Scary Stuff

The Right Thing
But Obama said "when the ballots are cast and the voting is done, we need to put this kind of partisanship aside -- win, lose or draw."

"It may not always be easy to find agreement;" he said, "at times we'll have legitimate philosophical differences. And it may not always be the best politics. But it is the right thing to do for our country." (Politicsdaily.com, 10/3)

With his presidency about to be repudiated at the polls – and in-between bashing Republicans - Obama seeks…bi-partisanship. To paraphrase you, how about this Mr. President? Elections have consequences.

The Point Exactly
One top aide told me that the president — who perversely tried to marginalize a once-captivated press corps — was beginning to realize that he had not used his charm as effectively as he could have. (Maureen Dowd, NYT, 10/31/10)

Of all the explanations for Obama’s failures, this one seems to ring the truest….he just hasn’t been as charming as he could have!

You Go, Girls!
This is certainly the Year of the Woman -- the conservative, principled woman who has shown her incredible inner strength when up against the most vitriol of attacks never before seen on a national political scale. (Penny Nance, Foxnews.com, 10/29/10)

No more the party of white men…..

A Completely Meaningless Exercise

Most voters continue to hold negative views of Sarah Palin and doubt that she has the qualifications to be president, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.. (Washington Post, 10/29/10)

With disastrous poll numbers for their Democrat constituency, WP/ABC decide to conduct a poll about someone who is not even running for office! Who is obsessed?

Inflammatory Headlines

Nation’s First Black President Urges Black Candidate to Drop Out
Former President Bill Clinton last week almost succeeded in persuading Kendrick B. Meek, the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Florida, to drop out of the three-way race — but Mr. Meek changed his mind at the last minute, a spokesman for Mr. Clinton said Thursday evening. (NYT, 10/29/10)

First Sestak, now Meek. Clinton is turning into the Luca Brasi of the Dems.

Obama Skewered, Times Declares Him Winner
Mr. Stewart’s presidential interview was on Comedy Central, but it could have almost as easily been on CNN or MSNBC. Mr. Obama laughed at Mr. Stewart’s jokes and delivered a few of his own, but mostly he stayed on pre-election message; he plugged a few imperiled House Democrats by name and even commandeered the end of the show to urge viewers to turn out on Tuesday. (NYT, 10/29/10)

RedStateVT is no fan of Jon Stewart, but we thought he was brilliant and merciless in his discussion with Obama. The New York Times apparently was watching an interview that took place in another dimension.

Kucinich Admits He Needs Help
The political climate has become so challenging for some Democrats that even Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, a former mayor of Cleveland who represents one of the party’s safest districts, is sufficiently concerned about his re-election that he sent out an urgent appeal this week to supporters, saying, “I need your help.” (NYT, 10/29/10)

No surprise to those of us who have followed the crazed Kucinich.

Shocker: Republicans Do Not Want Obama to Get Second Term
Another recent interview by National Journal, this one with Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, has received a lot of attention thanks to a headline-grabbing quote: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” (NYT, 10/29/10)

The esteemed Dr. Krugman notes this jaw-dropping development.

Outside Money Taints Nevada Race
Senator Charles E. Schumer shipped $500,000 to Nevada in recent weeks to help Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader and Mr. Schumer’s political patron and close friend, as he fights for his political life. (NYT, 10/29/10)

Where is the outrage?

Your Pre-Election Post Mortem

RedStateVT presents a preview of the headlines that the non-Fox media will be reporting on November 3rd: if the Republicans fail to win EVERY SINGLE RACE:

Tea Party drags down Republicans

Republican dilemma: what to do with Tea Party now

Voters reject extreme candidates

Catastrophe avoided, Obama gets back to business

Voters to Republicans: not so fast

Obama vows to improve communication

A wiser Obama says “hope and change” still alive

Well, In That Case
“We have done things that some folks don’t even know about,” Barack Obama to Jon Stewart.

Please enlighten us.

Booked
Dinesh D’Souza’s recent book – “The Roots of Obama’s Rage” – was roundly panned by the Left for his theory that Obama Jr. learned anti-colonialism from Obama Sr. Now comes James T. Kloppenberg with “Reading Obama: Dreams, Hopes, and the American Political Tradition.” Given the title, you know where this is going…

…the philosophy that has guided President Obama most consistently is pragmatism…Pragmatism maintains that people are constantly devising and updating ideas to navigate the world in which they live; it embraces open-minded experimentation and continuing debate. “It is a philosophy for skeptics, not true believers,” Mr. Kloppenberg said. (NYT, 10/28/10)

Somehow “pragmatist” is not the word that comes to mind when RedStateVT considers Obama’s worldview.

