Obama Has Wind At His Back

Good article in Politico (which is hard these days. The site definitely seems a little hell bent on tripping Obama up.)

What I have been touting for a while now is the lack of leadership coming out of the white house. It seems he must have read my blog b/c now we can see, since January, an Obama most willing to lead the pack.

"Democrats believe the Obama of the past week is what Americans want. They particularly think it could convince skeptical independents that Democrats can govern and that Obama is steadfast leader they hoped for. They’re also confident moving into the debate on regulating Wall Street because they believe it unites them and divides Republicans."

It is true. People want a leader. The good thing about Obama is that he's smart too. He just needs to show his passion for this country and people will follow.

There was one quote that burns me a little and it comes from a former Bush speech writer.

"He (Obama) had a powerful and effective week in rallying his base, which is useful, but he still faces the fundamental problems that his first year decline led to, which is he’s polarizing, he failed to get any Republican support and he’s lost independents.”

I find it hilarious to hear that Obama is polarizing. While the guy quoted above has an agenda, this viewpoint is not uncommon.

To the contrary, Obama has been willing to work with repubs. The fundemental problem is that repubs want their bill (and only their bill) to be passed and anything short of that causes them to vote no. (They also made a calculation long ago to oppose health care. No matter what came out of committe, they were hell bent on voting no.) So when I see a quote like the one above I really have to ask whether this guy is in touch with reality.

With the political winds at Obama's back, he should swing for the fences. Anything less would be a waste.

Dems Hit Their Stride, GOP Totally Lost Theirs

Dems are quickly shifting their attention to the Wall Street Reform. A bill dems now totally own because again, the GOP did not participate in making the bill. But it is going to be much harder for GOP to filibuster a bill that most everyone wants. After passage, the dems will then move onto immigration. The dems have definitely hit their stride when they needed to.

GOP, however, is totally flailing around not knowing what to do. Now that they have lost out on taking partial ownership of a popular bill, Wall Street reform, they are totally screwing unemployed people over with this:

"Coburn is blocking unanimous consent on extension of unemployment benefits, just as Bunning did a few weeks ago. Only this time, Coburn's not alone -- the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other members of the Republican caucus have joined with Coburn, promising to block billions in unemployment benefits just as the Senate is set to leave on a two-week recess."

Who is giving the GOP advice right now? They are trying to stand up for financial responsibility on the backs of unemployed, under insured, down on their luck Americans. What are they thinking? Its almost as if when they didn't get their way on Health Care they are going to burn the place down. I remember a six year old at the school playground. When playing basketball and he was losing he would start pouting and eventually say "I am taking my ball and going home." Sometimes, I feel the GOP never matured out of this stage.

Dems The Target Of Hate After Passing Health Care

Well, this should come as no surprise but yet I am surprised. It seems that angry right wingers, in their frustration with the health care bill passing, have turned to vandalism. Not only have they been smashing in windows of dem offices, there's this:

"Federal and local authorities are investigating a severed gas line at the home of U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello’s brother, discovered the day after Tea Party activists posted the address online so opponents could 'drop by' and 'express their thanks' for Perriello’s vote in favor of health care reform."

Why does this surprise me? I still cannot fathom how giving people access health insurance causes such hate. The GOP has a real problem on their hand and it is starting to boil over.

Update: Now death threats.

And This

And This

How The GOP Can Lose Politically On Repeal

Good quote find on how the GOP might not want to tout the "repeal" message too much.

"If the Republicans now keep health care in the spotlight by trying to repeal it, they will be the ones independents voters see as having skewed priorities and they may start to pay the price. Yes, repeal will play well with the base. But focusing on that has a high potential to turn off independent swing voters who have been leaning toward the GOP but are sick of the health care debate and want Washington to be more focused on something else."

So this says what the Dems have to do. keep a jobs bill in the spotlight.

Dems Should Do What They Want

A new poll out suggests that the dems should do whatever they damn well please.

"The poll's top-line finds 37% of Americans saying they definitely will not vote Democratic for Congress this fall, 34% will definitely vote for the Dems, and the remainder are up for grabs. The poll shows that 50% oppose the health care bill, with 39% for it -- thanks to a 94%-1% opposition among the people who won't vote Democratic."

What does all this mean? People who don't support the health care won't vote dem anyway. So, who cares. The way it looks, the dems are going to lose at least 5 senate seats. They won't have this majority again for quite some time. Dems need to just pass the public option in reconciliation. They need to get some testicles and do what they think is right. People respond to it. It will be better for dems come november.

Scozzafava Is Out

Interesting twist in the NY-23 special election. Dede Scozzafava, the moderate republican, is withdrawing from the race with less than a week to go. So much for moderate republicans.

What does this mean for the conservative and the dem? Most likely the repub voters will go for the crazy candidate. Then, I think the dem will lose and the ultra-conservatives in the party will use this as a rallying cry for other extremely right people to come forward pulling the repub party farther to the right.

This is a major problem because without moderates in the republican party, they will continue to isolate themselves to the south or odd districts in the through out the country but never building a national movement. We just had 8 years of fanaticism and Americans are just too moderate for more helpings of crazy right now.

No Dough for the Repubs

With about 50 less repubs in the House since 2005 and 15 less repubs in the senate, the repubs are losing the money race. 

"House Republicans raised less money in the first three months than in each of the first quarters of the previous three election cycles, according to the data. Republicans raised $17.8 million in the first quarter of this year, down 14% from the same period in 2007 and 31% from the 2005 quarter. There are about 50 fewer Republicans in the House this year than in 2005."

As for the dems:

"Contributions to Democrats for the first three months rose slightly relative to 2007; there are about 20 more House Democrats than two years ago."

This would make sense because more dems in both houses need money. So I hope the dems are winning the money race. If not, then we have serious problems. But, we don't. 

Good Scenarios For Sen Arlen Specter to Become Dem

Kos has a good rundown on possible scenarios for Arlen Specter. His biggest problem is that he's likely to lose a GOP primary. However, he could do very well as a dem in the blue state of Penn. Markos says:

Specter votes for EFCA, and becomes a Democrat

Following his vote for EFCA, still as a Republican (giving Obama his desperately needed "bipartisanship"), the reaction from the Limbaugh crowd would be fierce. Heck, we know that they'd be screaming for his head. So Specter could look sad and forlorn, bemoan the lack of tolerance in the GOP, say that "I didn't leave the GOP, the GOP left me", and ride that wave of hate and invective straight to the other side of the aisle. Presto! 60 seats.

With the unions behind him and Rendel putting the machine to work in his favor, it's hard to see an opening for a real Democrat in a primary. Then again, like every other party switcher before him, Specter would quickly move left to establish his bona fides in his new party. We saw that with Sen. Jim Jeffords earlier this decade, and he was supposedly just an independent, and we certainly saw it with the likes of Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Dixiecrats like Sen. Richard Shelby who switched the other direction. Running for reelection as a Democrat, Specter would easily dispatch Toomey in the general election. But as a possible bonus, conservatives could drop some serious coin into this hopeless race in their effort to exact revenge.

Specter's Best Bet...Become a Dem

Arlen Specter, the senior senator from Pennsylvania, will probably not be reelected as a repub. The Hill is reporting that he will most likely get a primary opponent. For moderate repubs this is death.

If you haven't noticed, moderate repubs have been dropping like flies for the past 4 years. Two reasons for this. The electorate has moved solidly left, knocking off repub moderates from all of the U.S. The second is that with so many voters moving dem, there are only the crazies left in the repub base. In order to get reelected during the primary, a repub candidate must be able to do the crazy shuffle to appease the base.

This leaves only extremist repubs the opportunity to get elected at the primary stage. Then they go into a general election and get trounced because they are so extreme.

So where does that leave moderate Specter? Change to the dem party. He was once a dem so why not just change back? It will be the only way in which he can win relection.

DC Punidits Have No Clue

As I read about the stimulus bill, I hear a narrative that the repubs have a "new unity". A unity in opposing the stimulus bill. Then, able to keep the caucus together, the repubs get these "winner" labels for the week. Like "The Winners/Losers of the stimulus bill" and consistently they are described as winners.

