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

To: sandintoes who wrote (46697)	11/1/2010 7:11:32 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

ROTFL. Nice line: I'll gladly cling to my religion and guns rather than to some telepromter has been. We can only hoppe that the new Congress has the will to undo all the mischief Obama has done to undermine this great nation.

To: sandintoes who wrote (46697)	11/1/2010 7:13:49 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

Story of the Midterms, Told Through 5 Races OCTOBER 26, 2010. By NAFTALI BENDAVID The House of Representatives increasingly looks as though it will shift significantly in favor of Republicans as campaigns head into the final week before Election Day. Republicans responded that the visit only reminded Ohioans about Democratic stewardship of the economy. "They are very, very concerned about the fact that the unemployment rate is the highest it's been in the country, and Ohio has been one of the worst-hit states, frankly, with little chance of improving," said Sen. George Voinovich (R., Ohio). In his speeches, Mr. Obama works hard to rekindle the energy that seemed to envelop his 2008 campaign. He says the forecasters have it wrong now, just as some did two years ago. He calls on voters to "finish what we started in 2008." But almost gone is the man who asked Americans to rise above partisanship to unite the nation. Now he speaks of Republicans as obstructionists who sat on the sidelines during the country's toughest times. Off the stump, his language can be just as tough. In an interview with Univision, the Spanish-language network, he urged Latinos to look at the election this way: "We're going to punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends." To be sure, in 2008 Mr. Obama was tough on his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, and on then-President George W. Bush. He said Mr. Bush had failed and that Mr. McCain would represent more of the same. But two years ago, Mr. Obama's criticism was directed specifically at those two men, not the Republican Party writ large, and was mixed with a high-minded call for unity. At times he speaks of the need for the parties to work together. That message was part of what drew independent voters to Mr. Obama in 2008, and many of them have abandoned Democrats this year. To win re-election in 2012, strategists say, he'll need them back. Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com online.wsj.com

To: sandintoes who wrote (46697)	11/1/2010 7:35:30 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

Signs of the Democratic Apocalypse Midterms are tough for presidents, but party leaders aren't usually in trouble.. OCTOBER 28, 2010. By KARL ROVE Next Tuesday Democrats will receive a crushing rebuke. More to the point, voters will be delivering a verdict on the first two years of the Obama administration. Midterm elections are almost always unpleasant experiences for the White House, especially when the economy is weak. But key races that should have been safe for the party in power demonstrate the extent to which President Obama and his policies have nationalized the election. In Nevada, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a huge war chest in a state Mr. Obama won in 2008 by 12 points. Mr. Reid trails Sharron Angle by four points in the latest Rasmussen poll. In West Virginia, Joe Manchin, a popular Democrat governor, is running for the Senate, yet he lags behind John Raese by two points in the Oct. 23 Fox News Poll, largely because of Mr. Obama's 30% approval rating in the state. Mr. Manchin is running away from the president, telling Fox News that Mr. Obama is "dead wrong on cap and trade," and that he would not have supported ObamaCare had he known everything that was in the bill. Or take the Illinois Senate seat held by Mr. Obama before he was elected president. It should be safely Democratic. Instead, Republican Congressman Mark Kirk has led Illinois Treasurer and Obama basketball buddy Alexi Giannoulias in eight of the 10 polls taken this month. It will be a terrible embarrassment if the president's former Senate seat flips. Elsewhere, some powerful Senate Democrats were either forced out by popular Republican challengers (North Dakota and Indiana) or they trail badly because their races became nationalized over the Obama agenda (Arkansas, Missouri and Wisconsin). One of the more interesting Senate races is in Ohio, where Rob Portman, a former trade negotiator and budget director for George W. Bush, leads Democratic Lt. Governor Lee Fisher by an average of 19 points in a state Mr. Obama carried by four points. Ohio is no longer friendly Obama territory. An August survey by Public Policy Polling reported that Ohioans would prefer George W. Bush in the White House today rather than Mr. Obama by 50% to 42%. Mr. Portman campaigns relentlessly on jobs, presenting a principled, optimistic case that conservative policies mean economic growth. It's a winning strategy. Then there are senior House Democrats who normally don't draw more than token opposition. This year, some are terminal and others in jeopardy. Nine-term Congressman Earl Pomeroy (North Dakota) and 13-termer Paul Kanjorski (Pennsylvania) will both go down. Three House committee chairmen—John Spratt (South Carolina), Ike Skelton (Missouri) and Jim Oberstar (Minnesota)—are trying to hold off late-charging challengers. Even the dean of the House, Michigan's 27-term Congressman John Dingell, is having to fend off a spirited challenge by cardiologist Rob Steele. Then there's House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, squaring off against Republican Sean Bielat, a Marine and businessman, in Massachusetts. In 2008, Mr. Obama carried his district by 29 points, but Mr. Frank is now stuck at 46% support in a recent poll commissioned by the Boston Globe. Anything less than 50% is a dangerous place for an entrenched incumbent. Mr. Bielat has campaigned so effectively he's forced the acerbic, high-strung Mr. Frank to confess he'd been wrong to oppose reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the years before their spectacular collapse. While Mr. Frank and several other senior Democrats may hang on, the fact that they even face tough races shows how much trouble the Democrats are in. Adding to Democrat problems, the record GOP turnout in this year's primaries points to higher turnout next week. Four years ago, 82 million people voted in the midterms. This year I estimate 89 million to 91 million Americans may cast a ballot, based on voting-eligible population statistics calculated by George Mason University's Michael McDonald. Could there be a late surge in Democratic enthusiasm? The latest Pew poll, from Oct. 21, reports that 64% of Republicans say they have given a lot of thought to the election, while only 49% of Democrats have. This intensity edge is staggering, larger even than the GOP's 12-point lead in 1994. In recent days, Mr. Obama screamed defiantly to Democrat rallies that Republicans have to "sit in the back," and he told a Latino radio audience that it's time to "punish our enemies and . . . reward our friends." That may be the president's idea of how to appeal to Americans' better instincts. Next Tuesday night we'll see how badly wrong he is. Mr. Rove was senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush. online.wsj.com