Shabba-do

Sounds Of Silence
Strikingly, just after Labor Day, the only House Democrats with television ads on the health care law were among the 34 who broke with the party to vote against it. Some of those incumbents have used their votes to demonstrate independence from, and even antagonism toward, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi…(NYT, 10/27/10)

RedStateVT has yet to hear anywhere a cogent explanation by Dems as to why those who voted for Obamacare do not mention it in their re-election bids.

Heavy Money
Lost in all of the attention paid to the heavy spending by Republican-oriented independent groups in this year’s midterm elections is that Democratic candidates have generally wielded a significant head-to-head financial advantage over their Republican opponents in individual competitive races. (NYT, 10/27/10)

Hold the phone, sister! We thought it was Republicans who were winning the fund-raising battles because of all that secret, millionaire, billionaire, foreign, Chinese, big business, insurance company, oil company money. RedStateVT demands an explanation.

On Your Watch
Osama bin Laden said the kidnapping of five French nationals in Niger last month had been prompted by France's unjust treatment of Muslims, in an audio message aired on Al Jazeera television on Wednesday. (NYT, 10/27/10)

RedStateVT notes this item for one reason only: during the election in 2008 Barack Obama mercilessly attacked George Bush for “his” failure to capture bin Laden. There has been no update from the Obama administration on their efforts in this regard.

Do You Feel Like We Do?

First…Now
For all the talk about how Mr. Obama has been an anchor on Democratic candidates — Representative Gene Taylor of Mississippi, locked in the toughest race of his career, declared over the weekend that he voted for Senator John McCain for president — there are other places where the president is seen as the last best hope of salvaging his party’s majority or helping Democrats like Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio win re-election.  (NYT, 10/26/10)

Obama can "take his endorsement and shove it," declared Democrat Frank Caprio, battling Republican-turned-independent Lincoln Chafee in a Rhode Island gubernatorial race rated tight in the polls. Chafee endorsed Obama during the 2008 campaign for the White House. (Foxnews.com, 10/26/10)

First Dems reject their own support for Obamacare, now they reject Obama!

Billionaire Democrat Supporter Says Legalize Pot!
…in an intriguing headline in today’s WSJ, readers are reminded that hedge-fund maven and philanthropist George Soros also backs the legalization of pot. (WSJ, 10/26/10)

Countdown

Plans of Mice
Democrats said the conservative groups were upending some of their best-laid plans in several important races, like here in Florida, especially those in which they had been counting on the financial advantages their candidates had over lesser-financed Republicans at the beginning of the general election. (NYT, 10/25/10)

Apparently it is OK for Dems to have a financial advantage, but not Repubs.

Mr. Bi-Partisan
It took President Obama 18 months to invite the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, to the White House for a one-on-one chat. (NYT, 10/25/10)

It was good to be reminded of this!

Dems to Voters: What We Think of You
“Democrats aren’t running on the administration’s accomplishments like health-care and financial-regulatory overhaul and the stimulus because “it’s just too hard to explain,” Biden said. (Andrea Tantaros, Foxnews.com, 10/25/10)

Clinton said that he understands why voters are so concerned about the economy, but that voters often forget that things have improved in recent months. (POLITCO.com, 10/25/10)

So voters are dumb, forgetful, angry, confused, hoodwinked. Note to Dems: Keep up the insults and the voters will tell you what they think.

The Barney - Biden Report

Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, gave a personal loan of $200,000 to his campaign to wage his toughest fight in years. (NYT, 10/24/10)

Another controversy surrounding Frank’s campaign cash centers around reports he took $40,000 in funds from bank executives and special interests that were tied to the federal bailout. You may remember Frank’s pledge not to take campaign donations from banks that got federal bailouts. (Foxnews.com, 10/24/10)

Biden tried out a more conciliatory approach to the nation’s wealthy. “I don’t have any problem with wealthy people getting a tax cut. I mean, for real,’’ he said. “I mean, these are good guys.” (Foxnews.com, 10/24/10)

Saturday

Simply
There have been several recent attempts to explain Obama's worldview as the result of his post-colonial father or his early socialist mentors -- Gnostic attempts to produce the hidden key that unlocks the man. The reality is simpler. In April 2008, Obama described small-town voters to wealthy donors in San Francisco: "It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them." Now, to wealthy donors in Massachusetts, opponents are "hard-wired not to always think clearly." Interpreting Obama does not require psychoanalysis or the reading of mystic Chicago runes. He is an intellectual snob. (Michael Gerson, Washington Post, 10/19/10)

A recurrent RedStateVT theme is the fascination and adoration liberals have toward politicians they deem really smart. So with Obama, how’s that smart thing working out for ya?

