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With the last primaries now over, and with less than seven weeks until election day, we're going to try to post more on the campaign each day.  So, plan on checking in, say, in late afternoon, and possibly late at night.  We post as events warrant, so we can't guarantee you'll find new bulletins, but chances are you will.

Remember, the flag border around a story means it's election-related.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

WHOOPS-A-ROOTIE – DID REID ACTUALLY SAY THAT? – AT 10:41 P.M.. ET:  A comment by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, himself in some electoral hot water in Nevada, may help Christine O'Donnell mightily in Delaware.  The Hill reports the quote:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday predicted to The Hill that Democratic Senate candidate Chris Coons will safely win the Nov. 2 general election against GOP nominee Christine O'Donnell.

Reid talked up the New Castle County executive following a memorial ceremony on the Capitol's east steps to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. O'Donnell on Tuesday night won the GOP nomination to face Coons in November — a result that has split the national Republican Party.

But Reid said Coons would have won even if Rep. Mike Castle (R) had prevailed over O'Donnell.

Now get this:

"I'm going to be very honest with you — Chris Coons, everybody knows him in the Democratic caucus. He's my pet. He's my favorite candidate," Reid said.

His pet?  His PET?  Oh, I can just see Christine O'Donnell's TV ads.  She's running against Harry's pet.  Now here is an opening sent from Heaven. 

Also, we learned today that Coons described himself in college as "a bearded Marxist."  Look, this guy hasn't been defined yet, and it's up to Christine to define him, and fast.

Hey, y'never know.  O'Donnell might just pull this out when Delaware voters learn that her Democratic opponent is Harry's poodle and has a thing for Joe Stalin besides.

September 16, 2010      Permalink

WE KNEW IT, WE KNEW IT, WE KNEW IT – AT 8:48 P.M. ET:  Well, at least the White House is entrepreneurial.  If one thing doesn't sell, they try something else.  And they've learned their Orwell.  From Fox:

From the administration that brought you "man-caused disaster" and "overseas contingency operation," another terminology change is in the pipeline.

The White House wants the public to start using the term "global climate disruption" in place of "global warming" -- fearing the latter term oversimplifies the problem and makes it sound less dangerous than it really is.

No, guys, that's not the problem.  The problem is that you never made your case.   The public is on to you.  They know that the issue is complex, and that the "science" is not as clear as you've claimed.

White House science adviser John Holdren urged people to start using the phrase during a speech last week in Oslo, echoing a plea he made three years earlier. Holdren said global warming is a "dangerous misnomer" for a problem far more complicated than a rise in temperature.

The call comes as Congress prepares to adjourn for the season without completing work on a stalled climate bill. The term global warming has long been criticized as inaccurate, and the new push could be an attempt to re-shape climate messaging for next year's legislative session.

"They're trying to come up with more politically palatable ways to sell some of this stuff," said Republican pollster Adam Geller, noting that Democrats also rolled out a new logo and now refer to the Bush tax cuts as "middle-class tax cuts."

COMMENT:  I suspect that this gimmick won't be any more successful than the last one.  What the American people want is a serious, neutral inquiry into what we know, and what we don't know.  They want to know what's proved, and what's theory. 

One problem here is that the people don't trust the media – something clear in every poll – and demand real answers that won't be filtered through the Obamafied press.

When I was at the Columbia School of Journalism, which was respectable in those days, we were taught a basic lesson:  Never underestimate the public's intelligence, and never overestimate its knowledge.  The "global warming" crowd has done both, with predictable results.  New labels will not change the fact that the garment is worn out.

September 16, 2010      Permalink

BEYOND DISHONEST – AT 6:38 P.M. ET:  I guess Nancy Pelosi was inspired by President Obama's taking credit for progress in Iraq.  Now she gets artistic with the history of tax cuts.  Fox News has the lie:

Come again, Madame Speaker.

