Today in PoliTicking:
‘The hits just keep on coming,’ as they say. For Democrats in general and President Obama in particular, however, that’s not good news.
Today the unemployment numbers for April show that only 115,000 jobs were created in that month. While unemployment fell to 8.1%, it did so because a huge number of Americans stopped looking for jobs. Instead, we see huge numbers of Americans applying for disability benefits. You think that’s a coincidence?
But the really bad news for Democrats is Wisconsin. Embattled Republican Governor Scott Walker’s campaign announced today he raised an impressive $13 million in the past reporting period, mostly from small donors, though he also has a solid base of supporters in the business community. Right now he has $25 million saved up for the coming recall election and leads in the polls.
Unions are trying desperately to turn back reforms to public union agreements which are weakening their political clout everywhere. They’ve made Wisconsin the front line in their battle against reform and plan to spend a whopping $40 million to try and unseat Governor Walker. Unions have the great advantage of being able to bring the funding of a national organization to bear, but their efforts to remove Walker have gained national attention and the governor is being supported by individuals across the country who believe in what he’s doing.
So, how is this bad for the president and for Democrats in Washington? Because this effort is going to siphon a huge portion of political funding away from national campaigns. Union coffers are fairly deep, but they’re not bottomless, and if Governor Walker manages to win the election, it will be a demoralizing and draining defeat for the unions. Democrats desperately need union support, but, one way or another unions are further handicapping Democratic efforts in November.
Let’s say unions do manage to unseat Governor Walker this summer? The funds going into the effort will not be easily or quickly replaced. With Democratic control of the senate in jeopardy and the House looking as if it will remain in Republican hands, this effort to win a battle could lose Democrats their war.
And if unions fail in Wisconsin, the loss is magnified in a such a way as it might hurt them far more than victory could ever help them. The recall election is one month away and a recent poll shows the Governor ahead of both his Democratic rivals. Many pundits predicted Walker’s defeat, now it seems he may well survive this all-out effort to replace him with a more compliant Democratic governor.
This is the race to watch as it will be a bellwether for elections in November. I think It’s time for me to donate to the Walker campaign.
This kind of talk from the President of The United States suggests to me that his advisors are, to put it bluntly, idiots. To have your president openly suggest his political opponent does not have the chops, the balls, the guts, the ‘moral fiber’ or whatever, to take down someone like bin Laden is a huge political mistake.
DNC Advisor to President Obama, Hilary Rosen, has something to say about women who choose to work in the home. It’s not real work.
As ABC is reporting today, Ms. Rosen basically accused Ann Romney, wife of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney of having “never worked a day in her life.” This despite the fact that Ann Romney gave birth to and raised five boys. She now has 12+ grandkids to her credit.
But, apparently, the endless hours stay-at-home parents spend raising children, keeping a home operational, handling expenses (as most women do these days), and a myriad of other things, is not real work to the President and his advisors. But the greatest irony of this comment was the fact it was spoken in an interview on CNN discussing the so-called GOP “war on women.”
Of course, anyone who believes this has no idea what it’s like to be a stay-at-home parent. What does the job entail? Well, I work in Human Resources field and have crafted many job descriptions, so I thought I would take a crack at it:
“The strict and arbitrary language of an antique Constitution.” Wait… what?
This is a quote from Ronald Dworkin’s article, Why the Health Care Challenge is Wrong, posted to The New York Review of Books blog (hat tip to James Taranto of the WSJ’s Best of The Web Today column). To be fair, Dworkin makes some relevant points, things I think most can agree on. Health care in America is expensive, and the system seems at times to work in an unjust manner. Yes, we have access to some of the best doctors, medical technology, and medications in the world. We also have some of the highest costs. And too often we hear stories of families bankrupted by an unexpected and devastating family illness.
But this article, and the thinking behind it, is less than scholarly. Actually, it’s dangerous. Read more
Anyone who has studied science or psychology knows about experimental effects. It’s like this, when you run experiments to test your environment, the very act of testing influences the results of your experiment.
It’s like trying to find out if the water is warm or cold by leaping into the pool. All those waves moving out from the point of impact, the temperature of your body when you hit the water, the thrashing motions of your swimming; all these are effects which will influence the outcome of your experiment. You could control for those effects to minimize them, and scientists often do their best in that regard. Often, but not always. Read more
I don’t understand this president. He’s surprised that his poll numbers are taking a big hit at historically high, and continually rising, gas prices. The fact is, presidents generally don’t have much short-term influence on prices at the pump, but they can have long-term impact through policies they pursue.
The White House said his policies were tackling a troubling topic for many Americans. This was underlined by a new Washington Post-ABC poll, which showed disapproval of Obama’s handling of the economy increased to 59 percent, from 53 percent when the survey was taken last month.
President Obama has been saying for years now that he wants higher gas prices. He’s the only president I can remember who stated that higher gas prices would be a good thing. And he has acted on that belief, vetoing the Keystone XL pipeline, pushing back on fracking, which promises to tap vast natural gas reserves in the US, and numerous other efforts by American companies to find and utilize fossil fuels.
The president has made it perfectly clear that he wants any form of energy, except for all the ones we currently have at our disposal. He doesn’t want coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear, despite the fact these resources are abundant and cheaper than any other alternative we know of at present. Read more
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. First Amendment – The Bill of Rights
The So-called “Wall of Separation”
On Wednesday, June 26, 2002, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit shocked the nation with a 2-1 decision banning the Pledge of Allegiance on the grounds that it improperly endorses religion. Since that time, this decision has become the rallying cry for athiests across the country and made Michael Newdow, the plaintiff in the case, a subject of both jeers and cheers.
During his many interviews, Mr. Newdow has consistently used the cliche, “wall of separation,” first coined by Thomas Jefferson, as his reason for pushing for the ban, as well as a revision of all currency and other materials in the United States which endorses religion of any kind. But does the First Amendment truly require the government to actively sterilize all its institutions and render them faith free?
Where did the whole “wall of separation” debate begin in the first place, and why has this phrase become the mantra of athiests and secularists? I think it best to begin at the beginning. Read more
