Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RMF who wrote (44340)	8/2/2010 12:29:51 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Year of the Tea Party Voter Republicans are winning over voters who are disgruntled with both parties. JULY 28, 2010. By JOHN FUND It seems every election finds political pundits trying to come up with a shorthand description for the latest bloc of voters to exercise undue influence in the current year's races. In 2000, "soccer moms" were the group du jour, and enough of them were disgusted with the Clinton scandals that they cost Al Gore the White House. In 2004, it was "security moms," who in a post-9/11 world were concerned about terrorism and the safety of their children. In 2008, a video featuring "Obama Girl" captured the enthusiasm the Democratic candidate generated among young voters. This year, the hands-down winner for the key voting bloc might be called "Tea Party Supporter." Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning firm, reports a major reason Republicans are poised to make major gains this year is that they "are cleaning up with a voting bloc that accounts for 26% of the country and could end up being the most important group of people at the polls this fall: voters who hate both congressional Democrats and congressional Republicans." While these voters, who are mostly white and mostly male, harbor no loyalty to either party, this year they are much more upset with the Democrats who hold power in the White House and Congress. "The GOP has a 57-19 generic lead with this group of voters that could perhaps be described as the angriest segment of the electorate," reports PPP. "Their support is fueling the GOP's success right now." The party-affiliation breakdown of the "pox on all politicians" segment is fascinating. Only 44% are Republicans, while 34% are independents and 21% are Democrats. That breakdown roughly mirrors the profile of people who in other polls identify themselves as Tea Party supporters. Interestingly, however, PPP finds that only about 35% of the "angriest segment" actually call themselves Tea Partiers. That's compared to about 25% of voters in the electorate as a whole who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters. To read more stories like this one, please subscribe to Political Diary. online.wsj.com

To: RMF who wrote (44340)	8/2/2010 12:32:11 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

Sometimes an individual race is worth losing to have a chance restore responsibility to Washington. Besides Harry Reid makes a great personality to campaign against throughout the country. The longer he is in the Senate the worse your party looks.

To: RMF who wrote (44340)	8/9/2010 1:43:07 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

A new Angle in U.S. Senate race GLENN COOK She had neither the money nor the moxie to fight back as Harry Reid exposed her weaknesses with the ruthlessness you'd expect from a four-term incumbent. All of a sudden, the race was about Second Amendment remedies and Social Security. In a harshly anti-incumbent cycle, the unpopular Reid was turning his re-election bid into a vote on his Tea Party challenger's fitness for office. Last week, Angle finally showed signs that she's capable of recasting the race into what it's always been: a referendum on Reid and the Democratic Party's disastrous economic policies. Her TV ads take the fight back to Reid. And she used a Monday speech to the Nevada Republican Men's Club to turn his campaign's biggest selling point against him. "In spite of what people are saying about this powerful man, Harry Reid, he has not used his power for our benefit," said Angle, armed with new advisers and a new media team. "It's time to tell Harry Reid to stop doing more. We can't afford it." Bingo. Reid, as Senate majority leader, is President Obama's go-to guy to get the Democrats' agenda passed. And Reid is eager to deliver even though a majority of Nevadans don't support the Democrats' legislative goals, and even though this leftist credo runs counter to everything Nevada needs to recover from this painful recession. November's election is about the economy, and whether Nevada voters will embrace an ideology that seeks to extract ever-greater sums of money from the listless private sector or send a message to the rest of the country that the president and Congress need to reverse course -- and that it might be safe for companies to start hiring again. Nevada has the nation's highest unemployment rate at 14.2 percent, a figure that has been climbing steadily for 53 straight months -- a stretch that coincides with Reid's tenure as majority leader. Nevada has suffered the nation's worst housing collapse. One thing will start healing both: jobs. But Nevada has a tourist-driven economy. Jobs won't be created in large numbers here until there's job creation in other states. When larger numbers of Americans have jobs that aren't at risk of disappearing overnight, and once they have some disposable income to spend, they'll become tourists again. Reid, however, is pushing for higher taxes, more regulation and increased government control of the economy. Through his health care monstrosity, he has made sure health care will become even more expensive and that taxes will increase to help pay the bigger bills. Through the climate-change legislation he wants passed, he's pushing for higher energy costs and the elimination of jobs tied to fossil fuels. Worst of all, he's making no secret of his desire to significantly raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, who already pay a disproportionate share of our taxes. Look up and down the Las Vegas Strip. The newest properties -- especially CityCenter, which Reid brags to have saved from a pre-opening bankruptcy -- were built for upscale travelers. When the wealthy travel to Las Vegas, they create jobs in gourmet restaurants, nightclubs, spas and high-end retail stores -- jobs that increase demand for local housing. Back home, these affluent travelers create more jobs -- and more potential Las Vegas visitors -- by spending money in their local businesses, to say nothing of their investments. Las Vegas desperately needs for these people to be able to keep and spend their money. But Reid insists on advancing a confiscatory agenda that wipes out job-creating wealth. How, exactly, does sticking it to the rich and reducing this country's standard of living help fill hotel rooms at Bellagio, The Venetian and Wynn Las Vegas? Reid counters this devastating argument by boasting about creating subsidized "green" jobs, bailing out automakers and saving government jobs through the stimulus boondoggle. All of these debt-exploding initiatives, however, merely transferred jobs to governments and favored industries. Reid's entire case for re-election centers on how valuable he'll be to Nevada once his legislative accomplishments leave us in permanent recession. As majority leader, he'll ensure local and state governments, their unionized workers and welfare recipients are bailed out with borrowed money -- as he did again Wednesday with the passage of $26.1 billion in new handouts to states. He'll leverage big favors for reeling gaming conglomerates that can't attract enough customers as a result of his party's policies. "Trends are definitely headed in the wrong direction. CityCenter had a terrible quarter and another big write-off," Hudson Securities gaming analyst Robert LaFleur told investors Tuesday. Harry Reid wants to be the benevolent lord of a failed state. His staff has a stock response to anyone who points out how badly Reid's economic policies are working: Things would be far worse if not for Harry's heroic gestures. Just like Reid's defense of the stimulus bill, it allows him to create the illusion of doing good no matter how bad things get. Do Nevadans really want to settle for a man who can't demonstrate actual improvement in anything he does? Especially when he ignores the wishes of his constituents? Reid tried positive advertising during the primary season. Voters didn't buy it. So his campaign is now focused almost exclusively on marginalization. If Reid wants Nevadans to start liking him, he should stop voting like Nancy Pelosi. That's not going to happen. That's why he's going to have a very hard time beating Sharron Angle. She's finally engaged in the campaign. Whatever foolish things she said in the months and years past, she has the right message now. The fight is on. Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer. lvrj.com

