Tag: Democratic

Republican Tsunami?

If some recent polls are accurate, it is beginning to look like it will be a very good year for the Republicans. It is usually expected that the party that doesn’t hold the White House does better in midterm elections, especially in the middle of a president’s second term. People grow tired of the same faces and policies and begin to want a change. No one really expected that the Democrats would be able to gain the House of Representatives this year, or increase their majority in the Senate. It didn’t seem likely that the Republicans would be able to capture a Senate majority. But, according to this article in Business Insider, we could be looking at, not just a wave, but a tsunami.

The Republican Party is at its strongest point in two decades heading into midterm elections, according to a new Pew Research-USA Today poll, the latest daunting sign for Democrats ahead of campaign season.

The GOP is at an even stronger point than in previous “wave” elections in 1994 and 2010 and looks poised to make major gains — and possibly take control of the U.S. Senate.

According to the poll, out Monday, Republicans have a 47-43 lead on the generic congressional ballot. That’s a 10-point swing from October, when Democrats, boosted by GOP blame for the federal government shutdown, held a 6-point lead in the Pew poll.

There are a number of reasons for this surge, but it is more because people are turning against the Democrats, and especially Obama, than because they support the Republicans. 

Overall, Democrats are plagued by the still-sluggish economy, the unpopularity of the Affordable Care Act, and the undesirable views of President Obama. More voters (26%) say their vote will be “against” the president. Only 16% say their vote will be “for” Obama. And by more than a 2-to-1 margin, voters say they want the next president to pursue policies different from the Obama administration’s priorities.

As has been seen in other polls showing trouble for Democrats this year, the party is hampered by a lack of enthusiasm. For example, only 31% of Democratic voters say their vote is “for” Obama. In 2010, that number was 47%.

Some of the other troubling signs for Democrats:

  • Obama’s approval rating sits at 44%, compared with 50% who disapprove.
  • Although last Friday’s jobs report showed the unemployment rate dropping to its lowest level since 2008, most people (65%) say jobs are still difficult to find. And while 25% of voters think the economy will get better next year, about an equal number think it’ll get worse.
  • The percentage of voters who disapprove of the Affordable Care Act (55%) is still tied for the highest in the law’s history.


About that unemployment rate, Business Insider also notes, in an article, that the labor force participation rate is the lowest it has been since 1978. The reason unemployment is down is because a lot of people have given up looking for work. 

Of course, we still have six months before the election and there is plenty of time for the Republicans to screw up. Still, if all goes well, they will have an even better year in 2014 than in 2010.

 

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Factivists

First, there was Attackwatch, then the Truth Team, and now there are the Factivists, the latest attempt by the Democrats to get the truth out about the good job President Obama is doing and helping us rebut attacks from those awful, shady Republicans. I just learned about the Factivists today when I checked my email.

Friend —

Think back to 2012 for a minute.

Thanks to supporters like you, we made sure that Americans knew everything there was to know about Mitt Romney before Election Day (well, almost everything — still waiting for the rest of those tax returns). Lately, we’ve been helping to introduce the next generation of Republican leaders, like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Chris Christie, to the rest of the country.

And if there’s one thing we’ve learned from doing all this, it’s that we’re really damn good at it.

But here’s the thing: Republicans are tired of getting beat by us. So they have shady Super PACs and outside groups — the ones with anonymous donors and no accountability — run wild to attack Democrats. And when the President and Democratic leaders are under attack, so is everything that you and I stand for.

That’s unacceptable, so we’re going to push back with our two strongest weapons: The truth, and you. That’s why we’re launching the Factivists program — our new grassroots rapid response team — and we need you to say you’ll be a part of it.

As a Factivist, you’ll get exclusive updates with everything you need to share the facts with your friends and neighbors. With your help, we’ll keep holding Republicans accountable for what they say and do, and we’ll get out the facts when they attack Democrats.

Because at the end of the day, that’s how we win.

Become a Factivist today, and get ready to fight back:

http://my.democrats.org/Join-the-Factivists

Thanks, and I’ll see you in the trenches,

Mo

Mo Elleithee
Communications Director
Democratic National Committee

P.S. — I made a quick video to introduce the Factivists to our party’s leaders at our Winter Meeting. Check it out, then join us.