As House Democrats and Republicans jockey over whether to allow a continuation of tax cuts passed nearly a decade ago or whether to raise taxes next year on some Americans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she's all for "the extension of the Obama middle-income tax cuts."

"What I believe the American people deserve is a tax cut for the middle class," Pelosi said during her weekly press briefing. "And without getting into procedure and timing and process, what we're going to do is to say at the end of the day, the extension of the Obama middle-income tax cuts will take place, and that's what I have to say on the subject."

We have researched the issue thoroughly, using the extensive worldwide resources of Urgent Agenda, and could find no Obama middle-income tax cuts to extend.

It is apparent that the speaker, perhaps suffering the effects of an aging process not stopped by extensive plastic surgery – there is no such thing as a brainlift – has confused Mr. Bush with Mr. Obama.  We assume that her San Francisco therapist will know how to deal with such a discouraging event.

September 16, 2010      Permalink

FIRST POST-PRIMARY DELAWARE POLL – THERE'S WORK TO DO – AT 6:10 P.M. ET:  Scott Rasmussen has released the first poll in Delaware taken after Christine O'Donnell's surprise victory in the GOP Senate primary:

Democrat Chris Coons holds a double-digit lead over Republican hopeful Christine O’Donnell in the first Rasmussen Reports post-primary survey of the U.S. Senate race in Delaware.

Coons earns 53% of the vote to O’Donnell’s 42%, with leaners included. One percent (1%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

The Delaware race is now viewed as Solid Democrat in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Senate Balance of Power rankings.

The discouraging thing here is the undecideds.  The undecided vote is only four percent.  Even if O'Donnell picks up all of them, she'd still trail, 53% to 46%.

I'm afraid Rasmussen is right.  As of now, Delaware must be counted as solidly Democratic.

However, the election isn't being held now.  O'Donnell has seven weeks to produce a miracle.  That means not only winning all or almost all the undecideds, but convincing those who have already made up their minds not to vote for her to switch.  This will be in the face of a sustained campaign, not launched by a GOP primary opponent, but by professional Democrats and a good chunk of the "yes we can" media.

I didn't support her in the primary, but I'm rooting for her now.

By the way, her primary opponent, Mike Castle, has acted badly since his loss, refusing to endorse Christine or even call to congratulate her.  He could have gone out in style, but chose to go out as a petty poor loser.

September 16, 2010     Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 10:04 A.M. ET: 

MIAMI, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A Florida man said his attempt to help an injured 8-foot alligator resulted in him being bitten on the arm and the reptile being euthanized.  Alexander Alcantare said he spotted the reptile Sunday in a canal behind his Miami home with an arrow lodged in its head, so he attempted to drag the alligator to shore, WFTV, Miami, reported Wednesday.  "And I saw it with an arrowhead lodged in its head. So, I figured, maybe you know, if I bait and hook it, you know, and see if they can take it out of its head," Alcantare said.

Rude, ungrateful alligators have become a national problem.  Schools just don't teach behavior any longer.

September 16, 2010      Permalink

TODAY'S "MUST READ" – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  We've said repeatedly that British journalists have often had the sharpest take on Obama.  It's happened again.  Mary Ellen Synon, in the Daily Mail, explains why, in this election campaign, Obama has become a liability to the Democratic Party:

Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express have roared right through the latest round of Republican Party primaries this week, rattling the party establishment and terrifying the Democrats.

For those of you who are trained in the fastidious ways of the British ‘liberalism’ and are therefore shocked and can’t think why the American Right is gaining such strength, here’s the reason: Barack Obama.

Americans are waking up to the fact that they have elected a man as president who is every inch an exotic creature. Which was rather fun at first.

The problem is, America is discovering that Mr Obama has brought more than just a foreign name and an interesting racial mix to the White House. He has brought a whole foreign way of thinking. And Americans don’t like it.

Millions of them now want national leadership with a more star-spangled way of looking at the world...

That's a wonderful way of putting it.  Now please read the rest of the article, which discusses a conversation being held here, across the internet, about an article by Dinesh D’Souza that claims that Obama is obsessed with the anti-colonialist mentality of his father, although colonialism hasn't been a problem for half a century.

