COUNTDOWN to November 2010 Election

[Foxfyre]

The Tea Party/Libertarian Party whatnot phenom seems to have totally fizzled out here in Ohio. I dunno why; seemed strong a year ago. Ours will be the usual race to the bottom and the only open question is what amount of disgust does it take to make a hard line party supporter vote against his own incumbent.

Exactly. That has been the problem with our political system for a long time now. We simply aren't dealing with the issues. We deal with personalities, favorites, likeable qualities, or partisanship coupled with the politics of personal destruction unrelated to anything to do with the issues.

I'm not sure the Tea Party spirit has fizzled in Ohio though. I think those folks are now working diligently to promote the candidates that passed muster with them earlier on. They are less visible as ralliers and protesters and more engaged in the actual process of the election. You'll find them going door to door with flyers, manning the phones, working the message boards , and otherwise trying to persuade the public to focus on those pesky issues instead of personalities.

If most of the voting public can be persuaded to focus on the issues, we will see a dramatic turn around come November. If not, it will be pretty much the status quo though there will continue to be a lot of mixed messages until we get past November 2012.

If we do not turn it around by November 2012, I am not optimistic that we will ever turn it around. And I sudder to think that there will be more of the same even until then. I just don't know how much more we can all take.

 

[Jeremy]

If we do not turn it around by November 2012, I am not optimistic that we will ever turn it around. And I sudder to think that there will be more of the same even until then. I just don't know how much more we can all take.

Very true.

But I thought you were the eternal optimist?

 

[Foxfyre]

Some really interesting recent polling results:

Fifty-two percent (52%) of Likely U.S. Voters say their own views are closer to Sarah Palin’s than they are to President Obama’s, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Just 40% say their views are closer to the president’s than to those of the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate.

Among the Political Class, however, 68% say their views are more like Obama’s, while 63% of Mainstream voters describe their views as more like Palin’s.

Eighty-four percent (84%) of Republicans and 59% of voters not affiliated with either major party say their views are more like Palin’s. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Democrats say they think more like the president.

White House Press secretary Robert Gibbs last week said Palin is perhaps “the most formidable force in the Republican Party right now,” but just 22% of all voters agree. Fifty-two percent (52%) do not believe Palin is the party’s most formidable force. Twenty-six percent (26%) aren’t sure.
52% of Voters Say Their Views Are More Like Palin?s Than Obama?s - Rasmussen Reports

Definition of Political Class: Those who trust government and government leaders more than they trust the judgment of the American people or American business.

Fifty-five percent (55%) of Likely U.S. Voters say most members of Congress get reelected not because they go do a good job representing the folks at home but because election rules are rigged to their benefit. That’s a five-point increase from April of last year.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 15% of voters think most of those in Congress get reelected because they do a good job representing their constituents, down eight points from the previous survey. A sizable 30% aren’t sure which is right.

It’s worth noting that the word “rigged” is a strong term included in this survey question. The fact that more than half the nation’s voters believe the election rules are "rigged" is a testament to the continuing high levels of distrust in the country today.
Fairness of Elections - Rasmussen Reports

 

[Foxfyre]

If we do not turn it around by November 2012, I am not optimistic that we will ever turn it around. And I sudder to think that there will be more of the same even until then. I just don't know how much more we can all take.

Very true.

But I thought you were the eternal optimist?

I am. I try to look for the goodness, common sense, and basic character of the people whenever possible. But I am convinced there are forces for evil out there and they are powerful and they will get the gullible, those caught unawares, or those who don't care enough or don't fight hard enough or smart enough. Optimism only gets you so far.

 

[WillowTree]

I don't think the Senate was ever a real possibility for the Republicans. I think that was a way over-the-top expectation in my opinion. It's virtually impossible for them to take the Senate back. However they could make it close again and that's enough of a win for me. Just get the Senate close again and you've won. The House is a real possibility for the Republicans though. Either way the Republicans will make some gains and that's good enough for me.

The Republicans are in the midst of a Revolution in the Party to weed out the phony Neocon Check-Pant establishment. This Revolution could hurt them initially in November but it is essential for the overall future survival of the Party. People are just so sick of them being the Democrat-Light Party. So the Republicans will likely make some modest gains with real Conservatives as opposed to making massive gains with more phony Check-Pant Republicans. Personally i prefer these modest gains with real Conservatives. I guess we'll see though. Make 2010 count America.

Hell, according to the demonRats, Republicans can OBSTRUCT with a mere 40 seats!

 

[Jeremy]

I don't think the Senate was ever a real possibility for the Republicans. I think that was a way over-the-top expectation in my opinion. It's virtually impossible for them to take the Senate back. However they could make it close again and that's enough of a win for me. Just get the Senate close again and you've won. The House is a real possibility for the Republicans though. Either way the Republicans will make some gains and that's good enough for me.

The Republicans are in the midst of a Revolution in the Party to weed out the phony Neocon Check-Pant establishment. This Revolution could hurt them initially in November but it is essential for the overall future survival of the Party. People are just so sick of them being the Democrat-Light Party. So the Republicans will likely make some modest gains with real Conservatives as opposed to making massive gains with more phony Check-Pant Republicans. Personally i prefer these modest gains with real Conservatives. I guess we'll see though. Make 2010 count America.

