"Super PACs drive campaign spending; Corporate giving surges after ruling by Supreme Court" by Jonathan D. Salant and Kristin Jensen, Bloomberg News | September 10, 2010
WASHINGTON — At least 25 “super PACS,’’ including one linked to Karl Rove, are fueling a surge in money for this year’s elections following the Supreme Court ruling that struck down limits on corporate campaign spending....
Related: No Outrage Over Rove
Of the 25 super PACS, at least nine lean Republican and 10 Democratic....
Then why the emphasis on Rove?
These political action committees can take unlimited company, union, and individual donations and explicitly urge voters to support or oppose candidates....
General rule: Incumbents out.
The new super PACs emerge as spending is already surpassing previous midterm elections. As of late last month, outside groups and the political parties had spent $150 million on ads, up $41 million from the same period in 2006, said Evan Tracey at Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group....
All this money poured into politics as the American people suffer.
--more--"
Let's dance, shall we (in a most AmeriKan way)?
Left:
"Obama planning big rallies to fuel fall campaign push
WASHINGTON — The events are designed to evoke the good old days of 2008.
Gone and forgotten.
To many Democrats and the liberal faithful, the sight of Obama in full cry back on the campaign trail is a glimmer of light in an otherwise dim season....
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Right:
"GOP focus is jobs, not health care; Candidates mostly avoid issue party pledged to hammer" by Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff | September 11, 2010
WASHINGTON — Republicans had promised to make the fall elections a reprise of the bitter, exhausting debate over what they call “Obamacare.’’ But two months before the vote, the GOP has adopted a more nuanced approach and folded the issue into broader attacks on the Democrats’ handling of the economy.
When Republicans bring up health care, they tend to list it as just one example in a litany of complaints about the “misplaced priorities’’ and “overreaching’’ of Democrats. Even many Democrats are downplaying the new sweeping overhaul, once trumpeted as a signature accomplishment, because they are skittish about being portrayed as advocates of big government.
Related: Why You Will Love the New Health Law
Sick of being lied to yet?
In a sign of how rapidly the ground has shifted, the new health care law, approved in March after a year of legislative struggles and caustic town hall protests, didn’t even come up last week at a marquee US Senate de bate in California between Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer and her opponent, Carly Fiorina.
The reason, analysts say, is clear: Jobs and the economy dominate the concerns of Americans, particularly those coveted independent voters who will tip individual midterm elections.
And the WARS. Please do NOT FORGET THOSE, MSM!!
On health care, polls find, American opinion is more evenly divided and not as easy for either party to exploit for political gain.
The early conventional wisdom that health care would be the top issue did not account for the way persistent joblessness would erode the electorate’s confidence in the economy and in the Obama administration, said Robert Blendon, a professor at Harvard University School of Public Health and a specialist on voter sentiment about medical care....
The issue of health care has not disappeared. Some conservative groups are conducting surgical strikes in select races....
Thus the LEFT-RIGHT THEME!
Everything is a WAR in the NEWSPAPER!
A conservative group, American Crossroads, cofounded by President George W. Bush’s strategist, Karl Rove, has attacked Democratic Senate candidates with ads on health care in a handful of key states, including Pennsylvania, Nevada, Kentucky, and California....
Democrats plan to run on jobs and economic issues this fall....
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Then they are going to LOSE!
"US poverty rate expected to post a record increase; Overall number could reach 15%, demographers say" by Hope Yen, Associated Press | September 12, 2010
WASHINGTON — The number of people in the United States who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty....
Yes, he has HAD TWO YEARS!!
It’s unfortunate timing for Obama and his party just seven weeks before midterm elections in which control of Congress is at stake. The anticipated poverty rate increase — from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent — would be another blow to Democrats struggling to persuade voters to keep them in power....
I think the House is gone; they probably hold the Senate by a vote or two.
Should those estimates hold true, some 45 million people in this country, or more than 1 in 7, were poor last year....
You are reading the posts of one of them, dear readers.
But if Thursday’s report is as troubling as expected, Republicans in the midst of an increasingly strong drive to win control of the House, if not the Senate, would get one more argument to make against Democrats in the campaign homestretch.
Yeah, they have had their chance and they didn't do what we wanted.
The GOP says voters should fire Democrats because Obama’s economic fixes are hindering the sluggish economic recovery. Rightly or wrongly, Republicans could cite a higher poverty rate as evidence.
Democrats almost certainly will argue that they shouldn’t be blamed. They’re likely to counter that the economic woes — and the poverty increase — began under President George W. Bush with the near-collapse of the financial industry in late 2008.
You know, we are SICK of the BACKWARDS FINGER-POINTING!
It is YOUR SHOW NOW and HAS BEEN for TWO YEARS!!
Although that’s true, it’s far from certain that the Democratic explanation will sway voters who already are trending heavily toward the GOP in polls as worrisome economic news piles up.
Translation: the Democrats blew it.
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Related: Obama defends Democrats’ efforts on the economy
How do you defend something like that?
Left:
WASHINGTON -- Noting the stubbornly high jobless rate, Obama acknowledged that many voters in the Nov. 2 midterm elections probably will blame him for economic hard times and could take it out on congressional Democrats.
He said that "since I'm the president and Democrats have controlled the House and the Senate, it's understandable that people are saying, you know, 'What have you done?'"
Still, he said, "If the election is about the policies that are going to move us forward versus the policies that will get us back into a mess, then I think the Democrats will do very well."
Polls suggest large-scale Republican victories and Democratic losses in the midterm races....
In a fair and free election, yeah.
Especially after these next remarks:
Obama also used his 75-minute long East Room news conference to note that Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, would be "a national day of service and remembrance."
Related: Negating 9/11
Yeah, things will never be the same.
***********
He defended the continued U.S. combat role in the long war in Afghanistan, saying it remains in the U.S. national interest....
:-(
And we all had such hopes for him.
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Right:
"GOP leader enjoys tight ties to lobbyists
Goldman Sachs, Google, Citigroup, R.J. Reynolds, MillerCoors, and UPS.
They have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio over the years, provided him rides on their corporate jets, socialized with him at luxury golf resorts and waterfront bashes, and are leading fund-raising efforts for his Boehner for Speaker campaign, which is soliciting checks of up to $37,800 each, the maximum allowed.
Related:
"Golf and tennis fees were paid, whitewater rafting and trout fishing guides were contracted, and limo drivers and photographers were hired. Flowers worth about $1,300 decorated tables filled with food.... RNC’s expenditures for office supplies during the same period topped $773,000... including jelly beans for Steele’s office and thousands of dollars’ worth of liquor and wine"
See what your campaign contribution is being used for?
Some of the lobbyists readily acknowledge routinely seeking his office’s help to advance their agenda in Washington. And in many cases, Boehner has helped them out....
Left:
"Democrats could lose eight House seats in N.Y.
For all the Democrats’ strength and swagger in New York, the party could lose as many as eight US House seats in the Empire State in November.The top of the Democratic ticket is formidable. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo enjoys a hefty, double-digit lead in polling for the governor’s race, and Senator Charles Schumer is cruising to a third term against token opposition. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, an appointed replacement for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is far head in the polls after initially being tagged as vulnerable.
Gillibrand is expected to easily capture the party nomination in Tuesday’s primary, and all three top Democrats stand as prohibitive favorites in a state where registered Democratic voters outnumber Republican 2-to-1. Complicating the GOP prospects, Republicans don’t have a single A-list name running statewide this year.
But recession-weary voters probably will not be as kind to some of the lower-profile New York Democrats who control 26 of the state’s 29 seats in the US House.
Democrats captured seven of their eight at-risk House seats in the 2006 and 2008 elections, when they made gains in suburban and upstate districts that had long been dominated by Republicans. They won two of the seats in special elections where turnout and organization were critical. Party strategists fear those two elements will be lacking this year.
They’ve already pretty much written off their chances of holding a seat in the Republican-leaning Rochester area left vacant when Representative Eric Massa resigned in March amid an investigation into whether he sexually harassed male staffers.
See: Massa Probe Touches Pelosi
Just to the east, second-term Representative Michael Arcuri is facing a steep rematch challenge from GOP businessman Richard Hanna, who nearly defeated him in 2008....
He's right about that, but who told you the WTC was going to collapse on 9/11, Rudy?
We Need Answers Rudy
Not getting any.
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"Fall vote in mind, Tea Party activists stage three rallies; Push message of smaller government" by Robin Hindery and Kevin Freking, Associated Press | September 13, 2010
SACRAMENTO — Originally billed as a chance to reflect on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a series of raucous Tea Party rallies around the country yesterday ended up focusing almost entirely on an event still to come — the Nov. 2 election.
“We are your everyday, average, church-going families, we represent the majority of people in this nation, and we’re ready to take back our government,’’ said Pam Pinkston of Fair Oaks, Calif., one of about 4,000 people who attended Sacramento’s “United to the Finish’’ gathering.
Thousands of Tea Party activists also turned up at rallies in Washington, D.C., and St. Louis to spread their message of smaller government and focus their political movement on the pivotal congressional elections in November....
Mary Jane Corcoran, a 58-year-old from Dayton, Ohio, who made the 360-mile trip to St. Louis to show her opposition to big government. “I’ve sort of gotten away from being a Republican or a Democrat,’’ she said. “I’m just a conservative.’’YUP!!
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"Democrats count on cash, organization; Focus on 4 crucial states in effort to stave off rout" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | September 13, 2010
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Making call after call, a dozen faithful volunteers huddled around a conference table at Democratic Party headquarters here and implored supporters to get out and vote. But just two blocks away, Tammie James spelled out why the Democrats’ campaign efforts — a marvel of election organizing in 2008 — face trouble this year.
Sitting on the steps outside her home, James said she voted for President Obama but has grown dispirited during the first half of his term. She expressed uncertainty over whom she will back in congressional midterm elections....
Congressional Democrats face the threat of a drubbing on Nov. 2, with the distinct possibility they will lose control of the House to Republicans. To limit the damage, the party is counting on superior organization and more money....
Related:
"Party committees spend roughly two-thirds of the money they take in on the care and comfort of committee staffs and on efforts to raise more funds, with lavish spending on limousines, expensive hotels, meals, and tips.... vast sums are consumed with limited accountability.... hefty expenditures in categories such as “office supplies’’ and “tips’’ that consume tax-exempt party funds.... pamper prospective donors with luxurious getaways and gifts... 59 percent of total Democratic revenue of about $100 million.... There is a class of [political] donors who expect to be wined and dined and who expect to have gala receptions.... spending on charter flights, limousines, entertainment, food, and beverages at party headquarters"
See what your campaign contribution is being used for?
Opinion polls and political observers suggest Democrats are struggling this year because many believe Obama has not delivered on his 2008 campaign promise of change — especially an economic rebound.
And the WARS!
Obama repeated Friday what he has been saying around the country in recent weeks: that his policies need more time to work and that the worst thing at this sensitive time would be to restore Republicans to power.
You have had plenty of time.
Getting a big Democratic turnout will be crucial to countering a Republican wave, and Democrats do have more money to spend getting out the vote....
A rigging in the works?
Right:
"Palin/Beck event draws fans and foes
ANCHORAGE — An appearance by Sarah Palin, Alaska’s former governor, and conservative commentator Glenn Beck yesterday brought out two very different crowds. Thousands of fans paid between $73.75 and $225 for tickets. Outside, critics planned a protest to denounce Palin and Beck as intolerant fear-mongers spreading divisiveness across the country (Associated Press)."
Related: America's False Choices Beckon
Also see: Boston Globe Political Science ClassI better make my way over there now.
Update:
"N.H. Republicans spent over $9.5m on US Senate race; Winner faces Democrat Hodes for Gregg’s seat" by Norma Love, Associated Press | September 14, 2010
CONCORD, N.H. — Energized New Hampshire Republicans have spent more than $9.5 million trying to retain the seat of retiring US Senator Judd Gregg — believing the winner of today’s primary will have an edge in November.
Front-runner Kelly Ayotte, a 42-year-old former attorney general from Nashua, has spent $2 million to push a conservative anti-Democrat, antifederal spending agenda....
A loaded description if I have ever seen one.
Manchester lawyer Ovide Lamontagne, 52, may have been the biggest beneficiary, despite spending only $400,000.
The REAL Tea Party candidate.
In a battle over who is the most conservative, Ayotte got a boost from Sarah Palin’s endorsement in July over Lamontagne, who courted Tea Party movement activists. Palin, the former vice presidential nominee and former governor of Alaska, recorded telephone messages to voters that started Sunday praising Ayotte as “the true conservative’’ — a mantle Lamontagne has tried to claim as his throughout his campaign.
Her endorsement makes me question the candidate.
Multimillionaire businessman Bill Binnie, 52, of Rye changed tactics in the final week, reaching out to social moderates by trumpeting his support for abortion rights....
Sorry, but that's down the list of concerns right now.
See: Slow Saturday Special: S*** Politics
Want to wade few a through a few races?
In Delaware, Representative Mike Castle, 71 and a fixture in state politics for more than a generation, faces a threat from Christine O’Donnell, supported by Palin and the Tea Party Express, which has reported spending more than $200,000 on her behalf in recent days.
The race has rapidly become bitter as O’Donnell has narrowed Castle’s lead in the polls. Republican officials disclosed yesterday they had contacted the Justice Department after Tom Ross, state party chairman, received a death threat. Ross has been among Castle’s most outspoken supporters, saying at one point that O’Donnell “could not be elected dog catcher’’ in Delaware.
Here we go with ANOTHER FALSE FLAG HOAX to discredit the good people!
Democrats MUST be DESPERATE!
In contrast to Castle, a former two-term governor who has held the state’s lone House seat for nine terms, O’Donnell has never been elected to public office. For most of the campaign, Castle seemed to ignore her, but when Senator Lisa Murkowski was unexpectedly defeated for renomination in Alaska two weeks ago, Castle and the Republican Party abruptly switched course.
Related: Palin's Alaskan Pull
Also see: Clinging to the Senate
In New York, a Tea Party movement Republican is trying to ride a wave of voter anger as he challenges the GOP leaders’ choice in the New York governor’s race. A poll over the weekend showed millionaire developer Carl Paladino had drawn even with Rick Lazio, former congressman. Paladino is a political novice and Lazio the choice of leaders of the Republican and Conservative parties.
Please do the right thing, Harlem, and dump Rangel.
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Related: Rangel Dragging Down Democrats
Charlie Rangel's Farewell Party
ELECTION UPDATE:
O'Donnell wins in Delaware -- and the establishment is s***ting bricks. I watched the 9 p.m. wrap-ups and Bill Mahre was out savaging the girl and Rachel Maddow might as well be beside herself. The ONLY ONE who GETS IT is Chris Matthews. He pointed out that the energy is all on the "Tea-bagger" -- I despise that term -- side.
The point is that the American people are FED UP with the ESTABLISHMENT!!
Think of what they have given us since 2006. We voted in Democrats in 2006 to check Bush and they gave him everything he wanted. They surged, spied, and stole when we wanted none of that. Told they needed more votes we gave it to them in 2008 along with the White House. Democrats are not the only ones despairing. The fact that things actually get worse every time we "change" and there never is any real change has contributed to the feeling that led to O'Donnell's win.
And now the MSM keeps talking about how the Tea Party upsets will hurt them in November. I love the YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF LOSING spin! They JUST DO NOT GET IT!
It is ASTOUNDING that the POLITICAL CLASS and corporate media of this country can BE SO BLIND!
