Erick Erickson's Blog, page 113

Morning Briefing for September 16, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing

For September 16, 2011

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Those Divisive Social Issues

2. The Crusade to Cave

3. The White House's $535 Million Photo Op

4. Nobodies Don't Get Booed

5. Incontrovertible – I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

6. President Obama and the EPA's War on Jobs

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1. Those Divisive Social Issues

I think it is painfully obvious to everyone who is paying attention to anything that is happening in America that the economy will be the deciding factor in the 2012 elections, absent a major terrorist attack or other unforeseeable game-changing event. I don't know of anyone who thinks at this stage of the game that 2012 ought to be primarily a referendum on abortion. That having been said, the claim has been made by some who purport to represent the TEA Party movement that social issues are divisive and should be avoided completely in favor of massive slashing of government spending. These individuals typically push the argument that if the GOP would just adopt wholesale Randianism, the GOP would be primed for electoral success. CNN just released a new poll (.pdf warning) which shows that these beliefs are not only untrue with respect to the American population at large, but also untrue of the TEA Party rank and file.

In the first place, CNN asked of all adults whether they favored eliminating the Department of Education, a stump speech staple of so-called TEA Party candidates and leaders. The American public overwhelmingly rejects this idea by a whopping 24-74 margin. That is not to say that eliminating the Department of Education wouldn't be a good idea; the point is that it's a surefire electoral loser in all 50 states. If we are going to talk about an issue that should be backbenched for the sake of electoral expediency, the "eliminate the Department of Education" rhetoric would be a good place to start.

By way of contrast, CNN's poll reveals that the American public is broadly supportive of vastly more restrictions on abortion than are currently in place today. Only 37% of respondents indicated that abortion should be either "legal in all circumstances" or "legal in most circumstances." 62% of respondents indicated that abortion should be either "legal in a few circumstances" or "illegal in all circumstances." Given that abortion is effectively "legal in all circumstances" in America today (a position supported by only 25% of respondents), the idea that imposing additional restrictions on abortion would doom the GOP is completely unsupported by anything other than the fatuous projections of people who want to appear smart and enlightened before the media.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. The Crusade to Cave

I feel like a broken record, but it is just very hard to give some people the benefit of the doubt. It is one thing after another, day after day. House Republican Leaders are on a crusade to cave with the President.

Never mind that in the opinion of nearly every main stream political analyst the President is on the ropes. My inbox is flooded with news articles about his declining popularity in blue states and the aftermath of this week's GOP special election victories. But House Republicans modus operandi is still to avoid the fight.

This week, it was their insistence on a continuing resolution (CR) at levels far above the Paul Ryan-House passed budget in order to align with the bad debt deal they passed earlier in the year (because they were unwilling to fight). Then it was their shadiness in passing a six-month highway extension at levels far above the same Paul Ryan-House passed budget without a roll-call vote. They're only now beginning to criticize the President's new stimulus plan such that the President's only glimmer of hope is that the public still doesn't know how bad or unworkable it is. Why? Because Republicans are afraid of being the party of no. I thought we put that meme to bed last year.

And now we find that tucked into the recently unveiled CR is the provision to bail out the Postal Service, which I wrote about yesterday. Who knows what else is in there.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. The White House's $535 Million Photo Op

As the Solyndra scandal continues to unfold, Americans are clamoring for the President to take responsibility. With more suspicious details coming to light, multiple entities have launched investigations—the FBI, the Inspector General of the Energy Department, the Inspector General of the Treasury Department, and the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee. From what we've seen so far, the verdict seems pretty clear: the White House recklessly propped up Solyndra to please campaign backers and stage a political photo op.

Now that the White House has finally released some 900 pages of emails, it's obvious the White House was playing favorites. As the New York Times reported, one White House official emailed Solyndra to say "we're cheering for you." Other emails include messages from Solyndra officials that misrepresented the state of the company's affairs, saying things like "things are going well" and touting themselves as "a true success story."

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Nobodies Don't Get Booed

One of my favorite groups in Washington is Heritage Action for America. A major indicator of their success is that the Washington GOP Establishment planted a story in Roll Call about their lack of influence.

