The Importance Of Positive Wishful Thinking

Josh Marshall runs a long letter in which a Democratic Senate staffer bares his soul about a lifetime of futility toiling in the legislative wilderness.  My favorite absurdity is this:

While I always thought we had the better ideas but the weaker messaging, it feels like somewhere along the line Members internalized a belief that we actually have weaker ideas.

Weaker messaging.  Let's see - whatever message the Dems want to get out will be backed by sympathetic faculty members of every major university, reported by a press that, barring Fox and the WSJ, is totally sympatico, and trumpeted by the reliably liberal Hollywood machine. 

Yet Dems just can't get their superior message out.  What would it take?

Comments

[Jenny G]

Look at the idiots the Dem have to get the message out. Ace has a great clip of Chris Matthews interviewing Howard Dean on the Brown election. You have got to listen Dean's logic on why the voters choose Brown and Matthews calling him crazy.

LUN

[Captain Hate]

Yeah that's weapon's grade crazy even for Yeeaarrgghh. Seriously, if the pollsters really gave him the results he claims they did, they spent all his money on skanks and blow.

[Soylent Red]

If you don't vote Dem you are either:

a. too much of a God-n-gun loving redneck snowbilly to know what's good for you

b. racist

c. not getting the message adequately communicated to you.

Absolutely no chance that you're just not buying what they're selling. That's preposterous.

[daddy]

The best lefty excuse I've heard so far was put forth on Dennis Pragar's Show Today by his Lefty Guest, (I missed his name, but he is a lefty editorialist at the WSJ who I am not familiar with).

He said that the the reason Brown beat Coakley was because of the Electorate's anger at the Wall Street Bailout. I kid you not.

So Dennis, halfway between laughter and incredulity responds pretty much with this: "So You're telling me that the citizens of Massachusetts thought the way to express their anger at the Wall Street Bailout was to hire a Republican to fill Teddy Kennedy's Senate Seat?"

Laughingly unbelievable.

Can anybody top that one?

[William Teach]

Someone should Josh Marshall that Jim Jones thought his ideas were pretty good, too, and look how that turned out.

[clarice]

Dean, should have answered with the truth==the folks who want free health also want to be absolved from having to like you know actually vote.

[bgates]

daddy, what's wrong with the electorate starting to realize the Democrats are the modern party of Big Money as much as they're the party of Big Government, Big Journalism, etc?

[sam]

daddy:

I can top that. The Dems came out of the Obama Sunday campaign event saying that Coakley was trailing because voters were mad at Bush..

I kid you not

[narciso]

That has to be Tom Frank, for sheer idiocy, a prize last held by Alan Colmes

[daddy]

Tom Frank---Think that's it Narciso.

Sam, It's a tight contest, but you might have just pulled ahead with the "mad at George Bush" excuse.

Judges? A ruling please.

[PD]

McCain on Hannity just said the Brown election was a "seismic event."

Er, could have picked a better term, given events in Haiti.

[Captain Hate]

Yeah Thomas Frank is possibly the worst of the WSJ's token lefty op-ed writers in terms of producing excruciatingly pointless and boring articles. Believe me, daddy, you don't want to be familiar with his column, the Tilting Yard bka the Jilted Tard. I pine for the days of Alexander Cockburn who, although he was a delusional conspiracy nut, wrote in a very entertainingly readable manner. At least he made me shake my head and laugh, which counts for something.

[Truck driver]

If memory serves, I believe Ted Kennedy had one of the largest congressional staffs. Will Scott Brown clean house of these lib government leeches?

[PD]

Hannity: How do you grade the President?

Palin: I'm not impressed ... I think a lot of Americans are looking at what this White House is doing to us rather than for us.

[narciso]

Cockburn, might be an incurable leftist, speculation he was the model for the British
reporter in Bonfire, but he has always been
a climate change skeptic

[BumperStickerist]

The only downside to Brown winning is that John Kerry is no longer the "Junior Senator from Massachusetts"

... sigh.