Hell, according to the demonRats, Republicans can OBSTRUCT with a mere 40 seats!

Shit, if there was only one R in the senate they would blame all of their problems on the poor bastard.

 

[Foxfyre]

I don't think the Senate was ever a real possibility for the Republicans. I think that was a way over-the-top expectation in my opinion. It's virtually impossible for them to take the Senate back. However they could make it close again and that's enough of a win for me. Just get the Senate close again and you've won. The House is a real possibility for the Republicans though. Either way the Republicans will make some gains and that's good enough for me.

The Republicans are in the midst of a Revolution in the Party to weed out the phony Neocon Check-Pant establishment. This Revolution could hurt them initially in November but it is essential for the overall future survival of the Party. People are just so sick of them being the Democrat-Light Party. So the Republicans will likely make some modest gains with real Conservatives as opposed to making massive gains with more phony Check-Pant Republicans. Personally i prefer these modest gains with real Conservatives. I guess we'll see though. Make 2010 count America.

Hell, according to the demonRats, Republicans can OBSTRUCT with a mere 40 seats!

Shit, if there was only one R in the senate they would blame all of their problems on the poor bastard.

LOL. George Bush has been out of office for more than 20 months, but EVERYTHING that has gone wrong during that 20 months is his fault.

 

[Foxfyre]

I almost put this on my thread of Things that make you go ARRRRRRGH!!!!

Considering that GM has only paid back about 7% of the bailout monies and the rest has been converted to stock owned by a Democratically controlled Federal government and its UAW union. . . . .

Isn't this a conflict of interest????????

GM Resumes Political Giving
September 22, 2010
By JOSH MITCHELL
General Motors Co. has begun to once again contribute to political campaigns, lifting a self-imposed ban on political spending put in place during the auto maker's U.S.-financed bankruptcy restructuring last year.

The Detroit company gave $90,500 to candidates running in the current election cycle, Federal Election Commission records show.

The beneficiaries include Midwestern lawmakers, mostly Democrats, who have traditionally supported the industry's legislative agenda on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) and Rep. John Dingell (D., Mich.).
GM Resumes Political Donations - WSJ.com

In other words they're using my tax contributions to promote candidates that I oppose!

 

[Foxfyre]

The Tea Parties are obviously underwhelmed with the GOP Pledge to America unveiled this morning.

There isn't anything in it that they oppose, but it is little more than a GOP platform statement.

Full text here:
"Pledge to America" Unveiled by Republicans (Full Text) - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

The Tea Partiers are still wanting candidates to sign the Contract from America that demands specific actions to be taken:

The Contract from America

We, the undersigned, call upon those seeking to represent us in public office to sign the Contract from America and by doing so commit to support each of its agenda items, work to bring each agenda item to a vote during the first year, and pledge to advocate on behalf of individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom.

Individual Liberty
Our moral, political, and economic liberties are inherent, not granted by our government. It is essential to the practice of these liberties that we be free from restriction over our peaceful political expression and free from excessive control over our economic choices.

Limited Government
The purpose of our government is to exercise only those limited powers that have been relinquished to it by the people, chief among these being the protection of our liberties by administering justice and ensuring our safety from threats arising inside or outside our country’s sovereign borders. When our government ventures beyond these functions and attempts to increase its power over the marketplace and the economic decisions of individuals, our liberties are diminished and the probability of corruption, internal strife, economic depression, and poverty increases.

Economic Freedom
The most powerful, proven instrument of material and social progress is the free market. The market economy, driven by the accumulated expressions of individual economic choices, is the only economic system that preserves and enhances individual liberty. Any other economic system, regardless of its intended pragmatic benefits, undermines our fundamental rights as free people.

1. Protect the Constitution
Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does. (82.03%)

2. Reject Cap & Trade
Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures. (72.20%)

3. Demand a Balanced Budget
Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike. (69.69%)

4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform
Adopt a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words—the length of the original Constitution. (64.90%)

5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington
Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states or local authorities, or ripe for wholesale reform or elimination due to our efforts to restore limited government consistent with the US Constitution’s meaning. (63.37%)

6. End Runaway Government Spending
Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth. (56.57%)

7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care
Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling a competitive, open, and transparent free-market health care and health insurance system that isn’t restricted by state boundaries. (56.39%)

8. Pass an ‘All-of-the-Above” Energy Policy
Authorize the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition and jobs. (55.51%)

9. Stop the Pork
Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the budget is balanced, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark. (55.47%)

10. Stop the Tax Hikes
Permanently repeal all tax hikes, including those to the income, capital gains, and death taxes, currently scheduled to begin in 2011. (53.38%)
The Contract from America

 

[Jeremy]

Berg, Pomeroy remain in statistical deadlock for House seat | INFORUM | Fargo, ND

 

[Foxfyre]

Here's Obama and many/most of the Democrats' main problem I think:

A Rasmussen survey this week shows that most Americans--at least among likely voters--do not look to government to reduce poverty and most of the same people think government programs actually increase poverty.