How are they described as winners when they are trying to stop our president from saving the horrible economy? An economy that they created. The repubs are losers across the board but that is not what the washington pundits would have you believe. But over at Dailykos, they have an good little rundown of their new poll sticking a little finger in the pundit eye.

It shows the majority of people do NOT view the repubs as winners. Most people view them as losers. Repubs favorable numbers have gone down while dems have gone up. What does all this mean? Pundits need to leave DC and see the rest of the country.

Overall, pundits are like football announcers. They get paid to talk crap. They can't let the game happen and chime in from time to time informing the listener what is going on. Pundits need to fill the air with whatever they think. Then they listen to other pundits and regurgitate whatever they said as well.

There are no good pundits but if there were s/he has connections in DC but does not live there. There is an inherant problem with having cocktails with someone you are going to criticize.

Obama Selling and Leading on Stimulus

Obama is off to Elkhart, Indiana today to sell the stimulus to the public. A new Gallup poll already shows Obama doing a good job of selling it already.  He is owning the bill right now which is good. By owning it and it succeeding (hopefully) he will be able to do more in the future with the credit he gets. 

"The numbers: Obama has a 67% approval and only 25% disapproval on how he's handled the stimulus bill, compared to Congressional Republicans' 31% approval and very high 58% disapproval. Congressional Democrats aren't as popular as Obama himself -- explaining the GOP's efforts to tie the bill to Nancy Pelosi, instead of Obama -- but they're still in the black at 48%-42%."

If the congressional dems can ride the coat tails the GOP will be left out hanging in the wind. 

The Players Are Almost in Place

The Dems are finding themselves more and more in a drivers seat rarely seen in a generation. Obama has control of the white house. Pelosi has consolidated power in the house that is quite formidable. The last part is the a leader in the senate. Reid, unfortunately, is not the man we need right now.

I like Reid and some of what he has done to get us here but, at the end of the day, Reid does not have the leadership we need right now. We need a Rahm Emanuel of the senate but with a little better temperment for the country club of the senate. Someone who can forcefully get things dones instead of whining about 60 seats are needed to get things done.

The next leader of the senate needs to not fear holding the Repub's feet to the fire. Let them fillibuster a little more often. Use their obstructionist nature to paint a picture over the next several years. Not just for short term but long term. Someone who will create a narrative and plug that narrative of the Repubs that one day will need to be used in the future.

Don't wait 'til when you need it. Invest in it now and cash it in later.

Repubs Finally Show Their Partisan Heads

Republicans are finally coming out of their shell shocked caves and continuing their obstructionist attitudes. While Obama is making concessions to try and get as much buy in as possible for the stimulus package, Republicans are picking it apart and saying they are not going to support it.

The politics of it is this: They will gain hardly anything by supporting a democratic bill should it do well and the economy starts to improve. They gain a whole lot more by having the new pres and dem congress holding the bag should it fail. They will go running (yes running) to the cameras yelling "I told you so."

Now, there are many problems but what sticks out for me is a TOTAL lack of leadership on the repubs part. Their leaders don't see the common cause that is there. They need the country's economy to repair itself. They are staring at a depression potential situation that they ochestrated and now show no leadership in trying to get us out.

They don't see the bigger picture (putting the U.S. back on track) they see only the political bet. 

They are betting against Obama, dems, and the U.S. economy.  

Look at what they did today.

Then this morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) went for the jugular, urging his members to oppose the economic centerpiece of Obama's first term just hours before the president paid the Republicans the compliment of coming to the Capitol for a private meeting — even before he did the same for House Democrats. 

Obama's aides cast the visit as an outstretched hand — and it got slapped. 

This is why I am so cinical about the repubs. The new breed of repubs is hell bent on the struggle for power and has no vision on what is good for the country. This is why they will continue to live in the forest. They need leadership bad!

Update: Well, it looks like they might just vote for it after all. They are so confused, I don't think the repubs know what the other repubs are doing. 

an interesting quote:

 "Boehner already said he wouldn't vote for it, so why are they bothering to meet with the President if they've already decided they will oppose?" he wondered. "Will they even say what they want now or just constantly moving the goalposts?"