The Daily Mail piece concludes:

Yet colonialism today is a dead issue. As Mr D’Souza says: ‘Emerging market economies such as China, India, Chile and Indonesia have solved the problem of backwardness; they are exploiting their labour advantage and growing much faster than the US.’

However, instead of readying America for the challenge, the man in the White House is ‘trapped in his father’s time machine. The philandering, inebriated African socialist, who raged against the world for denying him the realisation of his anti-colonial ambitions, is now setting the nation’s agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son.’

America is being run by the ghost of a dead Luo tribesman of the 1950s.

Great stuff.  Do read, do read.

September 16, 2010      Permalink

STOP FIGHTING, GUYS – IT'S THE DEMOCRATS YOU'VE GOT TO BEAT – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  The fallout from Tuesday's Delaware primary continues.  Christine O'Donnell's win in the state's GOP Senate primary, has set off damaging skirmishes on the right.  This is energy wasted.  From a delighted Washington Post:

"Tea party" activists have been saying all along that their movement is about something more than winning elections. And as the bloody Republican primary season reaches an end, they have proved they really mean it.

Their parting shot at the Republican establishment was their loudest.

In defeating the GOP's strong prospect for picking up a Senate seat in Delaware - thereby dampening its chances of regaining a Senate majority - the tea party has delivered a clear message to the Republican establishment: You are not in charge.

"This is about changing the system," Christine O'Donnell, the tea party pick, said Tuesday night as she celebrated her stunning primary victory over Rep. Michael N. Castle.

Her upset was the biggest in a string of tea party wins this season over establishment-backed candidates in Alaska, Colorado, Kentucky, New York and Utah.

Okay, okay.  Even Michael Barone, the best political analyst we've got, is predicting an O'Donnell loss in the general election.  But she's the candidate we've got and it's time to stop the infighting.  Elections are about numbers, and we need that Senate seat. 

The end of the primaries normally is a time when parties try to close ranks, but O'Donnell's win fueled another spasm of recriminations.

After GOP strategist Karl Rove said Tuesday that O'Donnell was unelectable - echoing the assessment of, among others, Delaware Republican Party Chairman Tom Ross - he came under fire from a battalion of conservative commentators.

"I've never heard Karl so animated against a Democrat as he was against Christine O'Donnell last night," said Rush Limbaugh, whose radio show Rove had recently guest-hosted.

Commentators are turning on each other.  Rove was giving his professional opinion as a Fox commentator. 

This is one of the things I've feared – that the GOP would find a way to blow this election.  I'm hoping things calm down in the next few days.  Delaware may (or may not) be gone, but this midterm isn't an election in one state, and it's not a national election.  It's state by state, district by district.  Let's make sure the adults are in charge and get back to business.

September 16, 2010       Permalink

BOYS WILL BE BOYS – AT 8:19 A.M. ET:  For years we've been frustrated by Arab journalists Photoshopping images during Arab-Israeli clashes, always to the detriment of Israel or the U.S.  The damage is done before news organizations investigate and withdraw the offending photos.

Now an Egyptian publication has been caught red-handed.  This is one of those juicy stories we just had to report.  From Britain's Telegraph:

Egypt's state-run newspaper has been criticised after it altered a photograph to suggest President Hosni Mubarak was leading the Middle East peace talks.

The photograph, which appeared in Al-Ahram, the country’s most widely circulated newspaper, showed Mr Mubarak walking on a red carpet ahead of the US, Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders.

The original image shows Barack Obama leading the way ahead of the three other leaders, with Mr Mubarak trailing behind.

It's encouraging to know that an opposition group in Egypt exposed the hoax:

The opposition 6 April Youth Movement called the newspaper "unprofessional" for publishing the manipulated image.

In a statement on its website it said: "This is what the corrupt regime's media has been reduced to."