Seventy-five percent (75%) of all Likely Voters prefer free markets over a government managed economy, though. The Political Class is much less enamored with free markets than Mainstream voters are.

But then 69% of the Political Class believe that government programs reduce poverty. Most (56%) of those in the Mainstream think government programs actually increase the amount of poverty in the United States. Seventy-five percent (75%) of all voters say there are more people living in poverty today than there were 10 years ago, a view confirmed by recent Census Bureau statistics.
43% Say Free Market Is Best Anti-Poverty Program - Rasmussen Reports

 

[Micky G. Jagger]

Yesterday was the last of the 2010 primaries and the field of candidates for governor, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate has been decided. On November 2, 47 days from this OP, we will go to the polls for possibily one of the most historic elections in U.S. history. Certainly it is seen by many Americans as one of the more important.

With the President experiencing steadily decreasing approval ratings and Congress and the GOP and Democrats individually earning much lower numbers, this election may be the first in a long time in which issues and values, as opposed to personalities and political parties, will determine the winners.

39 governor seats are up for grabs--20 currently held by Democrats; 19 currently held by Republicans.

In the Senate, the Republicans need to win 10 additional seats to take over the majority currently held by the Democrats.

In the House, the Republicans need to win 40 additional seats to take over the majority currently held by the Democrats.

Let's discuss polls, trends, status, prospects, hopes, and fears re this election cycle here. NOTE: Certainly most of us will be taking sides, but if we could keep personal insults, trollism, and ignorant platitudes to a minimum, that would be much appreciated.

Mark My Words!
​

When the battle's over, the smoke has cleared and all of mortally wounded have be finished off, the Democrats will pick up 1 or 2 seats in the Senate and 4 or 5 in the House.

 

[Micky G. Jagger]

Berg, Pomeroy remain in statistical deadlock for House seat | INFORUM | Fargo, ND

The methodology Rasmussen uses to conduct its polls can cause results to skew in favor of conservatives.

 

[Micky G. Jagger]

A Rasmussen survey

Rasmussen surveys are crap.

 

[Foxfyre]

Yesterday was the last of the 2010 primaries and the field of candidates for governor, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate has been decided. On November 2, 47 days from this OP, we will go to the polls for possibily one of the most historic elections in U.S. history. Certainly it is seen by many Americans as one of the more important.

With the President experiencing steadily decreasing approval ratings and Congress and the GOP and Democrats individually earning much lower numbers, this election may be the first in a long time in which issues and values, as opposed to personalities and political parties, will determine the winners.

39 governor seats are up for grabs--20 currently held by Democrats; 19 currently held by Republicans.

In the Senate, the Republicans need to win 10 additional seats to take over the majority currently held by the Democrats.

In the House, the Republicans need to win 40 additional seats to take over the majority currently held by the Democrats.

Let's discuss polls, trends, status, prospects, hopes, and fears re this election cycle here. NOTE: Certainly most of us will be taking sides, but if we could keep personal insults, trollism, and ignorant platitudes to a minimum, that would be much appreciated.

Mark My Words!
​

When the battle's over, the smoke has cleared and all of mortally wounded have be finished off, the Democrats will pick up 1 or 2 seats in the Senate and 4 or 5 in the House.

Considering the large lead that the Republicans have in a majority of the races for seats now held by Democrats, how do you figure that? What will the GOP do to blow those leads? What will the Democrats do to overcome those deficits. They have 38 days left to campaign.

 

[Jeremy]

Berg, Pomeroy remain in statistical deadlock for House seat | INFORUM | Fargo, ND

The methodology Rasmussen uses to conduct its polls can cause results to skew in favor of conservatives.

So far, Rasmussen Reports is the only independent pollster to survey North Dakota’s U.S. House race,

I'm sorry, do you have a better poll for me to use?

 

[Micky G. Jagger]

An extensive review of GOP campaign literature, floor speeches and public statements reveals that Republican candidates and officeholders routinely use GOP talking points verbatim in their speeches and campaign literature, while passing off the language as their own personal views ---->>> Tea Party Script Written In Washington (VIDEO)

 

[Foxfyre]

An extensive review of GOP campaign literature, floor speeches and public statements reveals that Republican candidates and officeholders routinely use GOP talking points verbatim in their speeches and campaign literature, while passing off the language as their own personal views ---->>> Tea Party Script Written In Washington (VIDEO)

Ah. And conversely you think the Democrats are working purely out of their extemporaneous intellect and are entirely unscripted?

But okay, let's assume that is the case.

Apparently more people are agreeing with the GOP's scripted campaign rhetoric more than they are agreeing with the Democrat's extemporaneous (cough) brilliance.

So what will turn that around?

 

[logical4u]

fox did you get more than a ged? seriously

she's a slut, self admitted and telling people not to have sex. She needs to start a caucus with Vitter

Maybe she is acting like someone that was burned playing with fire, warning others that behavior can be harmful.

 

[Madeline]

John Kasich has 4 point lead over Ted Strickland, Ohio Newspaper Organization poll finds | cleveland.com

Kasich-R, Strickland-D. Strickland is the incumbent and I know 4 points is not a lot, but I think he'll lose.