See: Obama Can't Go Home to Chicago
He went anyway.
"Obama returns to home turf to rally party spirits" by Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff | October 31, 2010
CHICAGO — President Obama embarked on a last-ditch campaign marathon yesterday in a bid to blunt the political rebuke expected to be delivered by voters in Tuesday’s midterm elections, urging dispirited Americans to give Democrats more time to deliver on the promise of change the president made two years ago....
Please turn that record over. You had two years and a filibuster-proof majority and all we got was a stinking health tax.
Related: Obamacare the End of Employer-Based Health Plans
They start cutting you loose after the election.
Democrats are hoping they can avoid the widely forecast anti-incumbent wave that could overturn the party’s majority in the US House and seriously erode its advantage in the Senate.
If not take the Senate outright.
For the record, I AM PREDICTING a 50-50 split!
Democrats will win Connecticut, the two New York seats, California, Delaware, and Washington state. Everything in-between will go red (with Illinois being the only possible flip to blue, what with the history of election-rigging from Obama's home city making it 51-49 Democrat).
And if the House doesn't flip the f***er was rigged (probably will be in any event; I no longer believe in the integrity of AmeriKan elections).
But Obama’s choice of locations to deliver his closing argument was telling: He made stops in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, places where he enjoyed broad support in 2008, before wrapping up last night in Illinois, where his party is struggling to prevent his former Senate seat from falling into the hands of Republicans....
In other words, he's trying to hold on to seats that should be locks. Not a good sign for Tuesday.
The Illinois Senate race, between Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk, is at best a toss-up for Democrats, who need a strong turnout among their base to prevent the GOP from snatching a highly symbolic victory in Obama’s backyard.
He needs that famous Chicago ballot-box stuffing.
In Pennsylvania, Democrat Joe Sestak and Republican Pat Toomey are in a close Senate race, though most pollsters give Toomey the edge.
Related:
"Although his numbers have been slipping, Toomey still has a lead of 4 percentage points"
Also see: Toomey's Time in Pennsylvania
The Connecticut Senate race is faring better for Democrats; polls show Richard Blumenthal leading Republican Linda McMahon.
See: Obama Gets Into the Ring in Connecticut
The lady wrestler gets counted out.
Obama supporters who are sticking with the president and backing Democrats this fall foresee difficult times ahead for the party after Tuesday’s vote....
Democrats are fighting to hold onto threatened Senate seats in California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Colorado, Washington, and West Virginia.
Related: Carly Captures Sympathy Vote For California Senate Seat
Quick Whisk Through Wisconsin
Poll check: "Johnson maintains a lead of about 5 percentage points"
Related: Clinging to the Senate
Poll check: "Buck’s lead in the polls has been dwindling -- down to less than 1 percentage point"
Related: Republican Wave Reaches Washington State
The offsetting of O'Donnell by Karl Rove?
Related: Republicans Raesing Up in West Virginia Senate Race
Obama is a loser there in any event.
In Nevada, the majority leader of the US Senate, Harry Reid, is fighting to save his career against Republican Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle.
Related: NOTA in Nevada
Poll check: "Angle has seemed to regain her footing, up by 3 percentage points"
Goodbye and good riddance, Harry!
Democratic seats in North Dakota, Arkansas, and Indiana have already been all but written off as lost.
The Republican House minority leader, John Boehner, who would likely become speaker if his party takes a US House majority on Tuesday, said yesterday that Republicans stand ready to bring more transparency to government and cut federal spending if voters entrust them with the reins of power.
We heard that from the last crowd that came in four years ago.
Btw, WTF were you guys doing during the Bush years?
“We’ve tried it President Obama’s way,’’ said Boehner, in the weekly Republican address. “We’ve tried it Washington’s way. It hasn’t worked. It’s time to put the people back in charge.’’
That would mean running the whole lot of you out of there and starting over.
Obama has been trying for weeks to build a firewall against Democratic losses by rallying supporters in states with close races, a strategy that led him back to his hometown.
Yes, the pivotal Illinois Senate race.
The contest between Giannoulias, the state treasurer, and Kirk, a five-term congressman from the northern Chicago suburbs, is one of the closest Senate races in the country. Most of the polls suggest the race is a statistical tie, within the typical margin of error for opinion surveys.
The tight race “is a good metaphor for what’s going on nationally,’’ said Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “You’ve got the president trying to bring the Democratic base — women, African-Americans, Hispanics — back to their candidates, trying to generate enthusiasm in a state the Democrats have dominated.’’
