2012 elections – Moe Lane

#rsrh African-American voters and the Democrats’ false Hegelian choice of 2012.

I understand the issue: on the one hand, Barack Obama is now in favor of same-sex marriage (for the record, so am I, and have been considerably more honest about it than he ever was). On the other hand, African-American church-goers have been told for some time that Mormonism is a cult (it is the official opinion of MoeLane.com that Mormonism is not*). What to do, what to do?

:shrug: If you’re an African-American voter? Stay home. That’s not partisan hackery, either: more accurately, partisan hackery is lining up nicely with the uncomfortable truth that politicians will never take a group seriously if they know that they can also utterly take it for granted. So it doesn’t really matter whether I am being self-serving, here (I totally am) – I’m also being right. Continue reading #rsrh African-American voters and the Democrats’ false Hegelian choice of 2012.

#rsrh Let me restate Nate Silver’s answer to the question…

…”Do Democrats Have a Shot at the House?”

Not particularly, but I write for a paper whose readers don’t want to see that.

I understand that the folks working for the regular media corporations have minimum output levels to consider, but come on. At this point in 2010 it was blatantly obvious that the Democrats were going to lose the House; the only question was how far the rubble would bounce. Today, we’re looking at… an election. The Democrats could net ten; the Republicans could net… I don’t know, five or so… and it’s probably going to be only a couple of seats, either way. We’ll win some, they’ll win some, Nancy Pelosi will not be Speaker of the House in 2013.

And thank God for that.

More or less via @CTIronman

1994’s Axelron versus 2012’s Axelrod!

As you probably read yesterday or today, video has surfaced from 1994 showing a David ‘Axelron’ (clearly the Nega-universe alternate conservative doppelganger of Obama henchman David Axelrod*) commenting disapprovingly about a President who… airily played golf in the middle of a sour economic patch while telling people that things were going swimmingly. I just couldn’t resist cutting this one down to size and highlighting some of the absurdities. Particularly since the Democrats are going to want to memory hole the entire thing, right down to the very year.

Karma. It’s what’s for dinner. Continue reading 1994’s Axelron versus 2012’s Axelrod!

#rsrh Noticed something interesting about these RCP race rankings.

Essentially, that they’re not really all that, well, volatile. Here’s a partisan breakdown of what RCP considers to be the most at-risk House and Senate races:

	10		15		25
	D	R	D	R	D	R
House	4	6	7	8	12	13
Senate	7	3	11	4	–	–

RCP also ranks this year’s gubernatorial elections, but there are only eleven of them anyway (thus making a Top Ten list kind of meaningless). So, let’s look at the Congressional results: Continue reading #rsrh Noticed something interesting about these RCP race rankings.

#rsrh Barack Obama, the witherer of youthful hopes.

People wonder, sometimes, what keeps me going. What motivates me? What inspires me? And I say: personal narratives. Narratives like… Meagan Cassidy’s.

On election night 2008, freshman Meagan Cassidy left Lake Forest College and hopped a train to Chicago to celebrate Barack Obama’s impending victory.

“There was probably no better place to be,” Cassidy said in a phone interview. The excitement generated that evening spurred her on to become an intern and then a field organizer in three congressional contests and two human rights campaigns.

Now a senior, Cassidy, 21, said she’s not working on a campaign this time around.

There’s nothing like looking at a Democratic activist soured on the messy task of doing individual campaigns and thinking I helped with that disillusionment. Not specifically, but I contributed. It’s very empowering, really. Continue reading #rsrh Barack Obama, the witherer of youthful hopes.

#rsrh QotD, The Answer’s Not Obvious? edition.

David Paul Khun, in the course of writing a reasonably clear-headed analysis of the 2012 Democratic electorate (and why the Democrats are messing it up):

America is the only Western nation where the liberal party consistently loses the workingman (and woman). No comparable European democracy has seen the conservative party unfailingly win the Archies and Ediths for more than three decades. Now Democrats seem to be on the verge of resigning themselves to this trend.

There are myriad macro reasons for this exceptional fact of American politics: a center-right nation, the two-party system, the modern contest for identity blocs, the unusual eminence of cultural issues in American politics on both the right and the left.

It also doesn’t precisely hurt that, by and large, the Democratic Establishment kind of publicly loathes and despises middle and lower class white voters.

Well, it doesn’t precisely hurt us.

#rsrh Another debate tonight! Vegas, baby!

CNN, starts at 8 PM. There are three people that matter: Cain, Perry, Romney. Cain… it may be messy for Cain tonight; whom the media gods would destroy, they first make the temporary anti-Romney. Perry needs to do something. Romney needs to man up; because if you think that the media and other Democrats have any intention of letting him coast until November 2012 (assuming that Romney gets the nomination, which is not actually assured at the moment), I suggest that you look up what happened to John McCain.

Continue reading #rsrh Another debate tonight! Vegas, baby!

Failed-plan expert President Obama lectures GOP on plans.

But I’m sure that Barack Obama means well.

Isn’t this just the cutest thing?

If the video doesn’t load, Breitbart TV pulled the relevant quote:

“My plan says we’re going to put teachers back in the classrooms, construction workers back to work… Tax cuts for small businesses, tax cuts for hiring veterans, tax cuts if you give your worker a raise. That’s my plan. Then you got [the Republican’s] plan which is ‘let’s have dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance’… So far I’m feeling better about my plan.”

Continue reading Failed-plan expert President Obama lectures GOP on plans.

GOP candidates! Boycott the Nevada debate*!

It’s been reported that Jon Huntsman has decided to boycott the Nevada CNN debate next Tuesday as part of a larger pushback against Nevada’s moving up its caucus date. I applaud this act of principle, and encourage all other Republican candidates** to follow suit immediately.

In fact… this problematical situation vis a vis the creeping primary dates have gotten so out of hand that the only reasonable thing to do at this point is to have all Republican candidates*** refuse to do any more debates at all until the state GOP parties resolve this issue.

Moe Lane
Continue reading GOP candidates! Boycott the Nevada debate*!

#rsrh Senate Democrats struggle to avert their DOOM.

And I wish them joy of the attempt. The Hill, musing on why beleaguered Montana Senator Jon Tester opposes Obama’s latest attempt to be relevant on job creation:

…those facing tough reelection fights will smell the same danger Tester has: that President Obama’s latest jobs bill is less a real jobs program with any chance of passage than a reelection strategy that could end up pushing Obama’s remaining congressional majority – the Democrat-held Senate – over a cliff.

House Democrats fell into this trap in 2010: putting their careers on the line for Obama initiatives like “cap and trade” that had no chance of becoming law. One term later, Senate Democrats are poised to do the same for a stimulus and tax plan that has no chance of becoming law – but serves up a useful sound bite for a president “running against Congress.”

(Via Instapundit) Frankly, Senate Democrats might as well line up behind Obama’s plan: it’s not like doing otherwise will save them. Tester, both Nelsons, McCaskill, and Manchin are in serious trouble this cycle. Heck, Casey, Stabenow, and Brown of Ohio aren’t exactly sitting pretty right now, either? And that’s not even bringing up the half dozen Democrats who are retiring, thus making most of those seats prime pickup territory. Under the circumstances, well, show some party loyalty. Maybe it’ll get you a nice lobbying job in 2013.

Or not. Either way, to dispute the Hill story title: Tester isn’t the canary. The canaries were Jimmy Webb of Virginia and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, both of whom have already looked at the map of 2012 and decided that it just wasn’t worth the aggravation…

Moe Lane