Evans Liberal Politics
December 31, 2010
Posts Tagged ‘election’
Christine O’Donnell Under Federal Investigation – Cenk on MSNBC
Dec 31st, 10 / 0 Comments
Evans Liberal Politics
Christine O’Donnell Under Federal Investigation:
campaign finance, campaign finance reform, Christine O'Donnell, Christine O'Donnell latest, Christine O'Donnell legal trouble, Christine O'Donnell news, Christine O'Donnell witch, Delaware, Delaware news, Delaware politics, election, elections, Evans Liberal Politics, FBI news, FBI to investigate Christine O'Donnell, latest, liberal, liberal Christian news, liberal Christian politics, liberal news, liberal news video, liberal politics, liberal politics video, liberal video, MSNBC, MSNBC news video, MSNBC video, news, politics, politics news, truthful liberal news, truthful news, US news, US politics, videoVideo: The History of the Tea Party in Four Minutes
Dec 19th, 10 / 0 Comments
Evans Liberal Politics
December 19, 2010
The History of the Tea Party in Four Minutes
The Why-Should-I-Get-Out-Of-My-Chair Gap in 2012
Dec 14th, 10 / 2 Comments
Evans Liberal Politics
December 14, 2010
The Why-Should-I-Get-Out-Of-My-Chair Gap in 2012
The Why-Should-I-Get-Out-Of-My-Chair Gap in 2012, Robert Reich.org, December 12, 2010, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:
In the 2010 midterm elections Democrats suffered from a so-called “enthusiasm gap.”
If Dems agree to the tax plan just negotiated by the White House with Republican leaders, they’ll face a “why-should-I-get-up-out-of-my-chair” gap that will make 2010’s Dem enthusiasm seem like a pep rally by comparison.
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It’s a $70,000 gift for every millionaire, financed by a gigantic hole in the federal budget that will put on the cutting board education, infrastructure, and everything else most other Americans need and want.
Some Dem apologists say the deal is a $900 billion stimulus. Not true. The rich spend a smaller share of their incomes than everyone else, so the huge benefits going their way will barely stimulate the economy. (Their savings will move around the world wherever they can get the highest return.)
And while middle and working class consumers will get a small break from payroll taxes, they’ll use most of it to help pay down their debts because they know the tax break isn’t permanent while their debt payments and penalties are growing. Again, very little stimulus.
An extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless will surely help them and the economy overall. But a new WPA to put the jobless to work would have been far better. The longer they’re out of work the harder it will be for them ever to get back in, even if and when jobs return. But apparently a new WPA wasn’t even considered.
It’s not just the Dem base that worries about the deal. Independents who believe the dice are increasingly loaded in favor of the privileged and powerful are also concerned. (Just the latest example: The New York Times today reports on a small cabal of bankers from the biggest Wall Street houses who meet regularly to maintain their lock on the lucrative multi-trillion dollar derivatives trade. The Times story could have gone further and revealed how much the big banks are spending on lobbyists to gut provisions of the financial reform act aimed at regulating derivatives trading.)
Even Tea Partiers are convinced big government, big business, and Wall Street colluding against the rest of America. Only instead of blaming the powerful and privileged, the Tea Partiers are more comfortable taking aim at America’s so-called cultural and intellectual elites.
The point is that with income and wealth more concentrated at the top than it’s been since 1928, with money flooding politics as never before (much of it secret), and with cynicism about government at a post-World War II high, Obama’s tax deal couldn’t come at a worse time.
Enthusiasts on the right want to shrink government, and the deal sets them up nicely.
Most Democrats, many Independents, and everyone else who still sees government as our last bulwark against privilege and power, are aghast by the deal. They ask: How could it have come to this? And when 2012 rolls around, why should I get out of my chair?
here. Reich’s newest book, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future has been released September 21, and is available for ordering at this link (Amazon.com). The above article is from Reich’s new blog, and can be viewed here.
Robert Reich’s commentaries are available for listening to at Publicradio.com. Watch the video Aftershock: The next economy and America’s future (about his new book). Thanks to Professor Reich for permission to publish his articles on an ongoing basis.
