GOPer says voters have ‘had enough’
(CNN) – The man running for House majority leader from the Republican Party in the next Congress thinks Democrats don’t get it.
“If Democratic members in the House elect Nancy Pelosi as their leader, it’s almost as if they just didn’t get the message from voters this election,” Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The voters outright rejected the agenda that she’s been about and here they’re going to put her back in charge.”
Cantor referenced Obama’s comments this week that he failed to sell his important legislative milestones as an example the president doesn’t get it either.
“I think that’s indicative of his not getting it, because the voters have had enough of the Obama agenda,” Cantor said.
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, also appearing on Fox, joined the other Republican politicians on Sunday talk shows calling for Congress to “repeal and replace” the new health care legislation.
“We’re going to do everything we can to try and repeal and replace this thing,” Ryan said.
But he also said he didn’t think a full repeal would be possible until there is a new president and a “better Senate.”
Introspective Obama: I didn’t communicate “sit in the back seat, Tea Party racists” clearly enough
This is exactly why I said to take his olive branch and shove it.
President Obama’s idea of “taking responsibility” is to blame voters for not understanding his message.
See, it’s not that he didn’t get it.
It’s that we didn’t get it.
And off to Asia he goes…
Via 60 Minutes:
After a suffering a “shellacking” in the midterm elections, President Obama acknowledges what many have seen as his chief weakness – failing to sell the importance of several legislative milestones to the American people.
“I think that’s a fair argument. I think that, over the course of two years we were so busy and so focused on getting a bunch of stuff done that, we stopped paying attention to the fact that leadership isn’t just legislation. That it’s a matter of persuading people. And giving them confidence and bringing them together. And setting a tone,” Mr. Obama told 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft in an exclusive interview set to air Sunday.
“Making an argument that people can understand,” Mr. Obama continued, “I think that we haven’t always been successful at that. And I take personal responsibility for that. And it’s something that I’ve got to examine carefully … as I go forward.”
Exit Polls: Enough about the campaign – let’s talk about the campaign
(CNN) – It’s after midnight, which means the 2010 vote is over…and the 2012 race is officially underway.
In exit polls Tuesday, Republicans in three key early-voting states were asked about four of their leading presidential contenders.
In Iowa, it appears Mike Huckabee’s still got a base: the former Arkansas governor is tied with Mitt Romney at 21 percent, with Sarah Palin close behind at 18 percent, and Gingrich nabbing single-digit support.
In New Hampshire, former Massachusetts governor Romney displays his home court advantage: he draws more support, at 39 percent, than the rest of his top rivals combined. Palin once again nabs 18 percent, Huckabee drops to 11 percent, and Gingrich stays in the single digits.
And in the key early-voting state of South Carolina – where Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney both endorsed Gov.-elect Nikki Haley in the GOP primary this year – Palin, Huckabee and Romney are again neck-and-neck. The former Alaska governor has support from 25 percent in Tuesday’s exit poll, followed by Huckabee at 24 and Romney at 20. Newt Gingrich polls at 10 percent.
In case you don’t have enough to watch…
POLITICO has its own livestream, featuring chatter from me and the rest of us stranded here in Roslyn tonight.
Bomb sent from Yemen to synagogues in Chicago powerful enough to bring down plane
Feel the love. “US-bound bomb could have brought down plane,” from AP, October 30:
A bomb found on a U.S.-bound cargo plane was powerful enough to bring down an aircraft, British authorities said today, as forces in Yemen searched for suspected al Qaeda militants behind a plot to bomb Jewish targets in Chicago.
“I can confirm the device was viable and could have exploded. The target may have been an aircraft and had it detonated the aircraft could have been brought down,” British Home Secretary Theresa May said.
Two parcels sent from Yemen and containing explosives were intercepted in Dubai and Britain on Friday, triggering broad travel disruptions and a massive international investigation.
Officials said the parcel bombs had the hallmarks of al Qaeda, and in particular al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and appeared to include the same explosives used in a failed attempt to blow up a U.S. jetliner on Christmas Day last year….
GDP growth not good enough in Q3
I’m trying to find an elegant way to say GDP growth sucked in the third quarter. Maybe “GDP growth modestly underperformed hopes that it would be about 250 percent faster?” Or how about, “GDP growth was very naught in the third quarter of 2010/”
At any rate, the economy grew at an annualized rate of two percentage points. That’s slow-but-not-catastrophic in normal times. But these aren’t normal times. What it means, rather, is that we’re not catching up to where we need to be. We’d need a bit of time at 5 percent growth or so to really get back on track. That often happens after normal recessions, but balance-sheet recessions, where banks and consumers have to spend a long time getting their finances back in order before they can start expanding again, tend to take longer.
Now It’s Voter Intimidation: Why Can’t The Tea Party Leave Well Enough Alone?
The Tea Party is making headlines again this week and none of them have jack to do with policy or governance issues as mid-term elections draw ever closer.
There is, of course, the incident at a Rand Paul rally in Kentucky where a dirty rotten librul protester was knocked to a curb and stepped on, an interesting manifestation of the kind of freedom of speech the party claims that it eschews. Which followed an incident at a Joe Miller rally in Alaska where his goons rolled an uppity reporter.
