U.S. Chamber of Commerce Calls Elizabeth Warren ‘Catastrophically Antibusiness’

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday launched a new get-out-the-vote effort, sending a video to members and dropping its first piece of direct-mail in the general election, attacking Democratic Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren.

The chamber emailed the following video message from Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue to member businesses:

The chamber says it will reach 7 million members, distributing payroll stuffers, posters, and postcards for businesses to turn out employees and sway their votes.

On top of TV and radio ads already airing, the chamber today issued its first attack mailer of the 2012 general election, the group told ABC News. The chamber had already sent a mailer in support of Sen. Dick Lugar’s losing effort in his Indiana Senate primary; but today it sent this direct-mail piece to targeted registered voters in Massachusetts, where Warren is challenging incumbent GOP Sen. Scott Brown.

The mailer calls Warren “catastrophically antibusiness”:

 Via: ABC News

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Eight states hold key to White House

Sorry, Florida. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney may be ardently courting America's biggest battleground state, but their real passion is for Ohio. Because as un-American as it sounds, all votes are not created equal in a presidential election. Don't be offended. With barely two weeks before Nov. 6, it's all about the electoral math. And as uncertain and unpredictable as the campaign looks heading into the final stretch, Ohio remains President Obama's best opportunity to block a Romney win — and Romney's biggest hurdle.

That's why in the past week, four of the top 10 TV markets for campaign ads were in Ohio, and only one was in Florida (Orlando), according to NBC. That's why, since September, Romney and Paul Ryan have done 34 Ohio campaign events and 20 Florida events, while Obama and Joe Biden have done 11 campaign events in Florida and 18 in Ohio.

"If you take Ohio off the board for the Romney campaign they basically have to win seven of the remaining eight battleground states," said Robert Gibbs, a senior Obama campaign adviser.

A president is not elected by the popular vote, but by the electoral votes of each state, and most states are so solidly Democratic or Republican that modern presidential campaigns are waged in eight to 12 states that can swing to one side or another. A resident of deep-red Utah, say, or deep-blue New York, won't see any campaign activity except for fundraising because the candidates need not worry about carrying them.

It takes 270 electoral votes to win. Based on polling and political trends Obama has 191 electoral votes solidly in his corner and Romney 169. Throw in the states that are leaning toward Obama or Romney, and it brings Obama to 237 electoral votes and Romney to 206.

Still up for grabs are eight states with a combined 95 electoral votes: Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, New Hampshire and Florida.

With the right combination, either candidate can win.

Obama's paths

For all the ups and downs of the 2012 campaign, the map has remained remarkably static through much of the past year. North Carolina, which Obama barely won in 2008, now appears to be leaning Romney, but overall the map still offers Obama more plausible paths to victory.

The president's campaign long ago spelled out four basic routes to a second term, and there also are multiple combinations of those paths. Assume he wins the same states John Kerry won in 2004, a total of 246 electoral votes.

• The Western path gives Obama New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Iowa, and brings him to 272 electoral votes.

• The Southern path, looking less likely based on recent North Carolina polling, gets him to 274 with wins in Virginia and North Carolina.

• The Midwest path involves winning Ohio and Iowa, giving Obama 270 votes.

• The simplest of all paths is through Florida. Win the Sunshine State's 29 electoral votes and Obama is re-elected with 275 electoral votes.

Via: Tampa Bay Times

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RNC Has $83 Million Cash On Hand, DNC Takes Out Loan

Heading into the final weeks of the 2012 campaign, the Republican National Committee announced that it raised $48.4 million in the month of September and has $82.6 million in the bank. The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, took $10.5 million in loans and raised less than half the RNC’s total last month — $20.3 million. 

RELATED: Fundraising Numbers Show Obama Raising More From Military Than Romney

As of September 30, the DNC reported having $4.6 million cash on hand and $20.5 million in debt. $5.5 million of its debt is due to consulting services like pollsters, direct mail providers and events consulting firms.

The RNC’s large September haul came amid a disappointing month for Mitt Romney in the public polls, suggesting that the party’s October fundraising totals will outpace those in September.

President Barack Obama and the Democratic committees had a stronger fundraising month in September, raising $181 million to Romney’s and the GOP committees’ $170 million. However, the Democratic party spent heavily in the summer and early fall.

