Midterm Elections Of 2010

Wisconsin Senate Seat Open With Herb Kohl’s Retirement: Will Russ Feingold Seek The Seat?

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With the announced retirement a week ago of Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, the possibility of the return of former Senator Russ Feingold, who was defeated by Tea Party favorite and businessman Ron Johnson, to the US Senate beckons.

Feingold, who has formed his own Political Action Committee, Progressives United, to fight for progressive causes, has not announced if he will seek the seat, but progressives all over America should insist he run, as his defeat in 2010 was the biggest loss for progressives and liberals, of all the lost members in the Republican tide of 2010.

Rumors had spread that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would seek the seat, but with the outrage expressed nationally and in his home district against his Medicare plan to privatize the system over the next decade, he seems reluctant to give up his prestigious position to run for a junior role in the Senate as a new member.

Instead, former Governor Tommy Thompson, who was also Health and Human Services Secretary under President George W. Bush, is planning to run, making a possible top race between Feingold and Thompson.

The question will be whether Thompson, as former HHS Secretary, will endorse the Ryan plan on Medicare.

If he does, and Feingold runs, it will be a classic battle of progressivism against extreme right wing conservatism and Tea Party influence. It will be a battle for the future of the social safety net of the New Deal and Great Society, and it is unacceptable for Feingold to decide not to run, and to lose the race to Thompson or any other Republican, even if Thompson does not support the Ryan plan.

This is one of the key battles for the future of America!

Tax Day Is Here, And The Wealthy And Corporations Are Evading Taxes With Pride!

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As Tax Day arrives, the average middle class person is paying his or her taxes, and yet has no certainty that the social safety net is going to survive, thanks to the Republican Party and its intention to continue to cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, as they have been advocating since Ronald Reagan’s time!

The tax system maximum under FDR was about 73 percent; under Eisenhower 91 percent; under Richard Nixon still about 50 percent; and under Bill Clinton close to 40 percent. But under George W. Bush, it has gone down to 35 percent, and Congressman Paul Ryan wants it to be 25 percent!

The result has been to produce the greatest stratification of wealth, greatest maldistribution of wealth, greatest inequities between the rich, the middle class and the poor in American history, in the midst of three foreign wars, and an aging population and massive social needs!

Meanwhile, the top corporations pay extremely low or no taxes at all, including General Electric and the major oil companies and banks, and many have overseas subsidiaries and operations. In so doing, they evade taxes, hire fewer American workers, charge higher prices to consumers, and give lower dividends and earnings on their investments to retirees. This country is run by the corporations, and the opposition party has no problem with that, since they gain large campaign contributions from these companies, as in the midterm Congressional elections of 2010, spurred on by the Citizens United case of the Supreme Court!

If the wealthy and the corporations do not learn that such inequities in society can lead to discontent and uprisings, then some day they may face the kind of violent change we are seeing elsewhere in the world. Exploitation can only go so far and then, regrettably, lead to dangerous scenarios that no one should wish for!

Barack Obama’s And Sarah Palin’s Effect On The Republican Presidential Race

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Here it is mid February, less than a year to the Iowa caucuses, and not one Republican has announced for President.

Instead, Indiana Congressman Mike Pence has announced that he will NOT run, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has indicated that while he will not run in 2012, he is leaving the door open for 2016.

Why is no one announcing?

Well, it may be that many potential candidates see a race against President Obama as a difficult one, which indeed it will be. While the Republicans gained 63 seats in the House of Representatives in 2010, that is no indication that they have an edge in the Presidential race, and the fact that they control the House makes the President able to use them as a foil, and Obama is certain, eventually, to attack the Republicans on domestic policy, and to use foreign policy as a bulwark for his campaign for re-election. It should not be surprising that Jeb Bush prefers to wait to 2016 when there would be an open race without an incumbent, if one assumes Obama has the edge for 2012.

Remember that Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bill Clinton won re-election despite BOTH houses being in the hands of the opposition party in the midterm election!

But also, the uncertainty about Sarah Palin, whether she will run, also muddies up the race.

Palin is looking weak in the polls, and it is hard to imagine she will give up the money making opportunities she now has to run, with the knowledge her earnings would be badly hit while she is a candidate for the White House. But she has just hired a top campaign strategist, and feels a need to react to every slight or criticism of her, including recent ones by fellow Republicans Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum and John Thune. Since they are not leading candidates at this point, they have decided to gamble on light criticism or teasing of Palin, but others seen as more serious candidates, including Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, have, so far, avoided such criticism.

But Palin is the so called “800 pound elephant” in the room, and that, along with Obama’s growing strength and the feeling that he has an edge for re-election, is contributing to the fact that candidates so far are reluctant to stick their necks out and announce they are running.

Still, within the next three months, it will be necessary for candidates to announce themselves, in order to have a realistic chance to gain support and financial backing, so whether Obama looks as strong as he does now, or Palin stays out or comes into the race, the die is cast in the sense that announcement of candidacies can only be delayed so far without being seen as no longer serious contenders!