[Boatbuilder]

Lanny Davis says the Dems blew it by not getting across "a simple message on health care that has still not really gotten through: If our bill passes, you never have to worry about getting, or losing, health insurance for the rest of your life."

That's how stupid they think Americans are.

[clarice]

OMG! Insty quotes Krugman saying he's almost given up on Obama!!

[cathyf]

Hey, bumper, Kerry stopped being the junior senator the minute Teddy kicked the bucket.

[sbw]

As opposed to those of us who have given up on Krugman.

[JorgXMcKie]

If the staffer who wrote this is a good example of the intellectual firepower on the Democratic side of Congress, I can tell him what the problem is; they're a bunch of whiny little pussies.

The average American has neither time nor the inclination to listen to whiny little pussies, no matter how excellent their arguments.

[daddy]

Good point Trucker,

If Brown accomplishes nothing else but the cleaning out of the staff sewage accumulated by Teddy Kennedy these last 40 years it'll be a huge improvement. Of course the down side is they'll all immediately become" unbiased" Anchors of MSNBC News Show.

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

Obama no longer has any utility for real progs. Neither does Pelosi, for that matter. Her 'Death Becomes Her' look derives from the fact that she knows the prog dream is dead and she knows that the MoveOn morons and Code Pinkos are going to turn on the failed prog leadership like the pack of jackals that they have always been. I just hope that each and every one of them can maintain their strength until the prog "movement" tears itself completely to shreds.

I would also note that SR's excellent comment concerning Nebraskan's disdain for Nelson is going to apply to every Blue Dog who sold themselves as a 'moderate' and voted as a dirty commie.

Obama has brought the Democrats to the precipice and they're going to move forward together.

[clarice]

Rick, what a vivid picture you paint.

[PD]

Holy cow. *Judith Miller* grades Obama as C-.

[E. Nigma]

"Yet Dems just can't get their superior message out. What would it take?"

Cowbell. A lot more cowbell. That always works.

[Vinman]

As long as Liberals/Progressives think it's about "getting the message out", conservatives are assured of ascendancy. Incidentally, they also have the same, crippling misunderstanding of conservatism.

[Janet]

I am proudly "too much of a God-n-gun loving redneck snowbilly to know what's good for you"me and "just not buying what they're selling."!

[Sue]

Daddy,

I can top it. Obama said in an interview with Stephy today that the reason Brown won was anger over the last 8 years. I guess he is including his own 1st year in there or he is too dumb to change the talking point they arrived at a year ago.

[Jenny G]

If voters were so angry for the last eight years, then why was Bush re-elected in 2004? Or was that the voters way to show their approval for John Kerry?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Oooh, here's a fun one.

Jim Moran, a personal favorite.

From The Corner. LUN.

[Katherine]

I think that one overlooked benefit of Brown's victory is that a lot of conservatives or people who would not identify themselves as such but who oppose Obama's policies will realize that they are not alone and that it is OK to be on the Dark Side.

How many people who hear liberal/progressives pontificating or sneering at whatever topic, go along not because they agree, but because they think that liberal position is the only one accepted in a polite society? How many, when mildly arguing opposite point were ridiculed and attacked, so they gave up trying?

I live in San Francisco. I have never carried a political (or any other) bumper sticker on my car partially because I do not find them ecstatically pleasing, but mostly because I have no intention of keeping my car in a body shop during an election season. I limited myself mostly to money donations to GOP general and local candidates, and attendance of Tea Party protests.

But now I am thinking about getting a window sign for whoever is going to run against Bab's (Call-me-Senator) in November. My neighbors may stop talking to me, but you know what? I no longer care.

Then again, I will not talk politics at work. I need the job.

[Melinda Romanoff]

daddy-

more books on Brown thread. It's been decided. You get to learn economics.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Katherine-

A very brave move.

Welcome to the nut house, and watch out for the trolls, we invite 'em up from under the bridge for ridicule and educated thought. Confuses the hell out of 'em.

