That which unites us is far, far greater than that which divides us.
Maybe so, but neither of you are real Americans because you don't watch Oprah from start to finish.
Which brings me to another criticism of that absurd WaPo piece - he suggests that elites don't watch Oprah from start to finish and don't know who now hosts The Price Is Right. Is he suggesting that if you're not home in the middle of the day (read: have a job), you're an elite?
Most yard signs : Karyn Polito for Treasurer (she's a Republican candidate who has made herself stand out with a commercial in a fancy looking study where she sits with a very angry looking dog at her side)
Just as a comparison, I think Scott Brown had about 25 yard signs on my way home to 3 or 4 Coakley ones.
Soooooo...I guess we can end all that talk about the Republicans being consigned to a regional party?
And, I think, though this might be a little early, that the voters sent the Tea Party a message last night. If you look at the Tea Party candidates that won (Ron Johnson, Marco Rubio, Kelly Ayotte, Nikki Haley) vs the ones that lost (Angle, O'Donnell, Miller, Maes, possibly Buck and Emmer) there's a clear distinction--smart candidates that can articulate fiscal conservative policies and don't have a lot of baggage won and the reactionary, "anti-socialism", social conservatives lost. And I think its telling that the latter usually had a lot of baggage (which is probably why they went hard to the reactionary arguments, since they needed to keep the spotlight off their record).
No, my theory doesn't really explain Rand Paul, but then again, Conway might have run the stupidest non-Grayson ads of the campaign.
America's wilderness ain't what it used to be. I blame deforestation.
And I wouldn't lump Rand Paul in the same bucket as Christine O'Donnell or Sharron Angle. Not at all.
Rand Paul had one awkward interview. Other than that he was a very good candidate. Yes, Democrats (or at least liberals) really wanted to define him 100% by that interview, but good candidates don't allow that to happen. Rand Paul was not running on a civil rights platform or anything close to it. He was running on an economic platform, which he articulated pretty well.
And yes, Conway's ad was the second worst of the entire season, behind Grayson's "Daniel Webster must beat his wife" nonsense.
"You'd be crazy NOT to!" -- Donagh Gilhooly, bartender and wisest of men
The big question now is to what extent to some of the Tea Party types get accultured by the Republican caucus. Mike Pence is talking this morning about how extending the Bush tax stimulus policy is the highest priority moving forward.
Such a move would be one of the highest ticket items, if not the highest, to be taken up in the Obama presidency and will draw a sharp distinction between deficit hawks, if any, and others in the House.
For the Dems, it will draw attention to those who have the nuts to stand up against policies that did not work.
And, I think, though this might be a little early, that the voters sent the Tea Party a message last night. If you look at the Tea Party candidates that won (Ron Johnson, Marco Rubio, Kelly Ayotte, Nikki Haley) vs the ones that lost (Angle, O'Donnell, Miller, Maes, possibly Buck and Emmer) there's a clear distinction--smart candidates that can articulate fiscal conservative policies and don't have a lot of baggage won and the reactionary, "anti-socialism", social conservatives lost. And I think its telling that the latter usually had a lot of baggage (which is probably why they went hard to the reactionary arguments, since they needed to keep the spotlight off their record).
Agreed. Some of these were simply better candidates and less likely to be the political gadflies that O'Donnell and Angle represented. As for Paul, realize that he is really a Libertarian at heart, not a Republican, and true Libertarians are contrarians to any status quo.
In other news, Jimmy McMillan is retiring from politics.
Paul's views on the 14th amendment are really troubling. He may stand to wield considerable influence in the Rep. party for a freshman senator.
Well, I find a lot of Nancy Pelosi's and Barack Obama's views on a number of issues really troubling, and they wield a lot of power and influence too. A lot more than a freshman Senator.
"You'd be crazy NOT to!" -- Donagh Gilhooly, bartender and wisest of men
Meanwhile, it looks like some random Alaskan named Lisa Murcowskee could be elected to the US Senate!
"On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit. And you then go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, 'Okay, this is the limit.' And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high." -Ayrton Senna
If Rand Paul is a libertarian, I won't mind him just as I don't mind his father. The views of libertarians deserve representation in Congress. As to the 14th Amendment, I give him credit for speaking his mind even if I don't agree with it, when many of his colleagues probably agree with him but are too chicken to express it.
The bigger question I have is where are the Eisenhower Republicans? H.W. Bush was a fair to good president in my opinion, but his equivalent is nowhere to be found right now. The Chris Shays of the world are a dying breed that once stood at the heart of the GOP and could get effective policy passed.
An interesting, non-partisan development in the FL election regarding two Propositions, 5 and 6, that define how congressional and legislative districts should be drawn. Essentially, anti-gerrymandering rules.
Excerpt
ORLANDO — Voters approved two amendments Tuesday that would set new rules for how legislative and congressional districts in Florida are redrawn each decade. Amendment 5 dealt with legislative districts, while Amendment 6 addressed U.S. congressional districts. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, voters affirmed both amendments with more than 62 percent of the vote. The amendments required 60 percent of voter approval to pass.
The new amendments require that both legislative and congressional districts be compact, equal in population and make use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries. The amendments prohibit drawing districts to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party.
Similar efforts had failed in Florida three other times.
"I really think that it has something to do with the mood of the people who are tired of the hyper-partisanship that they're seeing in politics today," said Ellen Freidin, campaign chairwoman of FairDistrictsFlorida.org, the group leading the push for the amendments. "Those who voted for them ... recognized that they didn't want politicians to continue choosing their voters and rigging districts for their own political gain.".
The bigger question I have is where are the Eisenhower Republicans? H.W. Bush was a fair to good president in my opinion, but his equivalent is nowhere to be found right now. The Chris Shays of the world are a dying breed that once stood at the heart of the GOP and could get effective policy passed.
Challenge accepted, pending you telling me what you mean by Eisenhower Republicans. I like my goal posts fixed.
That is a good start, although I think more attention could be paid to the military-industrial complex, which remains a pernicious special interest in our politics IMO. I have no problem with the use of force, but the idea that we turn it around and allow for-profit entities to rebuild entire countries (without even competition and with considerable fraud that the DoJ has needed to prosecute) is troubling.
There's a lot that I can agree with in this blogger's listing. With some exception, you cannot find it on this board or in Congress on the right. The last two years has seen piddling on fast food guidelines of all things.
There are some things I disagree with, particularly #8. Others I can live with, particularly on Roe.* My problems come in more with numbers 1-6 as it relates to current politicians and those elected yesterday.
I would also throw in internationalism, which we saw to some extent with the recent Bushes (and certainly Obama). The Tea Party types strike me as isolationist, and the bigoted ballot initiative in Oklahoma, for example, is something that is terrible for business and does not do anything for the country otherwise.
*I would like to see a Republican at least be honest about the pro-life position - my biggest problem with Perry. There is a local kerfluffle - widely dismissed in other parts of TX - concerning the execution of a convicted defendant based on now-discredited arson testimony. Perry and his underlings did not bat an eyelash at it and have since interfered with the independent investigation into the expert testimony (by expert, I mean a lay fireman's arson report).