“While we continue to put money into our ground game and fully fund our absentee ballot, early vote and Election Day GOTV efforts in all our battleground states, our historic cash on hand figure also allows us to continue funding our independent expenditure committee, run highly effective hybrid ads and assist in electing Republicans across the country at all levels,” RNC chairman Reince Priebustold POLITICO.

Via: Mediaite

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CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE SUPPORTED CONVICTED KILLER OF FBI AGENTS IN 1999 AUDIO TAPE

Democratic Congressional candidate Raul Ruiz, who was arrested for his role in a violent protest on Thanksgiving Day, 1997, doesn't want voters in California's 36th Congressional District to know what he said at a 1999 "Day of Mourning" rally. 

Breitbart News has obtained a copy of an audio tape from that 1999 speech when Ruiz (pictured above far left at his 1997 arraignment) proclaimed his support for Leonard Peltier, convicted in 1977 of killing two FBI agents:

What is Leonard Peltier accused of?

Leonard Peltier’s most serious “crime” is that he seeks to rescue in the past, in his culture, in his roots, the history of his people, the Lakota. And for the powerful, this is a crime, because knowing oneself with history impedes one from being tossed around by this absurd machine that is the system.

If Leonard Peltier is guilty, than we are all guilty because we seek out history, and on its shoulders we fight to have a place in the world, a place of dignity and respect, a place for ourselves exactly as we are, which is also very much as we were.

If the Indian people of the North and Indian people of Mexico, as well as the indigenous people of the entire continent, know that we have our own place (being who we are, not pretending to be another skin color, another tongue, another culture), what is left is that other colors that populate the entire world know it. And what is left is for the powerful to know it. So that they know it, and learn the lesson so well that they won’t forget, many more paths and bridges are needed that are walked from below.

On these paths and bridges, you, Leonard Peltier, have a special place, the best, next to us who are like you.

Salud, Leonard Peltier, receive a hug from one who admires and respects you, and who hopes that one day you will call him “brother.”

At a recent debate with incumbent Congressman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Ruiz was singing a very different tune. To hear him tell it, he's never been a supporter of convicted FBI agent killer Peltier:

Via: Breitbart 
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Liberal Paper Endorses Romney: Time For Another Change

TENNESSEAN ENDORSEMENT

This has been a presidential election that should be held up as a cautionary lesson for the future.

The lesson? How low American politics can stoop, and how to avoid it ever happening again.

The 2012 presidential race is fraught with confusion and failed expectations, so much so that it is surprising that any reasonable voter would feel comfortable pressing the button for either President Barack Obama or Gov. Mitt Romney. What is downright infuriating is that, after four years of an Obama presidency and two years of campaigning and 22 televised debates by Romney, so many questions remain and it is difficult to discern what the next four years would look like with either man in charge.

Aside from 1860, when Abraham Lincoln took charge of the nation on the brink of civil war, and 1932, when Americans devastated by the Great Depression turned to Franklin Roosevelt for hope, few elections have been so critical to the country. In 2012, the United States faces crippling debt; seemingly endless military conflicts and terror threats; an aging population; and sweeping workforce and geopolitical changes that threaten to turn our society upside down.

America needs strong leadership; yet, our leaders in Washington have seldom looked more impotent. The Democratic Obama administration and Republican leaders in Congress have butted heads for four years, and the American people have little to show for it. In that period, only two major initiatives, the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank financial reform, have passed, and Gov. Romney promises to roll back both if elected.

And we look for a signal from either of the candidates that he will be the one who leads red and blue states into to an honest dialogue that will move America forward with its founding principles intact.

On issue after issue, however, Obama’s and Romney’s positions shift or lack assuring specificity:

Via: The Tennessean

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Debbie Wasserman Schultz pushes women to vote Obama as Romney narrows gap

The Obama campaign continued its effort to attract women voters during a Monday conference call with reporters, with Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz charging that Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be “a president who wants to essentially force us to refight battles that we thought were won long ago, and essentially either make us or keep us as second class citizens.”

“Women’s health and economic security depend on President Obama winning the White House. And because women make up 55 percent of the electorate, women will decide this election,” Wasserman Schultz said.

After the first presidential debate in Denver, Colo., Romney made strides in narrowing the polling gap among women voters.

