democrats

10.2%

More bad economic news for the real people of America – the workers:

The unemployment rate in the U.S. soared to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October and employers cut more jobs than forecast, underscoring why Federal Reserve policy makers say interest rates will remain low until the labor market recovers.

Payrolls fell by 190,000 workers last month, compared with a 175,000 drop anticipated by the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The jobless rate gained from 9.8 percent in September and exceeded 10 percent for the first time since 1983.

Just because Wall Street is making money again doesn’t mean that Main Street is. It’s time for the White House to focus on regular America instead of the elites. If these numbers don’t turn around soon then Democrats can kiss it good bye next year.

Important Lessons From This Year’s Election

Steve Benen finds one of the most important lessons from Tuesday night:

Keep in mind, the two Republican statewide candidates who won this week -- Christie in New Jersey and McDonnell and Virginia -- wanted nothing to do with Palin, while the high profile conservative candidate who embraced Palin -- Doug Hoffman in NY23 -- lost in a district that hadn't elected a Democrat since the 19th century.

The big loser Tuesday night wasn’t Democrats, despite what the beltway and MSM try to tell you. Instead the biggest loser was Sarah Palin and all her little minions. Now if only the Democrats can realize that.

The Real Lessons Of Last Night

As I mentioned earlier, a major contributing factor to the huge loss Creigh Deeds suffered last night was from the fact that he ended up running against the Democratic agenda. Markos gives some needed warning to the Democrats on what happened last night:

Giving Republicans cover by stymying the reform agenda that won Democrats the 2006 and 2008 elections won't win them any conservative votes. In a base election, and 2010 will certainly be one, the party that better rallies its base will win. And abandoning the promises that got Democrats elected is a sure fire way to make sure that the activist base stays home and refuses to do the heavy lifting every campaign needs to win, and makes sure that less committed Democrats say "fuck it" and stay home on election night.

This is exactly what the Democrats have been doing this year, and healthcare is a shining example. Instead of starting out with a package that the left would have loved, something like universal coverage, the Democrats immediately started bowing to the Republicans and making healthcare less liberal. That was before the rightwing attacks could even start. Once they did then Democrats took even more out of the reform.

“Where Were The Obama Voters?”

That is the new meme emerging following the two gubernatorial losses last night for Democrats. I seemed to have missed it where Obama was on the ballot, but that’s what all the talking heads want us to think.

Let’s take a look at Creigh Deeds and the Virginia race. Actually have a look at Think Progress and you will notice how Deeds made a sharp move to the right towards the end of the race. Moves like that won’t bring in any last minute voters, but it will certainly tell the more progressive crowd to just stay home, including those Obama voters.

Then we have a new message being pushed by the right saying that the Democrats should move “more towards the center'”. That’s an interesting angle considering the conservatives want the Republicans to move more towards the right. Sadly we can expect the Democratic leadership to heed this warning and do just that. They are already talking about moving health care reform until next year, and we know what that means. It will then be “well we got to worry about the midterms so let’s go ahead and put it off until 2011”.

The problem is that Democrats are gullible, and not just the elected ones but even the membership at large, including many in the progressive blogosphere. I have pointed out in the past how many Democrats seemed to drink the Kool-Aid that Obama is some uber-liberal, comparable to Ghandi light. Afghanistan is a perfect example of this. The left is acting like Obama has broken some promise by not pulling the troops out of Afghanistan, when he actually is doing what he campaigned on. Instead of listening to the candidate, the left chose to listen to the right wing talking points. This practice is very dangerous for any progressive movement.

Blame The Democrats!!!

When there is a ton of finger pointing at the Democrats going on, it can only mean one thing – ELECTION DAY!

Earlier today, the Hoffman campaign and conservative bloggers threw a fit over a very nefarious accusation: That somebody had slashed the tire of a Hoffman poll-watcher's pickup truck.

"Hoffman Poll Watcher Has Tires Slashed," blared Red State, with photos of the truck and its flat tire. And Hoffman himself chimed in.

"We just had a report that one of our pollsters in Clinton County just had their tires slashed," Hoffman said. "So I think the Democrats are doing everything they possibly can to steal this election away from the 23rd District."

However, the Wall Street Journal reports that the local police captain said there's another explanation: "This was not a tire slashing--this was some guy who drove over a bottle and cut his tire."

Does this remind anyone of Ashley Todd?

Maybe Capehart Is Right

I mean look at this news:

Sen. Joe Lieberman Says He'll Back Republicans in 2010 Congressional Races

Now I’m sure that the Democrats will instantly hold a meeting today and kick Lieberman out of the caucus. As matter of fact I am so abso-fuckin-lutley sure of it that I am going to turn off the news and computer, head on out to the pumpkin patch and wait for the Great Pumpkin to appear and tell me about it.

WTF?

That Jonathon Capehart was just on Morning Meeting and saying how the Democrats form circling fire squads because they go after their own members who disagree with them, unlike Republicans. Yeah that's why Arlen Specter is still a Republican and Lindsey Graham is so loved by the GOP base, right along with Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. That’s why the Democrats in Congress have stripped Joe Lieberman of everything, and the Blue Dogs have no say what so ever.

Give me a break. This was the most absurd statement I have heard in a long time.

The Public Option – Vital To Democratic Survival

There has been a lot of talk about the new WaPo/ABC poll that finds 57% of the respondents want the public option, with 51% saying go for it without Republican support.

Another interesting number in this new poll is 20%. That’s how many people now identify themselves as Republican. The numbers are very dire for the GOP:

Only 20 percent of Americans now identify themselves as Republicans, the fewest in 26 years. Just 19 percent, similarly, trust the Republicans in Congress to make the right decisions for the country's future; even among Republicans themselves just four in 10 are confident in their own party. For comparison, 49 percent overall express this confidence in Obama, steady since August albeit well below its peak.

And while it looks bad for Republicans, it should also send a warning shot to Democrats. On a nearly 3:1 basis people support the public option more than they claim to be a Republican. That’s a huge margin. So what will happen if the Democrats scrap the public option because of Republican opposition, or put in other words – if the majority party gave in to the 20% minority party? Simple – loss of power.

No I am not saying that everyone will say “that’s it I’m voting Republican”. Instead what will happen is people will say “that’s it, I’m done voting!” 2010 is a mid-term year and already has the obstacle of being near impossible to get voters to head to the polls. Add to that a disgust with the Democrats for not listening to their base, and you will see far less head out to the polling places. Likewise Republicans will be touting the defeat of the public option as a huge victory over Democrats and use that to energize their base, thus translating that energy into votes.

The Tea Bagging Plague

Following up on my post from the other day about the Tea Party actually hurting the GOP’s chances for picking up seats next year, we now have today’s WSJ taking a look at this very threat:

he rise of conservative "tea party" activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans. They are breathing life into the party's quest to regain power. But they're also waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win.

In upstate New York, Dede Scozzafava, 49 years old, is the choice of local party leaders to defend a Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, an abortion-rights candidate who could appeal to independents. Doug Hoffman, 59, is a local accountant backed by tea-party activists who has jumped into the race declaring himself the real conservative.

A lot of political analysts actually predicted this. While many in Washington and the world of punditry thought the tea baggers would pose a big problem for Democrats next year, they never thought ahead enough to realize that they could actually have a real adverse effect on the GOP. Now we are starting to see this, and its the product of a lot of big Republican names backing the tea party while not really buying into it.

Why Harry Reid Should Lose Next Year

Markos explains why Harry Reid is an utter failure as a majority leader:

Bill Frist never had 60 votes. Bill Frist never cared. Republicans ran the Senate as if they owned the place, even when enjoying razor-thin majorities.

Yet when Democrats took the chamber, the first thing Harry Reid did was complain that he couldn't do anything because he didn't have 60 votes.

Read on.

The New GOP.com

There is a lot of buzz about the new GOP website today. Most notably is the fact that the site is incomplete. Ben Smith points out that the “future leaders” page is still blank. While there is a certain level of snark to this, being in the web development field myself I can’t really point and laugh. That is just the nature of the beast after all.

