Beth Fouhy explores the intersection of electoral politics and OWS in this morning’s AP update, “Democrats See Minefield in Occupy Protests.”
Many pundits agree that President Obama’s strong card is his impressive accomplishments in international affairs. But how much his achievements will factor into voter choice is an open question. Maryland University political scientist Thomas F. Schaller offers some insights in his post, “Will Obama’s Foreign Policy Wins Lead to a Win Next Year?” at Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal Ball.
Robert Kuttner’s “Don’t Save Republicans from Themselves” at The American Prospect makes the case, short and sweet, for Dems to hold the line and refuse to sign on a Supercommittee deal favored by the GOP before the automatic cuts kick in. Says Kuttner: “The Democrats are holding all the cards. Is this really the moment to save the Republicans from themselves?”
Republicans are running scared about the Supercommittee deliberations. According to a Newsmax.com report, “Norquist: Democrats Sabotaging Supercommittee to Help Obama” by Paul Scicchitano and Kathleen Walter, the GOP’s chief government-basher has gotten his knickers all in a twist over, horrors, a political party putting political advantage before the good of the country.
Gingrich’s GOP opponents would have no trouble compiling a richly-detailed “Top Ten Reasons Why Newt is Unelectable,” list. But this latest revelation could be the deal-breaker.
David Catanese’s Politico update, “Outside groups begin assault with ads” reports that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is shelling out $1 million for their first salvo of ad buys targeting a dozen [Democratic} Senators and 50 congress members, including Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jon Tester (D-MT).
Here’s the Chamber’s attack ad targeting Sherrod Brown because he opposed unlimited drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and supported ending oil subsidies.
Meanwhile, Republicans are apparently having a hard time finding well-rounded candidates to help them take back control of the U.S. Senate, reports Jennifer Steinhauer in her New York Times article, “Feuding Hurts G.O.P.’s Hopes to Win Senate.” “The biggest fear among Republicans is of divisive primaries in which Tea Party-backed candidates prevail in states where they cannot win the general election, as happened in 2010 in Delaware, Colorado and Nevada, or that weaken the preferred candidate in the process.”
The Grey Lady also has a nicely-packaged wrap-up of “The Battle for the Senate” to date with a color-coded map and snap-shot summaries for each race.
The Republican House Freshman aren’t doing so well in fund-raising, reports Fredreka Schouten in USA Today. “Two-thirds of the Republican freshmen who captured Democratic-held seats in the GOP’s 2010 takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives saw their fundraising dip in the past quarter, campaign-finance reports show…The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has seen its fundraising surge, collecting $6.6 million in September, nearly double its August haul. The National Republican Congressional Committee raised $3.8 million in September, a 27% increase from its total the previous month.”
2011 may go down in U.S. political history as the GOP’s year of strategic blunders. Evan McMorris-Santoro of Talking Points Memo piles on in his post, “The Arizona Immigration Bill Seems To Have Created A New Swing State.”
Barbara Morrill has posted “The John Boehner Cries Caption Contest” over at Daily Kos. More than 200 entries so far.