“In every poll, we’ve seen a major surge among women in favorability for Romney” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told USA TODAY, regarding a Monday USA TODAY/Gallup Poll that showed likely women voters giving Romney a bump in swing states following the debate. “Women went into the debate actively disliking Romney, and they came out thinking he might understand their lives and might be able to get something done for them.”

An October Pew Survey found that where Obama had an 18-point lead among women last month, following the president’s poor debate performance, the candidates are now tied among likely women voters (47 percent to 47 percent). The USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released Monday found Obama leading Romney overall by 9 points among registered women voters, but narrowing the gap to give Romney the edge in swing states.

Via: The Daily Caller

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ABC Censors Obama-Communist Joke

Michael Schneider reported about campaign plot lines showing up in network sitcoms in the October 15-21 edition of TV Guide. NBC's gay sitcom "The New Normal" had an "Obama Mama" episode,  and ABC's Tim Allen sitcom "Last Man Standing" will debut in November with an Obama-fan-vs-. Romney- fan plot.

In an age in which the networks can't seem to censor anything -- and in which ABC can put on a show like "Good Christian Bitches" (oops, let's abbreviate it) -- the censors will spike some things...like joking Barack Obama is a communist:

On Last Man Standing’s Season 2 premiere, set to air November 2 – four days before the election – Allen’s character, a Romney supporter lobbies his daughter, Mandy, to vote for the Republican candidate. On the other side, Mandy’s older sister makes a push for Obama. “It’ll be something regular people care about, so our characters should care about it,” says exec producer Tim Doyle.

Helping to balance the show is the fact that Doyle leans left, while Allen leans slightly right of center. Allen says the episode goes “back and forth, weighted so it’s like a teeter-totter. But at the end, I wanted it off balance.” He won’t say how it finally tilts.

Doyle and Allen did have to fight the network and studio on some content. Specifically, Allen says the standards department took issue with his character calling Obama a communist. Allen fought to keep that in – noting he finds it funny when conservatives paint the president with that label – but it appears he lost that battle as none of the references made the final cut.

"We all really love Archie Bunker," said Allen of playing a Bunkeresque character. "And that's where we're going. I push every button and love pushing them." ABC won't allow certain buttons to be touched. It's almost funny that the censors would be so lax on sex and violence, but will clamp down like Bonnie Bluehair on Obama jokes. Is this their only Thou Shalt Not?

Update 12:42 | Matthew Sheffield. This isn't the first time that ABC has censored its own programming to please Democratic sensibilities. The famous 2006 mini-series "The Path to 9/11" was gutted by ABC at the behest of former president Bill Clinton. To this day, unlike any other highly rated programming that ABC has paid for, "Path" actually still has not been released on DVD due to pressure from Democrats.

Via: Newsbusters

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VP DEBATE: BIDEN, RYAN AT EACH OTHER ON EVERYTHING

DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- At odds early and often, Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan squabbled over the economy, taxes, Medicare and more Thursday night in a contentious, interruption-filled debate. "That is a bunch of malarkey," the vice president retorted after a particularly tough Ryan attack on the administration's foreign policy.

"I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't interrupt each other," Ryan later scolded his rival, referring to Democratic pressure on Biden to make up for President Barack Obama's listless performance in last week's debate with Mitt Romney.

There was nothing listless this time as the 69-year-old Biden sat next to the 42-year old Wisconsin congressman on a stage at Centre College in Kentucky.

Nearly 90 minutes after the initial disagreement over foreign policy, the two men were still at it, clashing sharply over rival approaches to reducing federal deficits.

"The president likes to say he has a plan," said Ryan, a seven-term congressman. But in fact "he gave a speech" and never backed it up with details.

Biden conceded Republicans indeed had a plan. But he said that if enacted it would have "eviscerated all the things the middle class care about," including cutting health care programs and education.

As Biden and Ryan well knew, last week's presidential debate has fueled a Republican comeback in opinion polls.

Republicans and Democrats alike have said in recent days the presidential race now approximates the competitive situation in place before the two political conventions. Obama and Ryan are generally separated by a point or two in national public opinion polls and in several battleground states, while the president holds a slender lead in Ohio and Wisconsin.

Via: AP

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CBS 5 Poll: Romney Gains 8 Points On Faltering Obama In California

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) — The effects of President Barack Obama’s falter in the first debate with Mitt Romney are not just being felt in battleground states, according to KPIX-TV CBS 5′s latest tracking poll of California which shows Romney slicing eight points off Obama’s lead.