The Koch Brothers And Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia And Clarence Thomas

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Charles and David Koch are billionaire brothers who are against environmental regulations and any government regulation in any area of the economy, and they have a close relationship with Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court.

Both Justices attended a conference sponsored by the Koch brothers and were paid expenses, and the Citizens United Case which allows unlimited corporate political contributions was the result in January 2010, which had a dramatic effect on the midterm elections this past November, leading to the addition of 63 new seats in the House of Representatives for the Republican Party.

Now Thomas is being asked to recuse himself from any Supreme Court review of the Health Care law passed last year, as his wife is involved with a pressure group working to undermine the law, along with the Koch brothers trying to overturn the law as well.

The Supreme Court is becoming a center of conflict of interest, and really a high level of corruption, as both Justices Scalia and Thomas are arrogant and have no sense of propriety in their behavior. When on the Supreme Court, Justices are supposed to avoid conflicts or influences that may poison or pollute the whole concept of fair justice.

Thomas and Scalia need to change their behavior, or they bring the reputation of the Supreme Court down into the gutter! 🙁

The Moderation Of John McCain: Return Of The “Old” McCain

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Senator John McCain of Arizona has been transformed again, now back to the moderation he was famous for until he had a contested primary for re-election from former Congressman J. D. Hayworth in the midterm elections of 2010.

Highly critical of President Obama over the past two years, and generally very cranky and irritable, as well as mean spirited, and denying he had ever been a maverick, even though he called himself that for years, suddenly McCain is smiling and supportive in many ways of President Obama.

Now he feels that President Obama handled the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson masterfully, and also feels he has handled the Egyptian Revolution situation in am excellent manner. He has consulted recently with Obama, and suddenly, he is back to his old self that made him more appealing than most Republicans over the past decade.

Meanwhile, other Republicans, particularly many of those thinking of running for President, are finding fault with the approach of Obama, including Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, John Bolton, and others.

Isn’t it amazing how when campaigning for advancement politically, candidates will conjure up criticism and be hypocritical, while when the pressure is off, such as with John McCain in 2011, suddenly a charming, smiling, supportive politician recognizes accomplishment when it occurs! 🙂

The Recklessness And Irresponsibility of Sarah Palin: The Background Of The Shooting Of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords In Tucson, Arizona! :(

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Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin promoted a campaign against the Democratic Congressmen who voted for the Obama Health Care bill last year but whose districts also voted for John McCain in 2008, and used an advertisement on Sarahpac.com which displayed a graphic with crosshairs on a map.

One of those members of Congress was Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Tucson, Arizona, who was shot and seriously wounded today at a Tucson area supermarket while holding a Congressional citizen meeting with her constituents.

The graphic, having crosshairs on a map representing those congressional districts, was an extremely reprehensible action by Sarah Palin! 🙁

Just the suggestion of guns and violence is enough to place at least some blame on Sarah Palin for having encouraged violence against opponents of her views on health care or any other issue. No sane, responsible person would have done such a thing as she endorsed and backed!  🙁

If this does not by itself cause sane people to see Sarah Palin as totally lacking in judgment and sanity to be President, then indeed we are in for a disaster in the making that will be the greatest in our history! 🙁

There was absolutely no excuse for what Sarah Palin did during the 2010 election campaign, and there is no excuse for any future stupid, reckless, insane statements by this woman who should not be admired, but rather informed to go home to Alaska and leave this nation alone! She has done more than enough damage as it is, and if Gabrielle Giffords passes away, she will have blood on her hands by what she promoted by her sick rhetoric last year! 🙁

Barack Obama: The New “Comeback” Kid!

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It is hard to believe that just a month ago, Barack Obama had suffered a major “shellacking” as he termed it, with the loss of 63 seats in the House of Representatives and 6 in the Senate.

But by the success of his “compromise” deal with the Republicans, Obama is a “comeback” kid, much like Bill Clinton was in 1995, but ahead of schedule as compared to Clinton.

Obama was able to get unemployment compensation extension, a tax cut by lowering the Social Security tax temporarily, various business tax cuts as well, and a continuation of the tax cuts to 98 percent of the population, all guaranteed to please the average American.

Of course, Obama had to swallow the tax cut continuation for the wealthy, and puts the Social Security system theoretically in some danger by cutting the contributions temporarily to that program.

But he still has the veto power and a Democratic Senate, and is seen by many as having “won” over his GOP opponents overall.

And he has likely improved his chances to win re-election in 2012, as even Charles Krauthammer of the Weekly Standard and Fox New Channel asserts.

In comparisons to every possible GOP opponent, Obama wins, and leads Sarah Palin in a theoretical matchup by 22 points!

Obama has placed himself squarely in the center, and that is the way to win Presidential elections in America.

So Obama has truly, and very quickly, become the “Comeback” Kid!

The Barack Obama-Bill Clinton Alliance: Good For The Democratic Party And The Nation!

