Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

ELECTION - 15 days from today

I'll be on "The Conservative Hispanic" on KVCE Dallas at 10 this morning, ET.  Hear it at 1160 on your Dallas AM dial, or at KVCEradio.com on the internet.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2010

GOP GALLUPING – AT 7:51 P.M. ET:  Gallup's generic congressional preference survey is showing remarkable stability, with Republicans smiling.

Among likely voters, if the turnout is low, Gallup has Republicans chosen by 56%, Democrats by 39%.

Among likely voters, if the turnout is high, Gallup has Republicans chosen by 53%, Democrats by 42%.

Those numbers have been virtually unchanged for three weeks, possibly meaning that the electorate is becoming locked in place.  The numbers are spectacularly good for Republicans, whether in a low- or high-turnout scenario.

From 1950 through 1966, Republicans never got above 50%. 

The prospects are good, but remember that races are run one by one.  We have reason to be cautiously optimistic.

October 18, 2010      Permalink

THE ANNALS OF JUSTICE – AT 7:15 P.M. ET:   We remind ourselves that, while we fight an election campaign, the rest of the world moves on...or moves backward.  We eagerly await the reaction of "human rights" and "feminist" groups to the following exalted ruling from the world of Islam:

The UAE's (United Arab Emirates) highest judicial body says a man can beat his wife and young children as long as the beating leaves no physical marks.

The decision by the Federal Supreme Court shows the strong influence of Islamic law in the Emirates despite its international appeal in which foreign residents greatly outnumber the local population.

The court made the ruling earlier this month in the case of a man who left cuts and bruises on his wife and adult daughter after a beating.

It says the man was guilty of harming the women but noted that Islamic codes allow for "discipline" if no marks are left. It also says children who have reached "adulthood" -- approximately puberty -- cannot be struck.

Don't you admire a man who is so capable that he can beat his wife without leaving a mark?  Boy, whose accomplished Muslims.  I'm so impressed. 

The "human rights" and "feminist" groups referenced above are silent so far.  Why am I not shocked?

October 18, 2010      Permalink

MR. OBAMA MIGHT OCCASIONALLY REMAIN SILENT – AT 9:37 A.M. ET:   There is much buzz about the interview with President Obama in the Sunday New York Times.   The Times's fine reporter, Peter Baker, conducted the interview.  Mr. Obama, as Scott Johnson of Power Line points out, does not come off particularly well:

Yesterday I got around to reading Peter Baker's New York Times Magazine article "The education of a president" in hard copy. One comes away from the article with the uncomfortable feeling that Obama thinks he's just too damned good for us.

Baker's article made news in the middle of last week as a result of Obama's acknowledgment that he didn't know "shovel-ready" from a hole in the ground (to borrow the formulation of Mickey Kaus). In other words, he wasn't lying to us when he sold us his trillion-dollar "stimulus" bill of goods. He just didn't know what he was talking about.

That pretty much sums it up.  From The Times interview: 

When Obama secured the Democratic nomination in June 2008, he told an admiring crowd that someday "we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth."

I read that line to Obama and asked how his high-flying rhetoric sounded in these days of low-flying governance. "It sounds ambitious," he agreed. "But you know what? We've made progress on each of those fronts."

Oh really?  Yeah, I see all those good jobs for the jobless.  And caring for the sick has been turned into the shambles of Obamacare.  The planet is healing?  Obama doesn't even seem aware of the serious scientific debate over "climate change," and whether we're being sold a bill of goods by "experts."  Ending a war?  Securing our nation?  Anyone feel more secure out there?

Our image?  Sure, the adolescents around the world still love Obama, but not the United States.  Our enemies, of course, love him because he's weakened this nation and its resolve.  What an accomplishment. 

It's pretty sad.  Obama's interview is self-indicting.  He's everything, and less, that we thought he is.

October 18, 2010      Permalink

MERKEL'S REMARKABLE ADMISSION – AT 9:10 A.M. ET:  German Chancellor Angela Merkel has admitted what most people already know, but are afraid to say – that multiculturalism in her country, and, by extension, many other countries, has failed.  A number of Urgent Agenda readers referred us to this story, from BBC:

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel: "lmmigrants should learn to speak German."

Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed," Chancellor Angela Merkel says.

She said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work, and immigrants needed to do more to integrate - including learning German.

The comments come amid rising anti-immigration feeling in Germany.

A recent survey suggested more than 30% of people believed the country was "overrun by foreigners."

The study - by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank - also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany's immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for its social benefits.

Germans must be very careful about this kind of talk because of their sordid past, and indeed the German population is becoming one of the most anti-Israel in Europe.  But the frustration over the failure of Muslim immigrants to integrate and become German is legitimate. 

The notion that multiculturalism has failed is going to spread.  The Netherlands is in immediate danger of losing its cultural heritage, and Britain and France face the same danger. 

The Merkel comments are part of an international discussion on the nature of immigration, and what reasonable rules can be applied.  We are having that discussion here, centered on attempts by Arizona to deal with illegal immigrants.  The demagogues of the left, of course, immediately label anyone who raises questions about immigration as "racist," the standard leftist charge.  But, increasingly, thoughtful people are ignoring the taunt and insisting on sane standards for immigration and reasonable demands that can be placed on immigrants.

Merkel's comments will touch a nerve, but we'll be hearing more leaders expressing her point of view.

October 18, 2010     Permalink

ELECTION LATEST – AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  We'll be at the two-weeks-to-go mark tomorrow.  We expect new polls later today.  Two late polls have already been published by RealClearPolitics:

In New York, Andrew Cuomo is running away with the governorship.  A New York Times poll has him 35 points ahead of pathetic GOP nominee Carl Paladino, a rich guy with a very big mouth and a very small brain.  A hothead, Paladino has run the worst campaign for a major office that I've ever seen.  Forget him.  He's gone.  And it's sad, because, in this year in particular, the race could have been competitive.

Ah, but in Massachusetts, incompetent Dem Governor Deval Patrick, nicknamed Coupe Deval because of his lavish spending, is, according to Scott Rasmussen, only five points ahead of Republican Charlie Baker in the Scott Brown state.  Five points can be made up in the last two weeks of the campaign, and we're hoping that Republican enthusiasm will cause an upset in this blue state, one of the first to report on election night.

We'll be looking closely at Senate polls in the most competitive states – Illinois, California, Washington, Colorado, and maybe a few more.  The race is far from over.

October 18, 2010      Permalink

ONCE MORE, FROM EUROPE – AT 8:22 A.M. ET:  Once more, we have a terror warning focused on Europe, confirmed by a high European official.  This one originates in Saudi Arabia, and when the Saudis warn about terror, they generally know what they're talking about.  From Fox:

PARIS -- Saudi intelligence services have warned of a new terror threat from Al Qaeda against Europe, particularly in France, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Sunday.

He said the warning of a potential attack by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was received "in the last few hours, few days."

European officials were informed that "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was doubtless active or envisioned being active" on the "European continent, notably France," Hortefeux said during a joint TV and radio interview.

"The threat is real," he said on RTL-LCI-Le Figaro's weekly talk show.

The warning from Saudi Arabia is the latest in a series of alerts that have put French security forces and others in high-vigilance mode.

On Sept. 9, Interpol, the international police organization, signaled an "Islamist threat on a world scale, and notably on the European continent," Hortefeux said without elaborating. That was followed by a Sept. 16, report of a woman suicide bomber who could take action in France — later judged not fully credible.

Intelligence sources in North Africa also contacted France about a potential threat as did the United States, he said. He said he had spoken at length with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

COMMENT:  Now, readers, be very careful.  If you discuss this story with friends who are pro-Obama, be sure to leave out the silly business about Islamic extremism.  Don't even mention Al Qaeda.  Just say there are reports of alientated peoples, offended by Bush policies, planning resistance operations because of their own desperation in the face of American imperialism and the onslaught of Bill O'Reilly.

Of course, it is serious.  A major French official would not be going public unless the threat was credible.  If it's credible there, it's credible here.  Sadly, we know what it will take to wake us up.

