02 October 2012

What Obama could do about the House

Obama should make a huge priority of (1) traveling to House districts where there's a chance of pickup; and (2) coming right out in his stump speeches and advertising, and asking people to vote for the Democrat in each of those districts, in order to help get something done for the economy and move the country forward, etc. etc.

Someone should ask him, right now, don't you WANT to be able to get your agenda passed, finally?  Then do something about it, damnit!

Senate & House

TPM polltracker is now showing polling at one pickup (=54) for Democrats in Senate. Six months ago the punditocracy said it was unlikely Democrats could avoid a Rightist takeover.

How 'bout the House? Conventional wisdom has it that there's no way to gain 25 seats
(mainly because 2010 was a Census year and the Rightists executed a Statehouse Takeover strategy that allowed them to have a heavy hand in redistricting). Nancy Pelosi is saying it is possible, with her "drive for 25" campaign (possibly just so as not to concede the inevitable). I'd sure like to see some hard data about which 25 seats they've figured out could be won, (if they have), and how we're doing.

01 October 2012

Ross Douthat on Why Obama's Winning

As is typical of the Times's house Rightist Ross Douthat, he gives an incisive analysis of the glaringly obvious, but makes no credible case for his conservative "solutions." In fact, in this particular piece, he doesn't even bother to mention them.

He leaves unspoken the implication that it's just obvious that Republican policies would lead to more jobs and real growth, but, in fact, all evidence is precisely to the contrary: the reason growth and job growth have been subpar is due to the effects of continuing global slowdown, in part, and, probably in larger part, to post-2010 Republican obstructionism of every single one of President Obama's efforts to take action to improve both.

Krugman: Referendum on New Deal does not translate to Deficit Reduction as a priority

Paul Krugman's column today does a fine job of explaining how this election has become a referendum, all right, but not on Obama's presidency, but rather on the legacy of the New Deal --  and why embracing something like the Simpson/Bowles deficit reduction plan after the election would be a huge mistake. 

I agree with Krugman completely on these points.