To: RMF who wrote (44340)	8/20/2010 10:28:23 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

Deconstructing Harry Reid The Senate majority leader's inexplicable desire to debate taxes in September. By KARL ROVE AUGUST 19, 2010. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can say the darndest things. He certainly did last week when he proclaimed: "I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican." That must have thrilled his son, Rory, who's trailing a Hispanic Republican, Judge Brian Sandoval, in the Nevada governor's race by 16 points in the most recent Mason-Dixon poll. Mr. Reid can also do inexplicable things, such as tentatively schedule a floor debate in September on extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that expire on Jan. 1. There are many ways this debate can hurt Democrats in November's election, such as deepening their image as tax-and-spend liberals. There are only a few ways it could help, such as if they agreed with Republicans to keep the Bush tax cuts in place. Rightly sensing trouble and trying to protect vulnerable House Democrats from yet another unpopular vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that her chamber would take up the issue only if the Senate passed a bill first. That's unlikely. At least three Senate Democrats support renewing the Bush-era tax cuts: Sens. Evan Bayh, Kent Conrad and Ben Nelson. This puts Mr. Reid at least four votes short of gaining cloture on any tax increase he'd pursue. By arguing that now is not the time to raise taxes, Messrs. Bayh, Conrad and Nelson may be out of step with their Democratic colleagues and the White House, but not with the American people. The Aug. 5-9 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll reported 71% of Americans favor extending the tax cuts for at least a year, while only 24% said permanently eliminating all the tax cuts was acceptable. The Wall Street Journal's recent survey of 53 economists also found that only three supported allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire, while 32 favored keeping them. Eleven backed President Barack Obama's position of continuing them for individuals making less than $200,000 a year or families making less than $250,000. Mr. Reid will not only face opposition inside the Democratic caucus from his right. Liberal senators might follow the lead of Iowa's Tom Harkin, who wants to preserve tax cuts only to those earning $150,000 or less. Mr. Reid also has the problem that God so loves middle-class taxpayers that he created a lot of them. Individual filers who make $200,000 or less and families who earn $250,000 or less received the lion's share of the Bush-era tax cuts. The "cost" (to the government) of keeping tax cuts in place for them would be $1.29 trillion over the next 10 years. Yet Mr. Reid, Mr. Obama and congressional Democrats have vowed to "pay" for any tax cuts with offsetting tax increases or spending cuts elsewhere—a policy called pay-go. Abandoning pay-go on some tax cuts now will make it hard for Democrats to resurrect it later. But raising taxes and cutting spending will gore a lot of oxen weeks before the midterms, driving everyone who faces a tax hike to vote Republican in order to keep House Democrats from passing any Senate bill. The GOP will seize this opportunity to argue that the country should not absorb history's largest tax increase as the economy is struggling to get airspeed and altitude. In a June Rasmussen poll, Republicans already enjoyed a 52-to-36 lead on the question of which party can be trusted on taxes. A September tax debate will only strengthen the GOP's standing. With tiresome predictability, Senate Democrats will attack GOP colleagues for protecting tax cuts for the rich. But Republicans have a very strong small business card to play. Raising the top income tax rates would increase taxes on small businesses that report profits as individuals. Higher income tax rates would raise taxes on 54% of Subchapter S small companies, 33% of sole proprietorships, and half of all small business income. Affected firms employ a quarter of all small business workers. Small business owners are already jazzed about this year's elections. An assault on them in September will only increase their agitation, making it more likely they share their concerns with employees, suppliers and customers. Democrats are in a terrible bind. Having pursued policies that have made our fiscal situation unsustainable, they are now reverting to old habits, trying to raise taxes to pay for their profligacy. Mr. Reid is drawing attention to some of his party's very worst impressions. Already facing the prospect of huge election losses in November, many Democratic candidates may find themselves victims of their majority leader's extraordinarily bad judgment if he follows through on his decision to schedule a tax debate next month. Mr. Rove, the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, is the author of "Courage and Consequence" (Threshold Editions, 2010). online.wsj.com