I have to wonder why they keep changing the name of the group they create to spread their talking points. It seems that as soon as people begin to make fun of the latest organization, they remake it and change the name. No matter what name they go by, this permanent campaign seems a little off putting.

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Selling Out to Big Oil

English: Inspector on offshore oil drilling rig
Drill, baby, drill (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I sometimes wonder just who the target audience is for the Democratic fund raising e-mails I receive.

This is just downright insulting:

After President Obama’s call to protect our environment with real solutions, Republicans just voted to allow incredibly dangerous drilling off beaches up and down both coasts.

It’s no surprise that this vote came after the Big Oil billionaire Koch brothers gave Tea Party Republicans record amounts of cash.

David — If you want to show Boehner, Cantor, and the Republicans that we’re tired of them selling out our environment for Big Oil cash, now’s the time. Our campaign to kick the Tea Party out of Congress is up against our biggest deadline of the year in 48 hours.

It’s unbelievable that more than three years after the BP spill, Republicans in Congress have yet to enact a single legislative reform to improve the safety of offshore drilling. And now, Republicans want to allow even more unsafe drilling rigs to pop up off of beaches in California and across the East Coast.

The only way we’ll get real action to protect our environment and combat climate change is if we kick out these anti-science Republicans and replace them with a Democratic House majority. Right now, we’re looking at a $450,000 hole in our budget. We could really use your help before Sunday’s fundraising deadline.

My guess would be people who don’t have to worry about high gas prices.

 

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Doing Their Job

I have been wondering how the recent scandals involving the IRS, Benghazi,  and others were going to be spun by the Democrats who send me fund raising e-mails. At first I didn’t think they would mention the scandals at all, but then they sent this one the other day.

David —

Getting in President Obama’s way has been the top priority for Republicans in Congress since day one. But now they’ve gone too far.

They’ve been caught red-handed making up so-called ‘scandals’ out of thin air to stir up false rumors of vast ‘cover-ups’ happening in the White House.

Did they find a single shred of evidence to back up their outrageous claims? No.

But rather than let the truth stand in their way, Republicans actually doctored emails between administration officials about Benghazi. Then, they released them to the press, trying to pass them off as real in order to create their scandal. Fortunately, they got caught in the act when the White House released all of the actual emails.

Tell President Obama you’ve got his back right now, no matter what Republicans come up with next.

While Republican leaders were focused on stirring up controversy, Michele Bachmann was talking about impeaching President Obama for absolutely no reason, and Republicans in the House voted to repeal Obamacare — for the 37th time.

That’s how they think they should be spending their time and your money.

Make sure the President knows that you stand behind him and his agenda right now — and that you won’t let Republican games distract you from advocating for real change that will benefit all Americans.

Stand with President Obama today — and send the message to Republicans that it’s time to stop playing political games and get back to work for the American people:

http://my.democrats.org/Stand-With-The-President

Its time for them to do their damn jobs.

Thanks,

Brad

Brad Woodhouse
Communications Director
Democratic National Committee

They’re starting to use profanity in their appeals. I suppose Brad is trying to show that he is a tough guy rather than a typical liberal beta male wimp. (Science has shown that weaker men tend to be liberals while stronger men are more likely to be conservatives. You don’t want to deny the findings of Science, do you?)

In any event, I thought was the Republicans’ job to obstruct and investigate the president. They are the opposition party, after all. And, Congress, as a whole, is supposed to provide a check on the executive branch. I wonder if Mr. Woodhouse is really familiar with the concepts of opposition parties and checks and balances. Perhaps he, and people like him, would prefer a legislature that simply rubber-stamps the Leader’s policies like the old communist Supreme Soviet or of the Soviet Union, or the Chinese National People’s Congress. For myself, I prefer the government set forth in the constitution.

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Aftermath

I had good reason to be anxious. We didn’t do so well in the election. There is no way around the fact that this has been a major defeat for the cause of freedom. We get to spend another four years under Obama’s incompetent management.

Well, I have spent the required day in mourning, whining about the death of the Republic on Facebook and now it is time to get back to work. I think that it is always better to see the bright side of life, so I will try to make the best of it.


