Fisher without Bait: tales of the 2Q in Ohio.

The Democrat’s not exactly running rampant, there.

The 2nd quarter results are in for Rob Portman (R) and Lee Fisher (d), and it’s not… actually, it’s quite pretty.  Portman brought in almost three times as much cash (2.65 million vs. 1 million) and has an almost nine-to-one advantage in cash-on-hand right now (8.8 million to 1 million).  I originally got the latter’s details via email: for some reason, Fisher isn’t bragging about his inadequate performance on his own site.  As to whether his campaign’s enervated financial state will translate to a loss this November, well, Fisher’s own pleas from earlier say it all:

“Potential supporters will look at our next contribution report to measure our campaign’s readiness and decide whether they want to step onto the field or sit on the sidelines this fall,” he wrote in email June 29, one day before his second quarter fund-raising report closed.

So true, so true.

Moe Lane Continue reading Fisher without Bait: tales of the 2Q in Ohio.

PROSECUTORS: Jesse Jackson Jr. knew of Senate seat offer.

Hoo, boy.

A supporter of U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. told the Democratic congressman in 2008 that he would raise $1 million in return for then- Gov. Rod Blagojevich naming Jackson to the U.S. Senate, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday.

The allegation, made on a busy day at Blagojevich’s federal corruption trial, was the first time authorities publicly suggested Jackson was aware of efforts by his allies to swap campaign cash for his appointment to the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Via AoSHQ.  Incidentally, this is what Rep. Jackson had to say about the suggestion that he was involved:

“I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer, plead my case or propose a deal about a U.S. Senate seat, period.”

Continue reading PROSECUTORS: Jesse Jackson Jr. knew of Senate seat offer.

#rsrh Two words: demonsheep.

We all thought that was entertainingly dumb, too.  Up to the point where Carly Fiorina, you know, won the primary.

Mike Weinstein is running for re-election in the Florida state legislature, which is probably why he figured that he could risk a little goofiness. And no, it’s not a parody.

And… no, it’s not actually a bad ad.  Goofy, but not bad.

Moe Lane

Anybody else notice that the Democrats – particularly their cheerleaders in the Online Left – just aren’t having any fun this election cycle?  Bitter sourpusses, the lot of them.

#rsrh Letting Other People Do It: Stimulus edition.

I am so incredibly glad that the CA primary is over: I can link to Mickey Kaus again.  I think that I’ve mentioned it before, but I wasn’t willing to risk losing the pickup in November by making him look like a viable alternative to Barbara Boxer.

Anyway, Mickey’s bringing up this quote from Jon Alter’s book The Promise:

The biggest frustration involved infrastructure. Obama said later that he learned that “one of the biggest lies in government is the idea of ‘shovel-ready’ projects.” It turned out that only about $20 billion to $40 billion in construction contracts were truly ready to go. The rest were tied up in the endless contracting delays and bureaucratic hassles associated with building anything in America. [E.A.]

…and asking:

Did Obama really not know this back in January, 2009? I mean, Alter’s book pretty convincincly demonstrates that the President is a very smart man. But a smart man would have to have had virtually no contact, direct or vicarious, with government not to realize state and federal  construction projects are bound up with time-consuming rules (like the Davis-Bacon Act’s “prevailing wage” requirements) that undermine their Keynesian utility.

Continue reading #rsrh Letting Other People Do It: Stimulus edition.

Third-party Hail Marys and the Democratic party.

Very entertaining news from Stu Rothenberg:

An unusual number of Democratic candidates running this cycle are basing their victory scenarios on the existence of Independent or third-party candidates in their races. Are their hopes reasonable or are they merely grasping at straws?

They’re merely grasping at straws.  To skip ahead a bit:

…more often than not, Independents and third-party candidates see their support evaporate as Election Day approaches, as voters realize that a vote for an also-ran is a wasted vote.

For an example of this, look no further than the 2009 NJ gubernatorial election. If you look at the polls for that election, you’ll see that virtually every scenario that had Jon Corzine ahead relied on double-digit results for the third-party candidate.  The Democrats even went to the point of doing robocalls for the third-party candidate, which ended up doing nothing much for Corzine.  Third-party support had been declining in NJ for weeks beforehand, precisely in the fashion and the reasons that Stu noted above.
Continue reading Third-party Hail Marys and the Democratic party.