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2010 election, 2012, 2012 election, economics, economy, election, elections, enthusiasm gap, Evans Liberal Politics, liberal, liberal Christian news, liberal Christian politics, liberal economics, liberal news, liberal news source, liberal politics, liberalism, news, Obama, Obama tax plan, politics, politics news, progressive economics, Robert Reich, taxes, the Obama administration, truthful liberal news, truthful news, truthful news source, US liberal news, US liberal politics, US news, US politics, White House, White House tax planAnother Hard November
Nov 8th, 10 / 0 Comments
Evans Liberal Politics
November 8, 2010
Another Hard November
Another Hard November, Truthout, November 5, 2010, by William Rivers Pitt, OpEd, quoted verbatim:
I am beginning to loathe November. Every second year, we as a nation endure the paroxysm of election, and every second year seems to be more demented than the last. Do not get me wrong: I am a devotee of the church of democracy, and I get a deep visceral thrill every time I get to cast a vote. But man oh man, it is a trying time every time, and never more so than over the last ten years.
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2000 was the match to the fuse that blew the country apart.
2002 was Max Cleland getting compared to Osama bin Laden while Karl Rove told his fellow Republicans to “run on the war” in Iraq that was still five months from coming to pass.
2004 brought the unthinkable re-election of the worst president this nation has ever seen, with a little help from some gutter-low electoral hijinks in Ohio.
2006 saw the Democrats finally pushing back, only to take their new power and do little with it; the wars went on, the Bush program continued unabated, and the justice of impeachment was declared “off the table.”
In 2008, we were spared the horror of “President McCain and Vice President Palin,” only to be handed half a loaf after half a loaf after half a loaf by a Democratic congressional majority that could not get out of its own way, and by a White House that sought compromise from a GOP minority that, quite simply, wanted the new president and his whole party dead.
There was a hint of an idea after 2008 that the insanity of the previous eight years had been broken, finally and forever, but it did not last. Now, in this year of our Lord 2010, we have endured yet another deranged November, and the same American people who had been so victimized by savage GOP policy decided their best bet was to let the wolf back inside the fence.
(And P.S., gentle Truthout reader: if you are of a mind to fill the comments section of this article with exclamations about the equivalence of the two parties, I would invite you to save your energy; anyone who can not or will not see the difference between a person like Sharron Angle and a person like Harry Reid would be well-served by spending some time in a padded room wearing a coat that laces up in the back)
(Seriously)
The first Tuesday of the month of November has come and gone, and this is the point in the exercise where people in my line of work are expected – nay, required – to indulge in a load of what-does-it-all-mean navel-gazing. For the most part, it all comes out to be nothing more or less than an avalanche of verbal diarrhea from so-called “experts” who allegedly should know better, but clearly don’t. This particular November has been no exception, and the only reason I haven’t put a bullet through my television is because I like watching the Celtics, Bruins and Patriots too much. Maybe I’m weak, but there are other channels besides CNN, and I am thankful for small favors because of it.
What does it all mean?
Let’s see.
It means that the US House of Representatives, and to a lesser extent the US Senate, have once again been transformed into a theater of the absurd. Rep. Allen West of Florida is proud to have tortured an Iraqi policeman during his tour of duty, and prouder still to be a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang. Rep. Vicky Hartzler thinks God told her to amend her state’s constitution to ban gay marriage. Rep. Tim Walberg believes the best use of the House of Representative’s time would be to pursue impeachment proceedings against President Obama to determine the validity of his birth certificate. Senator Rand Paul sounds like he will block efforts to pay the national debt, despite the fact that such an act would cripple the dollar and annihilate the global economy.
The beat goes on.