One thing I will point out that is a major fail in this new design is the fact that when you hit their home page you are quickly startled by Michael Steele walking onto your screen and talking. I don’t know who came up with this idea, but this is a major no-no in the world of web development. Even sites that offer advertising with audio generally state that the audio must be “user initiated”. People don’t want to open up a site then get startled by a bunch of talk.

Overall the feel of the new site is rather amateurish. Its hard on the eyes and the amount of red is just too much, as well as very harsh. I still prefer the democrats.org site, not for partisan reasons, but rather from a usability stand point. Its easy on the eyes, easy to find what you want and you don’t have people talking to you.

But that only scratches what you see on the outside. On the inside far more errors occurred that made it look like amateur hour:

In their haste to get their new Web site up and running, the Republican Party has posted online a slew of things you wouldn’t normally expect.

Such as instructions on how to operate the Web site.

In checking to see who was in the New York State section of the site, (in addition to the other gaffes people have noted) we noticed three members. One was the “rnc-admin.”

House Republicans Vote Against Our Troops

What does this say?

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) are voting against the House/Senate fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill — because it contains hate crimes provisions designed to protect gays and lesbians.

Boehner and Pence are putting their own bigotry against the needs of our troops at a very volatile time in the Afghanistan war. Why do Republicans continue to put politics above our troops?

Call Mike Pence and John Boehner and ask them to support our troops now!

Adding….could you imagine the Democrats voting against a defense bill? Oh yeah, when they did Boehner was one of the leading voices out there saying how they didn’t support the troops. Funny how that works out.

Congressional Approval Ratings Nose Dive Again

Gallup’s latest polling of congressional approval ratings have them at 21%, down 10% from last month. This marks a pretty significant dive on the downward trend that has been occurring since March of this year.

The biggest drop in support has come from Democrats. Last month 54% of Democrats approved of how Congress was doing their job, but that number has sunk 18% to 36% this month.

It seems the Democrats are just content on not listening to the people who sent them to power. For example, when the Democrats regained the House in 2006 they promised to restore the 5 day work week to the House. Now Steny Hoyer has reneged on that and returned them to a 2 1/2 day work week. That’s a nice message to send to a constituency that is struggling to find work or having to work 60-80 hours a week to barely survive.

If the Democrats don’t start paying attention they will see their new found power quickly taken away. The left and the right might disagree on political points, but one issue that brings unity is the fact that our Congress needs replaced. Republicans won’t beat Democrats next year – the “not the same” candidate will.

Bestest Health Care Eva!!!!

Yeah right:

Are Americans dying too soon? The answer is yes. When it comes to "preventable deaths" -- an array of illnesses and injuries that should not kill at an early age -- the United States trails other industrialized nations and has been falling further behind over the past decade.

And here is what really gets me:

During last week's marathon health-care debate in the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) bemoaned the findings.

"All of these countries have much lower costs than we do," he said, pointing to a giant blue chart showing the United States in last place. "And they have higher quality outcomes than ours."

And what else do all of these countries have Kent? Oh yeah – government run health care. I haven’t seen Kent change his position on that.

So why is it that these other countries can provide health care that results in longer life expectancy while spending less money per capita, and yet somehow it isn’t good enough for us? I am starting to agree with Republicans when they say “hit the reset button” on health care. Of course if we do that then Democrats need to just move forward with 100% universal coverage and tell the Republicans they are shit out of luck on any input into the legislation. They have been playing games for too long while countless Americans are suffering and/or dying.

Democrats Still Have Stronger Support From The Public

The new NBC poll has a little bit of good news for the Democrats. When asked how they approve the Democrats in Congress, here is how they respond:

They get a net positive of 42, as compared to the Republicans, who have a net positive of only 28:

But when it comes to Afghanistan, the President is looking at growing public opposition:

So if the Democrats show strong opposition to President Obama on Afghanistan then that could turn out to help them next fall. So expect to see a rather public fight when it comes to Afghanistan in the coming weeks.