Sticking
No widespread fad ever passes, however, without leaving some fashion victims in its wake. In this case, the victims are the people of Britain, who have the misfortune to be ruled by a government that took office at the height of the austerity fad and won’t admit that it was wrong. (Dr. Paul Krugman, NYT, 10/23/10)

The good doctor is sticking to his view that the answer is more public spending.  And fiscal responsibility?  Why that's just a fad!

Stupefying
And before Mr. Obama took the stage, the actor Jamie Foxx led what might have been one of the more unusual chants heard at a campaign rally. “We’re not exhausted!” he said, raising his hands as he exhorted the crowd to chant along with him. (NYT, 10/23/10)

Well what are liberals then? Disheartened? Embarrassed? We know the rest of the public is disgusted.

Satisfaction
Democratic attacks on employment outsourcing in this year's campaigns are alienating a once-stalwart source of the party's funding, Indian-Americans, who believe India is sharing blame unfairly for the decline of U.S. manufacturing jobs. Indian-Americans have begun contributing money to defeat Democrats who single out India in ads blaming Republicans for outsourcing by multinationals. (WSJ, 10/23/10)

There is a special satisfaction in seeing Democrats rejected by the various constituencies who they demonize – be they Wall Street bankers or Indian-Americans.

Worked Up

Wingnutman
…Vice President Joe Biden remains a loyal wingman, talking up the president even to people who won't be eligible to vote for another decade or so. During a recent visit to an after-school program in Redwood City, California, Biden repeatedly described Obama as "really cool" to a group of third-graders. (thefoxnation.com, 10/21/10)

Picture the reaction to this…Vice President Dick Cheney visits an elementary school and describes President Bush to third graders as “really cool.”

Citizen’s Arrest
The federal bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could more than double in size during the next three years, according to projections from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The federally controlled mortgage giants will likely need at least another $73 billion and perhaps as much $215 billion from taxpayers in the next three years to meet their financial obligations. (Washington Post, 10/21/10)

Will someone please PLEASE explain to RedStateVT why Barney Frank is not in jail? Compared to Barney, Bernie Madoff is a petty thief.

Clear as Mud
Like many other news organizations, NPR expects its journalists to avoid situations that might call its impartiality into question — an expectation written into the organization’s ethics code. (NYT, 10/22/10)

So, to be clear, if Juan Williams had said that he disagreed completely with Bill O’Reilly then he also would have been fired. Do we have that right?

Money, it’s a Hit
After reading the New York Times this morning with its myriad of stories about big business contributions to Republicans, a rich Texan’s contributions to Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce’s contributions to Republicans etc., we saw this in the Wall Street Journal:

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is now the biggest outside spender of the 2010 elections, thanks to an 11th-hour effort to boost Democrats that has vaulted the public-sector union ahead of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and a flock of new Republican groups in campaign spending. (WSJ, 10/22/10)

There Are No Kooky Democrat Candidates

I'm unemployed, and, if elected, I can teach the Harvard rich kids in the White House and the senate a thing or two. I will vote for any law and propose any measure to keep jobs in my state of South Carolina. I will vote for huge tariffs, and, if necessary, vote to ban imports of foreign goods.

I will break up the big banks. I will put them out in the street, just as they want to put you out in the street. Those bankers who committed fraud will do hard time.

I will stop debt collectors from calling you.

Healthcare, for free, for everyone.

College education should be free in America.

Where will the money come from? The department of defence can't say where $1tn went. The army can't locate 56 planes and 32 tanks – how do you lose a plane? Rumour has it, the Pentagon started off as the Hexagon, but one day one of the sides went missing.

I'll save your house. I'll save your job.

Half the members of the US senate work for BP. The other half work for Halliburton.