The article was clearly planted by House Republican leadership staffers, the same staffers who planted a story about me in the Washington Post at the end of July about how I have no influence and nobody listens to me. Two weeks after these House leadership aides declared, anonymously, that I had no influence I introduced Rick Perry at the RedState Gathering where he declared his candidacy for President.

No influence. It is the same with Heritage Action for America. You know a conservative wields influence when House leadership staffers push out stories about the conservatives' lack of influence, but are too chicken to go on record about it. Nobodies don't get booed.

Kicking off the attack was Congressman Geoff Davis of Kentucky (HAFA Score: 63%) telling Ginni Thomas at the Daily Caller that "Heritage Action is a self-interested fundraising organization led by a former Giuliani staffer who is not taking counsel from real conservatives … It is a worthless organization to the conservative movement. I'll be the first to say that." Congressman Davis, who opposed social security reform, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform, and offshore drilling while supporting farm subsidies, cash for clunkers, green energy subsidies, the AFL-CIO, and NEA spending, was the only person willing to go on record attacking HAFA.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Incontrovertible – I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

In the latest blow to "consensus", Dr. Ivar Giaever, a Nobel Laureate, has resigned from the American Physical Society over the group's position on global warming. His resignation letter minces no words.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. President Obama and the EPA's War on Jobs

For some time now, I and others have been documenting the relentless assault on economic growth by the EPA under President Barack Obama. I feel like a broken record at times trying to beat this drum and get people to realize that while Obama doesn't keep all of his campaign promises, destroying the coal industry is one that he has done everything he can to stay true to.

For anyone that paid attention during the 2008 presidential cycle, Obama made it clear that it was his intention to bankrupt the coal industry through regulation and legislation. Think it's hyperbole? Listen to it from the horse's mouth.

Obama's dreams of green jobs have run into some snags lately. The bankruptcy of solar panel company Solyndra, which received half a billion dollars in loan guarantees, is not good for the goal of greenifying our lives. Objectively speaking, there is one simple reason that companies like Solyndra just couldn't make ends meet: the prices that they need to charge for their products are simply too high to create true market demand.

However, market demand can also be altered by a lack of choice. For instance, if there was a cheaper form of liquid that could fuel my car, I'd most certainly gravitate towards it as opposed to the $3.50 per gallon price I'm currently paying for gasoline.

Unfortunately for me, no alternative liquid exists that is as cost effective as plain old gasoline, and unfortunately for the green industry, gasoline exists.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Someone Report Steven Crowder to @AttackWatch

Oh and Steven calls the S.E.C.,

Henry Waxman Claims Jews Do It For The Money

Holy cow! Henry Waxman says Jews are voting GOP because they want to protect their wealth.

I guess we have to let him get away with it because he is Jewish, but Great Lord in Heaven if someone else had said it was all about Jews and their money the ADL would be out in force demanding the person resign.

"I think Jewish voters will be Democratic and be for Obama in 2012, especially if you get a Republican candidate like [Texas] Gov. [Rick] Perry," he said. "But there's no question the Jewish community is much more bipartisan than it has been in previous years. There are Jews who are trending toward the Republican Party, some of it because of their misunderstanding of Obama's policies in the Middle East, and some of it, quite frankly, for economic reasons. They feel they want to protect their wealth, which is why a lot of well-off voters vote for Republicans."

It's bad when even left-wing Jewish Congressmen push the "Jews and their money" stereotype. Pathetic really. How about just telling the truth — they hate the job Obama is doing.

Nobodies Don't Get Booed

One of my favorite groups in Washington is Heritage Action for America. A major indicator of their success is that the Washington GOP Establishment planted a story in Roll Call about their lack of influence.

The article was clearly planted by House Republican leadership staffers, the same staffers who planted a story about me in the Washington Post at the end of July about how I have no influence and nobody listens to me. Two weeks after these House leadership aides declared, anonymously, that I had no influence I introduced Rick Perry at the RedState Gathering where he declared his candidacy for President.

No influence. It is the same with Heritage Action for America. You know a conservative wields influence when House leadership staffers push out stories about the conservatives' lack of influence, but are too chicken to go on record about it. Nobodies don't get booed.

Kicking off the attack was Congressman Geoff Davis of Kentucky (HAFA Score: 63%) telling Ginni Thomas at the Daily Caller that "Heritage Action is a self-interested fundraising organization led by a former Giuliani staffer who is not taking counsel from real conservatives … It is a worthless organization to the conservative movement. I'll be the first to say that." Congressman Davis, who opposed social security reform, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform, and offshore drilling while supporting farm subsidies, cash for clunkers, green energy subsidies, the AFL-CIO, and NEA spending, was the only person willing to go on record attacking HAFA.

Heritage Action for America is so worthless in fact that House Republican Leadership staffers are forced to give anonymous quotes to Washington newspapers about how no one listens to HAFA. By the way, the sources are most likely from Eric Cantor's Office (HAFA Score: 60%). I say this rather factually because the Politico was the first to drum up an anti-HAFA piece and a source at the Politico all but flat out told me it was Cantor's office more than Boehner's office pushing the line of attack. Same with the "Erickson and RedState have no influence" story at the Washington Post.

Not that Boehner's office has clean hands, but his office doesn't yet seem to be the driving force behind these stories. In fact, with the Politico story, which substantially changed from its original form, the key motivator was a feeling among some leadership staff that Heritage Action for America is staffed by people who went to Washington and decided it was more important to fight for conservative causes than to sell out for the "greater good" of the Republican Team.

Frankly, in my experience, conservatives who sell out their values are usually the most embittered, angry people in Washington — full of self-loathing every time they look in the mirror and realize, in the quiet of the night, what sell outs to their own values they've become. But unable to hate themselves, they hate those who haven't sold out instead.

Outside of the psychology of these hit pieces, what is interesting is that while, like with me, leadership aides are unwilling to go on the record to smear HAFA, congressmen are willing to go on record to defend HAFA. Congressman Jim Jordan, leader of the conservatives in the House, (HAFA Score: 96%) took to their defense as did South Carolina Congressman Mick Mulvaney (HAFA Score: 95%), and my Congressman, Austin Scott of Georgia, (HAFA Score: 80%) has used Heritage Action For America's support on legislation as a key selling point for why other members of Congress should sign on to legislation.

The latest "they've got no influence" story came after House leaders were able to get a highway bill through with a voice vote when Heritage Action had scored against it. The reaction by members of Congress and the backpedaling of leadership (and of Senators) on this legislation suggests that instead of having no influence, Republican Congressmen are scared to death of HAFA and fear not only being on record against them, but also being in opposition to them.

Like with RedState, these hit jobs from Republicans come because Republican Leaders in Washington, who campaigned throughout 2010 saying they'd learned the lessons of 2006, are being proven squishy and resent their conservative base holding them accountable for betraying the trust not just of the Republican base, but of the American people.

The Horserace for September 15, 2011

Rick Perry has locked in his front runner lead and in a novel twist of things, some Democrats are starting to panic. Why? Because the way Perry talks about immigration works to his advantage with hispanic immigrants and hispanic immigrants want someone other than Obama.

At the same time, Michele Bachmann seems to have hit the self-destruct button on her campaign. Even Ed Rollins is less than "all in" for her it seems.

Mitt Romney has a problem and it is bigger than Rick Perry's problem — he's boxing himself in on entitlement reform in a way that hurts him both with tea party activists and non-tea party activists.

Then there's Cain, Gingrich, Huntsman, Paul, and Santorum. They continue to struggle. A brouhaha has hit the Herman Cain campaign. Huntsman has no sense of humor. Santorum continues to be this year's Admiral Stockdale, and Gingrich's posturing at Monday's debate suggests a man reconciled to his fate.

We'll get into it all in today's horserace.

Michele Bachmann

Chris Matthews asked Ed Rollins the other night about supporting Michele Bachmann. On the surface he seemed to give the right answers. But it struck a lot of people as Ed sticking to a line and refusing to go further with support. Matthews needled him about it. It seemed clear Ed Rollins left the Bachmann campaign because of candidate relations.

Then there is Bachmann herself. She scored a clean, clear shot on Rick Perry in Monday's debate. Had she stopped there she'd have been the comeback queen of campaign 2012. Instead, she started telling the story about the mother she met who claims her daughter developed "mental retardation" after getting the HPV vaccine. There's just a problem. It is scientifically impossible to develop retardation from the HPV vaccine. That's not to say mental retardation cannot happen from some vaccines. It can. It just cannot from HPV.

But on she went with her attacks. The net result? On Monday night she raised the Merck campaign contribution issue about Rick Perry. By Tuesday, the media would have been in full pursuit of the crony capitalism story on Perry and his relationship to people who worked for Merck. Instead? Everyone focused on Bachmann's use of that unsubstantiated story and how it showed poor judgment on her part.

She's fallen below Newt Gingrich in some polls. That latest might have been fatal.

Herman Cain

Herman Cain's Iowa staff seems intent on finishing off his campaign. In an unemployment hearing, Cain's straw poll coordinator Kevin Hall, alleges a campaign cover up over a Cain staffer. The allegation is that the staffer is gay, was ousted from a gay pride group in Wisconsin after financial irregularities, and knowing all this the Cain campaign kept him on, lying about his role.

The story seems to be a non-starter to me. There are no allegations that the staffer engaged in financial irregularities on the Cain campaign. However, the story is salacious enough and the former Iowa staffers are bitter enough about what they feel was a lack of time by Cain in the state that this story might have legs. Also, the issue came up in an unemployment hearing. The guy was under oath. And the Cain campaign lawyer did not object. That's pretty standard for stuff like this, but it gives a stronger air of authenticity to it and there being a problem.

Nonetheless, this story isn't what has done in the Cain campaign. The campaign has not gotten traction. Complain all you want about a lack of media attention. But with this story now out there, a lack of media attention is a good thing.

Newt Gingrich

I saw it with my own eyes on Monday night live at the CNN-Tea Party debate. Newt Gingrich did not engage.

First, I just thought it was impressive that Wolf Blizter became the only debate moderator this cycle to not get attacked by Newt. Then I saw something happening that you couldn't really see if you weren't in the debate hall. While the candidates were debating, you'd frequently see some of the other candidates trying to get a word in — trying to engage.

Newt did not. He did not engage except when questioned himself. And so it seems he did not get asked a lot of questions, but in fact the direct questions posed by Blitzer were balanced out. Gingrich just didn't try to get extra time like the other candidates. At least, not until the end when they were out of time and, I think, the issue was Afghanistan.

I wasn't the only person there struck by this. He did great when he answered his questions, but he also seemed less engaged and off his game. At both this and the NBC Debate he seemed resigned to being the elder statesman herding the cats to the finish line — Moses who does not cross into the promised land, but gets everyone there. I think Newt is resigned to defeat, but wants to make sure the GOP wins.

Jon Huntsman

Huntsman flamed out in the GOP debate. He was the most engaged he had been and gave the best answers he's given, but his Kurt Cobain and "treason" remarks are all anyone remembers. He's got staffers lamenting tea party activists on Facebook. His campaign seems aimless and accidental. He himself seems a bit out of it.

I feel better about him than I did. The last two debates he has seemed more on the team than off the team. But he is such a smart guy I cannot believe, like with Gingrich, that he looks at what is happening and sees an opportunity to win. There is no path to victory for the media's old flame who increasingly has even flamed out with the media.

Ron Paul

The Ron Paul campaign continues to do exceedingly well in the polls. He has tapped into something the other candidates aren't, and I'm not just talking about crazy. But he won't be the nominee. Right now he seems only intent on destroying Rick Perry. Interestingly enough, some polls show his supporters are more likely to vote for Mitt Romney than Rick Perry. I find that surprising due to Romneycare, etc. But then polls also show he gets a lot of support from people who don't vote.

He will not be the nominee.

Rick Perry

Rick Perry won the debate on Monday if only by default. But Rick Perry is not a good debater. While the crowd was with him, Perry was great. When the crowd turned on him on the HPV issue, Perry went down hill and did so fast. He is not a good debater.

He has three more debates. But I think Perry has locked in his lead with Mitt Romney's help. The two big issues in Campaign 2012 are Obamacare and fiscal issues. Romney sticks with Romneycare and goes at Perry from the left with entitlement reform. Those two things help Rick Perry in a way Perry is not helping himself.

HPV can be overcome. Thanks to Bachmann's overreach it is largely not an issue any longer. Immigration won't play well with the tea party movement, but Perry can salve some of the disagreement with a better explanation of what Texas did and it also helps him with non-tea party Republicans who are now taking him seriously.

Suddenly this race is his to lose. And barring any major stumbles from this point forward, Perry is the nominee.

Mitt Romney

The most important, but ignored, polling number in CNN's poll this week is the one that explains the entire race. "Which candidate is most likely to fight for what they believe?" Rick Perry scored 29%. Mitt Romney scored 11%.

The prior flip-flops in Romney's record are weighing him down as an opportunist. Voters want a fighter. They also want to know what they are getting. Voters may not agree with Perry, but they think they know what they are getting with him and not with Romney. Voters don't want to wind up with another conservative who turns out to be a "big government" conservative.

That poll number hurts Romney. Likewise, the air of inevitability hurts Romney. Until Perry got in the race, Romney was the consistent winner of the question "regardless of whether you support the candidate or not, which candidate do you think will win?" Consistently Romney won. And that number is a huge psychological plus because undecided voters want to support the winner. So if they think he'll win, the undecideds will move to that person toward the end.

That person is no longer Mitt Romney. Compound that with people's lack of faith in Romney really telling them what he believes in and you have a tough, though not insurmountable, hill for Romney to climb over.

I've said for a long time that as the field consolidated, Romney would poll worse and worse. It is happening.

Rick Santorum

Admiral Stockdale began his famous 1992 debate against Dan Quayle and Al Gore with "Who am I? Why am I here?" Everyone laughed.

Rick Santorum is Admiral Stockdale. He will not be the nominee.

Morning Briefing for September 15, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing

For September 15, 2011

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. BREAKING: White House Pressured OMB to Approve Solyndra Loan Before Due Diligence Complete

2. More Solyndra: DoE Let Taxpayers Take Backseat to Obama's Buddy Investors in Bankruptcy

3. GOP Must Use Political Victories to Oppose Obama's Stimulus in its Entirety

4. Obama: "If you love me, pass this bill!"

5. Oh Sheets! Union Tries To Distance Itself From Racial Noose, Monkey & Rat Incident

6. Darrell Issa and the Ongoing Fight Against Postal Bailouts

7. Majority Think Jobs Plan is Crap: Weak and Indecisive and Now Even More Dead on Arrival

8. Time to Fire Up the Ed Rollins Strategy

———————————————————————-

1. BREAKING: White House Pressured OMB to Approve Solyndra Loan Before Due Diligence Complete

Things are going from bad to worse for the White House on the Solyndra collapse. It is embarrassing enough for the President that his highly touted "green jobs" stimulus success story folded like a cheap suit leaving 1100 people out of jobs and leaving the tax payers with a bill upwards of half a billion dollars. Now, the Washington Post is reporting that political officials in the White House pressured the OMB to approve the massive federal loan to Solyndra before the OMB's due diligence was complete.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. More Solyndra: DoE Let Taxpayers Take Backseat to Obama's Buddy Investors in Bankruptcy

The news is coming in fast and furious on the Solyndra scandal, which is now looking like it may become one of the prime campaign issues in 2012. In addition to the revelation that the Obama administration pressured the OMB to approve the loan guarantees to Solyndra in order to preserve Vice President Biden's photo op, more details are coming out about the Solyndra's collapse, and it looks increasingly like this was one of the most crooked government boondoggles ever. The details are so bad, the mainstream media is now giving them extensive coverage. I'll give you the conclusion up front: when it was obvious in February 2011 that Solyndra was going to go under and someone was going to take a financial bath, the Obama administration ensured that friends and donors of Barack Obama were protected while the American taxpayers were left out to dry.

For example, ABC news is reporting that DoE officials warned before the loan was even approved (in 2009) that Solyndra would go bankrupt in September 2011, a prediction which turned out to be 100% accurate. The Obama administration ignored this warning and pressured the OMB to approve a loan to a company founded by one of President Obama's biggest bundlers, George Kaiser, who visited the White House 16 times in the last two years on behalf of Solyndra. In the wake of Congressional hearings today, it was revealed that it was obvious that Solyndra was going to go under and that someone was going to take a bath on the entire project. In order to delay the PR debacle, the DoE secured bridge financing in the amount of $75M. In exchange for this financing, the DoE allowed the taxpayers' interest to be subordinated to the interests of the private investors in bankruptcy.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. GOP Must Use Political Victories to Oppose Obama's Stimulus in its Entirety

The Democrats have provided Republicans with a historic opportunity to go on offense against Keynesian stimulus, and apply jujitsu against the Democrat 2012 playbook – Mediscare tactics. They shouldn't blow it.

The other night, Democrats got wiped out in two special elections; losing by 22% in Nevada CD-2 and by 8% in a New York district that hasn't voted Republican since 1922. These victories were buoyed by Obama's record disapproval ratings across every demographic, most notably, whites and independents.

While there have been copious pages of commentary published in an attempt to analyze the source of the GOP's success, it is clear which tactic was unsuccessful: Mediscare (are you watching, Mitt Romney?). Both Democrat candidates attacked their opponents incessantly as proverbial killers of Medicare and Social Security. Although this pathetic line of attack is 50 years old, it was slated to serve as the impetus for Democrats' 2012 campaign strategy. Well, their only plan to win in 2012 failed miserably, providing Republicans with a chance to launch a counterattack.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Obama: "If you love me, pass this bill!"

Yes, he is trying to revive the Cult of Personality and make it all about himself.

Seriously. He went there. The President tells a crowd he loves them and if they love him they will help him pass his bill.

51% of Americans do not think the President's jobs plan will create jobs. The voters of New York just rejected Obama in NY-09. Let's not even talk about the Nevada Special Election.

This may sound like a cheer and a pep rally. In fact, it could more accurately be described as a desperate cry for help.

Whatever happened to Bo, the dog Barack Obama named after himself? I suspect we'll start to see more pictures of the President spending more time with his dog. Few others want him.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Oh Sheets! Union Tries To Distance Itself From Racial Noose, Monkey & Rat Incident

There is a labor dispute going on in the Midwest that has taken an ugly turn as the union involved has allegedly resorted to racial attacks against security personnel and replacement workers.

In Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota, American Crystal, a cooperative that accounts for 38 percent of the nation's sugar from beets and 15 percent of overall sugar production, locked out 1300 unionized workers over a month ago as their negotiations for a new contract fell apart.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Darrell Issa and the Ongoing Fight Against Postal Bailouts

Most Americans by now have heard via numerous press accounts that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is on the brink of default in the absence of Congressional action. Now this does not mean that the mail system is going to shut down all of a sudden. It means that the Postal Service will violate the law by not making its $5.5 billion debt payment to taxpayers for the unfunded liability of providing federal healthcare benefits to its workers. Accordingly, USPS is asking Congress to both relieve them of this payment (a bad idea and something conservatives have fought for years) and untie their hands to cut some of their costs (a good thing). Fortunately, Darrell Issa, the Chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee with jurisdiction, is fully engaged with trying to prevent the former and pursue the latter.

Issa deserves tons of credit. It is a thankless task to try and reform the Postal Service when its threatening to shut its doors and every local postmaster is whining to their local congressman to forestall the doom. Furthermore, nobody comes to Congress with a burning passion to take on postal reform, and very few committee chairmen are willing to spend their political capital to reform programs within their jurisdiction in a manner that ultimately lessens their power. In fact, former chairmen like Tom Davis repeatedly put forward "reform" bills that were bailouts by another name, designed to placate the labor unions and corporations that benefit from artificially cheap mail.

Thankfully, Issa has said enough. He told his colleagues there would be no more bailouts and proposed reforms to allow USPS to shed costs and compete without federal assistance. But this promises to be a major fight, and it will be interesting to see how a Republican Congress handles this difficult political football.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

7. Majority Think Jobs Plan is Crap: Weak and Indecisive and Now Even More Dead on Arrival

Mark Hemingway points out just how fast the White House caves these days.

Tuesday morning, David Axelrod went on television and declared the GOP must pass the President's jobs plan totally. All or nothing or something like that.

By early mid-day, the White House began signaling it'd cut a deal with the GOP.

By Tuesday night David Weprin got annihilated in NY-09.

Now, Bloomberg reports Americans think the plan is crap. 53% of Independents dislike the President's jobs performance and a majority of Americans think the President's jobs plan will not create jobs.

