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September 05, 2010
While on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, we
noted President Obama got an early copy of Jonathan Franzen's new novel,
Freedom.
Frank Rich: "The book has since rocketed up the Amazon
best-seller list, powered by reviews even more ecstatic than those for Franzen's last novel,
The Corrections. But I doubt that the president, a fine writer who draws sustenance from great American writers, has read
Freedom yet. If he had, he never would have delivered that bloodless speech on Tuesday night."
"What was so grievously missing from Obama's address was any feeling for what has happened to our country during the seven-and-a-half-year war whose 'end' he was marking. That legacy of anger and grief is what
Freedom mainlines to its readers. In chronicling one Midwestern family as it migrates from St. Paul to Washington during the 9/11 decade, Franzen does for our traumatic time what Tom Wolfe's
The Bonfire of the Vanities did for the cartoonish go-go 1980s. Or perhaps, more pertinently, what
The Great Gatsby did for the ominous boom of the 1920s."
The
New York Times reviews Laura Kalman's
Right Star Rising: A New Politics, 1974-1980.
"As a work of history about the Ford and Carter years, there is nothing seriously wrong with it. The facts are accurate, the writing is clear and the point of view is not tendentious. Once upon a time, such a book might have been useful to somebody. But the question it raises -- and it's not a question about this book alone --- is: What's the point of this kind of history in the age of the Internet?"
"As Democrats brace for a November wave that threatens their control of the House, party leaders are preparing a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority," the
New York Times reports.
"In the next two weeks, Democratic leaders will review new polls and other data that show whether vulnerable incumbents have a path to victory. If not, the party is poised to redirect money to concentrate on trying to protect up to two dozen lawmakers who appear to be in the strongest position to fend off their challengers."
Said DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): "We are going to have to win these races one by one."
"There are very profound reasons under the Federal Election Commission rules to not become a candidate."
-- Newt Gingirch, in an interview on
Fox News, on why he's hasn't yet announced a 2012 presidential bid.
A new
Tribune/WGN-TV poll in Illinois shows Bill Brady (R) leading Gov. Pat Quinn (D) in the race for governor, 37% to 32%.
Key findings: "Half of those surveyed disapprove of the sitting governor's job performance in the 19 months since he replaced the scandal-ridden Rod Blagojevich. Only 26 percent have a favorable impression of Quinn. And 70 percent of those surveyed don't like how Quinn has fared on his hallmark issue of reforming government."
"By contrast, four in 10 voters hold no opinion of Brady, a veteran lawmaker from downstate Bloomington. And just 19 percent have an unfavorable view of him."
September 04, 2010
A new
WHAS11/Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll in Kentucky shows Rand Paul (R) nearly doubling his lead in the last month, now up 15 points over Jack Conway (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 55% to 40%.
As the
Des Moines Register notes, Sarah Palin has taken issue with reporting on her upcoming Iowa trip, but
Mark Halperin has a very similar account:
"According to a source with intimate knowledge of Palin's decision to speak at this high-profile event, she had an outstanding, open invitation from the Iowa Republican Party to speak to a gathering for at least a year. Until recently, Palin and her camp had not acted in any specific way on the request. However, several weeks ago Palin's aides initiated contact with the Iowa Republican Party and very quickly and smoothly worked out logistics for the event."
September 03, 2010
Dan Maes (R) will continue running for Colorado governor despite calls from many in the Republican party to drop out by today's ballot certification deadline, the
Denver Post reports.
Meanwhile, Tom Tancredo (I) reiterated that under no circumstances will he pull out of the governor's race.
Said Tancredo: "I no longer consider Dan Maes a serious candidate. He is now the third-party candidate."
A Hollywood team has starting filming South Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene for a documentary, according to the
Daily Caller.
Explained Greene: "It's just like that, you know, they follow me, get some behind the scenes."
One of the filmmakers said Greene's story "was too good to ignore. He said that it did take some convincing, however, to get Greene to agree."
After a bungled debate performance this week, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) told the
Arizona Daily Star that she "has no intention of participating in any more events with Democrat Terry Goddard. She said the only reason she debated him on Wednesday is she had to to qualify for more than $1.7 million in public funds for her campaign."
Said Brewer: "I certainly will take my message in a different venue out to the people of Arizona."
"Brewer conceded that her performance in Wednesday's debate, and her refusal to answer a question from reporters afterward, was not well-handled. That includes an
opening statement when she lost her train of thought and went silent, and walking away after the event rather than answering questions about her prior statements about headless bodies in the desert."