(excerpts from Alvin Greene’s Manifesto for a fairer America)

Democrat Greene was indicted in August on two charges of criminal obscenity.

Support Juan Williams
Veteran journalist Juan Williams was fired from his job as senior news analyst for National Public Radio late Wednesday because of comments he made about Muslims and terrorism on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Channel.

"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country," he said. "But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

Williams then brought up a statement made in a New York courtroom this month by Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani American who pleaded guilty to trying to detonate a bomb in Times Square and was sentenced to life in prison.

"He said the war with Muslims, America's war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don't think there's any way to get away from these facts," Williams said. (Washington Post, 10/21/10)

The PC police have found a new target. If anyone tells you that they do not think twice when they see a Muslim getting on their plane, they are lying. That’s not bigotry; it is just a fact of life that we will live with until the jihadists are defeated. The Left eats it own.

Calling Dr. Krugman
Indeed, across Europe, where the threat of a double-dip recession remains palpable, governments from Germany to Greece are slashing public outlays. But even as students and workers in France clash with the police and block fuel shipments to protest a rise in the retirement age, the debate in Europe is more on how fast to cut government spending rather than whether such reductions are the right thing to do under the circumstances.


“Everything Keynes established about the primacy of maintaining demand at a steady pace is gone,” Brad DeLong, a liberal economist and blogger at the University of California, Berkeley, said mournfully. (NYT, 10/21/10)

Where are those who cared what Europe thought and did?

One Potato, Two Potato

New Lows
A new report, backed by the NAACP, has found what it says are efforts by white nationalist groups and militias to link themselves to the tea party movement, even as some tea party leaders have expelled members who have expressed racist sentiment.


The report, called Tea Party Nationalism, uses news articles, visits to white nationalist Web sites and observance of tea party functions to claim that tea party events have become a forum for extremists "hoping to push these (white) protesters toward a more self-conscious and ideological white supremacy." (Washington Post, 10/20/10)

There are no depths – none – to which liberal groups will not sink to defame the Tea Party.

Brinkmanship
Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer unveiled the country’s steepest public spending cuts in decades on Wednesday, sharply reducing welfare benefits and eliminating almost half a million public sector jobs over the next four years as the country seeks to free itself of crushing debt from the global financial crisis. “Today is the day when Britain steps back from the brink,” George Osborne, the Chancellor, told Parliament. (NYT, 10/20/10)

The U.S. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Tim Geithner, did not return RedStateVT’s calls for comment.

In Union With
Between 1989 and 2010, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union, the second largest campaign donor in the country, gave out $42 million, 98% of which went to Democrats. The National Education Association handed out $31 million, 93% to Democrats, and the American Federation of Teachers funneled 98% of their $28 million in donations to Democrats. (Liz Peek, Foxnews.com, 10/20/10)

This is the story that the liberal media will not write.

If You Only Knew

Water Under the Bridge
In this year’s midterm elections, there is no talk of satchels of cash from donors. Nor is there any hint of illegal actions reaching Watergate-like proportions. But the fund-raising practices that earned people convictions in Watergate — giving direct corporate money to a campaign and doing so secretly — are back in a different form in 2010. (NYT, 10/17/10)

As part of its ongoing effort to gin up support for Democrats, the New York Times awakens an old ghost: Watergate!

Meltdown
They (Republicans) are re-running the strategy of denial perfected by Mr. Cheney a decade ago, repudiating years of peer-reviewed findings about global warming and creating an alternative reality in which climate change is a hoax or conspiracy. (NYT, 10/18/10)

Call it a “two-fer” for this Times editorial. They work in their bete-noire Dick Cheney while also beating up Repubs for rejecting global warming. Note to the Times however: given the Climategate scandal, we’d suggest that the concept of “peer-reviewed findings” does not carry the same weight it used to.

Secret Secrets
A secretive network of Republican donors is heading to Palm Springs for a long weekend in January, but it will not be to relax after a hard-fought election — it will be to plan for the next one. (NYT, 10/19/10)

Could the Times have finally uncovered that elusive beast: the vast right-wing conspiracy?

Strictly Speaking

Wacky Tabaky
According to recent polls, Californians are on the verge of approving the legalization of marijuana and overthrowing nearly a century of failed American drug prohibition. Hail to the Golden State.