And now there are reports out of Minnesota and Texas regarding what the party is advertising as challenges to voter registration fraud but is manifestly the kind of voter intimidation that their Republican elders have been practicing for years, including surveillance squads, video camera teams and tails of buses from senior centers to polling places, with the added incentive in Minnesota of a cash reward to vigilantes for each alleged perp that they collar.
The issue is not so much whether the Tea Party has the right to practice such thuggery; the so-called anti-voter registration fraud efforts bankrolled by the GOP flirt with illegality but arguably don’t cross the line.
The issue is who gave the Tea Party the authority. No one, of course, and it is manifestly obvious that the people who will be targeted will largely be minorities and the polling places will be largely in minority neighborhoods. In other words, people who wear brown faces and not brown shirts.
Obama to GOP- Going Forward, ‘It’s Not Going to Be Enough Just To Play Politics’
Using the delay of the small business aid bill which ultimately passed in September as an example, President Obama said today that he hopes the Republican Party will change their minds about “playing politics” going forward.
Political Punch
Juan Williams, Liberal, Not Liberal Enough For NPR
Ah, litmus tests. The left loves them. And tonight, NPR and Fox News commentator Juan Williams got hung by one. Did Fox News fire Juan Williams? you ask. I mean, that would be the natural guess, right? You know the fascist thought bullies over there. But no. NPR fired Juan Williams for giving his honest opinion. It wasn’t politically correct. Here’s what Juan said:
O’REILLY: Continuing now with our lead story, danger from the Muslim world.
Joining us from Washington FOX analysts Mary Katharine Ham and Juan Williams.
So, Juan, I got to tell everybody, own up to this, that talking points memo was really written by Alan Colmes.
So, where am I going wrong there, Juan.
JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, actually, I hate to say this to you because I don’t want to get your ego going. But I think you’re right. I think, look, political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don’t address reality.
I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.
Now, I remember also that when the Times Square bomber was at court, I think this was just last week. He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts.
But I think there are people who want to somehow remind us all as President Bush did after 9/11, it’s not a war against Islam. President Bush went to a mosque –
O’REILLY: Well, there isn’t any theology involved in this at all from my perspective, Juan. But you live in the liberal precincts. You actually work for NPR, OK?
WILLIAMS: Yes.
Now here’s the thing, nine times out of ten, I’m yelling at the screen when Juan is giving his opinion. I’m not alone-Michelle Malkin talks about directly arguing with Juan. One time out of ten, he’ll say something that makes sense and I’ll wonder how on earth such a sensible opinion can come from a guy who is so often otherwise wrong.
That is to say, I disagree, vehemently with Juan Williams on nearly everything.
And yet, I don’t want him to lose his job just because he says something that someone might deem offensive or disagree with. Hell, nearly every lib on the Fox network, and many conservatives, say ridiculous things that are disagreeable and often offensive to the average person. Unless someone is a vile hatemonger, a person should feel that he will keep his job even if it’s outside some p.c. orthodoxy.
What is wrong with liberals? Michelle goes on to document how they’re behind Juan’s firing. I find it inexplicable. But then, they’ve had it in for Juan because he deigns to commentate on Fox which just grinds their gears. He’s like a lib in a short skirt, he had it coming.
P.S. Clearly, NPR is not a neutral organization. They need to be defunded. Now.
UPDATED:
Media Matters, Eric Boehlert demonstrates his intolerance:
“Note to Juan Williams, when you go on Fox and announce “I’m not a bigot, but….” bad things are going to happen; http://nyti.ms/bdBJWv
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said that during an appearance Monday on Fox’s “O’Reilly Factor,” Williams backed Bill O’Reilly’s recent claim that “Muslims killed us on 9/11″ and then said: “[W]hen I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
Well, this will send a message to liberal commentators. Toe the line, libs, or you’ll be lynched mobbed.
Not political enough?
I wrote today about how the White House has refused to dirty up its reform credentials by backing outside groups, and a former senior Obama field staffer who is now a political appointee at a federal agency in Washington wrote me this morning with his own frustration at — as he sees it — an administration that isn’t political enough:
The appointee and former staffer writes:
I have a midterm related irritant that I wanted to call to your attention. That being, that I am still in my office. As is virtually every other appointee that I know.
I get asked every day by career staff why we are here. [They say] that in every other Administration that appointees were not asked, but were told to pack their bags and head to X long before this time of year.
The very most contact anyone has gotten that I’m aware of is a mass email, like that kind you’d send to my Mom who gave $ 10 to the campaign, saying "Hey, go to this web form and fill it out and someone will call you."
But that’s not the way it works. Don’t put the onus on me to ask my boss for special permission to go Tell my boss I’m going. That’s the way it has always worked. These places clear out.
I wish I was out there! The world we helped build is crumbling around us. There is a real feeling like after November it’s going to be misery, and we’re not able to do anything about it.
You can understand my frustration (which is also felt by virtually every other person I’ve talked about this with who is sitting in their office feeling like they’re twiddling their thumbs watching this happen).
The appointee forwarded over the mass email, which went out to Obama alumni, "the thousands like you who worked tirelessly through that election," from Michael Halle, a Missouri coordinated campaign staffer.
"If you aren’t already on a race this year, OFA is looking for folks like you to help in key races in states across the country. They’ll be able to provide some travel reimbursements, and will guarantee supporter housing. Can you help out?" asks the email, which directs former staffers to fill out an online form.