It means that we should all be prepared to deal with the House Select Subcommittee investigation into the validity of Mr. Obama’s citizenship, whether he is a secret Muslim fascist communist socialist terrorist mole, and maybe even whether or not he is, in fact, the re-incarnation of Adolf Hitler. For sure, it means there will be very public hearings into the “fact” that global warming is a fraud. It means everyone working in the White House better get themselves a good lawyer and have a cool quarter million dollars handy for legal fees, because if history (read: the 1990′s) is any guide, a Republican House squared off against a Democratic administration means a blizzard of subpoenas from various GOP-chaired committees over anything and everything they can think of. The GOP learned this tactic during the Clinton years, and they will do it again. In short, the new Republican House will treat this Democratic president the way the Democratic House should have treated the Bush administration, but with no cause other than to disrupt and dismember.
It means that Alan Grayson’s strong, strident voice will no longer be heard. Worse, it means that Russ Feingold is gone, which is a tragedy beyond reckoning, almost beyond comprehension. His final words to his constituents – “Thank you. Thank you for your support over the years. Representing Wisconsin in the Senate has been the greatest honor of my life and together we accomplished many great things. No one has ever had such a strong foundation of support as I have. You gave me my backbone. In the words of Bob Dylan: ‘But my heart is not weary. It’s light and free. I’ve got nothing but affection for those who have sailed with me.’ Forward!” – fail to convey the pathos left in the wake of his sudden, terrible absence.
It means the “mainstream” news media had a chance to explain what happened on Tuesday with honesty and accuracy, and once again blew it, as expected. This was not an election proving America is a “center-right nation,” whatever the hell that means. In 2006 and 2008, the Democrats won a slew of House seats in districts that had historically rejected them out of hand. This happened because the Bush administration and the GOP were so God-awful that even their own people rejected them. In 2008, for example, several dozen districts elected a Democrat to the House while simultaneously going for McCain. What happened on Tuesday had some to do with the economy, very little to do with the so-called “Tea Party,” and almost everything to do with those several dozen House seats snapping back to their normal states of being.
It means that Tuesday was bad, but could have been worse. It means the GOP better put up or shut up, unless they want the insane yahoos that just got elected to run wild and hurl the party into a highly destructive civil war. It means the Obama administration is going to have to play small-ball for a while, and rely quite a bit more on Executive Orders than on legislation. It means the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. It means we will have more opportunities to watch these “small government” GOP hypocrites grow the government exponentially, as they did during the Bush years, while lying about it with their bare faces hanging out. It means that if Mr. Obama doesn’t get it into his head that the GOP cannot be compromised with, then he will be a one-termer as sure as water is wet.
It also means that I’m going to give the newly-empowered GOP a week – maybe two – before I start caterwauling about why they haven’t fixed the economy, joblessness, the wars, terrorism and the fact that my pants don’t fit right. According to the GOP, Obama and the Democrats were expected to cure all that ails us the very bleeding minute they walked in the door two years ago, and last I heard, turnabout is fair play.
So, yeah, the clock is ticking. And yeah, things are about to get very weird around here.
Recommended: MSNBC Folds!! Keith Olbermann back on Tuesday! UpdatedX2 – A Mention in NYT!, Daily Kos, November 7, 2010, by Diogenes2008.
See Dems Take a Pounding in the Mid-Terms: Progressives Not Bold Enough, Says Caucus Leader, AlterNet, November 3, 2010, by Adele M. Stan.
Update: See In Lame-Duck Session, a Hint of the Governing to Come, The New York Times, The Caucus, November 7, 2010, by John Harwood.
Note by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: Obviously, if you are reading this, you can see that we’re back ‘on the air’ with more news for you. For me, it has been a hard November indeed, and a hard October before that. The details are actually rather personal, but if you care, would please keep me in your thoughts? Please feel encouraged to drop me an email if you’d like to say hi.
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2010 election, Alan Grayson, election, election 2010, liberal, liberal Christian news, liberal Christian politics, liberal news, liberal news source, liberal opinion, liberal politics, oped, opinion, politics news, progressive, progressive news, progressive opinion, progressive politics, Russ Feingold, truthful news, truthful news source, US liberal news, US liberal politics, US news, US politicsRobert Reich – The Secret Big-Money Takeover of America
Oct 8th, 10 / 1 Comment
Evans Liberal Politics
October 8, 2010
Robert Reich – The Secret
Big-Money Takeover of America
The Secret Big-Money Takeover of America, Robert Reich.org, October 7, 2010, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:
Not only is income and wealth in America more concentrated in fewer hands than it’s been in 80 years, but those hands are buying our democracy as never before – and they’re doing it behind closed doors.