…California represents one-seventh of American marijuana consumption and has long been a first-mover in American cultural and political trends. (Edward Schumacher-Matos, Washington Post, 10/15/10)

So in defense of legalization of marijuana, Edward-o holds up California social norms as the ideal for the rest of the country. Think again, pal.  RedStateVT’s motto is: do the opposite of what California does. For heaven’s sake, even Eric Holder gets it:

The Department of Justice says it intends to prosecute marijuana laws in California aggressively even if state voters approve an initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot to legalize the drug. The announcement by Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, was the latest reminder of how much of the establishment has lined up against the popular initiative… (NYT, 10/15/10)

Chris Dodd Could Not Be Reached For Comment
Angelo R. Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, once the nation’s largest mortgage lender, agreed to pay $67.5 million on Friday to settle a civil fraud case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission last year. (NYT, 10/15/10)

When a businessman with ties to Republicans is indicted or jailed, that point is all we hear about. Not so for friends of the Dems!

New York Times to Obama: You Lie
In speech after speech lately, President Obama has vowed to oppose a Republican proposal “to cut education by 20 percent,” a reduction that would “eliminate 200,000 children from Head Start programs” and “reduce financial aid for eight million college students.” Except that strictly speaking, the Republicans have made no such proposal. (NYT, 10/15/10)

Reflections

Memo to Barack
Contrary to what you might assume, I didn't start with any advantages and neither did most of the successful people I know. I am the grandson of immigrants who came to this country seeking basic economic and personal liberty. My parents worked tirelessly to build on that opportunity. My first job was as a day laborer on the construction of the Long Island Expressway more than 50 years ago. The wealth that was created by my investments wasn't put into a giant swimming pool as so many elected demagogues seem to imagine. Instead it benefited our employees, their families and our community at large. (Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, WSJ, 10/15/10)

Ever wonder why you never hear a response from Liberals on these rags-to-riches stories?  Likely it is because there is nothing they can say to refute them.  Liberals prefer inherited wealth (think Kennedy, Kerry, etc.) or wealth "acquired" through political careers (think Clinton, Obama).

Memo to Democrats
Conventional wisdom is that the election is being driven by anger and blind anti-incumbent fervor. Nonsense. Overwhelmingly, it is Democratic incumbents, not Republicans, who are under siege. This is a national revolt against the Democratic governance of the past two years. One must understand that "anger" is the explanation du jour when Republicans win big. The last wave election (1994), for example, was dubbed the Year of the Angry White Male -- despite the fact that there was not a scintilla of polling evidence supporting that characterization. Of course the electorate is angry this time around. But it is not inchoate irrational anger -- a "temper tantrum," as ABC News anchor Peter Jennings called the 1994 Republican sweep -- but a highly pointed, perfectly rational anger at the ideological overreach and incompetence of the governing Democrats. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 10/15/10)

Keeping Score
The latest Washington Post-ABC News shows an electorate still about evenly split on the health-care law: 46 percent of voters for it, 50 percent against. (Washington Post, 10/15/10)

Not so sure that we would call 46/50 “evenly split.”

My Name is Barney Frank and I Was Wrong

…Mr. Frank is conceding at long last that he missed the looming disasters at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "I was late in seeing it, no question," he told the Boston Globe, though in his redoubtable fashion he also has an excuse. (WSJ, 10/15/10)

Separated at Birth
In a profile today on Republican John Boehner, the New York Times cannot help but mention that Boehner is a friend to lobbyists, smokes, plays a lot of golf and is a millionaire. RedStateVT pop quiz: who else do we know who is a friend to lobbyists, smokes, plays a lot of golf and is a millionaire?

Elect This Woman!
“My job is to create jobs,” he said, looking into the camera as he addressed a state burdened with the highest unemployment rate in the nation. “What she is talking about is extreme: We have to do it.”

Ms. Angle looked over at her opponent and also to the camera. “Harry Reid,” she said, “it’s not your job to create jobs. It’s your job to create policies that create confidence in the private sector so they can create jobs.” (NYT, 10/15/10)

Where are the Sisters?
RedStateVT asks: where are the feminists when Sarah Palin, Meg Whitman, Sharon Angle, Christine O’Donnell, and Linda McMahon are maliciously attacked?

Hot Rocks

Left of Center
Washington Post op-ed writer David S. Broder bemoans the disappearance of “the center” in politics (10/14/10). Reading to the bottom of the article we learn whose fault it is…

This is not ultimately a radical nation, and those Republicans who are in love with radical notions of remaking the society to fit their own philosophy will have to be brought back in touch with reality. When a party fails to do that, it can find the seeds of its own destruction in the victory banquet. Republicans, and the country, deserve better.

Yes, there is nothing like the center, Dave!

Friends Like These
Meanwhile another Washington Post op-ed writer David Ignatius bemoans the lack of positive attention that the bank and auto bailouts received (10/14/10). He then recommends a book to his readers.

It's one thing to denounce government when it fails to achieve its goals. But to ignore government's achievements in times of crisis is willfully stupid. Especially when, as in the auto and bank bailouts, government was coming to the rescue of private companies that had endangered the country.

A good primer on what government can do in crisis is a new book titled "Overhaul," written by Steven Rattner, the "car czar" who led the $82 billion rescue of General Motors and Chrysler. I should caution the reader: Rattner is a friend. He lists me in his acknowledgments, and I was one of the hosts for a party celebrating the book's publication.

Now where was it that we just read about Steven Rattner? Thinking…… Oh, of course, here:

Steven Rattner, the former car czar, has agreed to settle a kickback case with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a person with knowledge of the negotiation said Wednesday. Mr. Rattner will accept a multiyear ban from the securities industry and pay a fine of more than $5 million, the person said. He is still in negotiations over a similar settlement with the office of the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo. (NYT, 10/13/10)

Any other recommendations, Dave?

Random Hearts
Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama, committed the egregious error of calling homosexuality “a lifestyle choice.” Jonathan Capehart of the Wasington Post forgives her because he ‘knows her heart’ (10/14/10).  Similarly, RedStateVT declares New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino forgiven because he also has “a good heart.”

RedStateVT Wonders

As she watches the Obama Administration slowly implode, can anyone doubt that Hillary Clinton thinks to herself: I could have done much better than this fool.

Meanwhile, it is certainly amusing to watch Obama cast about for a suitable villain to blame for his predicament. First it was Bush, until people started to get nostalgic for W. Next he tried John Boehner until he realized that most people didn’t know who Boehner is. Now he drags out an old chestnut. It’s all Karl Rove’s fault! Oh, and in between there we had Fox News and the Chamber of Commerce. Here’s a RedStateVT prediction. Before the election we will hear Obama blame……Dick Cheney!

Which Is It?
Republicans are expanding the battle for the House into districts that Democrats had once considered relatively safe, while Democrats began a strategy of triage on Monday to fortify candidates who they believe stand the best chance of survival. (NYT, 10/11/10)

The overall Republican advantage has narrowed in most polls and some Democratic candidates seem less endangered than they did six weeks ago. (NYT, 10/12/10)

Outraged…Selectively
Since the Supreme Court's January decision in Citizens United v. FEC, Democrats in Congress have been trying to pass legislation to repeal the First Amendment for business, though not for unions. Having failed on that score, they're now turning to legal and political threats. Funny how all of this outrage never surfaced when the likes of Peter Lewis of Progressive insurance and George Soros helped to make Democrats financially dominant in 2006 and 2008. (WSJ, 10/11/10)

Say No More

Before President Obama picked him to be his next national security adviser, Tom Donillon was a lobbyist for mortgage giant Fannie Mae and fought off congressional attempts to impose new regulations. (Associated Press, 10/10/10)

In this one sentence, we now have a summary of the utter hypocrisy of the Obama administration.

Collapse Avoidance
Three weeks before Election Day, Democrats are bracing for deep losses. But party officials are already pointing to races in several states, particularly California, Florida and Texas, where Democratic nominees for governor have run stronger than candidates for the House or the Senate, a sign, they say, that the party has not entirely collapsed. (NYT, 10/10/10)

Things seem to be looking up for Dems!

Constitutional Obfuscation
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky describes this as "the most conservative court since the mid-1930s," with an entrenched majority that "could last another decade no matter who wins the White House." (Ruth Marcus, Washington Post, 10/7/10)

Isn’t there something written somewhere that says that if you are a “constitutional scholar” you have to tell the truth? Did Chemerinsky simply forget that the SCOTUS now includes Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan?

Playing Dirty
Federal tax watchdogs plan to review allegations that Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee may have illegally accessed the confidential tax information of Koch Industries Inc., a privately held firm owned and operated by brothers Charles and David Koch, who generously bankroll conservative causes. (Washington Post, 10/7/10)

The allegations against the Koch brother were front page news. Let’s see what happens when they are exonerated.