The seat Obama gave up when he won the presidency is open this fall; Roland Burris, who was appointed by then-governor Rod Blagojevich to serve out Obama’s unfinished term, declined to run again.
The campaign to replace Burris is between two men who are considered rising stars of their parties.
Giannoulias, (pronounced jeh-NOO-lee-us) a Boston University graduate, entered politics four years ago after helping manage Broadway Bank, a Chicago community lender founded by his father. In 2006, with support from then-senator Obama, Giannoulias, then just 30, became the nation’s youngest state treasurer.
But the private banking experience that was so helpful in his last race has been a liability this year. Broadway Bank failed in April and was taken over by the FDIC. And Giannoulias has been dogged by revelations that Broadway loaned $20 million to two Chicago felons, sometimes more colorfully described as “mob figures’’ in the local media, while Giannoulias was a senior loan officer.
Those embarrassments might have crushed Giannoulias’ campaign months ago if Kirk hadn’t evened the playing field by exaggerating his rΓ©sumΓ©.
Kirk, 51, apologized in the spring for making false statements about his 21-year Navy Reserve career, including the untrue claim that he had served in the Gulf War.
Related: You Are No Captain Kirk!
I would vote for James T.
He speaks contritely about learning “a painful lesson’’ from the episode, though he has resisted explaining why he overstated his record. He is the type of centrist Republican that typically has the best chance of winning in Democratic-leaning Illinois, specialists said.
“Mark Kirk is not a hyper-partisan,’’ said Gabe Rubin, 18, of Skokie, who stood for hours in an eye-watering cold wind demonstrating for the Kirk campaign outside a debate last week. “I want someone who votes what he believes is best for his constituents, not what his party tells him to vote.’’
Kirk’s campaign office did not respond to several messages for an interview.
Throughout the hard-fought campaign, the candidates have eagerly exploited each other’s missteps.
“All the campaign ads begin with smears,’’ said John Brehm, a University of Chicago political science professor. “It’s been pretty dirty. Though perhaps I shouldn’t use the word ‘dirty,’ because what they’re saying about each other is true.’’
The tone of the race has been so relentlessly negative that Giannoulias surprised campaign watchers last week by promising to run only positive ads in the final days.
His prohibition on attacks did not extend to debates — the two candidates exchanged unpleasantries in person last Wednesday in their final televised forum. The tone was at times bitter and they frequently talked over each other.
On Friday, Giannoulias and his mother canvassed on the busy streets of Boystown, a Chicago district with a large gay population. A jovial Giannoulias said his campaign’s field operation was ready.
“Turnout in this city is going to be through the roof,’’ he predicted.
He will need a large turnout from the city’s Democratic base to win, and to save the president from an embarrassing rejection by the people who know him best.
I'm sure the RIGGED MACHINES are IN PLACE.
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Also see: Obama On His Own
In so many ways.
Update:
CLEVELAND — President Obama made Ohio his final campaign stop yesterday in the tumultuous midterm elections....
GOP leaders voiced confidence that their party will pick up more than 40 House seats and regain the majority they lost four years ago. Republican control of the Senate seems less likely, although they expect to gain several seats there, as well as numerous governors’ seats.
Obama, bracing for perhaps one of the biggest midterm setbacks in recent times, made a four-state weekend sprint to help embattled Democrats as best he can....
Obama carried Ohio easily in 2008, and Democrats once had high hopes of reelecting Governor Ted Strickland this year and taking the Senate seat being vacated by Republican George Voinovich. But with the recession barely losing its grip in the state, and the president’s approval ratings sagging, Democrats have all but given up on the Senate race and are desperate to save Strickland and several imperiled House members....
In Portland, Maine, former president Bill Clinton campaigned again yesterday for Democrat Libby Mitchell as she and four other candidates for governor ramped up their get-out-the-vote efforts. It was Clinton’s second stop in Maine in five weeks to help Mitchell, who’s sagging in polls to third in the five-way race, behind Republican front-runner Paul LePage and independent Eliot Cutler.
How very interesting.
Related: Maine Politics Down Globe Memory Hole
Alaska is perhaps the most unsettled state politically this weekend, and Democrats say it’s conceivable they could score an upset Senate win there.
I do not think so.
See: Write-In Whiteout in Alaska
They are really reaching now, readers.
With GOP nominee Joe Miller stumbling badly, and Senator Lisa Murkowski making a rare write-in effort after losing the primary to Miller, little-noticed Democrat Scott McAdams might find a way to sneak through to victory....
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