Weak Democrats Hurt 2010 Senate Chances

Josh Marshall argues that bad picks by Democratic governors in filling vacant seats make it harder than necessary to retain those seats. I was just looking at this run-down of recent polls by Tom Jensen at Public Policy Polling. The upshot is that while it seems extremely unlikely Republicans could regain control of the senate next year, it's not impossible and ...

Obama Cabinet’s Limited Private Experience

Nick Schultz points us to this interesting graphic on the private sector experience of presidential cabinets: The chart ""includes secretaries of State, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Energy, and Housing & Urban Development, and excludes Postmaster General, Navy, War, Health, Education & Welfare, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security—432 cabinet members in all." If this is accurate, it is indeed truly "remarkable." ...

No Party of No

Steve Green:  “If there really was a Party Of No, I would so join.” Indeed. via Glenn Reynolds

Glenn Beck, Community Organizer

Glenn Beck has a plan.  Actually, the Plan.  Which he reveals on his website. Today, I have stopped looking for a leader to show us the way out because I have come to realize that the only one who can truly save our country...is us. To change America's course we need to change ourselves, our expectations and our willingness to accept ...

Obama, the Recession, and Polls

A CNN poll released today finds that "opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting."  According to the survey, "38 percent of the public blames Republicans for the country's current economic problems. That's down 15 points from May, when 53 percent blamed the GOP. According to the poll 27 percent now blame the Democrats ...

Obama Hurt Deeds in Virginia

Pollster Glen Bolger (a founding partner at my wife's firm) looks at the data in the Virginia governor's race and concludes that Barack Obama hurt Democrat Creigh Deeds. At the end of tracking, we added some questions paid for by the Republican National Committee specifically to measure the Obama effect. [...] The dominant national issue at that time (and still) is health care. ...

Jodi Rell Not Running

Jodi Rell, the "Republican" governor of Connecticut, has announced that she will not seek re-election. In a surprising announcement, Mrs. Rell, 63, did not immediately give a specific reason for her decision, saying only, “At some point, you know inside that it is time to begin a new chapter in life.” Her announcement came during a news conference at which she first ...

House Trades Freedom for Health Coverage, Senate’s Move

The House passed a trillion dollar bill that will force Americans to buy health insurance, force even small businesses to provide health coverage, and require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions.  (The last, as I have previously argued, makes it something other than "insurance.") Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray for WaPo: Hours after President Obama exhorted Democratic lawmakers to "answer the call ...

Republicans Win Big in Local Races

The loss of a Republican seat in NY-23 under highly unusual circumstances notwithstanding, yesterday was a good day for Republicans. After crushing defeats in successive elections, they won back the Virginia governor's office in a blowout and knocked off a billionaire incumbent governor in New Jersey despite having their vote split between two candidates. I would, however, resist the temptation ...

Scozzafava Endorses Democrat Owens

The special election to fill New York's 23rd Congressional District seat vacated by the appointment of Republican John McHugh as Secretary of the Army has taken yet another bizarre twist.  Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava dropped out over the weekend, causing great celebration on the part of Republicans like Michelle Malkin, who termed her "radical leftist GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava" and ...

Republicans Better Informed

A new Pew survey shows a rather steep "Partisan Knowledge Gap," with Republicans and Independents generally better informed than Democrats. Mary Katharine Ham finds this quite amusing and also notes that, "if the polling had gone the other way, the NYT would shout it from the rooftops."  She provides examples of the mainstream press doing just that on previous occasions. We'd need ...

Libertarianism Not an Ideology

IOZ (whose identity is apparently a mystery) sums up a recent debate that's been brewing on several of the blogs I frequent: When Kerry Howley made the irrefutable and yet quixotic point that any proper concern with liberty, whether practical or, ahem, merely philosophical, must grapple with the strictures of cultural mores and social conventions, for they affect the lives and ...

Marijuana Legalization Support at Record High

While a majority still supports criminalization, more Americans than ever think marijuana should be legal, according the latest Gallup survey. Lydia Saad (a family friend) provides the analysis: Gallup's October Crime poll finds 44% of Americans in favor of making marijuana legal and 54% opposed. U.S. public support for legalizing marijuana was fixed in the 25% range from the late ...

McConnell: No Retalliation

Olympia Snowe and other wayward Republicans will be subject to strong persuasion but no punishment from the caucus, Senate Republican leaders tell Politico. [caption id="attachment_42848" align="alignright" width="297" caption="Mitch McConnell and his deputies in the Senate Republican leadership are responding very cautiously to Olympia Snowe's decision to become the first GOP vote for a Democratic health care reform bill. Photo: AP ...

Salting Snowe

Erick Erickson is angry at liberal Republican Olympia Snowe's announcement yesterday that she'd sign on to the Baucus version of health care reform in exchange for a seat at the negotiating table. Olympia Snowe has sold out the country. Having been banished to our world after Aslan chased her out of Narnia, Snowe is intent on corrupting this place too. So we ...