Obama had led by 22 points in the CBS 5 tracking poll released four weeks ago. Obama now leads by only 14 points, an 8-point improvement for Romney. At the same time, the poll found U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s support for her re-election bid remained largely unchanged, month-on-month, suggesting that the erosion in Democratic support is not across-the-board, but contained to Obama. Unclear is whether the Obama erosion is fleeting or long-lasting.

RELATED CONTENT:
Download The Complete CBS 5 Poll Results Data (.pdf)
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The poll data released Wednesday showed Obama 53%, Romney 39%, in California. Obama carried the Golden State by 24 points in 2008, so the poll found Obama is now running 10 points weaker than he ran 4 years ago. Among Independents, Obama led by 14 in September, but now trails by 9 in October, a 23-point right turn among the most coveted voters. One explanation, based on the poll data: The number of Romney supporters who said they were voting “for Mitt Romney” as opposed to “against Barack Obama” is way up, month over month.

In the U.S. Senate race, the poll showed Feinstein 54%, Republican Elizabeth Emken 35%. That’s largely unchanged from CBS 5′s last measurement, when Emken trailed incumbent Feinstein by 18 points.

On Proposition 30, the poll showed the issue to be a toss-up at this point. Among the most committed likely voters – those who said they “strongly support” or “strongly oppose” the measure, No narrowly leads Yes 38% to 33% with 29% uncretain. Among the larger group of likely voters, including those with soft support, Yes narrowly leads No 45% to 39% with 16% undecided.

National General Election

Obama          48% Romney        48%

Source: Rasmussen 10/6-8

National General Election

Obama          45% Romney        49%

Source: Pew Research 10/4-7

National General Election

Obama          47% Romney        49%

Source: Gallup 10/2-8

Via: CBS San Francisco

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VP debate: An epic non-event?

Tomorrow night, the American electorate will watch another in a series of four debates intended to help voters decide who should be the next President.  In this event, however, neither presidential candidate will be present.  Instead, the two running mates will discuss and debate policies and issues on national television for 90 minutes.  While that will no doubt provide much entertainment for the pundit class, will it move the needle for the election?

Politico’s Jonathan Martin thinks it might:

Vice presidential debates typically matter as much as vice presidential picks — which is to say not a lot — but a convergence of factors is raising the stakes on this week’s faceoff between Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden.

Looming most heavy over the clash in Kentucky is President Barack Obama’s remarkably weak debate performance last week, a showing that has given Republicans their first sense of hope in weeks and increased the pressure on Biden to get Democrats back on course. …

If “Gentleman Joe” took the stage four years ago, determined not to come off as patronizing or bullying Sarah Palin, it seems almost certain that Thursday will bring the appearance of “Scranton Joe,” the scrappy pol who’s never been afraid to throw a punch.

That’s probably true, although we’re a lot more likely to see Gaffemaster Joe, too — the one who helpfully explained that the middle class had been “buried the last four years,” while he and his boss occupied the White House.  Ramesh Ponnuru notes that while mainly discounting its impact, but predicts a walkover for Paul Ryan anyway:

The Democratic reaction to Obama’s debate loss may also point Biden in the wrong direction. Among liberals — and among some Democratic strategists, too — the prevailing view is that Obama lost because he didn’t call Romney on his outrageous lies, and especially because he didn’t draw a stark contrast on Medicare and Social Security. Obama even said the two candidates had a “similar position” on the second program. Democrats will be urging Biden to be more combative.

The vice president isn’t above demagogic attacks: In his convention speech, for example, he claimed “experts” had said that one of Romney’s tax proposals would create 800,000 jobs, “all of them overseas, all of them.” In fact, Biden was referring to a study by one expert, and it didn’t say what he claimed: It estimated 800,000 jobs would be created overseas, but it didn’t examine the impact domestically. Yet Biden also likes to be liked, and has tended to take his hardest shots before partisan audiences rather than in front of the Republicans he is criticizing.

And the consensus Democratic view that Obama was too passive and disengaged probably misunderstands why he lost the debate. The real problem was that he was less up to speed on the arguments and counterarguments than Romney was. If Biden internalizes the Democratic conventional wisdom, he will be more engaged than Obama was — but it won’t help unless he is also better informed. An amped-up yet inadequate response can come across as bluster.

Via: Hot Air

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Obama Flying To L.A. To Reassure Hollywood Donors After Denver Debate Debacle

The president arrives for a star-studded concert and high-roller dinner on Sunday amid "shock" in Hollywood over his Denver debate performance.

President Barack Obama returns to Los Angeles Sunday for a star-bedecked celebrity concert and fundraising dinner. In the wake of his Denver debate troubles, however, the long scheduled visit has acquired another, equally urgent purpose—reassuring his Hollywood supporters that he's fighting to win the race and he's poised for a comeback in the next televised forum with former Gov. Mitt Romney.

From the now iconic dinner at George Clooney’s house that created a new Internet raffle style of campaign fundraising, through a series of lucrative Westside fundraisers and a wildly successful gala staged by the gay and lesbian community, the entertainment industry—in both L.A. and New York—has turned out to be a critical component in the Obama campaign’s fundraising efforts. There’s also no doubt that the president’s Hollywood supporters were deeply shaken by his lackluster performance in this week’s debate with Republican nominee Romney.

STORY: Presidential Debate Hits 32-Year Record in Gross Ratings

“Everyone is in shock,” said one long-time Democratic activist. “No one can understand what happened.”

At the very least, several longtime Obama supporters told THR, the chief executive should expect some directorial notes on how to tailor his performance to television’s split screen. “Everyone with a connection to the president is reaching out to him,” said another veteran Dem. “At the end of the day, the best coach he has is himself.”

The cloud of anxious fallout from Denver has all but overshadowed what otherwise would be considered a particularly glittering and gala L.A. appearance for Obama. His Sunday evening will kick off with a concert at downtown L.A.’s Nokia Theater featuring Katy Perry, Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, Earth Wind and Fire, and Jon Bon Jovi. Presidential pal Clooney will make a special appearance to introduce Wonder. Afterward, Obama will head next door for a $25,000-per-plate dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s chic WP24. Both events were sold out before the debate. The two events could easily raise more than $5 million for the president's reelection campaign. 

On Monday, the president will head north to San Francisco for a fundraising dinner hosted by superstar chef Alice Waters, and a concert headlined by John Legend.

In Hollywood political circles this weekend, Obama’s shaky showing in Denver remained the conversational Topic A.

Via: Hollywood Reporter

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Obama: ‘Social Security is Structurally Sound;’ Trustees: ‘Unfunded Obligation … Is $8.6T'

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama said in Wednesday night’s presidential debate that Social Security is “structurally sound,” but Social Security’s Board of Trustees said in their 2012 annual report that the program faced $8.6 trillion in “unfunded obligations”--meaning that it is currently obligated to pay out $8.6 trillion more in benefits than it is anticipated to bring in through taxes.

During Wednesday debate, moderator Jim Lehrer asked Obama: “Do you see a major difference between the two of you on Social Security?”

“I suspect that on Social Security we've got a somewhat similar position,” Obama responded. “Social Security is structurally sound. It's going to have to be tweaked the way it was by Ronald Reagan and Speaker--Democratic Speaker Tip O'Neill. But it is, the basic structure is sound.”

However, in their annual report published on April 25, the Social Security Trustees said that program not only faces $8.6 trillion in unfunded obligations but that the situation became dramatically worse over the previous year.

“The open group unfunded obligation for OASDI over the 75-year period is $8.6 trillion in present value and is $2.1 trillion more than the measured level of a year ago,” said the trustees’ report. “If the assumptions, methods, starting values, and the law had all remained unchanged, the unfunded obligation would have risen to about $7.0 trillion due to the change in the valuation date. The remaining increase in the unfunded obligation is primarily due to updated data and economic assumptions.”

The trustees point out that a major legislative change that increased the unfunded obligation of Social Security was the cut in the Social Security payroll tax that had been advocated by President Obama. This payroll tax funds the Social Security program.

Via: CBS News

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DeMint joins national effort to keep feds from bailing out state pension systems

Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is getting hit with a nationwide backlash over his suggestion that the federal government bail out the state employees’ pension program

.

Critics have in the past several days pounced on the suggestion, made last year when Quinn, in announcing the state’s fiscal 2012, said part of Illinois' long-term effort to reduce the estimate $167 billion in under-funded liabilities would be to seek “a federal guarantee of the debt.”

Among those leading the charge is Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. The South Carolina senator has joined the Illinois Policy Institute’s national “No Pension Bailout” campaign -- an effort to stop Congress from attempting to rescue failing state and municipal pension plans.