Well, things are not quite as bad as they seem. Obama hardly won by a landslide. In the popular vote, Obama won 60,841,109 votes while Romney got 57,941,258 votes. I guess 50-48% against a sitting President isn’t too bad, although we could have done better. In the Electoral College it is 303 for Obama and 206 for Romney with Florida and its 29 votes still undecided. The final map looks like this.

It could have been better, but it could have been worse, but it wasn’t a landslide. Here is what a landslide looks like.

Election of 1964

or

The election of 1984

In both these cases, and in 1972 and others the opposing party was absolutely routed. This isn’t the case here. In Congress, we did better than one might expect suggesting that Obama’s coattails were short. We only lost two seats in the Senate making it 53-45 with two independents. This is a lot better situation than we had after 2008 when the Democrats had nearly a filibuster proof majority. We also held our own in the House of Representatives. We moved from 242-193 to 233-193 with several seats still being decided. If we didn’t win, at least we didn’t lose and I think we can call Congress a draw.

Things are a little better at the State level. We have 30 Republican governors, up from 21 in 2008 and 20 in 2010. I don’t have solid information about  party control of the state legislatures, but it seems to be a draw there with neither party making any major gains.

Now, the downside. It doesn’t look as if Obamacare is going to be repealed. This is bad since the federal government can hardly afford a new set of entitlements and the population doesn’t need to be even more dependent on the government. Well, if we can’t end it, we must make it palatable. The Republicans ought to find ways of adjusting and tweaking this monstrosity in order to bring it more in line with Conservative principles. I suggest arguing for more control and funding at the state level and, down the road when it is obviously not working, introduce the idea of re-privatizing health care.

Demographics seem to be against us. I do not think that the changing composition of the American population means the end of the Republican party. This is only certain if you think that party affiliation and policy preferences are somehow hardwired into various races and ethnic groups. How racist is that? We need to do more work on this. I do not believe that the Republicans should try to play identity politics the way the Democrats do. This won’t convince anyone and the people most susceptible to this sort of thing will always go for the Democrats. We certainly should not waste our time courting “civil rights” organizations like the NAACP. These groups are under the control of the Left and their sole purpose, these days, is electing Democrats. The concerns of the people they purport to represent are a distant second to them. I am not sure what the answer is, but there must be some way to persuade minorities that Conservative principles benefit them too.

We have to gain control of the media narrative. I know we have Fox News, talk radio, and the Internet, but more needs to be done. The Mainstream Media is weaker than it once was, but too many people still get their news from them. They have to be made irrevelant.I suggest that Republican politicians treat the MSM as it really is, the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party and react accordingly. This means not giving them interviews, giving their reporters accommodations on campaign buses, etc. They shouldn’t complain about media bias, though. When asked, they should state dismissively, “Well, CBS (or the New York Times, etc) is old media and we prefer to spend our campaign resources on more relevant outlets”. Make it clear that they are just no longer important enough to bother with. And, we also need to fight more against the slanders of the Left. Don’t let them get away with calling us racist, bigoted, Nazis, etc. Point out the general nastiness and mendacity of the Left.

Why we are on the subject, can we stop calling them Liberals or Progressives. They are neither. Truth in advertising demands we call them what they are; Socialists, Marxists, Statists, anything but Liberal. Their intellectual forebears are not such great Liberal thinkers as John Locke or John Stuart Mill. They are rather Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.

Let’s not form circular firing squads or fight each other. There are lessons to be learned from this defeat, but we cannot abandon or throw under the bus any Republican factions. We win by growing the party, not purging it.

Well, those are my thoughts, whatever that may be worth.

As Winston Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

and

“You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.”

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Romney, Ryan and Republicans are Racist!

I was going for a bit of alliteration there. Anyway that is the conclusion one must draw from this really offensive shirt at a Romney/Ryan event, as reported by Buzzfeed.

The Getty Images photo was taken at a Romney/Ryan campaign event in Lancaster, Ohio on Friday. A Romney spokesperson commented that the shirt was “reprehensible and has no place in this election.”

Of course, it is just barely possible that this man was a plant to make the Romney Campaign look like racists. Would the Democrats do something like that. Well, consider Mary Frances Berry‘s response on the question of whether branding the Tea Party as racist is effective.

Tainting the tea party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November. Having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness.