[Sue]

Jenny G,

Yes, according to lefty logic. They were angry at Bush so they re-elected him to show support for John Kerry. Makes perfect sense to them, I suppose.

[MikeS]

With a few exceptions, most Democrats get elected by keeping their message a secret.

If they want to get their message out I'd be glad to help.

Hey everyone listen up Dems think you should have more government, more regulations, and more taxes. Thank you for you attention.

[PD]

So Southers the TSA nominee has withdrawn, and the problem is not his improper use of gov't resources to investigate his wife, but the unacceptable partisan environment?

When caught lying about your past, blame the people who expose you as the villians.

[Melinda Romanoff]

And the best video I have ever seen. From Valencia.

clarice, this is for you. Get the Kleenex.

[Melinda Romanoff]

G'night all.

Go watch the video, even if you don't like opera, which I don't.

[Buford Gooch]

As has been pointed out before, having the media, academia, upper class twits, etc. on their side is a double edged sword. It allows much weaker candidates to get elected. If that weren't the case, ObamaCare would have passe months ago (but of course, there would be no "President Obama" so the point is sort of moot.)

[PD]

Well, that video of Martha Stewart doing the pole dance is something I could have done without. Thanks, Greta.

[Janet]

The opera video was great Mel...thanks.

[JM Hanes]

Hi, Jenny G, thanks for the link! The entertainment value of MSNBC has increased phenomenally over the past two days, hasn't it?

daddy:

Speaking of MSNBC, Olbermann and Fineman may be in the running for a different prize, but last night they agreed that driving a truck is racist.

Truck driver:

Not to worry, Senators don't inherit their predecessors' offices. He won't have room for a Teddy-size staff in the rat hole he'll be assigned as the most Jr. Republican on the Hill.

[Danube of Thought]

What the hell was Martha Stewart thinking? Great Scott...

[JM Hanes]

Hello Katherine:

You'll be in good company here! There's a sizable JOM crew who can't even talk politics with in-laws and family. I bet you'll probably feel pretty good about that sign, and who knows? Maybe you'll discover some kindred spirits who follow suit, when someone else is gutsy enough to go first.

I went on a National Review cruise after the '08 election, and can report that there are at least 3 other conservatives in San Francisco. Given Boxer's wobbly numbers, I suspect more will be coming out of the woodwork soon.

[Tully]

Sue, I can top that from the same interview with Stephie.

***"If there's one thing that I regret this year is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly TO the American people about what THEIR core values are and why we have to make sure those institutions are matching up with those values," Obama told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview at the White House.***

See, the problem is that Obama failed to properly communicate to the American people what THEIR values are supposed to be!

[JM Hanes]

Inspired, Melinda!

[Sir Toby Belch]

If the "Great Communicator" can't mumble his
way out of a repudiation on his politics.....
something's wrong with this clown's title.

[Ann]

DoT:

I have never agreed with Martha politically but I have always defended her genius at marketing and design. I even defended her after she was found guilty of insider trading.

But I can't defend her anymore. I am done.

"It's a good thing" has turned into something very ripe. Please...a stripper pole. The woman has lost her mind.

===========================================

Were you as sad as I to hear that Robert B. Parker died? I still can't fathom the lose of never having a new Spenser novel to read. Really sad.

[richard mcenroe]

"Yet Dems just can't get their superior message out. What would it take?"

We must make it legally mandatory.

[daddy]

Shoot Melinda,

And I was dead set on reading that uplifting new Library book">http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Collection-Obama-Posters-Prints/dp/076033787X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264040440&sr=1-1"> Hope: A Collection of Obama Posters and Prints. Especially since it cost $35 of taxpayer money, and is printed by a Chinese Publishing House no less. So with all that said, you sure there's anything left for me to learn about free market economics from this Hayak guy? Seems to me that the Chinese using US Tax Dollars to print books about Tax Payer funded Obama Posters, and then selling them to US Library's at Tax payer expense, shows me they got this Econ 101 stuff pretty well figured out.