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Hundreds of millions of secret dollars are pouring into congressional and state races in this election cycle. The Koch brothers (whose personal fortunes grew by $5 billion last year) appear to be behind some of it, Karl Rove has rounded up other multi-millionaires to fund right-wing candidates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is funneling corporate dollars from around the world into congressional races, and Rupert Murdoch is evidently spending heavily.
No one knows for sure where this flood of money is coming from because it’s all secret.
But you can safely assume its purpose is not to help America’s stranded middle class, working class, and poor. It’s to pad the nests of the rich, stop all reform, and deregulate big corporations and Wall Street – already more powerful than since the late 19th century when the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators.
Credit the Supreme Court’s grotesque decision in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, which opened the floodgates. (Even though 8 of 9 members of the Court also held disclosure laws constitutional, the decision invited the creation of shadowy “nonprofits” that don’t have to reveal anything.)
According to FEC data, only 32 percent of groups paying for election ads are disclosing the names of their donors. By comparison, in the 2006 midterm, 97 percent disclosed; in 2008, almost half disclosed.
Last week, when the Senate considered a bill to force such disclosure, every single Republican voted against it – thereby revealing the GOP’s true colors, and presumed benefactors. (To understand how far the GOP has come, nearly ten years ago campaign disclosure was supported by 48 of 54 Republican senators.)
Maybe the Disclose Bill can get passed in lame-duck session. Maybe the IRS will make sure Karl Rove’s and other supposed nonprofits aren’t sham political units. Maybe pigs will learn to fly.
In the meantime we face an election that marks an even sharper turn toward plutocratic capitalism than before – a government by and for the rich and big corporations — and away from democratic capitalism.
As income and wealth has moved to the top, so has political power. That’s why, for example, it’s been impossible to close the absurd tax loophole that allows hedge-fund and private-equity managers to treat much of their income as capital gains, subject to a 15 percent tax (even though they’re earning tens or hundreds of millions a year, and the top 15 hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion last year). Why it proved impossible to fund expanded health care by limiting the tax deductions of the very rich. Why it’s so difficult even to extend George Bush’s tax cuts for the bottom 98 percent of Americans without also extending them for the top 2 percent – even though the top won’t spend the money and create jobs, but will blow a $36 billion hole in the federal budget next year.
The good news is average Americans are beginning to understand that when the rich secretly flood our democracy with money, the rest of us drown. Wall Street executives and top CEOs get bailed out while under-water homeowners and jobless workers sink.
A Quinnipiac poll earlier this year found overwhelming support for a millionaire tax.
But what the public wants means nothing if our democracy is secretly corrupted by big money.
Right now we’re headed for a perfect storm: An unprecedented concentration of income and wealth at the top, a record amount of secret money flooding our democracy, and a public in the aftershock of the Great Recession becoming increasingly angry and cynical about government. The three are obviously related.
We must act. We need a movement to take back our democracy. (If tea partiers were true to their principles, they’d join it.) As Martin Luther King once said, the greatest tragedy is “not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
What can you do?
1. Read Justice Steven’s dissent in the Citizens United case, so you’re fully informed about the majority’s pernicious illogic.
2. Use every opportunity to speak out against this decision, and embarrass and condemn the right-wing Justices who supported it.
3. In this and subsequent elections, back candidates for congress and president who vow to put Justices on the Court who will reverse it.
4. Demand that the IRS enforce the law and pull the plug on Karl Rove and other sham nonprofits.
5. If you have a Republican senator, insist that he or she support the Disclose Act. If they won’t, campaign against them.
6. Support public financing of elections.
7. Join an organization like Common Cause, that’s committed to doing all this and getting big money out of politics. (Personal note: I’m so outraged at what’s happening that I just became chairman of Common Cause.)