I am not certain whether Ms. Berry approves if this strategy or not, but she believes it to be effective. Other Democrats with fewer qualms about this sort of thing would have no problem sending a man with this shirt in. On the other hand, every movement, party and candidate attracts their share of idiots, crazies and losers. I think he is a plant, though. It is odd how many Liberals have jumped on this lone example as proof of Conservative racism.

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Democrats Boo God

The Democratic Party Platform somehow neglected to mention God in the context of God-given potential as well not affirming the position of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Normally no one pays any attention to party platforms but the Republicans didn’t waste anytime making use of this absence to imply that the Democrats are anti-God and anti-Israel. The Democrats quickly put the language back into the platform with amazing results.

This had to be intensely embarrassing for Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. I am not sure whether the people at the convention are actually booing the mention of God into the platform or the affirmation of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Either way, this show a party badly out of step with mainstream American public opinion.

These conventions are supposed to be tightly scheduled affairs with little or nothing left to chance. There shouldn’t be any unpleasant surprises like the one shown in that video. Even worse than the impression that the Democrats are out of touch with mainstream America is the impression that they aren’t able t get their act together.

Will this little embarrassment matter in November? Probably not. By then, it will be long forgotten. But if this is how they are going to run their campaign, then maybe the results won’t even be close.

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Nicki Haley is Not Eva Braun

 

Here they go again. I found this at slate.com through the Drudge Report.

S.C. Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian, never a loss for a quick quip, tossed a few stinging one-liners at the Wednesday delegation breakfast.

On Gov. Nikki Haley participating in daily news briefings in a basement studio at the NASCAR Hall of Fame: “She was down in the bunker a la Eva Braun.”

His opinion on why he thinks Republicans dislike education funding: “An educated population would not elect a Nikki Haley.”

That is nice, yet another comparison of a Republican to a Nazi. I hope this doesn’t become a regular campaign theme this election season.

And, speaking of the Democratic Convention, the Democrats keep calling Republicans extremists, yet look at what is going on there. God has somehow become controversial. I read about this at Yahoo News.

Needled by Mitt Romney and other Republicans, Democrats hurriedly rewrote their convention platform Wednesday to add a mention of God and declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel after President Barack Obama intervened to order the changes.

The embarrassing reversal was compounded by chaos and uncertainty on the convention floor, requiring three votes before a ruling that the amendments had been approved. Many in the audience booed the decision.

 

The revisions came as Obama struggles to win support from white working-class voters, many of whom have strong religious beliefs, and as Republicans try to woo Jewish voters and contributors away from the Democratic Party. Republicans claimed the platform omissions suggested Obama was weak in his defense of Israel and out of touch with mainstream Americans.

GOP officials argued that not taking a position on Jerusalem’s status in the party platform raised questions about Obama’s support for the Mideast ally. Romney said omitting God “suggests a party that is increasingly out of touch with the mainstream of the American people.”

“I think this party is veering further and further away into an extreme wing that Americans don’t recognize,” Romney said.

Ronald Reagan used to say that he didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Party left him. I think it must be increasingly obvious that the Democrats have long ago left behind the average American.

The Democratic Party is also endorsing taxpayer funded abortions in their party platform.

The 2012 Democratic party will officially adopt an extreme position on the issue of abortion on Tuesday. According to a copy of the party platform, which was released online just before midnight on Monday, “The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay.”

That last part–“regardless of ability to pay”–is an endorsement of taxpayer-funded abortions, a policy that President Obama has personally endorsed. Obama wants Medicaid to pay directly for elective abortions, and Obamacare will allow beneficiaries to use federal subsidies to purchase health care plans that cover elective abortions. According to a 2009 Quinnipiac poll, 72 percent of voters oppose public funding of abortion and 23 percent support it. In other words, public funding of abortion–a policy President Obama actively supports–is as unpopular as banning abortion in the case of rape, a policy on which the media have focused their attention over the past two weeks despite the fact that neither presidential candidate supports it.

I do not believe that abortion is the issue that is topmost on many Americans’ minds right now and I don’t really understand why the Democrats are spending any time at all on it, especially in taking such an extreme position, unless they really don’t want to talk about the economy. I can’t say I blame them for not wanting to emphasize Obama’s dismal record.

 

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Paul Ryan is not Joseph Goebbels

I have said before that Barack Obama is not in any way like Adolf Hitler and any such comparisons are despicable. Now, I feel I have to say the same about the Republican nominees. Mitt Romney is not Hitler and the Republicans are not the Nazis. If there is anyone reading this who sincerely believes that either of the two major American political parties are anything like the Nazis than I have to say that you have become completely unhinged by political passion. I should also say that Paul Ryan is not Joseph Goebbels despite what the leader of the California delegation to the Democratic convention might happen to believe. Here are the details at ABCnews.

The chairman of the California delegation to the Democrats’ convention was criticized by both parties for comparing Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to the Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday,  John Burton said, “They lie and they don’t care if people think they lie. Joseph Goebbels . It’s the big lie, you keep repeating it.” Goebbels was the minister of propaganda during Hitler’s Nazi regime.

Burton was referring specifically to Ryan, whose  speech at the Republican convention in Tampa last week has been criticized by Democrats for inaccuracies.

At least the Democrats chastised him, this time.

President Obama’s campaign rejected Burton’s comments just hours before their convention kicked off.

“That obviously doesn’t reflect the views of the campaign,” said Obama for America National Press Secretary Ben LaBolt. “That doesn’t have any place in the political discourse here in Charlotte.”

And John Burton did apologize, after a fashion. From Foxnews.

Burton later issued a statement claiming he didn’t actually call Republicans Nazis and noting he didn’t actually use the word “Nazi” — though he made repeated references to Goebbels.

“If Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, or the Republicans are insulted by my describing their campaign tactic as the big lie — I most humbly apologize to them or anyone who might have been offended by that comment,” he said.

I think we are going to see a lot more of this in the next few months. The Democrats can’t run on President Obama’s sterling record of accomplishments so all they can do is demonize their opponents. If that involves comparing them to some of the most evil men in history, than so be it.

Oh, by the way, Paul Ryan didn’t lie in his speech. Sorry if that disrupts the narrative.

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1912 Campaign Video

 

 

Here is a video from the 1912 campaign. It is a 8 minute silent movie. I found it courtesy of Unedited Politics.

 

Democratic talking points haven’t changed in a hundred years, except that these days, they want more money.

David —

Want to know why Romney put his money on the right-wing wonder boy, Paul Ryan, as his VP candidate?

You’re going to see this week. When Ryan gives his big Convention speech and starts railing against Obamacare, those Tea Party fanatics are going to be leaping off their backsides to donate whatever they’ve got to defeat the President.

There’s no way around it — combine all this Tea Party money with all that Koch Brothers’ Super PAC cash, and we’re in danger of letting this thing get out of hand.

We’ve gotta close the gap and fight back before it’s too late.

Chip in $3 or whatever you can muster to back up President Obama with a Democratic majority >>

Now, we’re coming down to the home stretch – the election is only a couple months out. I don’t want that feeling in my gut after it’s over where I wish we’d done more.

So I need y’all with me right now. Step up, hit ‘em where it counts, and send these guys packing once and for all:

http://dccc.org/Send-em-Packing

C’mon now!

James

And

David —

The pundits and talking heads are talking about how badly we’re being outraised by the other side. You’ve heard it from us, too.

Three months in a row, Mitt Romney and the Republican Party have trounced our fundraising totals. And, along with allied outside groups, they’re using that cash to try to obliterate our side on the airwaves, outspending us in some battleground states by margins of up to three to one.

The pundits are saying this is how we could lose the election. You know what I say?

When you get knocked down, get up. There’s no quit in America. There’s nothing we can’t do.

This week isn’t just the Republican National Convention — it’s also the biggest fundraising deadline this campaign has seen, and one of the last. President Obama and I are counting on you.

Please make a donation of $5 or more today:

https://donate.barackobama.com/All-on-Us

We’ve been counted out more than a few times before. It’s all on us to prove them wrong again.

Thanks,

Joe

P.S. — I’ve seen a lot of good campaigns — with smart, strong candidates and bold visions for the change we need — go down, simply because they couldn’t keep up. Don’t let this campaign be one of them. Donate today.


A lot of their policies haven’t changed all that much either, and they like to call themselves the Progressives.

 

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