Happy Hour Roundup
* Mark Kirk is seriously jonesing for Sarah Palin’s endorsement.
* CNN finally sends over the cross tabs of that poll I wrote about yesterday finding that Obama is viewed in the south as a better president than Bush. Here are the exact numbers:
All in all, do you think Barack Obama has been a better president than George W. Bush, or do you think Bush was a better president than Obama has been?
South:
Obama better: 50%
Bush better: 39%
Double digits! Again: Wow.
* I’ve got a sneak peek at the new November rankings over at Wikio of the top 20 political blogs, which now includes this one. Check them out right here. Thanks much to you readers and commenters, you’ve really been rocking the site lately. (Update: I should add that some major blogs are missing, for unclear reasons, so I’m not sure how scientific this is.)
* A Democratic Party source emails an interesting take on yesterday’s losses:
Republican celebrations will be short lived as Democrats will pass health insurance reform in the House this week and will send a bill to the President before the end of the year — and one of the members voting for it will be a Democrat from upstate New York who stole a seat which has been in Republican hands for 100 years because of Republican ineptitude and infighting.
Is it possible that the chance to silence GOP celebrating by passing a health care bill might encourage Dems not to delay?
* Not if you’re Blue Dog Dem Dan Boren. He seems to think yesterday’s results mean Dems should slow down, again.
* Blanche Lincoln, meanwhile, says Dems should go slow on climate change.
* Josh Marshall: Republicans won in Virginia and Jersey because more voters voted Republican.
* A somewhat more persuasive case that NY-23’s outcome was a victory for conservatives.
* Twitter displaces cable as the primary source of election news.
* And here’s today’s installment in the Joe Wilson chronicles.
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
Congrats Greg!! I am a recent newcomer to your blog and it is a must read!
“* Josh Marshall: Republicans won in Virginia and Jersey because more voters voted Republican.”
lol. Josh is channeling Hobbes the Tiger with that statement.
Calvin used to wax philosophical and then he’d ask Hobbes what he thought and it was usually that exact kind of answer. “Why do you think we’re here, Hobbes?” “Because the world is here.”
I bet Josh does cryptic crosswords.
South Carolina must be proud of its Native Sons. DeMint and Wilson both look like idiots today. . .
Tena — you a calvin and hobbs fan? My eight year old and I went as calvin and hobbs on Halloween.
And thanks, Andy. appreciate it.
Greg…huh?
From the Weekly Standard link above:
“So thank Doug Hoffman for showing the GOP establishment that a conservative can win in upstate New York and for saving us from the disaster of Dede Scozzafava.”
Hoffman won? Oh my bad he said “can” win. I guess like we “can” have a great country and no one has to pay taxes.
Greg – You just keep going up that list – congratulations.
“you a calvin and hobbs fan? My eight year old and I went as calvin and hobbs on Halloween.”
O I’d love to see pictures of that. Yes – Calvin and Hobbes is the best of all time and I will always miss it. I have every one he did, I think.
That CNN poll does have some interesting stuff:
“The West is tough terrain for Democrats”
The West gives President Obama his lowest approval ratings, and the Democratic Party has a 45 percent approval rating in the area — the only region in the country in which it gets under 50 percent, according to an October 16-18 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/04/democrats.west/index.html
“stole a seat which has been in Republican hands for 100 years”
I’m confused and not sure what to make of this but the Wiki page indicates that New York’s 23rd congressional district was in Democratic hands back in 1993?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York%27s_23rd_congressional_district
I’ve been reading the site comments on the need for the Democrats to cultivate and please the base in order to get significant turnout in off-year elections. It makes a lot of sense since a big chunk of the electorate will only show up for the high profile races that stir people who aren’t political junkies.
But even as I find myself being persuaded, I’m left with a question that maybe somebody can help me out with. Isn’t it a big part of the reason the Republicans are in such a mess that they’ve played so much to their base that they’ve ended up as marginalized ideologues?
@Greg: “My eight year old and I went as calvin and hobbs on Halloween.”
Pics?