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Former President Bill Clinton has shown true statesmanship and principle in coming to the support of President Barack Obama on the controversial tax bill negotiated between the President and the Republican opposition.

At a White House meeting and appearance before the news media, the two men united in support of the deal struck early in the week, pointing out that in many ways it is a second economic stimulus which has many advantages, although any compromise deal means both sides gain something and lose something.

Clinton became famous as a centrist President who “triangulated” with the House of Representatives and Senate, both bodies which were in the hands of the opposition from 1995-2001. Some good legislation came out of this “triangulation”.

This time, President Obama has the advantage of a Democratic Senate, so the dynamics of working together over the next two years will be different than it was in 1995, but the point is that it is better to have the benefits of the tax deal over leaving the issue to the new split Congress, and meanwhile denying unemployment compensation extension and action on some of the other important priorities that are being stalled by the Senate Republicans until the tax legislation passes.

Again, the deal that is on the table is not perfect, but it is better than sitting on one’s hands and doing nothing, and that is the message Bill Clinton joined the President in communicating.

Hopefully, over this weekend, the Democrats in both houses of Congress who are in revolt will come around to seeing things the way Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are portraying it.

And remember, Barack Obama has made it clear that he intends to fight over the next two years, and has stated that the Republican Party is holding the people of this nation as “hostages”, so no one should see the President as giving up the fight for progressive change.

Rather, he is recognizing the results of the midterm elections, and doing his best to make the most of it for his cause, within the limits of reality as it is.

The Ultimate Battleground For The 2012 Presidential Election: The Midwest!

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As a result of the Midterm Elections of 2010, it is becoming clear that the 2012 Presidential Election will be ultimately decided in the Midwest, an area of the country suffering more heavily from the Great Recession, and also an area that is losing a significant number of seats in the House of Representatives reapportionment that will take place, as a result of the Census of 2010!

Even though the Midwest is losing electoral votes because of a smaller relative population as compared to the growing Sun Belt, it still contains states that are among the top ten states in population plus others that are in the next ten states in population!

It is also an area that can presently be described as “purple”, rather than “blue” or “red”, but has moved in the direction of the Republican party in the midterm elections due to the economic hard times and the tendency to blame the party in the White House for the poor economic conditions!

With all of the key Midwestern states electing Republican governors except for Illinois, and many state legislatures and House seats going over to the GOP, it poses a massive problem for the Democrats and President Barack Obama as they look at the electoral scene for 2012!

However, two of those states historically are particularly crucial in a Presidential election–Ohio and Missouri!

Ohio has been the decisive state for the Republican Party, as every Republican President since the first one, Abraham Lincoln, to the last one, George W. Bush, has won Ohio! At the same time, it means that if Ohio goes to the Democrats, as say Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008, the chances of Gerald Ford and John McCain were therefore dashed!

Missouri, if anything, has been the true bellwether state, as every single time since 1900, except 1956 and 2008, the winner of Missouri has become President! And even Dwight D. Eisenhower came close to defeating Adlai Stevenson in Missouri in 1956, and Barack Obama came extremely close to defeating John McCain in Missouri in 2008!

Since the Atlantic Coast of the nation–New England and the Middle Atlantic–is seen as solidly Democratic except maybe for New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, and the Pacific Coast also seen as solidly Democratic, while most of the South, maybe all of it including Florida, Virginia and North Carolina, are seen as solidly Republican next time, and much of the Mountain West and Great Plains also solidly “red”, it will be the Midwest which will decide the electoral winner again next time!

So the Democrats and Barack Obama will have to make inordinate efforts to appeal for support in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and cannot afford to lose much of this area if the party and Obama are to win in 2012!

That is one of the reasons why the Democratic Party is planning its national convention in the Midwest in 2012, with St. Louis, Cleveland, and Minneapolis as the key competitors for that honor!

So despite declining population percentages, the heartland of the nation again will be the central focus in the upcoming national elections in 2012!

Importance Of Latino Vote For Democrats!

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The Democratic Party suffered major losses in the Midterm Elections of 2010, but it could have been far worse had it not been for solid Latino support in many states!

A couple of seats in the House of Representatives were saved because of Latino votes in Arizona, and the Senate seats of Harry Reid in Nevada, Michael Bennet in Colorado, and Barbara Boxer in California were retained due significantly to the Latino vote in those states for the Democrats!

Additionally, the Latino vote also helped Governor Pat Quinn to win in Illinois, and Jerry Brown to win the Governorship of California!

The only place that the Latino vote seemed to help Republicans was in Florida, where Marco Rubio won the Senate seat, but the difference is that Latinos in Florida are more heavily Cuban American, a voting bloc which tends to be strongly Republican. With Marco Rubio himself being a Cuban American, and replacing an elected Cuban American, Mel Martinez, who held the seat until he resigned in 2009, Florida is therefore a special case!

It is clear that the Latino vote can have a dramatic effect on the fortunes of  the Democratic Party in the 2012 elections, and be a decisive factor in the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama!