15 | October | 2010

I have no idea what to blog about today, so I’m gonna go with a linkfest.

Did you watch the Sharron Angle/Harry Reid debate, last night? Michelle Malkin has the video, plus commentary and Dan Riehl did some fact-checking. Even liberals concede that Reid lost the debate, though both were awkward at times, (esp Harry, of course). Erick Erickson on the question of the night: Sharron Angle Scores! Jennifer Rubin says, despite the left’s attempts to paint tea partiers as loons, the most reasonable person on that stage was Angle. Rush is calling it for Angle, saying that it was knockout…not even close. Pack your bags, Dingy.

Hypocrisy alert: Jim Treacher: Whoopi Goldberg just published a book on civility. No, seriously!

Woohoo alert: Jim Geraghty gives us all a riddle:

From the Campaign Spot:

“Reliable GOP Source: Hey, you can’t print this, but we just had a poll come back saying that [House Democrat who everybody figured was pretty safe] is down 20.

Me: Well, that’s swell. But why can’t I use this?

Reliable GOP Source: We don’t think the Democrats know this guy is this much trouble, so we don’t want to tip them off.

More election news at Beltway confidential: Ouch: Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., has just one donor from his district

The Daily Caller on my favorite Democrat: Pat Caddell, furious over ‘hypocrites’ in the White House, unloads on Obama:

Veteran Democratic operative Pat Caddell is unloading on the White House, saying he’s had enough with the president whose “hypocrisy” on campaign finance “is just mind-blowing.”

“My problem with Obama started the day he blew up public financing of presidential campaigns,” Caddell said in an interview with The Daily Caller. “He’s the man whose done the most to destroy whatever integrity there was in campaign financing.”

Obama declined public funding of his presidential campaign in 2008.

The administration’s attacks, Caddell said, on groups like the Chamber of Commerce and donors like the conservative Koch brothers reek of McCarthyism.“I was the youngest person on Richard Nixon’s enemies list. I take this stuff seriously. What they’re doing is Nixonian – it’s McCarthyite,” he said.

***

Caddell also took a swing at Obama’s inner circle.

“These are naive idiots who’ve come out of academia and have never done anything real in their lives, and they are actually in power,” he said. “These are the people we never let in the room when we had serious business to do. Now they’re running the country.”

Yeah, and who put them there? Jennifer Rubin puts the blame squarely where it belongs:

Actually, the biggest problem is not the staff. The one who came out of academia and who had not done much that was “real” (other than write books about himself and get elected) before coming to the White House is Obama. That’s who has been leading the McCarthy-like attacks. That’s who’s got nothing to offer on the economy and jobs. Granted, Obama is surrounded by political hacks who lack real-world experience, but he put them there, and he’s shown himself to be sorely lacking in know-how and judgment when it comes to everything from the Middle East to “shovel-ready” jobs.

Check back, I’m just getting started.

John Hawkins: The Pamela Geller Interview

Michelle Malkin: Why I’m not donating to the Chamber of Commerce

My Fox News colleague Glenn Beck yesterday urged his radio listeners to participate in the “largest fundraiser for the Chamber.” Several readers wanted me to join in.

Sorry, but I can’t think of a more perfect illustration of that old saying that “the enemy of your enemy is not always your friend.”

A word of caution from Francis W. Poretto: Wishful Thinking Dept.: A Bloodless Revolution

Big Government: EXCLUSIVE: Illinois Elections Officials Caught Lying About Military Ballots

PJ Media: ‘Voter Fraud Watch’ — Uncle Pajamas Wants You!

Don’t forget you can sign up to do a little GOTVat Freedomworks’ bethewave2010.com.

Great news for Jacob Turk: Jacob Turk Pulls Within Single Digit Striking Distance of Incumbent Emanuel Cleaver in Missouri’s 5thCongressional District

The Case Against Cleaver, Part 2: Spittlegate

The Case Against Cleaver: Part One

Gotta love Cold Fury: “I’m not anti-Semitic! And did you notice how those damned Jews hounded me out of a job?”

How come I can never think up great words, like, “gorgon”?

Uplifting story of the day: The Blog Prof: Rescued miner says he saw God, devil during captivity, “I buried 40 years of my life down there, and I’m going to live a lot longer to be a new person”

Another uplifting story of the day: Rusty Weiss at the Daily Caller: The culture of life

It took 9/11 for Rusty to appreciate the value of life.

Reading that made me think of this 2003 NRO oped in honor of Roe v Wade’s 25th anniversary: Dead Reckoning:

Everything abortion touches, it corrupts. It has corrupted family life. In the war between the sexes, abortion tilts the playing field toward predatory males, giving them another excuse for abandoning their offspring: She chose to carry the child; let her pay for her choice. Our law now says, in effect, that fatherhood has no meaning, and we are shocked that some men have learned that lesson too well.

I was pleased to find that online.

Michelle Malkin: Public Enemy Number One: GOP donors

Can you stomach Ed Schultz and Alan Grayson together in one video? If you can, you have a stronger constitution than I have…Hot Air: Video: National embarrassment upset that GOP is calling him a national embarrassment

He is, of course, every inch a national embarrassment — and yet still not the biggest embarrassment to appear in this clip. That would be Schultz, who actually lets this bottom-feeder skate when he dares, dares to complain about negative ads after running the two sleaziest, most offensive spots of the entire midterm campaign.

Allahpundit doesn’t even mention the gut-wrenchingly sycophantic Obama-water-carrying they did in the clip with their hand-wringing over {{{Republican Overseas donations}}}. Is it possible to OD on hypocrisy? I mean from watching it???-Because I feel woozy.

Iowahawk!!!

BELTWAY ADVENTURE

WELCOME TO ADVENTURE! WOULD YOU LIKE INSTRUCTIONS?

>YES

YOU ARE SOMEWHERE IN BELTWAY FOREST, WHERE SOME HAVE FOUND TREASURES OF GOLD ALTHOUGH SOME HAVE ENTERED AND NEVER BEEN SEEN AGAIN. MAGIC IS SAID TO WORK IN THE FOREST. I WILL BE YOUR EYES AND HANDS. DIRECT ME WITH SIMPLE COMMANDS.

YOU ARE IN AN OVAL OFFICE. THERE IS SNOW OUTSIDE. YOU ARE BEHIND A DESK. ON DESK THERE IS A BUST OF CHURCHILL.

YOU HAVE A CONGRESS.

YOU HAVE A SENATE.

YOU HAVE A MEDIA.

YOU HAVE A TELEPROMPTER.

YOU HAVE A MILITARY.

YOU HAVE A BIG JET.

YOU HAVE $3 TRILLION OF GOLD.

YOU HAVE 82% APPROVAL HEALTH.

THERE IS 7.2% UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE FOREST.

YOU HAVE A RACE CARD.

YOU HAVE INAUGURAL PARTY LEFTOVERS.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

>EAT LEFTOVERS

>RETURN BUST

YOU ARE IN AN OVAL OFFICE. YOU ARE BEHIND A DESK. ON DESK THERE IS NO BUST OF CHURCHILL. THERE ARE NO MORE LEFTOVERS. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

>GIVE SPEECH

YOU ARE IN AN OVAL OFFICE. YOUR APPROVAL HEALTH IS 81%. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

>NAME TEAM

Keep reading….

Linked by Michelle Malkin, Buzzworthy, thanks!

This is excellent news for a campaign that wasn’t even considered competitive a couple of months ago…

The Following is a press release from the Turk Campaign:

No End in Sight for Cleaver’s Downward Spiral as Democrat Failure and Lack of Message on Economic Issues Ignite Voter Rage

Lee’s Summit, Missouri October 14, 2010 As the New York Times reports a doubling of competitive House races across the United States, candidate Jacob Turk (R MO CD 5) commissioned Rasmussen’s Pulse Opinion Research polling service to measure sentiment for 500 likely voters (methodology) in the 5^th Congressional District of Missouri which includes Kansas City, Lee‘s Summit, Independence and Northern Cass County.

The major finding of the Pulse survey is conservatively Turk sits at 43 and has pulled to within single digits of the incumbent Democrat Cleaver who is at 52 with a 4 point margin of error and 95% confidence interval. Other survey questions point to an even closer race with Cleaver’s disapproval rating at 46% and the number of Turk individual contributors increasing to over 1,200 people with the most recent fundraiser over capacity.

The opportunity for Turk is 14% of likely voters who still have not developed an opinion of him with at least 6% of likely voters still undecided and similar candidates in other races polling at historic positive levels in the 5^th District.

Furthermore economic issues dominate likely voters’ concerns with cultural issues only in the single digits, which generally poll strongly in a district heavily influenced by conservative Democrats and Republicans. See Appendix A.

In 2006 Cleaver pulled 64 to Turk’s 32. In 2008 during the Obama landslide with high Democrat turnout and a depressed Republican base vote, Cleaver surprisingly did not improve his numbers again pulling 64 but this time to Turk’s 36 with Turk improving his percentages across all types of precincts, urban and suburban . The Turk campaign was still focused on building name ID which has reached the upper 80’s and a field organization now at over 4,100 active volunteers based on a multi-cycle strategy planned in 2006 .

The poll shows a 19 point swing from 2008 as Cleaver has lost significant support based on an historic outrage over President Obama’s and Cleaver’s failed economic policies that have exacerbated high unemployment, out of control spending and a record level of Federal debt and budget deficits.

This is supported by Rasmussen surveying the generic Congressional Ballot on October 11 with Republicans up 8 points over Democrats with the key finding being unaffiliated voters are sharply favoring Republicans, and the party out of power- which they have done for the last three cycles.

“Placing traditional media on top of a grassroots organization built over years, not months, in some of the toughest political cycles will make all of the difference in this race,” stated Jacob Turk (R-MO-5). “We leveraged social media, smaller events, door-to-door in almost every precinct and VOIP based phone banking to save money and reach the last of voters our field organization could not touch. These last two weeks will be the most critical of the last four years of hard work.”

“It’s clear all of Cleaver’s numbers are trending downward and there‘s nothing to stop it,“ stated James O’Brien, General Consultant, Jacob Turk for Congress. “I read about a 6 point difference based on all the statistical information we can gather and some variables in the questions asked. Outlier incumbent Democrats held their ground until very recently in polling, but that clearly is changing as no economic message has emerged from Democrats causing a matrix of problems not easily remedied in the time remaining until Election Day – de-motivating their base, motivating the Republican and conservative base, and igniting unaffiliated voters and the Tea Party movement to turnout and vote for Republicans and/or against current Democrat economic policy failures.”

Appendix A

“In terms of how you will vote in the next national election, are you primarily interested in National Security issues such as the War with Iraq and the War on Terror, Economic issues such as jobs and economic growth, Domestic Issues like Social Security and Health Care, Cultural issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, or Fiscal issues such as taxes and government spending?

9% National Security Issues

47% Economic Issues

16% Domestic Issues

7% Cultural Issues

16% Fiscal Issues

6% Not sure”

UPDATE:

KMBC reporter, Mike Mahoney says it’s an interesting poll, and agrees with KMBZ’s Shanin and Parks that if Turk is able to pull this off, it will be the political story of the year, but it’s significant that Cleaver hasn’t gone under 50%, yet, which would raise a red flag.

SEE ALSO:

Jack Cashill, Metro Voices: Is the Politically Impossible Possible in 2010?

Previously: