Archive for the ‘elections’ Category

Republicans are in trouble, except when they’re not…

Posted: March 31, 2011 by datechguy in congress, elections, opinion/news, politics, tea parties
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For the last several days you have been hearing the media talk about how there is trouble in Republican Land. Harry Reid is saying how the speaker has to abandon the Tea Party (My latest in the Examiner on the subject is To Tea or not to Tea btw) Schumer is going on about “extremism” and CNN is going on and on about how unpopular or ineffective the Tea Party is.

Yet for all of the noise you are hearing what do we see?

Les Gosule at the Twin City Tea Party 3-28

Locally a good turnout at the tea party meetings to see Sheriff Lew Evangelidis talk about his first 100 days, Les Gosule on Melissa’s bill and a plethora of Tea Party activities in the works.

 

For a dying movement clearly in Central Mass things are still happening.

Meanwhile on capital Hill here come the cuts 33 billion:

Biden confirmed the new target on spending cuts, putting the best face on the deal for Democrats and in his trademark style, trying to add a little punch to the administration’s stance— still hampered by Obama’s detachment from the budget fight.

But I thought all of these cuts were “draconian” and “extreme“? If this is the public number where will the final one be? Yet it is democrats trying to put the “best face on it”.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin the Unions are leaning on small business:

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows.

If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.”

Hey, I thought the Unions were winning and the Governor was unpopular? If you are winning why play the “Nice business you’ve got there, shame if anything would happen to it.” card.

And the Democrats who are so sure publicly that the budget confrontation will roll back those 63 seats the republicans gained are suddenly not so sure:

NOW, THE DCCC HAS BEEN FORCED TO FOCUS ON ONLY 14 DISTRICTS: “The Democratic Party is taking aim at 14 freshmen Republicans in the House, of 87 elected, whom it deems the most vulnerable…We’re way too early in the cycle to start trying to predict what the results will be on Nov. 6, 2012. “But it’s pretty remarkable that we’re not hearing much talk about Democrats retaking the House in 2012,” Geraghty says.

14 seats they think the republicans and Tea Party folk are so unpopular they can pick up a whole 14 seats?

But why worry, after all President Obama is still polling well…isn’t he?

President Barack Obama’s approval rating and prospects for reelection have plunged to all-time lows in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

Yeah but he’s The one™. We in the MSM know republicans are in trouble and not democrats, because if Democrats were in trouble they’d have to receive open government awards in secret or something.

President Obama finally and quietly accepted his “transparency” award from the open government community this week — in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House on Monday.

How can this be? After all it’s not like he’s like Johnson or Nixon secretly putting the CNN into foreign countries to overthrow people or something?

And I’d be willing to bet that these CIA operatives aren’t the only American boots pennyloafers gators shoes of indeterminate structure on the ground in Libya. We’ve previously reported on the insertion of A-10′s and B-1′s into the conflict. Typically, such aircraft require some tactical assistance on the ground. That’s usually Air Force enlisted personnel; it’s a segment of the AF special operations called combat control.

I haven’t linked to Andrew Sullivan in ages, but his reaction is simply so funny that it deserves a link:

It’s so surreal, so discordant with what the president has told the American people, so fantastically contrary to everything he campaigned on, that I will simply wait for more confirmation than this before commenting further. I simply cannot believe it. I know the president is not against all wars – just dumb ones. But could any war be dumber than this – in a place with no potential for civil society, wrecked by totalitarianism, riven by tribalism, in defense of rebels we do not know and who are clearly insufficient to the task?

Andrew as a certain Time Lord once said: “you can’t be a successful crook with a dishonest face, can you?”

So to those in the GOP who are worried about fighting back because the media says we’re in trouble I say this:

“Ride right through them, they’re demoralized as hell”!.

Update: Here is the solution for democrats. Tax increases! That’s going to fly really well.

Amherst NH 9:03 A.M. with Herman Cain: Updated with photos and Video

Posted: March 11, 2011 by datechguy in elections, primaries 2012
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I’m sitting at the counter of Joey’s Diner

Joey's Diner in Amherst NH

where Herman Cain makes a presentation to a group of invited locals.

Mr. Cain will be in NH for several events culminating in a keynote speech at the Hillsborough Lincoln-Reagan Day Reception and Dinner- Keynote Address tonight in Nashua. I hope to be there to cover it.

Update: Had breakfast with an elderly WW 2 & Korean War navy vet named Bob McCloud. He’s seen many presidential candidates pass through NH over the years, his favorite was Ronald Reagan. He is Mitt Romney fan and is not familiar with Herman Cain which is exactly the reason why Mr. Cain is up here.

Herman cain in the Back room making his case

Scored an interview and will have it up when I have a faster upload location to work from.

Update 2: Video is up:

The White House figures out which way the wind is blowing

Posted: February 21, 2011 by datechguy in economy, elections, opinion/news, politics
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Four days ago Politico highlighted the involvement of the DNC was and OFA in Wisconsin:

The Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America arm — the remnant of the 2008 Obama campaign — is playing an active role in organizing protests against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s attempt to strip most public employees of collective bargaining rights.

OfA, as the campaign group is known, has been criticized at times for staying out of local issues like same-sex marriage, but it’s riding to the aide of the public sector unions who hoping to persuade some Republican legislators to oppose Walker’s plan. And while Obama may have his difference with teachers unions, OfA’s engagement with the fight — and Obama’s own clear stance against Walker — mean that he’s remaining loyal to key Democratic Party allies at what is, for them, a very dangerous moment.

OfA Wisconsin’s field efforts include filling buses and building turnout for the rallies this week in Madison, organizing 15 rapid response phone banks urging supporters to call their state legislators, and working on planning and producing rallies, a Democratic Party official in Washington said.

The @OFA_WI twitter account has published 54 tweets promoting the rallies, which the group has also plugged on its blog.

During my interview with Andrew Breitbart on Sunday morning he commented on their presence saying the following:

I’ve sensed that any time when Obama’s Organizing for America gets involved they are up to no good. So when I see them go up against the people I try to be there.

Now in the surest sign that the White House has figured out where this is going to end up, there is some serious backtracking going on:

Administration officials said Sunday that the White House had done nothing to encourage the demonstrations in Wisconsin — nor was it doing so in Ohio, Florida and other states where new Republican governors are trying to make deep cuts to balance their budgets.

And, officials and union leaders said, reports of the involvement of the Democratic National Committee — specifically Organizing for America, the grass-roots network born of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign — were overblown to start with and were being inflated by Republicans sensing political advantage.

Because we all know how Politico is really a house organ of the Republican Party, that’s why they are always being quoted on MSNBC

I think the White House has seen these polls and is getting cold feet BIGTIME:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters agree more with the Republican governor in his dispute with union workers. Thirty-eight percent (38%) agree more with the unionized public employees, while 14% are undecided.

And as Captain Ed Morrissey at Hotair reports the details are even more damning:

No one will be shocked to find Democrats opposed to Walker’s plan, 21/68, although the opposition seems a little weak, under the circumstances. Also, no one will be surprised to see almost the mirror image among Republicans, 68/15. Independents across the nation give a strong endorsement to Walker, 56/31. Among income demographics, only those earning under $20K per year support the unions (30/54), while Walker gains a plurality or majority in every other income demographic, including a 62/27 among the $60-75K demo. Interestingly, unions only barely edge Walker among government employees, 44/46. (bolding mine)

I put this down to Bill Daily. He is a man of the left and a big supporter of these same unions but he knows politics and sees where this is going. His job is to minimize the damage to the white house. He also understands that if Democrats shut down Wisconsin with the White House behind them it will be harder to blame republicans for a shutdown here.

Ah Dave have you actually looked at the polls concerning Abortion?

Posted: February 18, 2011 by datechguy in abortion, catholic, elections, opinion/news, politics
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Because if you had you might not be saying things like this:

That’s most of the plan. The rest of the plan, as Israel explains, is making life difficult for some of the pro-life Republicans who were swept into Congress last year. The theory is that voters sort of elected them by accident. And they are numerous. At this year’s March for Life, an annual rally against legal abortion, 17 newly elected members of Congress spoke, stretching the speechifying part of the event about an hour longer than scheduled.

The new members include lots of people who took over suburban districts that had been trending more liberal. The Republicans who won, in most cases, didn’t run on abortion. They got pro-life support—the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List endorsed 14 Republican congressional candidates who took over Democratic seats. But Democrats remain convinced that the new class was never smoked out.

Take Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-N.Y., one of the Democrats’ favorite examples. She started in politics as a spokeswoman for Operation Rescue in the 1980s. She didn’t hide this fact, but when she began running, she said she’d “be really careful not to make this a referendum on abortion.” Her opponent, incumbent Rep. Dan Maffei, tried to make abortion an issue. He lost. And when Buerkle got to Congress she immediately became a prominent pro-life advocate. Pro-choice activists can explain all of this, or try to.

Dave Dave Dave, if you read me and the lonely conservative you would know that it was likely the linkage of Buerkle to the pro-life movement that made the difference for her.

But a large portion of NY25′s voters are in Onondaga County. I did some digging and found out that there were 147,332 Catholics in Onondaga County alone in 2000 (Sorry, I searched for hours and couldn’t find any more recent data, or a breakdown of religious affiliation of registered voters.) I’m sure enough of those Catholics are registered voters who could swing the election in Buerkle’s favor. This race hasn’t been about social issues. It’s been about the economy, the direction of our country, and the failed policies of the current administration and Congress. By running this ad Dan Maffei just gave undecided pro-life voters a reason to vote for Ann Marie Buerkle.

And as Stacy pointed out:

See? Buerkle needed a miracle to win and, by highlighting her pro-life record in the final days of the campaign, her opponent gave her that miracle. Out of more than 200,000 votes cast in NY-25, Buerkle won by 657 votes, and how many of those votes were decided on the pro-life issue?

Additionally you might notice that the polls have steadily been trending toward life for years, advances in science and medicine has changed the viability equations additionally democrats haven’t grasped the idea that killing off your own voters for two generations tends to shrink your potential voting base. Additionally the growing Latin population is heavily Catholic and not the Nancy Pelosi flavor of Catholic either.

Like all great Evils abortion will eventually fall, in the end Americans are basically decent people. Dave is betting on the wrong horse.

Update: Stacy Points out that Buerkle is going to need your financial help in the short term.

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