8. Send this post to your friends (including any tea partiers you may know).
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big money, big-money takeover of America, buying Congress, buying elections, Citizens United, Common Cause, corruption, democracy, deregulation, Disclose Act, election, elections, Evans Liberal Politics, Evans Politics, GOP, Karl Rove, Koch Brothers, liberal, liberal Christian news, liberal Christian politics, liberal news, liberal news source, liberal politics, money, news, politics, power, power and wealth, progressive, progressive news, progressive politics, Republican, Republicans, Robert Reich, Rupert Murdoch, Supreme Court, the rich, truthful news, truthful news source, US liberal news, US liberal politics, US news, US politics, US progressive news, US progressive politicsMichael Moore: There Is Some Evidence the Dems Are Waking Up
Oct 7th, 10 / 2 Comments
Evans Liberal Politics
October 7, 2010
Michael Moore: There Is Some Evidence
the Dems Are Waking Up
Michael Moore: There Is Some Evidence the Dems Are Waking Up, AlterNet, October 6, 2010, by Michael Moore, also published on Michael Moore.com, quoted verbatim:
We’re off to a great start. Last week I gave the spineless Dems five friendly suggestions for things they could do on the off chance they were interested in winning the midterm elections on November 2nd:
1. Deliver a blunt, nonstop reminder to the American people about exactly who it was that got us into the mess we’re in.
2. Declare a moratorium on home foreclosures.
3. Prosecute the banks and Wall Street for the Crime of the Century.
4. Create a 21st century WPA (hire the unemployed to rebuild America).
5. Pledge that no Dem will take a dime from Wall Street in the next election cycle.
So how are we doing a week later? Not bad! It turns out that at least some of these ideas were so simple even elected Democrats could come up with them!
1. Dems have started running tough, killer ads that have balls and SAY WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID. Check these out:
In the California Senate race, Barbara Boxer is going after Carly Fiorina on the outsourcing Fiorina did as CEO of HP.
Rep. Tim Bishop of Long Island, New York hits his GOP opponent Randy Altschuler on how HIS business sent jobs overseas.
Richard Blumenthal half-nelsons his Connecticut Senate opponent (and former WWE CEO) Linda McMahon who said we should consider cutting the minimum wage and then lied about having said it.
Jeez, it’s like they wanna win! More of these, please — NOW!
2. Foreclosure Moratorium fever among the Dems has amazingly swept the nation in the last week!Democratic Attorneys General all over the country are now demanding moratoriums for their states: California (Jerry Brown, now running for Governor), Connecticut (Richard Blumenthal, now running for Senate), Delaware (Joe Biden’s son Beau), Massachusetts (Martha Coakley, who probably wished she’d done this earlier since she lost the special Senate race in January to Scott Brown), Illinois (Lisa Madigan), Texas (Greg Abbott — a Republican!) and Colorado (John Suthers — another Republican!). And so is Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (at the urging of Rep. Elijah Cummings, who you may remember from ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’).
Meanwhile, the Attorneys General of Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina are opening probes into the mortgage industry. And the banks are feeling the heat — GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have already suspended foreclosures in 23 states (with Detroit’s Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, calling on them to extend it to Michigan and the rest of the U.S.).
Wells Fargo? Citibank? Are you paying attention? Now’s the time to do something good so you can later mention it to the sentencing judge.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona has called for a nationwide foreclosure moratorium, and Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey says that may be necessary.
And it goes on and on. Check the special section on my website that I’m updating every day as more and more Democratic officials announce they will no longer allow banks to kick families out of their homes.
3. Prosecute the bastards! Looks like that’s what they’re maybe finally going to do. Check out this stunning letter sent to Attorney General Holder yesterday by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and 30 other members of congress (PDF): “…we urge you and your respective agencies to investigate possible violations of law or regulations by financial institutions in their handling of delinquent mortgages, mortgage modifications, and foreclosures. … The excuses we have
heard from financial institutions are simply not credible three years into this crisis. … It is time that banks are held accountable for their practices that have left too many homeowners without real help.”According to the New York Times, banks will likely face a “wide range of government investigations” for years. Judges may ask for them to be indicted for perjury or obstruction of justice. The Justice Department could prosecute banks for mail and wire fraud, or for making false statements to the government. And the SEC could open civil investigations.