RedStateVT Loves Chris Christie!

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday killed a decades-in-the-making train tunnel connecting New Jersey and Manhattan, saying the state can't afford to pay for cost overruns on the underway project.

At a news conference Thursday, Christie said: "I can't put taxpayers on a never-ending hook."

Christie has refused to raise the state's gas tax, which is among the lowest in the country, to replenish the fund. (Foxnews.com, 10/7/10)

Why do we know that this was a good decision? Because New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (did you know that he has a PhD?) thinks it is a bad decision (NYT, 10/8/10).  By contrast, here is what the Dr. said:

Of the $8.7 billion in planned funding, less than a third was to come from the State of New Jersey; the rest would come, in roughly equal amounts, from the independent Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and from the federal government.

Now, refresh our memory. That money from the federal government…where does that come from exactly?

Even if costs were to rise substantially, as they often do on big projects, it was a very good deal for the state.

Krugman should do some research on a “big project” in Boston. We think it was referred to as the Big Dig.  We might suggest checking with Barney Frank, but he was too busy ruining the nation's economy during that period.

Canceling the tunnel was also a blow to national hopes of recovery, part of a pattern of penny-pinching that has played a large role in our continuing economic stagnation.

So the recovery is lost because of this decision. And how dare Christie penny-pinch with the taxpayers’ money!

Agreed
I hope the president learns the right lesson. Ignore the pollsters and aides calling for positioning to the center. Provide a clarion voice to Americans about the need for bold, progressive reform -- and show your own supporters a fighting spirit to push for it. Rouse the progressive majority not by complaining about its ingratitude but by championing its cause. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 10/7/10)

RedStateVT agrees. This is exactly what we want President Obama to do. Move further to the left. Can you say “one term?”

Fun and Games

Off His Leash
Vice President Joe Biden has told Democrats at a Minnesota fundraiser that he'll "strangle" members of the GOP who complain about the federal budget. According to a pool report from Tuesday's event in Dayton, Biden was telling the crowd that Democrats know how to balance the budget. He said, "If I hear one more Republican tell me about balancing the budget, I am going to strangle them." He quickly added: "To the press, that's a figure of speech." (Foxnews.com, 10/6/10)

An Ill Conceived Mess
As Obama administration officials put into place the first major wave of changes under the health care legislation, they have tried to defuse stiffening resistance — from companies like McDonald’s and some insurers — by granting dozens of waivers to maintain even minimal coverage far below the new law’s standards. The waivers have been issued in the last several weeks as part of a broader strategic effort to stave off threats by some health insurers to abandon markets, drop out of the business altogether or refuse to sell certain policies. (NYT, 10/6/10)

Joe Loves George
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Joe ManchinIII, the Democratic candidate for the Senate here, could barely contain his frustration during an interview at the Capitol. He complained that his Republican opponent was unjustly calling him a tool of President Obama, and he jumped up to show a visitor a photograph of himself taken with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office. (NYT, 10/7/10)

Now You Know

The Tyranny of 20%
Third Way, an organization of centrist Democrats, produced a study showing that liberals are the smallest share of the electorate and not enough to keep Congress in Democratic hands. Citing Gallup polling data, the study said self-described conservatives made up 42 percent of the electorate, compared with moderates who make up 35 percent and liberals who make up 20 percent, a shift of several points to the right in the last two years. (NYT, 10/6/10)

Why is Obama failing miserably? America is a center-right country. He does not represent the will of the people.

Have a Nice Life…Sentence
The defendant came to Federal District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday ready to ladle out several minutes of anti-American justification for his act of terrorism in Times Square. But the judge, Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, best known of late for presiding over Martha Stewart’s trial, came ready, too.

She repeatedly interrupted the defendant, Faisal Shahzad, to spar with him over his interpretation of the Koran, his invocation of a Muslim warrior in the Crusades and, above all, the relevance of any of it to the life sentence that hung over him like the dozen United States deputy marshals who guarded the prisoner in court.

And after the judge formally sentenced Mr. Shahzad to life in prison, she left him a parting shot: “I do hope that you will spend some of the time in prison thinking carefully about whether the Koran wants you to kill lots of people.” (NYT, 10/6/10)

Now here is a judge we like! There is a special satisfaction in noting that she is Jewish.

