Substance over style

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Races 2010, Races Off-Year on Jan 23 

Scott Brown’s election victory last Tuesday night was that very rarest of occurrences—the triumph of substance over style.
 
Unlike most political contests where the attention-challenged electorate makes their decisions based on amorphous soundbites and half-truths delivered in slickly-produced television spots, Scott Brown took the real issues head-on—National Healthcare, taxes, National Security—and confidently staked out well-articulated, unambiguous, unequivocal stances on all of them. People were free to agree or disagree with his positions, but no one could accuse Brown of trying to play both sides of the fence and be all things to all people.

How refreshing. A political candidate with the courage of his convictions. None of that “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it” stuff. And people instinctively responded.

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Democrats to lose 60th vote for healthcare tomorrow?

By Stephen Fountain, Editor

Filed Under Congress, Races Off-Year on Jan 18 

Politico has a noteworthy take on how the Democrats lose the vote of Interim Senator Paul Kirk tomorrow, regardless of who wins the Massachusetts special election:

Conservative commentator Fred Barnes is arguing that Kirk will lose his vote in the Senate after Tuesday’s special election, no matter who wins, signaling a possible GOP line of attack against health reform if it passes with Kirk’s vote.

“Appointed Senator Paul Kirk will lose his vote in the Senate after Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts of a new senator and cannot be the 60th vote for Democratic health care legislation, according to Republican attorneys,” Barnes, the Weekly Standard’s executive editor, wrote on the conservative magazine’s website Saturday night. “Based on Massachusetts law, Senate precedent, and the U.S. Constitution, Republican attorneys said Kirk will no longer be a senator after election day, period.”

The only article you need on the meaning on last week’s elections

By Jason Wright, Editor

Filed Under Races Off-Year on Nov 6 

One word: Brilliant.

The Myth of ’08, Demolished
By Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON — Sure, Election Day 2009 will scare moderate Democrats and make passage of Obamacare more difficult. Sure, it makes it easier for resurgent Republicans to raise money and recruit candidates for 2010. But the most important effect of Tuesday’s elections is historical. It demolishes the great realignment myth of 2008.

In the aftermath of last year’s Obama sweep, we heard endlessly about its fundamental, revolutionary, transformational nature. How it was ushering in an FDR-like realignment for the 21st century in which new demographics — most prominently, rising minorities and the young — would bury the GOP far into the future. One book proclaimed “The Death of Conservatism,” while the more modest merely predicted the terminal decline of the Republican Party into a regional party of the Deep South or a rump party of marginalized angry white men.

Read the rest.

GOP wins in VA and NJ, Kaine wins in NY

By Jason Wright, Editor

Filed Under Races Off-Year on Nov 4 

By now you already know that Christie (GOP) won in NJ, McDonnell (GOP) won in VA, and Owens (DEM) won in NY-23.

What you may not know is that DNC chairman Tim Kaine’s unibrow has grown so thick and wiry that it’s sucking brain cells from where he needs them most.

In his statement last night, the Can’t-Be-Former-Governor-Soon-Enough quickly poo-pooed the stunning losses in NJ and VA and then delivered this hot, smelly mess of a paragraph:

“However, perhaps the most consequential race of the night was the special election in the 23rd Congressional District of New York in which the Republican candidate, a moderate, was purged from the Republican Party by the most extreme elements of the conservative right wing including Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. This race turned out to be the worst of all possible worlds for Republicans as not only did the Democrat, Bill Owens, win a seat that Democrats have not held in more than 100 years, but what occurred in New York has exposed a war within the Republican Party that will not soon end. It played itself out in Pennsylvania earlier this year when longtime Republican Senator Arlen Specter became a Democrat and is playing itself out in House, Senate and Gubernatorial races nationwide. The all out war between Republicans and the far right wing is a disaster for the Republican Party and will dog it well after today.”

Really? The most consequential race of the night was a single house race in NY? Seriously? This exposed a war within the republican party? Please, let’s stop calling Scozzafava a moderate. She’s a liberal in every sense. It’s not even fair to call her a RINO anymore. Even RINO’s don’t drop out of races and endorse democrats.

Of course the GOP would have loved to have won in NY. But it’s their own dang fault. They handpicked a candidate so liberal she dropped out of the race, endorsed the democrat and campaigned for him.