ABC- “Isn’t it a big part of the reason the Republicans are in such a mess that they’ve played so much to their base that they’ve ended up as marginalized ideologues?”
Yes. Absolutely.
Major evidence AGAINST the Faux Propaganda meme that “Obama is driving up Faux business”!
At News Corp.’s broadcast-television division, which includes the Fox network and local TV stations affiliated with Fox, operating income was $38 million in the quarter, less than half the year-earlier level.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013004574515894266408008.html
@ethan: That’s Fox Broadcast not Fox News Channel – cable profit was up.
“cable profit was up.”
You’re right. But in looking again, don’t you find it ironic that Faux Propaganda’s “major growth engine” is not the cable channel itself or the programming, but FEES *ahem* TAXES?
“News Corp.’s cable channels, which continue to benefit from higher fees paid by cable- and satellite-TV companies. Investors worry the fees may not have much room to increase, removing a major growth engine for the company.”
That’s some seriously rich irony there.
Wait wait – I thought in liberal Dem-speak fees were NOT taxes?
Congrats Greg, way to compete. Here’s a little something from an up coming Dick Armey interview.
“In the interview, Armey reveals that he doesn’t personally believe the “death panels” myth but he isn’t too bothered by such hysteria, on display at town-hall rallies promoted by FreedomWorks. Despite the fact that the group launched a website called DontKillGrandma.com, Armey dismisses concerns about such lies. “Are their fears exaggerated? Yeah, probably. But are Obama’s promises exaggerated? I may think it’s silly but if people want to believe that,” Armey says, referring to death panels, “it’s OK with me.”
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/04/dick-armey-i-dont-believe_n_346114.html&cp
Hahaha. That’s all Faux Propaganda has is TAXES! Not Glen Beck. Not Hannity. TAXES!
And they’re SO HIGH that they can’t go much higher. Sounds like the News Corporation is run by your typical Republican/Libertarian extreme hypocrite.
OMG. Think Progress has like 7 awesome posts in a row. Seriously, go check em out. Capped off with this hilarious nugget by Joe Wilson:
You know, I’m really disappointed, and I actually agree with Vice President Cheney that the President is dithering. And I actually had to look up what “dithering” meant, and it’s “indecisive.” And that’s what the President is being.
Holy cow is that fing hilarious.
I know this was mentioned earlier today but since Ethan mentioned Think Progress I just noticed this:
“Today, the Republican National Committee (RNC) sent out a press release announcing that Chairman Michael Steele and Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) will be hosting a 12-hour online town hall called “Pelosi Plan Exposed” tomorrow from 1:00 p.m. to Friday 1:00 a.m. ET.”
12 HOUR ONLINE TOWNHALL… SERIOUSLY 12 HOURS!!! Pence and Steele are going to be on-line for 12 HOURS tomorrow from 1pm to 1am… SERIOUSLY? Is it just me or is this silly?
Lost of good stuff over at Think Progress, thanks Ethan. I’ve been following the “house call” tomorrow.
KING: If the Founding Fathers could stand in here tonight, the tears would be running down their cheeks thinking of what is staged to happen in this Congress. This is why we need the American people to come to this city and be here by noon on Thursday. Gather together, come to this Capitol, surround this place, bring your passion, your love for this country, bring your patriotism, and bring your signs while you’re at it. Mr. Speaker, the American people need to come here. [...]
There are buses that are coming in from state after state after state, converging on this city. People are dropping what’s important. It’s as if Paul Revere had ridden across America and said, ‘here’s the call, here’s the call of your country.’
Republicans may be growing concerned that very few people will actually show up to their protest. As Mother Jones notes, “As of Tuesday afternoon, the official tea party website indicated that only 25 patriots were on hand for ‘Operation House Call.’” Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) appeared to try to lower expectations for the event by repeatedly downplaying “Thursday’s event as nothing more than a large-scale ‘press conference‘ on the Capitol steps.”
Andy
I read all of that also, did you see a link anywhere to get to the online chat or whatever they’re calling it. Maybe I just missed it.
“Thursday’s event as nothing more than a large-scale ‘press conference‘ on the Capitol steps.”
