Friday, November 05, 2010

Maybe Obama Really Doesn't Get It

Today's depressing reports include that Pres. Obama is considering extending the Bush tax cuts for EVERYONE, including the top 1-2 percent of earners, for another couple of years.

WTF! Come on, Obama, get a backbone. One reason we're losing out to the tea-baggers is we're not putting up a fight. If you go down that road, you may well have an intra-party challenge in 2012.

Why not show that you, at least, are SERIOUS about deficit reduction. The stock market is now up nearly 100% since its bottom in March 2009. The rich are doing fine. The Bush cuts were supposed to be "temporary."

Don't be another Republican.

10 Dumbest

Back in the early 1970's, New Times magazine published a list of the "10 dumbest congressmen". With the election of so many new tea party Republicans to Congress, it may be time for an update. What about the "10 Dumbest Freshman Representatives"?

Nominations are open!
Did you know that the words "race car" spelled backwards still spells "race car"?

"Eat" is the only word that, if you take the 1st letter and move it to the last, spells its past tense, "ate"?

And, if you rearrange the letters in "so-called tea party Republicans" and add just a few more letters, it spells:

"Shut the f**k up you free-loading, progress-blocking, benefit-grabbing, resource-sucking, violent, hypocritical, douche bags, and deal with the fact that you nearly wrecked the country under Bush and that our President is black."

Hat tip to JB for this one.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Perriello Race To Be Close (Or Maybe Not)

Update: While things looked good for awhile, the later results were not so good and it looks like Tom Perriello will go down in the GOP wave. Too bad--he was a good man!!

We've been closely watching the congressional race in Virginia's 5th District between incumbent Democrat Tom Perriello and GOP challenger Robert Hurt, and this one promises to be close. In 2008, Perriello had the narrowest win of any Democrat, and he was considered toast this time by many, but he's run a good campaign and still may pull it out thanks to independent candidate Jeff Clark, who is getting just over 2% of the vote.

We compared those counties with complete returns so far tonight to those same counties two years ago. In four of them--Prince Edward, Buckingham, Halifax, and Martinsville City--Perriello had a higher percentage differential than in '08 (we have to factor out Clark to get to this), whereas in five--Campbell, Charlotte, Henry, Nelson and Bedford City--his percentage differential was worse.

The biggest county, Albemarle, is still mostly out.

We think this will go down to the wire again, with Perriello gradually closing the gap thru the night.

Monday, November 01, 2010

Our Predictions For Tuesday

Yes, readers, we've been awfully quiet of late as the election season has progressed to it's climax tomorrow. Why? Just too depressing.

A significant portion of the electorate seems to think we can have a federal government that provides the services they want, with lower taxes and a balanced budget. And they seem to believe that candidates who espouse a balanced budget without specifying how they'll do it are inherently credible, as long as they are "against Washington."

Do these same people also think they can get paid a high wage without actually doing any work, or that they can get unlimited health care without it costing anything?

Our voters also have a very short memory. Two years ago we were teetering on a true economic Depression. Reluctantly, Democrats--of all people--voted to shore up the economy by bailing out the same banks and Wall St. firms that caused the crisis. The worst of it was avoided, but now voters, unsatisfied that the economy is not roaring again, want to return to office the folks who caused the problem in the first place.

This is a little like suing the doctor who saved your wife from certain death with an emergency tracheotomy because now she has a scar on her neck.

Anyway, we went through this in 1992, and it turned out ok. After the Republicans returned to power then, we soon saw what incompetent fools they were, and things balanced out.

Enough whining Mr. Curmudgeon. Here's our fearless predictions for tomorrow:

Senate: Dems 50, GOP 48, Independent 2

House: Dems 204, GOP 231

In individual contests, we'll do the same ones as the Washington Post Crystal Ball contest:

Nevada Senate: Reid 44, Angle 47 (Nevada has a "none of these candidates" option)

Colorado Senate: Bennet 50, Buck 49

California Governor: Brown 52, Whitman 47

Maryland Governor: O'Malley 53, Ehrlich 47

Tie-breaker--% of vote for Christine O'Donnell in Delaware: 42%

Wild Card--Tom Perriello retains his seat in Virginia's 5th Congressional district