Now we need to hear the Justice Department announce their investigation.
And look — Larry Summers is gone. Great move! The people’s advocate, Elizabeth Warren, is in — genius move! If that’s the direction Obama is now heading in, then these bankers may be shaking in their Salvatore Ferragamos.
So, not a bad start, Democrats (20 months late)! Just four weeks to go and I’m feeling that maybe, just maybe, we may prevent the All Souls Day Massacre. The pundits, who are essentially tools for the Corporate States of America, may have to eat a lot of crow. And if the Dems escape death’s door, they had better not let this nonsense happen again.
So, President Obama and Congress, let’s get busy on ideas #4 (WPA jobs) and #5 (pledge to take no further campaign money from Goldman and their friends).
C’mon everybody — there’s at least 3 million of you reading this (including the 700,000 of you who are my Twitter followers and my 300,000+ close Facebook friends). Let’s pressure the Dems to quit cowering and kick some butt — NOW!
Tell them it’s easy and to repeat after us:
* Stop the foreclosures!
* Prosecute the banks and Wall Street and war profiteer corps!
* Remind the public 24/7 who created the mess!
* Announce a real jobs program!
* Promise not to take Wall Street’s dirty money!
* Win the election!
Simple! Do it!
Michael Moore is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker and author. He directed and produced Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko. He has also written seven books, most recently, Mike’s Election Guide 2008.
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AlterNet, Democratic liberals, Democratic Party, Democrats, Dems, election, election news, elections, Evans Liberal Politics, Evans Politics, liberal, liberal Christian news, liberal Christian politics, Liberal Democrats, liberal news, liberal news source, liberal politics, Michael Moore, middle class, midterm election, midterm elections, news, political anger, politics, politics news, progresssive, right wing anger, the middle class, truthful news, truthful news source, US liberal news, US liberal politics, US news, US politics, US progressive news, US progressive politicsObama and Dems Struggle to Reclaim Liberals’ Enthusiasm Ahead of Elections
Oct 6th, 10 / 1 Comment
Evans Liberal Politics
October 6, 2010
Obama and Dems Struggle to Reclaim
Liberals’ Enthusiasm Ahead of Elections
Obama Strains to Get Liberals Back Into Fold Ahead of Vote, © The New York Times, October 5, 2010, by Peter Baker, excerpt quoted verbatim:
WASHINGTON — With four weeks until Congressional elections that will shape the remainder of his term, President Obama is increasingly focused on generating enthusiasm within the base that helped put him in the White House two years ago, from college students to African-Americans.
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But Mr. Obama has aimed much of his prodding — and not a small amount of personal pique — at the liberals most deflated by the first two years of his presidency. Assuming that many independents are out of reach, White House strategists are counting on Mr. Obama to energize, cajole, wheedle and even shame the left into matching the Tea Party momentum that has propelled Republicans this year.
As he holds rallies aimed at college students and minority groups, sends e-mail to his old list of campaign supporters and prepares to host a town hall-style meeting on MTV, the president essentially is appealing to his liberal base to put aside its disappointment in him. Without offering regrets for policy choices that have angered liberals, Mr. Obama argues that the Republican alternative is far worse.
“You can’t sit it out,” he told a conference call of college student journalists last week. “You can’t suddenly just check in once every 10 years or so, on an exciting presidential election, and then not pay attention during big midterm elections where we’ve got a real big choice between Democrats and Republicans.” He added that “the energy that you were able to bring to our politics in 2008, that’s needed not less now, it’s needed more now.”
At times, though, the message has come across as scolding and testy, in the view of some Democrats. Mr. Obama told Rolling Stone magazine that Democrats “need to buck up” because it would be “inexcusable” for them to stay home. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. told a fund-raiser recently that the base should “stop whining and get out there and look at the alternatives.”