Isn’t that accurate? I thought it was to be a walking tour guided by Bachman through the halls to look into congressional eyes?
Andy I am totally with you. This sounds gown tight Castro-like, a test of stamina as if the number of hours says anything other than how stupid and out if touch they are that anyone who watches online would watch for 12 hours!
lmsinca… i didn’t see a link.
sbj… you’re right, Bachmann and the gang plan to walk the halls looking for people to yell at. TPM has a story up now that says a Fox News guy told Bachmann his intelligence sources told him Pelosi may use capitol security to squelch this thing. They have the Fox video posted.
Sorry @&)@ iPhone corrector of spelling. It should read down right Castro like.
sbj
As all Tea Partiers were invited I would think they would like to have a big turnout.
Lfo..darn I thought I learned a cool new phrase “gown tight”.
You can put Sen. Graham on the teabagger hitlist, unless he is already there.
From Huffpo:
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) chastised his fellow Republicans Wednesday for refusing to deal with climate change and said they needed to see green legislation as something that could help business.
“I am no scientist, but I’ve … seen the effects of a warming planet,” he said in a press conference. “The green economy is coming. We can either follow or lead. And those countries who follow will pay a price. Those nations who lead in creating the new green economy for the world will make money.”
“If you can’t participate in solving a hard problem, why are you up here?” he asked.
Andy
I don’t know if you saw it or not but Graham got tea bagged at his own town hall meeting with lots of disruptions when he talked about global warming. It was about 3-4 weeks ago and was really disturbing.
lmsinca… you’re right I forgot about that. This will certainly send them off the edge.
you a calvin and hobbs fan?
I am still in mourning that he stopped doing that comic!
“I am no scientist, but I’ve … seen the effects of a warming planet,” he said in a press conference. “The green economy is coming. We can either follow or lead. And those countries who follow will pay a price. Those nations who lead in creating the new green economy for the world will make money.”
“If you can’t participate in solving a hard problem, why are you up here?” he asked.
On the whole I find him an irritating twit, but on this I give him props. He’s right.
I’m sure it will damage his standing in South Carolina.
Andy–lol, no I am way uncool and would never be able to come up with something so ‘off the hook’ as Steele would say.
And congrats Greg. Well deserved.
We just got 2 more members of Congress to help pass health care reform.
They just got two more Governors who will have to decide to opt out of the public option and return stimulus money or be run out of town by their wingnut base.
Scoreboard!
It is fun here in Illinois watching Kirk run to the right. Illinois actually used to be home to very moderate Republicans. Kirk was one of them. Our last two term Republican governor was pro-choice, pro gun laws, and declared L Ron Hubbard day (Scientology). Imagine if a Republican did that today. Sounds like ancient history but it was only 15 years ago.
Greg, how come no mention about Michelle Bachmann’s Freedom Fighting Tea Bagger rally scheduled for tomorrow??? Any true patriot would have encouraged other true patriots to be in attendance.
Chris, I’ve been talking about the “house call” all day. I’m so looking forward to seeing how many “citizens” show up. I absolutely love, love, love looking into the whites of my enemies (oops I mean Congressperson’s) eyes.
Totally, utterly OT:
Thirteen year old cat caught H1N1 flu (”swine flu”), apparently from its owners.
I don’t know if anyone here besides Tena loves or reads Bob Cesca like I do but here’s an excerpt from his latest post regarding Obama’s first year in office.
“In terms of the wingnut right, they’ve shoehorned literally every boogie man into Obama’s loafers. He’s both Carter and Nixon. He’s both a Marxist and a fascist Nazi. He’s both Hitler and Chamberlain. Teabaggers have gone so far as to paint a Hitler mustache on a man who the real-life Hitler would probably have killed with his bare hands — a mixed-race liberal with a Muslim name.
In terms of the left, we’ve set marble-man expectations, and then we’re shocked and outraged when these expectations aren’t met. Put another way, we want this president to be FDR meets Kennedy meets MLK meets LBJ meets Bobby Kennedy meets Rachel Maddow meets Superman.