Hoffman was an underdog from the beginning. A nice guy. An accountant. A patriot. But a weak, uninteresting, uninspiring third party candidate. Let’s not forget that Hoffman should never have been competitive in the first place. The GOP spent almost a million dollars shredding him before coming to his corner with 72 hours left on the clock. The GOP deserved to lose this race.

Back in VA, the story is the O-Shift. Obama won in VA a year ago by 6 points. McDonnell won by 18. That’s a 24-point swing. Now Chairman Brow, Carville and Gibbs will argue that this simply followed a historical trend. Super. I’d like to see the state where a president won by 6 points and a year later his party faced an 18 point defeat. I’ll send a free autographed book to whomever can find that ‘historical trend’.

NJ might be even more stunning. Corzine spent somewhere north of ten billion dollars (so it seems) and lost to a conservative in the most corrupt state in the country. NJ is so blue that even the Smurfs look light skinned.

Should republicans be picking their desks for a major takeover in 2010? Absolutely not. These results mean that NJ will have a conservative governor for the next four years. VA will have the same. And, if we’re lucky, Obama/Pelosi/Reid will take an extra breath before ramming their socialist agenda down our throats.

Fred Thompson’s club for growth

By Stephen Fountain, Editor

Filed Under Media Clips and Issues, Races Off-Year on Oct 27 

Have you heard about a little bellwether race over in New York’s 23rd district? Vying for the race are two liberals – one Democrat and the other Republican. A third party candidate (formerly a Republican primary runner) has shaken up the race. A new poll shows he has the advantage. According to the Club for Growth:

The poll of 300 likely voters, conducted October 24-25, 2009, shows Conservative Doug Hoffman at 31.3%, Democrat Bill Owens at 27.0%, Republican Dede Scozzafava at 19.7%, and 22% undecided. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 5.66%. No information was provided about any of the candidates prior to the ballot question.

A number of big gun Conservatives have recently come out to support Hoffman including this one:

If nothing else, this ad makes me think it’s time to grow back the gotee. Any thoughts?

A picture worth a thousand words

By Stephen Fountain, Editor

Filed Under Media Clips and Issues, Races Off-Year on Oct 23 

mcd_obama.jpg

Hat tip Politico.

Team Obama preps the “this is not the Creigh Deeds I knew” speech

By Jon Cordeiro

Filed Under Races Off-Year on Oct 23 

Here in the Commonwealth (not State) of Virginia, the frost is on the pumpkin, the dew is in the grass, the fall foliage is beautiful, the Washington Redskins are being booed after victories, and oh by the way there’s a race for the Governor’s mansion. Some of you are no doubt aware of this race. Team Obama would rather you just ignore it.

Why? Because the republican candidate Bob McDonnell is leading his democratic rival Creigh Deeds. Don’t ask me how to pronounce his first name. In about three weeks it won’t matter. Deeds is currently trails McDonnell by double digits. This despite the fact that The One resides just across the river and is heavily invested in a Deeds victory that will not happen.

So far gone is the Virginia’s governor race that Team Obama has already started to distance The One from the flailing Deeds. Today’s Washington Post carried a column entitled “Deeds ignored advice, White House says”. Simply put, if the White House could widen the Potomac to put more distance between The One and Virginia, they would happily do so.

So, Mr. Deeds, get ready for the post-election “This is not the Creigh Deeds I knew” speech just before you are shoved out of Team Obama’s campaign bus and run over by it. Be sure to say hello to the legion of staffers, campaign workers, and former Congregationalists clinging to the undercarriage of the bus. There’s always room down there for more.

Deeds and confused

By Stephen Fountain, Editor

Filed Under Races Off-Year on Sep 18 

You might have heard there was a race for Governor in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The candidates for that seat met in a debate yesterday where the Democrat candidate, Creigh Deeds set off a small media frenzy by pledging not to raise taxes, but vowing to raise revenue for a transportation plan. I predict great things for Mr. Deeds. If he can raise revenue without raising taxes we can fund everything under the sun. Free healthcare! Free cars! Free houses! Free money! The sky is the limit. I can’t wait to hear the details. Check it out below:

Greg Mankiw on the heathcare debate

By Scott A. Robinson, Editor

Filed Under Congress, Domestic Policy, General, Healthcare, Races Off-Year on Jun 29 

I think Harvard Economist Greg Mankiw nailed it in Sunday’s New York Times. You should read the entire article. However, for your convenience, I’ve provided snippets after the jump.

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