“Our greatest concern is states will assume they can run their pension systems into bankruptcy and then turn to the federal government for bailout,” DeMint said Thursday.

He also suggested the problem is the result of state legislators trying for decades to win over voters through pension promises based “on accounting methods that would put any business in jail.”

The conservative policy group estimates the total amount of under-funded pension liabilities in states is at least $2.5 trillion, with Illinois leading the nation.

The basic plan floated by Quinn would be for the federal government to rescue the pension program through buying the state’s bonds, which critics say are too financially risky to attract investors.  

Quinn said after announcing the budget that seeking the federal guarantee was only a precaution, then later called the related wording a “drafting error,” according the non-partisan Citizens Against Government Waste, which nevertheless gave the governor its September 2012 “Porker of the Month” award.

Via: Fox News

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Dems Try A New Tactic To Raise Campaign Cash: Shame…

Democrats today trotted out a new tactic for raising campaign cash: shame.

The email arrived this afternoon from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, with the subject, "Your support record," and the sender, "Democratic Headquarters." It aimed point out to supporters that they hadn't given campaign cash.

Take the one I received, for instance:

"We’re reviewing our Democratic supporter records in advance of tomorrow’s Federal Election Commission (FEC) deadline," read the email. "Your record is copied and pasted below:

Supporter record: 11919797
Name: Daniel Halper
2012 Online Support: Pending
Suggested support: $3.00

"Pending" apparently means that I have not given a dime. But that they are relying (and counting) on my support.

Then, the email shifts back to an old tactic: desperation.

"If you’re planning to contribute to our campaign to win a Democratic House for President Obama, it’s critical that you make your donation in the next 24 hours. Tomorrow is the last major FEC reporting deadline of the 2012 general election. We’re relying on your support: 80% of our contributions are $35 or less," read the email. 

Read the whole thing here:

Via: Weekly Standard

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USA TODAY: Red States' Income Growing Faster Than Blue States'

Income is growing much faster in Republican-leaning "red states" than in Democratic-tilting "blue states" or the pivotal swing states that will decide the 2012 presidential election, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Personal income in 23 red states has risen 4.6% since the recession began in December 2007, after adjusting for inflation. Income is up just 0.5% in 15 blue states and Washington, D.C., during that time. In the dozen swing states identified by USA TODAY that could vote either way Nov. 6, income has inched ahead 1.4% in 4 ½ years.

The big drivers of red state income growth: energy and government benefit payments such as food stamps.

By contrast, Democratic blue states are more affluent but were hit harder by the downturn. Connecticut, dependent on the financial industry, suffered the largest income drop except swing-state Nevada. Yet Connecticut residents still make $10,000 a year more on average than people in fast-growing North Dakota.

When averaged nationally, the robust gains in red states and meager gains in blue states produced a national growth rate remarkably similar to that in the swing states.

USA TODAY analyzed income data released this week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis to compare how red, blue and swing states have fared through June 30. The difference in income gains is partly because blue states are richer and more populated than red states — 42% of the nation's income vs. 30% in red states. Also, the economic recovery since the recession officially ended in June 2009 has been distributed unequally around the country.

North Dakota, a red state, tops the nation in income growth thanks to an oil boom. Other major energy states — Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas — are solidly Republican, polls show. Poor, southern red states depend heavily on government transfers for income and benefited from increases in Medicaid and other federal programs.

Via: USA Today

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Dick Morris: Why The Polls Understate Romney Vote

Republicans are getting depressed under an avalanche of polling suggesting that an Obama victory is in the offing. They, in fact, suggest no such thing! Here’s why:

1. All of the polling out there uses some variant of the 2008 election turnout as its model for weighting respondents and this overstates the Democratic vote by a huge margin.

In English, this means that when you do a poll you ask people if they are likely to vote. But any telephone survey always has too few blacks, Latinos, and young people and too many elderly in its sample. That’s because some don’t have landlines or are rarely at home or don’t speak English well enough to be interviewed or don’t have time to talk. Elderly are overstated because they tend to be home and to have time. So you need to increase the weight given to interviews with young people, blacks and Latinos and count those with seniors a bit less.

Normally, this task is not difficult. Over the years, the black, Latino, young, and elderly proportion of the electorate has been fairly constant from election to election, except for a gradual increase in the Hispanic vote. You just need to look back at the last election to weight your polling numbers for this one.