We expect him to “get tough” and, I don’t know, flip his ****. Snap some Republican necks on live television. We want the very pragmatic and even-tempered Barack Obama to transform into a roid-raging berzerker. But I don’t think that’s entirely necessary.
While I’d love to see the president go all elbows-and-fists on Glenn Beck’s punch-me face, it’s just not going to happen. The attacks and antagonism from the White House against the far-right are more nuanced and subtle. It’s a gradual tweaking rather than a daily burst of rage. Over a four or eight year term, this could be much more effective than brute force. After all, it was this fighting style that defeated both the Clinton machine and a well-respected war hero.”
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/hope-change-and-the-long_b_345734.html&cp
Because it’s only 7:00 pm on the West Coast and the “game” is so boring, I’m probably over posting, but I found this interesting on the Climate Bill. I guess the Repubs are boycotting the meetings, way to go.
“James Inhofe (R-OK) appeared briefly today at a climate bill markup in the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, simply to drop off a letter with a series of Republican demands on how to move forward on the bill. The letter basically asks the EPA for a “full assessment” of the Senate bill, including modeling that they are probably not even equipped to do. It’s just a stall tactic, and Democrats treated it as such.
Committee Democrats seemed more bemused by the Oklahoma conservative’s brief appearance.
“Thanks for stopping by,” Boxer told Inhofe.
As Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse put it, “The party of ‘no’ has now devolved to the party of ‘no show.’”
Republicans emerged from Tuesday’s elections energized by victories in Virginia and New Jersey, but their leaders immediately began maneuvering to avoid a prolonged battle with conservative activists over what the party stands for and how to regain power….
oddjob
I wonder if they made vaccines for pets?
One more post before I quit for the night. Someone today was asking if there was some sort of “platform” for the new “conservative party”. I found this from Club for Growth which was heavily involved in the NY23 for Hoffman campaign. WOW.
Club for Growth Policy Goals:
Making the Bush tax cuts permanent
Death tax repeal
Cutting and limiting government spending
Social Security reform with personal retirement accounts
Expanding free trade
Legal reform to end abusive lawsuits
Replacing the current tax code
School choice
Regulatory reform and deregulation
I wonder if they made vaccines for pets?
Given the expense, and that it was previously thought this flu wouldn’t jump to cats?
I very much doubt it.
(However, I have no veterinary training.)
I think The Club for Growth ought to simplify its statements by just acknowledging that their goal is to repeal all laws regarding our economic lives that have been passed since the Roosevelt administration.
The Teddy Roosevelt administration…………
oddjob
This is different from Bush how? Seriously, these people are delusional if they think by putting this out there they’d get more than about 15% of the hardcore idiots or billionaires.
This is different from Bush how?
It isn’t. Karl Rove’s favorite president was the one Roosevelt suceeded (due to an assassination), William McKinley. Roosevelt was never supposed to be president and all those reforms he pushed for were never supposed to have happened, I’m sure.
Remember what Rove’s buddy Grover Norquist said was his goal, to shrink the federal government so small it could be drowned in a bathtub?
Welcome to The Club for Growth.
It’s all the same.
(Of course, the Gilded Age gave rise to legislation like the Sherman Antitrust Act because of the abuses the era’s captains of industry inflicted upon everyone else in the name of advancing the US economy (while unavoidably enormously enriching themselves). That’s something the Club for Growth folks never seem to grasp.)
Greg & Tena, what do you know, My son and I are fans of Calvin & Hobbes too. Small world and all that.
And my son is exactly Calvin, cooking up crazy schemes not to do his studies and driving his mom & his studious sister crazy. sigh…
And Greg, you’re multiple posts late on the dems angst a la blanche and other conservadems. I did it may posts ago.
Congrats on moving up the ladder of blogs. Hope you don’t get too hoity toity.
lmsinca… since it’s late here and the game is still boring… thanks for the posts. I haven’t followed Cesca but I think I will.
