In response to my post last night a number of readers have written to say that I’ve either written off the November election or claimed that the Dems are collapsing in advance of it. Neither is the case. My point was only that if you project out to November the current facts on the ground, the House is probably headed for Republican control and the Senate could flip too, though it’s much less likely. Could things change? Of course they could. I’ll get to that in a minute. Read More
BP has issued its own internal report on the Deepwater Horizon blowout. Conclusion: everybody screwed up bad. Read the report.
Is Haley Barbour birther-curious? At this morning’s Monitor breakfast down in DC he just said of President Obama that “This is a president that we know less about than any other president in history.”
There’s a growing number of Republicans for whom the burning of the Koran by that fringe church pastor in Florida is a bridge too far. Add Haley Barbour to that list.
Oh, man. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is a gift to Jon Stewart from the comedy gods. Watch.
There’s been some tightening in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, where state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte was the expected to win. Jillian Rayfield takes a closer look at the latest developments in the race to succeed the retiring Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH).
At this point, if you follow the available evidence, it seems likely that the Democrats will get a severe beating on election day. Absent some rebound, it seems highly likely that the Dems will lose control of the House of Representatives. And it even seems possible now that they could lose control of the Senate. On its face, it doesn’t seem clear that this should necessarily have such bad effects since President Obama can veto anything that moves through a Republican Congress. And it’s even argued that having a Republican Congress to pivot against could better President Obama’s chances of reelection in 2012. Finally, I think most partisans and analysts on both sides of the equation recognize that the story of this election, overwhelmingly, is the economy and the continuing devastating levels of unemployment.
As far as it goes, I suspect each of these suppositions are accurate.
What I’m curious about, though, is whether the Dems are ready for the sheer, shuddering, really just deafening chorus of defeatism and ideological self-doubt Democrats are going to face on November 3rd. I’ve learned from experience that you simply cannot make logical, linear predictions about how these events will play out. I’ve also learned, as much as each partisan side likes to grouse about its own tough luck, that Dems have a much tougher time dealing with those moments. Read More
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf makes his case on the OpEd page of the Times.