A new
Magellan Strategies poll in New Hampshire shows Kelly Ayotte (R) leads Ovide Lamontagne (R) by 13 points in the Republican race for the U.S. Senate nomination, 34% to 21%, followed by Bill Binnie (R) at 17% and Jim Bender (R) at 13%.
Charlie Cook: "For much of this year, it seemed a near mathematical impossibility that Republicans could score the 10-seat net gain needed to flip the Senate, which is split between 59 Democrats (including two independents who caucus with Democrats and largely vote with the party) and 41 Republicans. As recently as six weeks ago, I wrote in a
CongressDailyAM column that a GOP win was 'certainly possible' but 'still fairly unlikely.' Although the 'fairly unlikely' part is still valid, the possibility of a GOP takeover is growing."
The key factor is that "wave elections produce a cascading effect in which the close races often break disproportionately toward the wave."
An internal
Associated Press memo advises reporters not to believe President Obama's declaration of the end of combat operations in Iraq.
"To begin with, combat in Iraq is not over, and we should not uncritically repeat suggestions that it is, even if they come from senior officials. The situation on the ground in Iraq is no different today than it has been for some months... Unless there is balancing language, our content should not refer to the end of combat in Iraq, or the end of U.S. military involvement. Nor should it say flat-out (since we can't predict the future) that the United States is at the end of its military role."
"People are angry in a way that I have never seen them before."
-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), quoted by
Politico, predicting a "tsunami" in the midterm elections.
A new
Braun Research poll in Kentucky finds Gov. Steve Beshear (D) leading both announced Republican candidates in next year's race for governor.
Beshear leads David Williams (R), 44% to 38%, and beats Phil Moffett (R), 49% to 29%.
The Upshot reports a 2006 investigation "into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department -- including some with the highest available security clearance -- who used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon only investigated a comparative handful of the cases."
The investigation focused "on people who had security clearances -- since those who have a
taste for child pornography can be vulnerable to blackmail and
espionage -- senior positions."
Levi Johnston may be
attempting a run for public office but a new
Public Policy Polling survey in Alaska suggests his political career might be short-lived.
Just 6% of Alaskans have a favorable view of Sarah Palin's almost son-in-law while 72% have an unfavorable view. He is reviled pretty universally across the board but he's a little more popular with Democrats (15/61) than he is with Republicans (4/76) or independents (4/74).
Key point: "It's hard to muster a favorability rating lower than 6% -- that's about where the average person off the street we polled on a lark would be -- so Johnson may hold this dubious distinction for a long time."
A new
Rasmussen survey in Nevada shows Sen. Harry Reid (D) and challenger Sharron Angle (R) are still neck-and-neck in the U.S. Senate race among likely voters, 45% to 45%.
The U.S. economy lost 54,000 jobs in August pushing the unemployment rate up to 9.6% -- the highest it's been since May.
The decline was actually smaller than many
economists expected. Excluding government employees, private sector jobs expanded by 67,000 last month. Though it's still very small, it's the 8th consecutive month of private sector job growth.
A new
Braun Research poll in Kentucky shows Rand Paul (R) slightly ahead of Jack Conway (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 42% to 37%.
A new
USA/Today Gallup poll finds the Republican lead in the congressional generic ballot may be due as much to voters rejecting the Democrats as embracing the Republicans.
Among voters backing unnamed Republican candidates, 44% say it's "more a vote against the Democratic candidate," while 48% say it's "more a vote for the Republican candidate."
In addition, by a 75% to 14% margin, voters say Congress would be better off with mostly new members.
September 02, 2010
A new
Tribune/WGN-TV poll in Illinois finds Alexi Giannoulias (D) and Mark Kirk (R) are "wounded rivals" running neck and neck for the U.S. Senate.
Giannoulias and Kirk both had 34% in the statewide poll of likely voters while another 22% were undecided. But the "softness in support opens the door for third-party candidates to play a spoiler role in the close contest. LeAlan Jones, the Green Party candidate, had 6% and Libertarian Party candidate Mike Labno had 3% in the survey."
A new
SurveyUSA poll in California shows Meg Whitman (R) leading Jerry Brown (D) in the race for governor, 47% to 40%.
Compared to an identical poll three weeks ago, Whitman is up three
points, while Brown is down three.
A new
SurveyUSA poll in California shows Carly Fiorina (R) edging Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 46%.
This was the third consecutive poll to show the contest within the margin of error, though, in all 3 cases, challenger Fiorina has been nominally ahead of Boxer.
"I already have the votes to be re-elected as Republican leader, and will be re-elected."
-- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), in an interview with
ABC News, insisting he will not be challenged for his leadership post next year.
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