As far as the club for growth goes, I am not sure what they plan to grow with that list of policy goals. I love how they want to cut taxes and shrink government and spending. It’s very bold and it takes a lot courage to cut taxes. When it comes to shrinking government or reducing spending… well that’s actually hard work and requires making difficult choices. So, I am guessing they would do the same thing Bush did when he cut taxes, just add it to our tab (deficit), someone else can figure out how to fix that later.
oddjob
Thanks for the insight. What I don’t understand is do people really think this shi# will still work for anyone but the richest? Are the Tea Partiers following the Yellow Brick Road really this, I hate to use the word, dumb? Don’t they realize they are being used to promote the same old tired policies under a different moniker?
Yeah Andy, that would be us fixing the tab. That’s one of the reasons Dems can never get everthing they want to done. We’re always left with a freaking big hole to climb out of first, pretty sure it’s by design.
lmsinca… I am feeling pretty good that 44 will get us out of this hole in term one and setup for the future in term two. Cesca made a great observation,
“The attacks and antagonism from the White House against the far-right are more nuanced and subtle. It’s a gradual tweaking rather than a daily burst of rage. Over a four or eight year term, this could be much more effective than brute force. After all, it was this fighting style that defeated both the Clinton machine and a well-respected war hero.”
Everyone who knows 44 seem to say the same thing, he never gets to up and he never gets to down. It’s steady as she goes.
Andy
Yeah I think you’re right as long as we all give him the chance and don’t get all paranoid that he’s going too slow and not doing a good enough job all of a sudden. The really hard core progressives are becoming impatient and the really hard core moderates are getting very nervous about government spending. He’s being pulled in a lot of directions and trying to balance all the domestic issues against the wars and foreign policy. I wouldn’t trade places with him for all the Tea in China as they say.
Have a good night all.
Sounds like Bachmann is really looking for a fight tomorrow during her house call at the Capitol. I am sure Capitol security is really happy about this.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/michelle-bachmann-tea-partiers-prepare-for-last-stand-on-health-care.php?ref=fpblg
lmsinca: you’ve got another convert to cesca. Thanks!
The Southern poll stats spells more bad news for the GOP. If reason and reality are actually dawning south of the Mason-Dixon Line, to whom will the GOP, or more likely, the teabagging morons sell their load of manure to?
As for Joe Wilson, someone should really hook this guy up to an EEG and determine once and for all if this guy is clinically brain dead. What a putz.
Are the Tea Partiers following the Yellow Brick Road really this, I hate to use the word, dumb? Don’t they realize they are being used to promote the same old tired policies under a different moniker?
If you look up some of the statements of Al Gore’s father, Sen. Al Gore, Sr. (D-TN) I think you’ll find he used to ask more or less exactly that question.
Apparently the answer is an enthusiastic “YES!!!!”
I am sure Capitol security is really happy about this.
No doubt! You gotta know the very thing that makes their day is a publicity stunt by a generally acknowledged whacko who stirs up gun (& other) wingnuts!
The loss in Virginia can be laid pretty squarely at the fact that Deeds was a simply terrible candidate. He was invisible for most of the campaign and then wishy-washy when he finally made an appearance. His organization sucked. Northern Virginia was a sea of McDonnell signs, with hardly a Deeds in sight.
The Dems shot themselves in the foot in the primaries. The two true Democrats in the race, McAuliffe and Moran, knocked each other out and allowed Deeds to sneak in at the last minute. Of course, the lefties at Daily Kos and elsewhere hated Terry because of his “triangulation” during the Clinton years, but in retrospect he was probably the only one with the smarts and organization to stand a good chance of keeping Va. in the Dem column. And the thing seems to have been sealed by the Washington Post endorsement of Deeds. Did it occur to anyone that Fred Hiatt might not have the best interest of the Democratic Party at heart? And then Deeds failed to grab the logical issue – health care – saying he might refuse to join the public option. Might it have gone differently is he had said – “no opting out of the public option if I’M governor!”
A sorry tale altogether. The only consolation is that the Virginia governor, limited to one four-year term, is not really that powerful. He’s pretty much a lame-duck from day one. It has been used in the past as a platform for the Senate, but McDonnell’s first chance will be against Mark Warner in 2014, and it’s hard to imagine him pulling that off. Then again, who knows?