[narciso]

How did the R. Crumb, Book of Genesis, go, daddy

[Ann]

loss not lose

==============

Katherine:

Please stick around. You will find a whole new family and work force to discuss the politics of the day. Just beware, it is very addicting.

The group here is not only smart but extremely funny. You will find yourself neglecting everyday chores to just read the latest post at JOM.

You will even find yourself buying the latest cell phone that connects to the internet so you can be updated on the comments at JOM at every stop sign, red light, customer service or school pick up line you find yourself in.

LOL :) I just updated my phone to keep up with all my peeps (as Jane so affectionately calls us).

[PD]

it is very addicting.

I can quit any time I want.

[PD]

Really.

[PD]

No, really. I'm not kidding.

[narciso]

Ditto,

[daddy]

Narciso,

I really enjoyed it. A lot of times I am brain dead and desperately trying just to stay awake, so I need something not mentally taxing but amusing. This fit the bill, so though I wouldn't recommend it to you guys in general or my kids in particular, it tickled me, and got me from A to B safely and sort of awake. I'm doing geology history stuff now, which is fun with an alert brain, but I dropped Simon Winchester's ">http://www.amazon.com/Krakatoa-World-Exploded-August-1883/dp/0060838590/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264054717&sr=1-1"> Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 2 times last night on the floorboard over Northern Canada. That never happened with Crumb's Genesis. It actually used to be easier staying awake in the old days before they banned Playboy from the cockpit. Darn OSHA or the EEOC or whoever the heck came up with that policy:(

[Stephanie]

It actually used to be easier staying awake in the old days before they banned Playboy from the cockpit. Darn OSHA or the EEOC or whoever the heck came up with that policy:(

OSHA has pretty much banned repetitive motion tasks, but you can order the LUN for a thorough workout.

Safe for work BTW...

[JM Hanes]

It's easy, PD. I quit several times a day.

[JM Hanes]

Stephanie:

ROTFL! Having a look over your shoulder might not be a bad idea though, unless you're sure that nobody you work with is likely to be making any cognitive leaps. :-)

[Manuel Transmission]

daddy, I may know the guy that printed the Hope: book. I met him last summer over there. He has a PhD in Economics to help become one of the new capitalists they are trying to promote. Strange amalgam of ideas/goals over there.

(I'll be heading back the latter part of Feb.)

[matt]

Basically, the Dems have been living in a bearded Spock universe for quite some time. It is an alternate, evile reality where everything is turned upside down.

Using Occam's razor, That is the only logical explanation, Jim.

[daddy]

Stephanie,

I Walked straight into that one! Hilarious.

Manny,

Watch out for the counterfeit 100 RMB notes. We've run into a rash of them in Guangzhou recently. From the ATM in the hotel now I take them straight to the counter to run them through a machine to verify they're good. The fake ones have a brighter yellow color toward the top than normal, and the watermark of Mao has one of his eyeballs a bit messed and easy to spot once you've seen it.

[Captain Hate]

***"If there's one thing that I regret this year is that we were so busy just getting stuff done

What exactly did Ear Leader get done?

[Jane]

You know the President could have very easily kept his veto-proof majority and gotten Martha elected - all he had to do was offer everyone on MA free health care for life in exchange for their vote for Martha. It certainly would not have been the biggest targeted gift in that bill. His failure to do so means he is a racist because that would have helped a lot of minorities and also illegals. So he has only himself to blame.,

[PD]

Heh. Yesterday should have been wall-to-wall coverage of Obama's First Year, and there was almost none of it (that I noticed, anyway) due to Brown's election.

[pagar]

Wishful thinking? Have you seen the newest release from the Fraudsters?

President Obama Blocks 'Tax Cheats' From Government Work

My guess, Rep Rangel and SOT Geither were first in line to get waivers.

"Executive Office of the President (includes the White House): 50 employees owe $812,917;

U.S. Senate: 231 employees owe $2,469,026;

U.S. House of Representatives: 447 employees owe $5,809,631;

U.S. Tax Court: 3 employees owe $39,752;"
LUN

[narciso]

Yes, I must admit, that was an added fillip to the whole thing.

Unemployment is 'unexpectedly' up again, according to the AP who would have thought. Is everything a surprise to this President

[D Jones]

Dems "new" superior message from Barack the Populist (you know like Castro the Populist and Chavez the Populist).

From Politico (LUN):
-------------
"Robert Gibbs told reporters that a series of upcoming votes would force members of Congress to show whether they’re really on the voters’ side. “People are going to get to decide whether they're for the banks or whether they're for Americans getting paid back,” he said. “On health care, you're going to get a chance to decide whether the minute the President signs that bill into law an insurance company cannot discriminate against a child who can't get health insurance because of a preexisting condition. You're going to have to pick between an insurance company and that child. Those are decisions – that's what elections are ultimately about.”"
------------

Looks like Obama is going after big bad businesses. Well his new taxes and proposed health rationing plan should really help out GDP & those unemployment rates (BTW, with unemployment claims unexpectedly up again this week).

[narciso]

Freud would have a field day with Obama, he proves the aphorism about insanity, on a daily
basis. In the LUN, Ambinder's wisdom (not necessarily an oxymoron

[anduril]

Looks like Henninger was reading my comments yesterday: The Fall of the House of Kennedy: The battle over who defines the work and institutions that make a nation thrive and grow.

This wouldn't/won't be easy, but the GOP has an advantage at this point, as Henninger says, if they'll seize it:

Scott Brown's victory has given the GOP a rare, narrow chance to align itself with an electorate that understands its anger. Now the GOP has to find a way to disconnect from a political legacy that smothered governments at all levels and is now smothering the Democratic Party.

Plank number one for their platform? Changing this situation would 1) be understandable to one and all, and 2) have a huge impact.

[DebinNC]

The banks are paying/have paid off their TARP bailout with interest. How is GM doing with repaying their $50+B TARP funds bonanza or Fannie and Freddie with their $100+B?

[anduril]

New jobless claims unexpectedly rise, more people receive extended benefits, and Dems play 'Let's bribe one another' in Washington. GOPers need to play up this corruption, and renounce it themselves. It will resonate.

[Pofarmer]

Claire McCaskill is doubling down this morning. They are running radio ads where she is saying that basically we were "misinformed" and are basically too stupid to understand the Health care bill. Then she is saying that the Republicans are just being mean spirited, and want Obama to fail, and that's why there isn't any "bi-partisan" efforts on Capital hill right now.

What a bunch of IDIOTS.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Chaco's got another PJM piece up. LUN.

[clarice]

Chaco, Congrats on the instalaunch.

[Cecil Turner]

. . . or Fannie and Freddie with their $100+B?

Oh, that's going swimmingly:

The Obama administration pledged Thursday to provide unlimited financial assistance to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, an eleventh-hour move that allows the government to exceed the current $400 billion cap on emergency aid without seeking permission from a bailout-weary Congress. [emphasis added]

Er, at least if you're an executive there:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac disclosed that they had received approval from their federal regulator to pay $42 million in Wall Street-style compensation packages to 12 top executives for 2009.

Of course, there are some who are less impressed:

Hearing urged on bailout for Fannie, Freddie
The Republicans estimated that taxpayers already have provided $110.6 billion of direct support to Fannie and Freddie, while the Treasury and Federal Reserve have provided an additional $1.2 trillion of assistance through purchases of the mortgage giant's debt and mortgage-backed securities in the last year.

"This latest Christmas Eve action by the Treasury could make that number seem penny ante," they said.