Toke and Tax
Democratic strategists are studying a California marijuana-legalization initiative to see if similar ballot measures could energize young, liberal voters in swing states for the 2012 presidential election.

Some pollsters and party officials say Democratic candidates in California are benefiting from a surge in enthusiasm among young voters eager to back Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in certain quantities and permit local governments to regulate and tax it.

Party strategists and marijuana-legalization advocates are discussing whether to push for similar ballot questions in 2012 in Colorado and Nevada—both expected to be crucial to President Barack Obama's re-election—and Washington state, which will have races for governor and seats in both houses of Congress. (WSJ, 10/6/10)

Clearly Dems are the party of new ideas. This idea combines two of the party’s signature initiatives: decriminalizing drugs and more taxes.

Who Wrote It?

IF AMERICANS ARE angry at Washington, it may be because of episodes like the federal coddling of OneUnited Bank. A minority-owned institution with close ties to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) of the House Financial Services Committee, OneUnited got $12 million from the Troubled Assets Relief Program in December 2008, thanks in part to a provision inserted in the TARP bill by the committee's chairman, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). OneUnited has since failed to pay the government the $900,000 it owes -- not surprising, given its history of mismanagement, which TARP officials elided to approve the money in the first place. (10/5/10)



A) Wall Street Journal editorial page


B) Heritage Foundation


C) Ann Coulter


D) RedStateVT


E) Washington Post editorial page





 * If you guessed E) Washington Post you are today’s winner. By the way, count us as stunned.

Monday Monday

Obsessed
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank has written a column (10/2/10) entitled: Glenn Beck is obsessed with Hitler and Woodrow Wilson. (I'm just saying.) Among the great insights that Milbank offers is this: “For much of the past 70 years, there has been an unwritten rule in U.S. political debate: Avoid Hitler accusations. Once you liken your opponent to the Nazis, any form of rational discussion becomes impossible.” Of course, Milbank goes on to mention that he objected when the Left made similar scurrilous accusations against George Bush and Dick Cheney. Just kidding! He says nothing about that. Then we learn that Milbank has even written a book about Glenn Beck.

Well now, who is obsessed about whom?

By the way, the title of Milbank’s book includes a slur…so we guess that some kinds of name calling are OK with him.

Principles
The Principal Financial Group announced on Thursday that it planned to stop selling health insurance, another sign of upheaval emerging among insurers as the new federal health law starts to take effect. (NYT, 9/30/10)

Obama and the Dems will secretly celebrate this. Let’s see, if health insurers stop selling health insurance then the federal government can be the nation’s health insurer!

And the Problem Is

News Flash: Biden Gives Obama’s Stimulus Package High Marks
Paragraph 1  The massive economic stimulus package President Obama pushed through Congress last year is coming in on time and under budget - and with strikingly few claims of fraud or abuse - according to a White House report to be released Friday.

Paragraph 7  The report, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post, is one in a series of assessments prepared by Vice President Biden, who was charged with overseeing implementation of the stimulus money, the largest effort in U.S. history to counteract the effects of a recession. (Washington Post, 10/1/10)

The sitting Vice President releases a report that concludes that a controversial domestic policy program of the sitting President was a huge success. And the problem is?

Image and Imagination
Why the shift? Partly it's a tribute to Obama's successful effort to change America's image: It's just easier to think of the United States regaining a leadership role today than it was at the end of Bush's presidency. Partly, it's a response to global realities. Iran has proved resistant to engagement; China has proved to be less the "responsible stakeholder" and more the typical, muscle-flexing rising military power; and even Obama officials sense the "reset" with Russia reached its high point with the START treaty and the last round of Iran sanctions and is headed downhill. And partly it's that the United States is not a nation of "realists," and deep convictions about the superiority of democracy over other forms of government almost always shape its foreign policy. (Robert Kagan, Washington Post, 10/1/10)

So let’s review. Obama has successfully changed America’s image. Meanwhile, Iran is resistant, China is irresponsible, relations with Russia are off their highs and Iran is headed down. And the problem is?

Coming Apart at Every Nail
The Democratic Party right now is showing signs of coming apart under the pressure of the election and two years of an unpopular presidency. But it's not a split in two, with the left versus the establishment. It's more like a splintering, with left-leaning activists distancing themselves from the party's politicians, and moderate politicians distancing themselves from Mr. Obama. (Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 10/1/10)

The best three sentence summation of the current state of the Democrat Party.