Powell and Michael Bloomberg, but Mitt Romney has earned the sought-after support of C. Montgomery Burns.
* In Colorado, a new CNN poll shows Obama narrowly leading Romney, 50% to 48%, among likely voters. Among registered voters, the president's lead is much larger.
* In New Hampshire, a New England College poll shows Obama up by six, 50% to 44%.
* As Republicans place a greater emphasis on Pennsylvania, Bill Clinton will campaign on Obama's behalf in the state on Monday.
* In arguably the day's most interesting poll, a Howey Politics Indiana/DePauw University Battleground Poll shows Rep. Joe Donnelly (D) ahead by double digits over Richard Mourdock (R) in Indiana's U.S. Senate race, 47% to 36%.
* In Missouri's closely watched Senate race, one of Todd Akin's final ads features a rape victim who says she supports the right-wing congressman.
* In Wisconsin, a Marquette University Law School poll shows Tammy Baldwin (D) leading Tommy Thompson (R) by four points, 47% to 43%, while the latest NBC/WSJ/Marist poll shows Baldwin up by only one point, 48% to 47%.
* The latest Quinnipiac poll shows the Democratic candidates ahead in the U.S. Senate races in Florida, Ohio, and Virginia, by margins ranging from 4 to 13 points.
* And in an interesting twist in Virginia, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R) is actually having to spend some money on television advertising in his latest re-election bid. In his six terms, Cantor has never faced a competitive challenger.
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Help retire Eric "Bitchface" Cantor - support Wayne Powell for Congress if you can!
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Mooch the Vote 2012!
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A rape victim who supports Akin?
Either this woman has NO respect for herself and her body or she's an idiot.
I wonder if she actually got pregnant or was just raped?
All those women are on Prozac, it would be hard to tell real or imagined?!
She's the same one who supported him before. Quite often, I find that today's fundamentalist is someone who previously was a "normal" person and did normal things, but due to their upbringing are overwhelmed with guilt over things done they feel they shouldn't have, so they turn to the forgiving arms of religion, get "born again," and then work to be sure no one else can make the "mistakes" they made.
No offense Dogjudge, but she obviously did not get pregnant. Perhaps she is so in tune with her body that she felt it shutting down at the time, so she knows Akin is correct on the subject. I'm just trying to come up with a justification for her support. I realize I failed; she's just a lunatic.
I googled her trying to get some background, wondering if she is just another Repub. Staffer acting the part, like the other commercials featuring Women . Is she on the payroll? How Much?
There you go, Sick-n-effin. I think you hit the nail on the head. It would be very interesting to see this person's bank account, note large deposits done recently, etc. That's how Romney rolls, and he would have no problem paying this woman to appear in this commercial.
Last night I saw Scott Brown's new TV ad for the senate race in MA. WOW! ...they pulled out all the stops on this one with really loud shouts from Brown addressing the cheering crowds of people with a backdrop of really, really patriotic music. It's very presidential, made me think of Ted Kennedy or JFK. It's different than any of his other TV ads.
I guess his peeps thought he'd have more success looking like a Demecrat presidential cadidate rather than senator??? Not to be out-done, we need one with Elizabeth Warren getting fired up, flags waving, crowds screaming and some patriotic music blaring?!
F'sure f'sure...Elizabeth needs to show her Indian Warrior war cry! Be proud of having American Indian blood in her genes and send a vital arrow into the thick of the Brown campaign! Democrats need to fight fire with fire.
A shout out,
To: The Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, Karl Rove, Big Oil, Wall Street, Big Banking and NeoCroesus one percenters everywhere --
YOU DIDN'T BUY THAT!
To: Jon Husted (OH), Mike Turzai (PA), Scott Gesseler (CO), Kurt Browning (FL), Nathan Sproul, True the Vote and GOPtp quislings across the nation trying to gnaw into the elections process like rats--
YOU DIDN'T SUPPRESS THAT!
To: Mitch McConnell (KY), Eric Cantor (VA), Kevin McCarthy (CA), Paul Ryan (WI), Pete Sessions (TX), Jeb Hensarling (TN), Pete Hoekstra (MI), Dan Lungren (CA), Jim DeMint (SC), Jon Kyl (AZ), Tom Coburn (OK), John Ensign (NV), Bob Corker (TN), John Boehner (OH) and political hanger-on, Newt Gingrich --all of whom plotted like Roman patricians to make Barack Obama a one term president--
YOU DIDN'T SUBVERT THAT!
To: Mittsanthrope Romanov and pall (faker not maker) Ryan, both of whom chose to be canard cackling, calumny flinging, chronic liars--
YOU DIDN'T WIN THAT!
PS: A very special request for Gov. Jan Brewer(AZ). Going forward, please keep your bony claw out of the President's face.
The collective wisdom among pundits is that there will be no shift in power in the House. There are scenarios where a sweep due to Obama GOTV operations and disillusioned GOP base may swing many of these races a couple points in Dem House candidates' favor. Is the media missing something important as they did in the 2010 races. How well does conventional wisdom do against what is really happening on the ground in these particular races?
People should care because Obama may well be hamstrung in his second term all due to the allocation of tens of millions of dollars towards presidential and senate races while starving the embattled House races teatering on victory.
For all the recognition that DC politics has moved towards parliamentary voting blocks, there has been no restructuring of national politics- at least as far as I can see in the Dem apparatus. If that is wrong, I'd like to know why.
Surrogates should be in helping House Dem candidates pitch their case to voters in toss up races. There is a LOT of drama here, and concerned progressives should look up these tossups and send money to these folks for the final weekend of spending. This is it folks. Knock off a few, and Nancy may either get a majority, or there will be a strong enough message that the radicals time is over, and GOP moderates need not fear crossing the aisle and voting on compromise positions.
A good survey of the House situation may be found on Real Clear Politics house race page. Note they are not complete- just because a poll is not listed for a particular race doesn't mean there isn't one available.
If you look at the math on the Real Clear site, you see why the conventional wisdom says no House change. By their estimation 183 seats are solidly in Dem hands or leans Dem districts Nancy needs 218 so we can control the agenda. She needs more for a margin, but just to get to 218 we need all the 26 races RCP evaluates as tossup. This means donations need to lean forward and go to the leans GOP races. Otherwise you only 209 seats.
So you need to look at races that are listed as lean GOP, and some of these have gotten pretty soft during the last weeks.
Take GA-12. The democrat Barrow is ahead by three in the DCCC poll, but the GOP incumbent only claims a 1 point margin. (The Hill story here)
Say the GOP base in GA thinks they don't need to vote because they know Romney will take it. But say the Obama folks are fired up and turn out those loyal to the causes Obama has championed.
That's all you need. This doesn't look like a leans GOP seat to me.
We'll see how well conventional wisdom does in the days after the election when the final counts on these tight races are in.
John . . . If you're right about there being no opportunity for gains in the House, then it just underscores the importance of putting that money into the Prez and Senate races. It looks like money has been, and will continue to be, well spent there, considering that those are close races tilting in our favor.
I agree the Senate is important and I have been donating to the DSCC on a monthly basis since the Kerry campaign. I think it is in good hands under Patty Murray's direction. I supported her when she began her career and trust her judgement.
I guess I didn't make myself clear about the House races though. I am betting the conventional wisdom is wrong. Part of it is optimism that people with good sense will decide to bother to vote and we will win the day. The other part is that I play to win. The second you play as if you are not going to make it to the SuperBowl is the second you have made it impossible. On a more practical note, I am a big believer in the adage that the "best defense is a strong offence". Make the other guy spend money defending his turf, or defending his ridiculous statements.
We need to play hard to the finish and if we all do our part there is no question we will take the White House and keep the Senate. It will not be 60 votes but the sane thing in the Senate is to revise Senate rules drastically to prevent the ridiculous games of obstruction that the GOP has played. If the Dem leadership can't manage to do that, I leave them to their sorry fate.
That leaves the House. Simply getting close to 218 is not good enough. The chair determines the agenda and Nancy must have it in her hands.
That is why I am focusing my donations on leans GOP and Likely GOP races.
That is the path to 218. At the very least, if we sweep a lot of the extreme morons out, then Boehner will have more latitude to do the right thing on compromises.
My donations went to CA10 CA36 CA 52 CT5, CO3 FL18 IA4 IL12 IL13 NH01 NH02 NY18 NY19 OH6 PA08 TN04... I think that is most of them. I didn't go with Barrow due to his voting record. I recognize these guys have constraints- eg the OH guy is in coal country so he will likely not go along with the dem majority on energy or environmental bills. Barrow goes much further. I just think there many folks with more progressive views that have a shot at getting in, so they are further ahead in line for resources than Barrow. There are others I liked but the Dem looked like they had it or didn't need help with resources.
In the local races they will all go Dem, though I did help Hirono in the primaries due to a Clinton type Dem running against her. Mazie will be much better for the country and she is way ahead of Lingle.
Did anyone ask Eric Cantor whether he wanted to delay funding the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts until Republicans could find budgetary offsets?
Knocking off this smug little punk would be the real cherry on top of the ice cream. Every time I see a picture of him, I just want to punch that self-satisfied smirk down his throat and out his assets.
Sorry, but site won't let an uptick for your neat and biting post! So I'm making mine in a reply. I think you are right!
_____________
Ooops, soon as I posted your post changed to allow! So I did it! How funny these blogsites are.
The electoral map behind Burns in the Simpsons clip isn't exactly subtle, is it?
It would appear that the Simpsons folks have Obama winning 290-248, with Romney taking home Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia but losing all of the remaining swing states (including, most notably of course, Ohio) to the President. With that map, Obama could even concede Ohio and still win 272-266.
Me, I think Virginia's going blue, and Florida's still got a great chance. 332-206.
Broccoli Obama. That was funny.
The Obama campaign should get Seth McFarlane's permission to run that as a campaign ad in the swing states. The novelty factor would make it very effective at a time when voters have been overwhelmed by, are tired of, and are put off by, traditional political ads. It will bring back into the memories of undecided voters a whole bunch of issues that work in Obama's favor.
Exxcelllent suggestion, though I think McFarlane only seems to control all of TV animation... the Simpsons would involve permissions of Matt Groening/James L Brooks/Mike Scully (and possibly voice actor Harry Shearer?). :D
Get Enraged and Engaged:
Mooch the Vote 2012!
;-)
Broccoli Obama or Meat Romney!
Love it...but I'd say Meathead Romney
The issue that will not end. The talk that gets more nauseating every minute. The growing list of members of the Support Your Local Rapist Baby Daddy Club is stunning.
The lowest level to stoop to is to put up a rape survivor who was happy to toss her hat into the ring of Rapist Baby Daddy supporters.
There is no other way to view their ranks as they obviously have no support to offer to those, who may be as young as 11 or 12 who are just started their journey into womanhood, who believe should be forced to carry the by product of violence as it is a scar across their cheek. And who knows, the rapist may have given them one of those too.
I cry for the future of this country. The members of the Support Your Local Rapist Baby Daddy Club actually believe they are best suited as stewards of law into public policy. As the mother of a daughter whom statistically, can well become a victim then a survivor of such intense violence, I will assuredly speak with her about leaving America if these people and Romney are elected into our Senate and Congress.
Normally we say G-d Bless America. I say G-d Help America.
The article is excellent, but I have had an abiding wonder...Where is Hillary Clinton in this campaign? It is a big question! Yeah...her amazing husband is an Obama surrogate, and doing an outstanding job, but I sure would like to hear something from her in support of the President. I might have to not give her support in the primary in 2016. There will be other good Democrats running.
Also what has bothered me, is the lack of the President's Cabinet member's support. What is going on?