COMMENT:  Glad you noticed, guys.  It's been going on for years.  And we wonder why the Arab world doesn't love us.  This is the level of their journalism.

Oh, but wait.  Maybe we're too harsh.  We should accept the concept that this photo is simply "an alternative narrative."  Now I feel better about myself.

September 16, 2010      Permalink

FLORIDA LOOKS SOLID – AT 7:59 A.M. ET:  When Republican Governor Charlie Crist of Florida announced he was running for the U.S. Senate, he looked like a shoo-in for the GOP nomination.  Then, a young guy named Marco Rubio announced that he, too, would be running.

Rubio was laughed at initially, but later developed a commanding lead in the polls.  So Crist pulled a fast one.  He announced that, poof, he was no longer running as a Republican, but would run as an independent.  Some observers believed he had pulled off the most brilliant maneuver since MacArthur's landing at Inchon, Korea.  Indeed, in early general-election polls, Crist led in a three-man race. 

Not so fast.  Rubio was unshaken and simply continued to campaign.  Now, he has, as he did in the GOP primary, built up a lead that looks insurmountable.  Unless some disaster strikes, the Florida seat should be safe for our side.  Reuters has the story:

(Reuters) - Florida Governor Charlie Crist's strategy of taking the best ideas from Democrats and Republicans in his campaign as an independent for a Senate seat is failing.

The slight edge Crist held over Republican "Tea Party" favorite Marco Rubio in August has evaporated and turned into a wide deficit as he courts what appears to be a fast- shrinking moderate vote.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Wednesday showed Rubio far ahead in the three-way race to succeed Republican Senator George LeMieux, with support from 40 percent of likely voters. Crist had 26 percent while Democrat Kendrick Meek had 21 percent.

Florida's U.S. Senate election is widely viewed as a referendum on President Barack Obama's handling of the economy, and Rubio appears to be landing knockout punches bashing Obama.

COMMENT:  Rubio is a rising star, and would be the first Cuban-American to go to the U.S. Senate.  Watch him closely and think "national ticket."

September 16, 2010     Permalink

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

NEW AP POLL CONFIRMS REPUBLICAN STRENGTH – AT 6:30 P.M. ET:  A new AP poll out today shows increasing Republican strength, as the election grows near:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tilted toward the GOP from the start of the year, the political environment has grown even more favorable for Republicans and rockier for President Barack Obama and his Democrats over the long primary season that just ended with a bang.

And this despite the fact that the journalistic establishment is doing its thing for the Dems, big time.

The country's pessimism benefits the out-of-power GOP, which clearly has enthusiasm on its side. Far more people voted this year in Republicans primaries than in Democratic contests, and the antiestablishment tea party coalition has energized the GOP even as it has sprung a series of primary surprises...

...Indeed, Republicans expected turnout of 30,000 to 40,000 in Delaware on Tuesday. Some 57,582 people showed up to vote as tea party-backed Christine O'Donnell upset moderate Rep. Mike Castle for the Senate GOP nomination.

And...

Overall, it's an extraordinarily dreary backdrop for Obama's beleaguered party. And with just seven weeks until Election Day, Democrats are running out of options to mitigate widespread expected losses of House, Senate and governor's seats from coast to coast on Nov. 2.

Finally,

With less than two months to go, Democrats are focused on slowing a GOP wave that could give Republicans control of Congress and on trying to fire up their deeply dispirited Democratic base while stemming the flood of independents who now are leaning strongly toward the GOP.

They haven't gained traction with warnings that electing Republicans would mean a return to George W. Bush's policies. Now, Democrats are trying a different tack by elevating - and subsequently tearing down - House GOP leader John Boehner, the likely House speaker should Republicans win control. They're also pouring millions of dollars into advertising designed mostly to make GOP candidates unacceptable instead of highlighting their own accomplishments.

But there's no certainty any of those tactics will work.

COMMENT:  But, combined with a fear campaign, they could work in some areas, which is why the GOP must run as if it's 20 points behind.