[clarice]

Looks like the Dems are going to lose Ohio according to latest reports.. And the SJ's Henninger has an aricle no to be missed on how the Dem okay of federal unions was heir money ticket, a ticket that is now killing them--something the Reps should deal with asap.LUN

[DebinNC]

McCaskill seems to be using the oh-so-successful Ben Nelson strategy.

[anduril]

News you can use: Repair Damaged Drives With Linux: Has your OS installation gone bad? Grab a Live CD and follow our guide to rescuing rogue partitions.

One of the best developments in recent years has been the Live CD. These offer a fully functional Linux installation that runs from an optical drive. If you’ve got enough memory, you can even install new packages to the RAM disk just as you would when completing a standard installation. This makes a recent release of a Live CD-based installer like Ubuntu Jaunty the perfect system recovery tool. Not only does it include every package you might require, but because it runs from the optical drive rather than the hard drive, your data isn’t touched and there’s no chance files will be overwritten without direct input. It’s the obvious place to start when you get stuck.

The article goes on to give detailed instructions.

Hey clarice: Posted by: anduril | January 21, 2010 at 09:14 AM

[Pofarmer]

Hearing urged on bailout for Fannie, Freddie
The Republicans estimated that taxpayers already have provided $110.6 billion of direct support to Fannie and Freddie, while the Treasury and Federal Reserve have provided an additional $1.2 trillion of assistance through purchases of the mortgage giant's debt and mortgage-backed securities in the last year.

"This latest Christmas Eve action by the Treasury could make that number seem penny ante," they said.

Read somewhere the other day, maybe Denninger, that it would take 750 billion to get the Underwater households now in the U.S. just back to zero, and, that's getting a little worse everyday. Talked to an Auctioneer yesterday, and he said the market for recreational type land has really fallen off, which is no surprise. There was a lot of this stuff bought in the late 90's on interest only loans. That should be fun.

Oh, yeah, the other thing McCaskill said yesterday/today was that we are "undeniably in better shape financially than we were a year ago" and then the next report on the radio is 482,000 job losses last week. You go girl.

[DebinNC]

Link to excellent Daniel Henninger article clarice recommended.

[narciso]

Oh, she's a regular 'rocket surgeon', there, Po, No one laughs in her face, because she slurps Koolaid with the best of them.

[anduril]

Hey, DebinNC: Posted by: anduril | January 21, 2010 at 09:14 AM

[Old Lurker]

Lost in the noise yesterday were more disturbing stories:

1. Obama's plan to nationalize the entire $100B+ student loan program. Imagine the mischief possible when they directly control the money flowing to colleges. You think AA has been bad so far...

2. That (BRAC style) "commission" to reduce the deficit is custom made to engineer tax increases and hide political liability.

3. Formal comments have been requested on how to force 401(K) assets to be shifted to Treasury obligations. That very bad idea lives and grows.

4. We beat it pretty well here at JOM, but the failure to focus on the dysfunction revealed by the underpants bomb (and the laptop bomb Clarice linked to yesterday) is truly getting no play.

I though I had several other biggies but am having a senior moment here. So I reserve my right to ammend this list.

[sbw]

Hillbuzz is not a blog I read regularly or necessarily always agree with, but we stand by them as lefty goons try to thump them. There are politically engaged people who believe intimidation is a proper political tool to use. Rather it is a threat to all society that deserves to be exposed and laughed into the dustbin of history.

[Pofarmer]

1. Obama's plan to nationalize the entire $100B+ student loan program. Imagine the mischief possible when they directly control the money flowing to colleges. You think AA has been bad so far...

I thought that was a done deal?

[Old Lurker]

Still in committee, PO.

[Rick Ballard]

OL,

I have a feeling that the student loan takeover will result in the loans becoming dischargeable in BK or forgiven for "community organizing". I seem to remember the Mo & Bo Show sniveling about having to repay theirs.

As to "unexpected" - pretty much everything is unexpected to a credentialed moron. Tax deposits continue to drop, albeit at a much slower rate. It's not hidden, the Treasury Report is printed every business day. Perhaps credentialed morons should be required to take remedial basic arithmetic? Nah, they might lose their credential when they failed.