It is time for the GOP to pitch a clear alternative of deregulation, tax reform, capital gains cuts, and corporate tax cuts.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

8. Time to Fire Up the Ed Rollins Strategy

It is time for the Democrats to fire up the Ed Rollins strategy. Back in 1990, Ed Rollins, who earlier this year had served as Michele Bachmann's campaign manager, ran the National Republican Congressional Committee. This was "read my lips" time and the country really felt betrayed by President George H. W. Bush.

Rollins took a gamble. He wrote a memo to GOP candidates in which he dared put in writing the famous sentence, "Do not hesitate to distance yourself from the President." He'd already gone to war with Bush over reading a lie on Bush's lips in the budget deal. This escalated things.

George Bush demanded House leaders fire Rollins until it leaked out that they had asked Ed Rollins to write the memo. The GOP went on to lose only 9 seats after many of them campaigned aggressively against Bush's betrayal.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Obama: "If you love me, pass this bill!"

Yes, he is trying to revive the Cult of Personality and make it all about himself.

Seriously. He went there. The President tells a crowd he loves them and if they love him they will help him pass his bill.

51% of Americans do not think the President's jobs plan will create jobs. The voters of New York just rejected Obama in NY-09. Let's not even talk about the Nevada Special Election.

This may sound like a cheer and a pep rally. In fact, it could more accurately be described as a desperate cry for help.

Whatever happened to Bo, the dog Barack Obama named after himself? I suspect we'll start to see more pictures of the President spending more time with his dog. Few others want him.

NY09: Now With Actual Quotes From Democrats

These are actually real and genuine quotes from Democrats reacting to the loss in NY-09:

(okay, so I added the last six words to that quote)

(This one is actually from Greg Sargent before the election)

Majority Think Jobs Plan is Crap: Weak and Indecisive and Now Even More Dead on Arrival

Mark Hemingway points out just how fast the White House caves these days.

Yesterday morning, David Axelrod went on television and declared the GOP must pass the President's jobs plan totally. All or nothing or something like that.

By early mid-day, the White House began signaling it'd cut a deal with the GOP.

By last night David Weprin got annihilated in NY-09.

This morning, Bloomberg reports Americans think the plan is crap. 53% of Independents dislike the President's jobs performance and a majority of Americans think the President's jobs plan will not create jobs.

It is time for the GOP to pitch a clear alternative of deregulation, tax reform, capital gains cuts, and corporate tax cuts.

By a margin of 51 percent to 40 percent, Americans doubt the package of tax cuts and spending proposals intended to jumpstart job creation that Obama submitted to Congress this week will bring down the 9.1 percent jobless rate. That sentiment undermines one of the core arguments the president is making on the job act's behalf in a nationwide campaign to build public support.

Oh, by the way, the Congressional Budget Office, which the Democrats have in the past few weeks insisted we take as gospel about everything, says the President's jobs plan will not bring unemployment below 9%.

Time to Fire Up the Ed Rollins Strategy

It is time for the Democrats to fire up the Ed Rollins strategy. Back in 1990, Ed Rollins, who earlier this year had served as Michele Bachmann's campaign manager, ran the National Republican Congressional Committee. This was "read my lips" time and the country really felt betrayed by President George H. W. Bush.

Rollins took a gamble. He wrote a memo to GOP candidates in which he dared put in writing the famous sentence, "Do not hesitate to distance yourself from the President." He'd already gone to war with Bush over reading a lie on Bush's lips in the budget deal. This escalated things.

George Bush demanded House leaders fire Rollins until it leaked out that they had asked Ed Rollins to write the memo. The GOP went on to lose only 9 seats after many of them campaigned aggressively against Bush's betrayal.

In April of 1991, Rollins resigned from the NRCC. George H. W. Bush had gone up to 90% approval after the Iraq War and it was payback time. Bush refused to campaign for House candidates as long as Rollins had a job. Bush went on to famously implode in polling and lose to Bill Clinton.

But Rollins leading the House GOP into an outright revolt against George Bush drastically mitigated their 1990 losses. The Democrats could not do that in 2010 because most people blamed Congressional Democrats, not Obama, for the national failings in that election. But now? Now the public is unemployed and angry. They are looking at the White House and see Obama playing golf.

It might be time for the Democrats to steal a page from Ed Rollins' 1990 play book. And several signs point to this happening soon.