October 18, 2010     Permalink

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2010

WE JUST CAN'T THINK STRAIGHT – AT 8:19 P.M. ET:  At least that's what shrink-in-chief Barack Obama has decided, in his oh-so-deep analysis of the current political situation.  From The Politico:

WEST NEWTON, Mass. - President Barack Obama said Americans' "fear and frustration" is to blame for an intense midterm election cycle that threatens to derail the Democratic agenda.

"Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared,” Obama said Saturday evening in remarks at a small Democratic fundraiser Saturday evening. “And the country's scared.”

Really?  So, let me get this right:  In the 1930s, during the great Depression, when Americans were far more frightened than they are today, they weren't thinking clearly when they elected FDR, and then again, and then again.  Is that what Sigmund Obama is saying?  Or what about 2008, just weeks after a Wall Street collapse induced the greatest economic crisis since that great Depression?  Americans, according to Obama's logic, didn't think clearly and went right to the polls to elect...him. 

Obama told the several dozen donors that he was offering them his “view from the Oval Office.” He faulted the economic downturn for Americans’ inability to “think clearly” and said the burden is on Democrats “to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling.”

Oh, this is pathetic.  It's just pathetic.  With Obama, it's always someone else's fault.  Now it's the people's fault.  They're just so inferior that they can't think straight in the midst of a crisis. 

We haven't had a president like this since Jimmah Carter, who lectured Americans on their "inordinate fear of Communism," as thousands of Soviet missiles were aimed right at us.  In a show of supreme modesty, Carter wrote a campaign book about himself called "Why Not the Best?"  I suspect Obama will write one called "Better than the Best."

A president with an out-of-control ego at a time of national crisis.  Just what we need.  Start counting toward 2012.

October 17, 2010      Permalink

WEEKEND POLITICAL ROUNDUP – AT 8:08 P.M. ET:  The Politico, which tilts left despite vigorous denials, is reporting that the Democrats have had another bad weekend:

More bad polls. More bad fundraising numbers. More dreary talk on the Sunday shows.

It added up to a brutal weekend for Democrats, as the consensus among election analysts, already bearish on the party’s prospects, took a turn for the worse over the past 48 hours.

In the eyes of the experts, the House Democratic majority most likely won’t survive Nov. 2, with political handicappers expanding their predictions to envision the possibility of a Democratic wipeout.

Analyst Stu Rothenberg pegs the number of competitive seats at 100. Charlie Cook says it's 97. Virtually all of those seats are held by Democrats.

Rothenberg is predicting a likely Republican gain of 40 to 50 seats, with 60 seats possible. Republicans need a net pickup of 39 seats to take the House.

One House Democrat, reflecting widespread conversations with his colleagues, guessed Sunday that his party will lose 50 seats. Many, he said, are calling with urgent pleas for more contributions.

The Senate may stay in Democratic hands — but only by the narrowest of margins, so slim that it will make a handful of moderates from both parties the only people who will decide whether anything gets done.

COMMENT:  So, GOP control of the House seems in prospect, and moderate control of the Senate.  Not bad.  The Obama administration has worked hard to bring about its rejection by the public, and we're glad to congratulate them on their success.  It's change we can believe in.

But two weeks and two days remain.  Surprises, both ways, are still possible.  This now becomes an hour-by-hour campaign.

October 17, 2010      Permalink

TELL IT, JOHNNY, TELL IT – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:  Ah, it's so nice to see, if only occasionally, the old, fiery John McCain.  Campaigning in California, he told it bluntly about Barbara Boxer.  It's about time someone did.  From the L.A. Times:

Former Republican presidential contender John McCain reunited with his onetime advisor Carly Fiorina on the campaign trail Saturday in San Diego, offering a blistering indictment of Barbara Boxer’s record on military issues and calling her the “most bitterly partisan, most anti-defense senator in the United States Senate today” -- an assessment he said he’d made while having “the unpleasant experience” of serving with her.

I love it, I love it.

“When you hear her say that she supports the men and women in the military, my friends, she does not,” said McCain, a former Navy pilot who was held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five and half years after his plane was shot down in 1967. “Because she has never supported the mission; she has never supported victory whether it be in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or anywhere else in the world. Barbara Boxer wants to wave the white flag of surrender and endanger this nation’s national security. It’s time she went back to San Francisco with [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi.”

Appearing before an audience of several hundred veterans and supporters at the Veterans Museum in Balboa Park -- where McCain, his wife Cindy, and Fiorina formed a tableau of red, white and blue on stage -- the Arizona senator praised Fiorina’s business background and sought to reinforce her efforts to portray her rival’s voting record as anti-military.

Boxer has long been a hero of the anti-war movement after getting her start in politics advocating against the Vietnam War. She has called her vote against the Iraq War her proudest moment and vowed to keep the pressure on President Obama to bring troops home from Afghanistan.

COMMENT:  Boxer is right out of the 1960s.  When she turns on the TV, she probably expects to find "Laugh-In."  As we reported earlier in the week, she's something of an ally of Code Pink, the anti-American flake group.

For me, Boxer is the number one target on November 2nd.  She may squeeze by in a photo finish, but I hope not.  Everything John McCain says about her is true.

October 17, 2010      Permalink

RASMUSSEN PREDICTS 55-SEAT GAIN FOR GOP – AT 10:05 A.M. ET:  From Human Events: 

Newport Beach, Calif.—Nationally-recognized pollster Scott Rasmussen last night predicted that Republicans would gain 55 seats in races for the U.S. House of Representatives November 2—much more than the 39 needed for a Republican majority in the House for the first time since 2006.

But the man whose Rasmussen Reports polling is watched carefully by politicians and frequently quoted by the punditocracy said that whether Republicans gain the ten seats they need to take control of the Senate is in question.

“Republicans should have 48 seats [after the elections next month], Democrats 47, and five seats could slide either way,” said Rasmussen in his banquet address at the Western Conservative Political Action Conference. He was referring to seats in five states in which the Senate race this year he considers too close to call: California, Illinois, Washington, West Virginia, and Nevada (or “that mudwrestling contest,” as Rasmussen described the race between Republican Sharron Angle and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid).

COMMENT:  Rasmussen calls it straight, and has a solid track record.  His predictions are in line with a number of other pollsters.  Of course, it's a midterm, and predicting turnout is a bit trickier than in presidential years, but I certainly think Scott Rasmussen is very much in the ball park. 

I'm frustrated by the probability that the GOP will fall short in the Senate, while picking up an impressive number of seats.  The Senate is where Supreme Court nominations go to live or die.  If I had a choice between taking the House or Senate, I'd choose the Senate, for that very supreme reason.  I want to see our side have the needed blocking power to stop some loony Obama choice for the high court.  We'll be getting closer on November 2nd, but not quite there.

October 17, 2010      Permalink

OBAMA VOTERS TAKING A WALK – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  I guess, to use Sarah's phrase, the hopey changey thing isn't working out for them.  From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's winning coalition from 2008 has crumbled and his core backers are dispirited. It's now Republicans who stand to benefit from an electorate that's again craving change.

Nearly two years after putting Obama in the White House, one-quarter of those who voted for the Democrat are defecting to the GOP or considering voting against the party in power this fall. Just half of them say they definitely will show up Nov. 2, according to an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll released two weeks before Obama's first midterm elections.

Yet in a reflection of broad dissatisfaction with politics, just as many people who backed Republican presidential nominee John McCain are either supporting Democrats now or still considering how to vote.
Still, McCain voters — to borrow Obama's campaign rallying cry — are far more "fired up, ready to go." Two-thirds say they are certain to vote next month.

It's a wide enthusiasm gap that's buoying Republicans, who are poised for big electoral gains, and worrying Democrats, who are seeking to hang onto majorities in Congress as well among governors.

COMMENT:  What is remarkable is that the disillusionment with Obama hasn't changed at all during the campaign.  That's because he hasn't changed.  It's the arrogance of the man.  He seems to sing himself to sleep every night singing "My Way," and doesn't even apologize to Sinatra. 

Read the numbers in the poll, reported later in the story.  They're pretty devastating to the president who appeared almost as a religious figure in 2008.

October 17, 2010     Permalink