The White House may be making progress closing the so-called enthusiasm gap with Republicans, according to Democratic strategists who point to improving poll numbers and fund-raising. But the fact that Mr. Obama needs to make such a concerted effort highlights the depth of disaffection among liberals over what they see as his failure to aggressively push for the change he promised.
“It’s great that President Obama is showing a fighting spirit in the weeks before an election, but what his former voters need to see is that same fighting spirit when he’s governing,” said Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a group started last year to advocate for liberal goals and candidates.
David Axelrod, the president’s senior adviser, said the appeal to the base stemmed entirely from political reality. “It’s not frustration at all,” he said. “It’s fundamental. Almost the entire Republican margin is based on the enthusiasm gap, and if Democrats come out in the same turnout as Republicans, it’s going to be a much different election.” ….
Read the full article, here.
"The Republican Wave Has Crested;"
Democrats Gaining in Polls
“The Republican Wave Has Crested”; 2 New Polls Show Significant 7 Point Gains for the Democrats, Daily Kos, October 6, 2010, by TomP, excerpt quoted verbatim:
We have seen it recently in California where Brown and Boxer are opening up signifcant leads, in Washington and in Connecticut. Yes, the economy is making it a tough year, but new polling shows the Democrats coming back. The tradmed, however, is so invested in their wished-for Republican wave, that the news is not getting out. WE need to spread the word:
Submitted by Simon Rosenberg on 10/5/10
More evidence this morning confirming the argument we’ve been making for the past few weeks – the Republican wave has crested, and a new dynamic in election 2010 has taken hold.
New Rasmussen and Washington Post polls each show a 7 point swing towards the Democrats in the national Congressional Generic in the past few weeks. As we wrote yesterday this movement tracks similar movement seen in other polls released over the past few days, indicating that the Democrats have made substantial improvement in their position over the past month.
2 New Polls Show Significant 7 Point Gains for the Democrats
Simon Rosenberg is President and Founder of NDN and a veteran of the 1992 Clinton War Room. More from him:
In the lead Washington Post story on their new poll, the 7 point Democratic gain was “modest,” and the 6 point Republican lead “significant.” Not sure how that got by their editor this morning but shows how fundamentally invested much of DC’s political class is in the September version of this story which had Democrats losing the House, a wave election and big Republican gains were already “baked in the cake.”
2 New Polls Show Significant 7 Point Gains for the Democrats
Even with 9.5 % unemployment, the Republicans are having trouble winning both chambers of Congress. 9.5% unemployment. Yes, it was Bush’s fault, but people often just blame whoever is in office. 100s of millions of dollars spent by Big Business and the Billionaires, and yet the Republicans still have not put it away. This was their chance and they have not and will not succeed.
It’s despair that leads people to give up. We need to be agents of hope, showing that Dems can win. Simon Rosenberg sees Dem fortunes improving through October and into the election:
Given current trends it is reasonable to conclude that the Democrats could pick up another 3-6 points in the national polls before election day, which would have a significant impact of course on the many close races across the country.
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Abbreviated pundit round-up for Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Evans Liberal Politics
November 9, 2010
Abbreviated pundit round-up
for Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Abbreviated pundit round-up, Daily Kos, November 9, 2010, by Meteor Blades, used with permission, quoted verbatim:
Michael Gerson, the former Bush speechwriter, says:
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Shorter version: trigger-happy uncondiionalists return with a vengeance.
Devona Walker laments the 2010 election’s decimation of black congressional leadership.
Bob Herbert says it again because it bears repeating:
Thomas Sowell proclaims the coming politico-economic gridlock in Congress to be a good thing.
Jonathan Bloom says it shouldn’t be all that hard to stop wasting so much food.
Leonard Pitts Jr. takes aim at the death penalty as another citizen goes free by means of exoneration:
Saul Friedman takes the cudgel to Fox’s “reporters” and argues for a return to the Fairness Doctrine:
Chris Good:
Addition: fascinating like some kind of a ‘political sidewinder’: 12 takeaways from the Bush memoir, Salon, November 8, 2010, by Maxwell Strachan: "The former president’s book is about to hit shelves, but details have been leaking out."
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