It's almost as if having a Marxist nincompoop in the WH has some sort of negative affect upon a capitalist economy...

[Old Lurker]

Rick, the ability to confer favored treatment (loan amounts, rates, repayment terms if any) to certain individuals, certain groups, studying certain majors, and at which colleges and on and on is huge. And getting no press.

[Danube of Thought]

I was interested to see that the original authority for gov't workers to unionize was simply an executive order. I'm not sure how that works, but I wonder if a succeeding EO could rescind that authority. If there are any labor lawyers here, please step forward and enlighten us.

The problem described by Henninger is nowhere more evident than here in CA, where the exorbitant gov't employee pensions alone will be sufficient to bankrupt many cities and counties, and cause the state to default on its obligations. As I understand the problem tnere appears to be no solution short of the bankruptcy courts. (There are people who are entitled to retire at age 50 at 90% of their salary for life.)

What's up with Ras? Haven't been able to get a daily pres. poll for several days now.

[Old Lurker]

"There are people who are entitled to retire at age 50 at 90% of their salary for life."

DoT, oh that it could be limited to just that. In many jurisdictions that is X% (eg 90%) of the most recent total compensation and that can include OT, saved up vacation, and other gimmicks to game the formula.

Did I not read recently that CA is trying to deny local govts the right to seek bankruptcy protections precisely to protect these unfunded and impossible promises made to their employees?

[Porchlight]

Politico reports Tommy Thompson considering challenging Feingold who is up for relection this November.

[Danube of Thought]

Ah, yes. Back in business:

"The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15."

I hadn't seen that, OL, and I don't know how or whether the state legislature could do it.

[Porchlight]

Sorry if already reported - even though seh seems to be doubling down elsewhere, here's McCaskill from the Politico:

“If there’s anybody in this building that doesn’t tell you they’re more worried about elections today, you absolutely should slap them,” said Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

LOL, be glad to

[Porchlight]

seh = she

[Old Lurker]

DoT LUN for that story re CA

[Rob Crawford]

Talked to an Auctioneer yesterday, and he said the market for recreational type land has really fallen off, which is no surprise.

Oh, really?

The urge to dig some more into the market and see what's out there suddenly became stronger.

[Extraneus]

I don't know if anyone else waded through the topic's memo, but it has a nice strong finish, which includes the quote TM used:

A wave election hit us in 2008 where we not only had overwhelming majorities of 59 seats in the Senate (once Republicans finally got around to letting us seat Franken) and 257 seats in the House (returning us to the same power level as when we ruled the House with inpugnity in 1992-3) but, most importantly, a President who was explicitly elected on an agenda of "change." It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to wrench the wheel away from the abyss and really deliver on our promises. It was disheartening when it seemed that Reid was allowing McConnell's disingenuous narrative of "it's always taken 60 votes to get anything done" to take hold, but we were later even saved from that when Specter switched. But it seems we've spent the entire year moving our own goalposts farther away. Things have gotten so bad that in roaming the halls today it feels exactly as if we lost the Majority last night.

The worst is that I can't help but feel like the main emotion people in the caucus are feeling is relief at this turn of events. Now they have a ready excuse for not getting anything done. While I always thought we had the better ideas but the weaker messaging, it feels like somewhere along the line Members internalized a belief that we actually have weaker ideas. They're afraid to actually implement them and face the judgement of the voters. That's the scariest dynamic and what makes me think this will all come crashing down around us in November.

[snip]

This is my life and I simply can't answer the fundamental question: "what do Democrats stand for?" Voters don't know, and we can't make the case, so they're reacting exactly as you'd expect (just as they did in 1994, 2000, and 2004). We either find the voice to answer that question and exercise the strongest majority and voter mandate we've had since Watergate, or we suffer a bloodbath in November. History shows we're likely to choose the latter.

Hey, I have an idea. Why not do both?