September 15, 2010      Permalink

CHRISTINE, YOU KNOW WE ALWAYS LOVED YA – AT 2:57 P.M. ET:  The Republican establishment today bit its lip, arrested its pride, and announced support for Christine O'Donnell, the insurgent who won the GOP Senate nomination in Delaware:

In a clear sign of the grassroots pressure on Republican leaders, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn just put out a statement embracing Christine O'Donnell -- a dramatic contrast with his group's curt response last night -- and writing her a big check.

It's a remarkable reversal, and a vivid illustration that the base is in charge and has the leadership running scared.

The NRSC is sending O'Donnell a check for $42,000, the maximum possible under current rules.  Press reports say that contributions are pouring in from other sources – so many contributions that the O'Donnell website crashed.

We didn't support Christine O'Donnell.  We can't deny our doubts about her.  But we sure hope she wins in November.

September 15, 2010      Permalink

AYOTTE WINS N.H. – AT 2:14 P.M. ET:  From AP:

CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire has certified former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte (AY'-aht) as the winner of the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

Ayotte was endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and won a narrow victory over Ovide Lamontagne (LAH'-mohn-tayn). His conservative credentials and courting of the tea party pulled him close in the final days of the campaign.

Lamontagne has until 5 p.m. to decide whether he'll seek a recount because the margin of victory fell within 1.5 percent of the total votes cast.

Her victory, if it stands, puts the GOP in a solid position to hang onto the Senate seat being vacated by Judd Gregg.

September 15, 2010      Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 10:02 A.M. ET: 

From AOL News:  Does the Loch Ness Monster Have English Relatives?

I've asked this question for years.  Thank goodness it's finally being answered.  I just love a free press.

September 15, 2010      Permalink

THIS IS PATHETIC – AT 9:12 A.M. ET:  While Americans render their negative verdict on Barack Obama, Europeans remain in his corner.  And why not?  He's trying to turn America into Europe, complete with economic decline, cultural vagueness, and spiritual emptiness.  Other than that, he's a truly great man.  From the Politico:

Europeans may still like Barack Obama more than Americans do, but they’re turning against him on Afghanistan.

A survey released Wednesday finds that 78 percent of residents across 11 European Union countries approve of the way the president handles foreign policy generally. That’s a 5 percentage point dip from last year, but it dwarves the 52 percent of Americans who feel the same way.

They're turning against him on Afghanistan because we still have troops there, and have asked for European help.  Mustn't do that.  Mustn't divert attention from the march toward socialism and Islamism.

Despite a relatively small and largely expected dropoff that naturally comes with the exigencies of governing, Obama’s numbers stand in stark contrast to George W. Bush’s. For the last three years of Bush's presidency, they hovered around 20 percent.

Of course, Europe's leftist press had nothing to do with that.

Bush stood up for his country, a sin in Europe.  Obama bashes his country.  Applause, applause among the European opinion makers.

Europeans like the way Obama has handled climate change.

Bush had the nerve to raise questions.  Must not, must not.

COMMENT:  Some West European countries will essentially disappear in the next half century, due to falling birth rates and increasing Islamization.  So the opinions shouldn't be that shocking.  They're consistent with a civilization determined to commit suicide.

September 15, 2010     Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  Let us not forget what this election is about.  It' a referendum on Barack Obama, a referendum he must lose. 

Why must he lose?  In part, it's because Obama has failed at the first responsibility of a president, that of commander-in-chief.  This is especially true in Obama's imposition of a cynical, defeatist deadline for withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan.  Tony Blankley has it nailed, in the Washington Times:

Petraeus has now made a play for Obama to reconsider the deadline. In a recent television interview, he said it is his duty to give the commander in chief his "best professional military advice" about whether July is too soon to remove troops. Separately, other policymakers have begun suggesting the July withdrawal may not be firm, injecting a hint of ambiguity into official statements. But in last week's Oval Office address, the president reconfirmed, precisely, that the withdrawal shall begin in July, as he ordered in his West Point policy announcement speech last year.