Via: Dick Morris

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Pelosi claims 60 percent chance she’ll return as speaker despite polls to the contrary

In the end Pelosi will be the big loser and so will the party 

Nancy Pelosi told reporters Friday that she has a 60 percent chance of retaking the speaker’s gavel from John Boehner come January due to Republican plans to restructure Medicare for those 55 and younger.

“The momentum is coming our way,” Politico quoted Pelosi as saying.

Yet Pelosi’s rhetoric fails to square with polling data suggesting Democrats may pick up four seats and fall far short of the 25 seats Democrats need to reclaim the majority.

“[O]verall conclusions are pretty similar — modest Democratic gains, but continued Republican control,” Kyle Klondik, House editor for Larry Sabato’s “Crystal Ball” writes.

Other political pundits see similar wishful thinking in Pelosi’s comment.

“With the economy soft and 25 seats needed to retake the chamber, Democrats face considerable odds,” theBoston Globe reported Thursday . “Even as polls show public approval of Congress sinking to an all-time low, the vast majority of incumbents will win easy reelection.”

Pelosi also repeated her contention that Romney will go down in flames against President Obama.

“I don’t think there’s any way on the face of the earth that Mitt Romney wins the presidential,” Pelosi said.

Via Red Alert Politics

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OBAMA-ROMNEY: THE BIG FIGHT IN VEGAS

President Barack Obama’s fundraising trip to Las Vegas on Wednesday--shameful though it may have been, in the midst of a deadly foreign policy crisis--was a sign of how important Nevada remains to his re-election prospects. 

Mitt Romney was in the state the day before, giving a foreign policy address to the National Guard in Reno, though keeping his pledge not to attack his opponent on the anniversary of 9/11.

Obama drew a smaller crowd at the Cashman Center this year than in 2008--just 8,000 attendees inside the 10,000-seat arena, as opposed to the 11,000 he drew last time at the outdoor Cashman Field. 

The rest of the Democratic ticket in the state is also looking weaker than it has in recent years. Harry Reid may have survived Sharron Angle’s bid in 2010, but Rep. Shelley Berkley is struggling in her campaign against Sen. Dean Heller.

Both parties are bombarding the state’s weary television viewers with advertisements. The Democrats are targeting women in particular with commercials claiming that their opponents “opposed funding for Planned Parenthood,” leaving out the crucial word “federal,” creating the impression that Romney and the Republicans would wipe out the organization entirely. Other ads misrepresent Romney’s position on abortion entirely.

Social issues are all the Democrats have to run on in a state where unemployment is sky-high and the physical evidence of the bust are evident even on the Las Vegas Strip. Beyond the shiny Fashion Show complex and the glittering Trump International hotel lies the unfinished Echelon, which even Reid could not save. The many unfinished projects in the region have even inspired their own macabre art exhibitions.

Via: Breitbart

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Dem. Women’s Caucus: Republicans ‘Want to Relegate Women to the Back of the Bus’

Luci Ramirez and Jodi Salyers, both Texans, have just spent two hours hearing from top Democratic women like House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the Democratic National Convention’s Women’s Caucus. The message? Republicans don’t like women and want to take away their birth control.

“We are celebrity overdosed!” says Ramirez “I didn’t realize how anti-birth control, how anti-women, period, the Republicans are until today,” adds Salyers.

The recurring theme: Republicans have what one speaker calls a “disregard for women’s freedom.”

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi began by mocking Republican emphasis on women at their convention last week in Tampa. “I love hearing how they loved their mother and loved their wife and all of that,” said Pelosi. “I’m interested to hear how they respect women’s decisions to determine the size of their family, if they choose to have a family. Republicans “are not even pro-birth control," Pelosi added, "That’s a radical position. That’s just wrong.”

Republicans do not want to force religious groups and taxpayers to pay for free contraceptives, abortifacients, and abortions for others. But banning contraceptives is not a Republican position. But that’s not what the audience heard Tuesday.

Republicans “want to take us backwards—so far back that we’ll be in the kitchen,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of the pro-choice group EMILY’s List.

Donna Brazile, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, compared Republicans to segregationists: “They want to relegate women to the back of the bus,” she said. Democrats “don’t have to pretend to love women."

Via: Weekly Standard

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