In the retirement speech of one of our greatest fighting generals, Gen. Stanley McChrystal -- whose self-inflicted career immolation still remains unexplained, but undoubtedly patriotically motivated -- we may have been given a first hint of his motivation when he observed: "Caution and cynicism are safe, but soldiers don't want to follow cautious cynics.

They follow leaders who believe enough to risk failure or disappointment for a worthy cause."

Amen, amen.  Soldiers followed George W. Bush.  They seem less enthusiastic to cheerlead for Barack Hussein Obama.

September 15, 2010      Permalink

LAST NIGHT – AT 8:23 A.M. ET:  Most of the buzz, of course, surrounds the victory of Christine O'Donnell over Mike Castle for the GOP Senate nomination in Delaware.

We hope O'Donnell goes on to win in November, although the odds are heavily against her.  However, let me not mince any words:  I see signs that the Republican Party is making the same mistakes the Democratic Party has made since the 1960s, becoming a rigid, ideological force.  America is an idealistic country, not an ideological one.  The genius of American politics has always been its sense of the practical.  Unlike Europe, transitions from one party to the other in the halls of government rarely produce great trauma or convulsions.

Contrast Ronald Reagan with Barry Goldwater.  Goldwater was a rigid ideologist, whereas Reagan was a practical, innovative conservative who knew how to talk to the nation and appeal to the great American center, where elections are won.  Reagan became president, Goldwater remained a semi-important senator.  Reagan changed the nation, Goldwater did not.

The main reason Obama and his party are in deep trouble right now is that Americans realized, too late for the 2008 election, that the Obamans are rigid, leftist ideologists.  They will be sent a message.

I think the tea party has added enormously to the excitement and vigor of the campaign.  The movement will bring many conservatives to the polls.  But it is a movement, not a party.  It is not expert at what parties are supposed to do – win general elections, not just primaries.

Tea partier Christine O'Donnell is a highly flawed candidate, already behind in polling for the general election.  In Nevada, weak tea party candidate Sharron Angle has, through her blunders, turned an easy GOP victory against Harry Reid into a horse race.  In New York, the tea partiers got behind Carl Paladino, who has now won the GOP nomination for governor.  But Paladino is a crude amateur who, frankly, is an embarrassment.  It won't matter much in very blue New York, which will elect Andrew Cuomo, son of Mario, as its next governor.  But it could have been a better fight.

In New Hampshire, even Sarah Palin's backing wasn't enough to assure Kelly Ayotte the Republican nomination for the Senate.  She's still locked in an almost dead heat with a tea partier, with votes being counted. 

I pose this question:  What happens the day after election if we wake up to find that the Republicans fell just two or three votes short in their quest to take over the U.S. Senate, and the losses were in Delaware, Nevada and perhaps New Hampshire?  What happens will be a civil war in the Republican Party, just when we need unity.

Bill Buckley said it best.  He advised voting for the most right-leaning viable candidate in primaries. 

This election is about the future of the nation, about stopping the leftist freight train choo-chooing through Washington.  Demanding ideological purity in the Republican Party will not do it.  Reagan never demanded it on the Republican side, Roosevelt never demanded it on the Democratic side. 

We need a political revolution in Washington, not the French revolution.  Be careful with that political guillotine.

September 15, 2010      Permalink

NEW HAMPSHIRE – AT 8:10 A.M. ET:  The race for the GOP Senate nomination in New Hampshire has still not been decided.  With 86% of the vote counted, Kelly Ayotte is leading Ovide Lamontagne, 38% to 37%, with only a thousand votes separating them.

This race is important, and an Ayotte victory is important.  The seat is currently held by Republican Judd Gregg, who is retiring.  So this is a race to hold on to a GOP seat.  Ayotte has an excellent chance of doing just that.  Her opponent, an insurgent, does not.

We'll keep you posted.

September 15, 2010     Permalink