Somehow, Strickland finds a way to further damage Ohio's economy.

That headline in The Economist had me worried the moment I read it.

I knew Strickland's 3-C commuter rail project was a boondoggle and doomed to failure anyway. Now on top of it, it's going to damage our efforts to transport products for purchase.

Before we get into the whys, let's check out just how important efficient transportation of products by freight is to our economy.


So the more productive our frieght companies are, the lower prices are for our products. It makes sense. The easier it is to transport something, the less cost needs to be passed on to the consumer.

So how will Ted's 3-C plan damage freight productivity? Check it out:

The trouble for the freight railways is that almost all the planned new fast intercity services will run on their tracks. Combining slow freight and fast passenger trains is complicated. With some exceptions on Amtrak’s Acela and North East corridor tracks, level crossings are attuned to limits of 50mph for freight and 80mph for passenger trains. But Mr Obama’s plan boils down to running intercity passenger trains at 110mph on freight tracks. Add the fact that freight trains do not stick to a regular timetable, but run variable services at short notice to meet demand, and the scope for congestion grows.

[...]

Their main complaint, however, is that one Amtrak passenger train at 110mph will remove the capacity to run six freight trains in any corridor. Nor do they believe claims that PTC, due to be in use by 2015, will increase capacity by allowing trains to run closer together in safety. So it will cost billions to adapt and upgrade the lines to accommodate both a big rise in freight traffic and an unprecedented burgeoning of intercity passenger services.

Great. Just great.

Yet another way Ted's wasteful plan will damage Ohio's economy.

We need a budget.

But the Democrats don't want one.

It's actually pretty amazing. It wasn't too long ago that John Kasich worked with his colleagues to craft the first balanced budget since 1969.

And now the Democrats are going to try to operate our government without one.

How well would that work in your own home, let alone the federal government?

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio recorded this video to communicate the importance of the issue.



It's now appeared on two of the top national conservative sites in the nation, National Review Online and Hotair.com. Congrats, Congressman. And thanks for pushing this important message.

You are paying to promote Obamacare.

The cost of Obamacare just increased.

The President is spending $700,000 of your money to promote his health care plan.

Are you ok with that?

Just so you know what you're buying, here's the commercial that will be appearing on "CNN, Weather Channel, Lifetime and Hallmark – then will expand to further networks in coming months."

Kasich is winning the New Media war

The race for Governor of Virginia in 2009 was one of the two highest profile races of the year.

Similarly to John Kasich, the McDonnell campaign utilized youtube and social media as a new and effective way to communicate their message to voters and activists online.

Well, with still a bit over 3 months to go 'til election day, Kasich has already surpassed McDonnell's total number of hits on youtube.

While Ohio's gubernatorial race is high profile, it isn't getting the same attention one of the only two big races of 2009 received, for no other reason than there are 30-some other gubernatorial races, plus congressional races. And yet, Kasich's youtube presence still outperforms McDonnell. Impressive.

And what about Strickland, you ask? Kasich has more than five times the number of youtube hits as the incumbent Governor.

Additionally, each campaign has released one television ad. In two weeks, Kasich's ad has 24.9% more views than Strickland's ad has obtained in nearly three months.

Does it matter? Absolutely. Just ask Nielsen.

According to new data from The Nielsen Company, airing an ad both on TV and online greatly increases its effectiveness. In a Nielsen study of direct-to-consumer drug advertising, exposure on TV and online was more than twice as likely to prompt patients to ask their physician about the drug than on TV or internet alone. Compared to consumers who had only seen a TV ad for a specific drug, consumers who had seen both a TV and online ad were 100% more likely to ask their doctor about it.

So where does the rest of our social media measurables stand?

On facebook, Kasich has 22,444 fans. Strickland has nearly 6,000 less, coming in at 16,465.

On twitter, Kasich has 11,769 followers. Strickland has just 3,791.

It can be argued whether the stark differences in online success is due more to voter enthusiasm or more effective new media strategies, or a mixture of both, but the results are the same.

Kasich is able to directly connect with far more activists than his rival. That translates to better online fundraising, better volunteer support, and better GOTV opportunities.

Imagine if just 1,000 of Kasich's surplus of fans on facebook spend just one evening making only 20 phone calls each. That's 20,000 voters that Strickland isn't reaching.

And that kind of thing adds up.

No matter how you cut it, winning the online war matters.

Rep. McMahon doesn't like jews.

It doesn't get much facepalmier than this.

From RedState:

Rep. McMahon is claiming that he wanted to make sure that people knew that the 200K that his opponent Mike Grimm raised last quarter - which is, by the way, quite good for a challenger - wasn’t locally raised. Well, to start off with: there’s usually no particular stigma involved in getting money from out-of-district, although I suppose that NY-13 might be one of those districts where such things are important. Secondly, and more importantly: you’d think that if McMahon wanted to prove that Grimm was getting mostly out-of-district money he’d pass out a list of Grimm’s out-of-district donors. Not a list of Grimm’s Jewish donors.

You’d think.

The file, labeled “Grimm Jewish Money Q2,” for the second quarter fundraising period, shows a list of over 80 names, a half-dozen of which in fact do hail from Staten Island, and a handful of others that list Brooklyn as home.

“Where is Grimm’s money coming from,” said Jennifer Nelson, McMahon’s campaign spokeman. “There is a lot of Jewish money, a lot of money from people in Florida and Manhattan, retirees.”

Recovery Summer continues!

The U.S. GDP grew in the 2nd quarter at a staggeringly low 2.4%, down from 3.7% in the 1st quarter of this year.

But don't worry, the President was on 'The View'.

"Perhaps" you could have done better? Seriously, Ted?

"It shouldn't have happened."

"We were unaware."

"Perhaps we could have done a better job vetting the company."

That's what Ted Strickland said today in response to the report that federal stimulus dollars utilized by Ted Strickland's appliance rebate program ended up producing jobs in Texas and Central America.

If only someone had provided some recommendations for how to more responsibly spend these taxpayer stimulus dollars. How to make sure it wouldn't happen. How to ensure a company is properly vetted.

Oh wait, someone did.

From a letter Ohio's GOP congressional delegation sent to Governor Strickland in March of 2009:


And today, those same congressmen had some harsh words for not taking their advice.

“Ohioans deserve to know how their stimulus dollars are being spent, instead of shadowy backroom dealings,” said Congressman Pat Tiberi (R-Genoa Township). “We had hoped to shed light on the stimulus allocation process by asking the governor to bring in an independent oversight board. Instead, Governor Strickland seemed to think it was unnecessary; apparently it wasn’t. This money should have been used to get Ohioans back on the job. We take the responsibility of spending tax dollar seriously. It’s unfortunate the Strickland administration demonstrated such bad judgment.”

Ohioans have common sense.

The Buckeye Institute is an organization that has an agenda - that agenda being focused on encouraging fiscal responsibility in government.

But that agenda shouldn't lead Strickland's team to dismiss a new poll that has some bad news for the Governor and other proponents of the status quo.

The poll's sample included 1,800 Ohioans and the Party breakdown actually turned out to be particularly kind to Democrats. 40% of those surveyed were Democrats, 28% Republicans, and 32% Independents. The particularly large sample size (about 700 more than the average Quinnipiac poll) enabled a a small margin of error - just 2.31%.

I suggest reading the entire report, but there were a few results that particularly stood out.

The Deficit
When asked what they preferred as a means to solve Ohio's upcoming $8 billion deficit, voters were given three options: Reducing gov't compensation (read: pensions), cutting government services, and raising taxes.

The first choice across the board, among Dems, GOPers and Independents, was reducing pensions.

The second choice, far and away was cutting government services, once again across the board.

Increasing taxes was the clear loser. Remember, Strickland has refused to pledge to not raise taxes. And his only rhetoric against raising taxes was a statement about it being a bad idea to raise taxes "during a recession". What does that mean? As soon as Strickland deems our economy out of a recession, tax hikes are on the way.

Taxes
Ted Strickland doesn't seem to mind having the debate on taxes. After these results, I hope he continues that trend.

59% of Independents believe state and local taxes are too high. Even more amazing? 41% of Democrats feel the same way.

Think about that. When Strickland embraces the status quo, he's sending a message to a large chunk of his base and the plurality of swing voters that he disagrees with them.

Regulations
Kasich likes to talk about regulation reform in order to make the business environment more friendly.

Well, 61% of Independents and 41% of Democrats actually side with Republicans on this one in the belief that Ohio's regulatory environment makes things more difficult for business.

Unions
Ted likes him some big labor.

Unfortunately for Ted, that doesn't exactly work for the rest of the state.

77% of Democrats, 93% of Republicans, and 88% of Independents believe workers should have the right to choose to be a part of a labor union.

Ted disagrees.

Conclusion
Let's have the conversation on the budget, taxes, and the economy as a whole, Governor. If these results are any indication, it won't turn out too well for you.

RGA takes hypocrisy to the intertubes

New video from the RGA hits Ted hard:

Obama is slightly more optimistic than Leo from The West Wing

On The View this morning, it was reported that President Obama stated that he had wanted the first 20 months of his presidency to be focused on policy, and now is the time for politics.

Hmmm. Govern for only 20 months? That sounded familiar.

From Season 7 of The West Wing:

Leo: ...Forget about a four year term, the presidency is 18 months. That's your window. After that, there's midterms. No one on the Hill has time to do business with you, they're too busy getting re-elected.

Awesome. So the President of the United States gets his governing advice from Aaron Sorkin.

Now, to be fair, there is some truth to the point being made.

But that doesn't mean the President of the United States should be telling the world that his priority is politics, not governing.

Let's leave that to fake presidential advisors in reruns on Bravo.

I'm starting to feel bad for Lee Fisher.

No, not really. But I should.

Yesterday, we highlighted just a few of the headlines highlighting the downfall of Lee Fisher.

Well, it was a lot worse than three headlines.

Another issue to run on...

Somehow, the GOP has found yet another politically beneficial issue to run on.

The Bush Tax Cuts.

Or, at least that's what it says in a new poll conducted by Resurgent Republic.

To begin, the poll was taken in the dozen states with 2010 U.S. Senate races designated as "toss ups" by the Cook Political Report, including Ohio. They surveyed 1000 likely voters.

The topline results were consistent with what most major pollsters have found.

• The generic congressional ballot sits at 39-36, in favor of Republicans.
• Approval to disapproval of President Obama comes in at 47-50.
• And only about 28% approve of the direction the country is going.

Now here come the two key tax questions.

First, they ask whether voters are aware of the income tax hike due to come into effect on January 1st. Only 54% are aware. The breakdown by Party is particularly interesting. 70% of GOP voters were aware, compared to only 57% of Independents and 38%(!) of Democrats. Way to stay aware of current events, Dems.

Second, after informing the voters of the tax increases due to be reinstated, they ask, "if the Democrats who control Congress do not act to stop or delay these scheduled tax increases before the election, would that make you more likely or less likely to vote for Democratic candidates for House and Senate?"

Overall, only 21% were more likely to vote for a Democrat if they do nothing to stop the tax hike. By Party, that came down to only 9% of Republicans, 18% of Independents, and 36% of Democrats. In fact, a full 57% of Independents and 31% of Democrats said they would be less likely to vote for a Democrat if the tax hikes weren't stopped.

In other words, this is a winning issue across the board.

My next question is this - with Gov. Strickland finding no problem inserting himself into other issues of federal concern, such as the stimulus and health care debates, where does he stand on this issue?

He's made the point that he's against any tax hikes during a recession (despite the massive tax hike this past year), so does that mean he's against this one?

I'd like to know.

UPDATE: Newt on taxes and their effect on the economy next year.

Necesitamos un trabajo.

WCMH in Columbus had an awfully interesting report yesterday.



Was this really the intention of the Stimulus? Is this really how we want our tax dollars spent?

BREAKING: Could Cordray be knocked off the ballot?

If these allegations turn out to be true, the answer is "absofrickinlutely".

Today, the Summit County and Franklin County Republican Parties jointly filed a complaint against Attorney General Richard Cordray with the Ohio Elections Commission.

“Richard Cordray is ignoring campaign finance law and getting away with it,” Summit County Chairman Alex Arshinkoff said. “The public will see that Cordray’s campaign was wiring money to Democratic leaders at the last minute in a frantic attempt to hold on to $765,000 of illegal money.”

The complaint stems from Cordray’s attempt to avoid an Ohio law that prohibits state candidates from carrying over more than $200,000 from a previous election cycle. If a candidate has more than $200,000 from the previous election cycle at the filing deadline, the law requires him to donate the excess money to charity, give the money to the Elections Commission, or refund the contributions.

Right at the filing deadline last February, Cordray’s campaign had about $765,000 more than Ohio law allows. Instead of obeying Ohio law, Cordray “donated” $765,000 to the Summit and Franklin County Democratic Parties as well as the Ohio Democratic Party in the hours before the deadline. Since that time, about $493,000 of Cordray’s “donation” has been returned to him
by the Democratic Party, giving him full use of the money.

If you'll remember, 3BP was the first to note the strange discrepancies on Cordray's report all the way back in April. And it seems these charges have the potential to be devastating to the Attorney General.

According to Ohio law, the penalty for a violation of the excess funds law requires Cordray to forfeit all of the money over the limit to the state of Ohio. Additionally, Cordray could be prohibited from appearing on the ballot if he failed to dispose of more than $5,000 in excess funds. The complaint alleges Cordray failed to dispose of more than $760,000 in excess funds.

This could be huge, folks.

Portman breaks out the big guns.

Those big guns?

Lee Fisher's own words.

The Implosion.

I've known Lee Fisher would be a bust for awhile.

Of course, so did anyone else with a lick of common sense.

I first discussed it back in April when I thanked Chris Redfern, Ted Strickland, and the ODP for screwing over Jennifer Brunner.

Then more recently on 3BP, a post in mid-July was the first to portend a wave of media coverage that would make Fisher's communications director faint....if one existed.

And now I present to you, my viewing audience, The Implosion.

These headlines all come from one 24 hour span:

Politico:


The AP:The Cincy Enquirer:
Try convincing a major contributor to donate to the Fisher campaign after seeing those headlines.

Yeesh.

Facts are facts.

Lee Fisher is going to be a serious drag on the Democratic ticket this November.

Governor Hypocrite

Yesterday, the Ohio Republican Party came forward with their first major attack against the Strickland campaign.

The Ohio Republican Party called Gov. Ted Strickland a hypocrite today for criticizing GOP challenger John Kasich's work at Lehman Brothers while taking contributions from Wall Street and giving state business to Lehman.

Politically speaking, the timing was impeccable.

Ted Strickland and his allies have made attacks against John Kasich's tenure at Lehman Brothers the centerpiece of Ted's re-election campaign. He's fully invested into the strategy. And after months of television advertisements, the voters know it. They connect Strickland and the Lehman attack as one.

Polls show Kasich's approval numbers have only been minimally damaged by the attacks, and in some cases have improved. And despite it all, Kasich still maintains a lead over Strickland.

At the same time, polls from PPP and Quinnipiac show Strickland's disapproval numbers actually increasing since the ads hit the air.

So what happens when those same voters that connect Strickland with Wall Street attacks find that their very own Governor doesn't have much of a problem cozying up to Wall Street himself?

It damages the Governor.

Now in response, Strickland's campaign team laughably tried to dismiss the entire attack based on the inclusion of certain professions as being considered a part of "Wall Street". Nevermind the fact that they ignored two important things in their response.

First, in fact, Strickland did accept contributions from high powered individuals and PACs representing "Wall Street", including heirs of the Lehman Brothers family. In other words, individuals that directly and greatly benefited from Lehman Brothers and its downfall, likely far more than John Kasich ever did, were found worthy of contributing to Ted Strickland as recently as 2009 and 2010.

But second, and most importantly, Strickland's team failed to recognize that the Democratic Governors Association didn't just use "Wall Street" ties to attack Kasich, but also tied in contributions from the "financial industry".

From one of the DGA's commercials:


Why does that distinction matter?

Republicans later explained that Strickland, while still a member of Congress in the 1990s, voted for the commodity futures modernization act and financial services modernization act. Both measures, according to Republicans, broadly defined the financial services industry as including insurance companies along with investment banks.

"These are the terms that were defined by Ted Strickland and his Democratic allies. We used the same filter when we went through and looked at all his campaign contributions," DeWine said. "They are the ones who defined Wall Street as the State Farm agent."

Republicans also charged that Strickland or one of his appointees has awarded over $6 billion in work to Lehman or Barclay since 2007 through several deals.

Those transactions include two huge deals from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency which awarded one contract to Lehman in August 2008, a month before the firm collapsed, and another in October 2008, a month after Lehman went under, to Barclays, which took over part of Lehman.

Strickland's campaign manager Pickrell did not address those charges.

Silence, Aaron?

You might as well have exclaimed, "guilty as charged!"

UPDATE: Watch the ORP presser here...

Kasich supporters should welcome President Obama with open arms

Is Ted Strickland sane?

Or is he just that desperate for campaign cash.

That's the only explanation for bringing in a President that has worse approval ratings than Ohio's own Governor.

Either way, my fellow GOPers, this is a gift. Embrace it.

President Obama will lend a hand to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland's re-election campaign next month.

Strickland's campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith confirmed the visit Tuesday after it was reported in the Columbus Dispatch.

Obama plans to deliver a speech on the economy in Columbus on August 18, followed by a fundraiser for Strickland and the Ohio Democratic Party.

President Obama hasn't received a positive job approval rating from Ohioans in any poll since October of last year.

In the last two polls from Rasmussen and Quinnipiac, Independent voters have given the President the following approval ratings, respectively.

30%. 40%.

Additionally, that same Quinnipiac poll also showed only 41% of Independents and 46% overall wanted to see their next Ohio Senator support the President's policies. Now, to be fair, the question didn't mention anything about Governor, but considering how closely Strickland aligns himself with the President in supporting his proposals at the federal level, it does give an additional indication of how the close association with the President will affect the Governor.

And to top it all off, clearly the Kasich team has an indication that the Strickland/Obama association damages the Governor.

That's why they produced this ad several weeks ago:



New Jersey. Virginia. Massachusetts.

All states went hard for Obama in 2008. All three rebuffed him in 2009.

When President Obama went to New Jersey just prior to election day in 2009, his Strong Approval ratings in the state stood at 38% and Rasmussen had Chris Christie up 3 points. Nationally, the President's Strong Approval(as opposed to overall approval) rating floated around 30%.

After the President went back to Washington, Christie went on to win by 4 points.

Prior to the President's trip to Massachusetts to campaign for Martha Coakley, Rasmussen had Scott Brown down 2 points to Coakley, and Barack Obama's Strong Approval at 37% in the Bay State.

Brown went on to win by 5.

Since then, the President's Strong Approval ratings have sunk even lower - sitting at 31% in Ohio and 25% nationally.

Now consider that the President's strong approval rating at the time of his visit in New Jersey, a strongly blue state, was 7 points higher than it is now in Ohio polling, and 6 points higher in Taxachusetts.

To put it simply, if sending Obama didn't work in New Jersey and Massachusetts, it definitely won't work in the Buckeye State.

Welcome, President Obama. Make yourself at home.

14 weeks. 98 days.

My loyal readers, this is one helluva video.

Watch it.

How bad is that enthusiasm gap in Ohio?

Well, if the Ohio Young Democrats are any indication, it's worse for the left than previously imagined.

How bad has it become?

They let their website expire.


And it doesn't end there.

The Ohio Young Democrat facebook page has only five entries since May 1st.

For comparison's sake, the Ohio Young Republicans facebook page has that many entries just in the past 12 days.

And the OYR website? Blowing up with activity.

It's very simple. You don't win elections without volunteer support. You don't have volunteer support without enthusiasm. You don't have enthusiasm when the top of your ticket is Ted Strickland and Lee Fisher.

And the Ohio Young Democrats, what is supposed to be a primary driver of volunteer support, are a leading indicator of the challenges facing the left in November.

h/t: Henry Hill

Three down. Almost.

Larry Sabato says Democrats in the House will lose 32 seats.
Stuart Rothenberg says 28-33.
Charlie Cook says between 30 and 40.

And if the National Journal's new rankings are to be believed, that's very bad news for three Ohio Democrats all within that range of vulnerability.

Yesterday, the NJ released their rankings of the seats most likely to switch hands. And there were some familiar faces:


So if some of the nation's top political prognosticators are to be trusted, these three Democrats are as good as gone.

What's particularly noteworthy is the change in the rankings. Kilroy moved up 10 spots. Driehaus moved up 2. Boccieri wasn't even previously ranked.

That speaks directly to the quality of the GOP challengers.

Rothenberg also recently had some additional bad news for other Ohio Dems. Rep. Betty Sutton was moved up from "Democrat Favored" to "Lean Democrat". That explains the sudden surge in spending by the DCCC in order to protect her seat.

The wave cometh.

Ohio! Tops at Being the Worst!

Ok, maybe that shouldn't be a motto at Ohio's Travel & Tourism Office.

But with all the different rankings out there showing just how bad things are in Ohio, it's frighteningly accurate.

After all, everything is relative. If you aren't beating your neighbor, you're losing.

And in Ohio's case, we seem to be the pipsqueak on the of the gym floor of economic success.

Two new rankings highlight Ohio's deficiencies.

Portfolio.com and bizjournals have developed a nine-part formula to analyze state-by-state employment trends. The formula uses U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for the latest five-year period (May 2005 through May 2010), focusing on raw and percentage changes in private-sector employment, as well as unemployment rates.

In their scoring of Employment Rankings, Ohio sits in 45th. Ugh.

Then we have a new ranking from US News and World Report that gauges the best and worst places to build a nest egg.

As workers throughout the country struggle to rebuild their savings, it's clear that not all states are created equal. With that in mind, U.S. News created an index to measure which states are the best—and worst—for Americans who are saving for retirement. We've looked at each state's housing market, unemployment rate, per capita income, and taxes to get a sense of where Americans are most likely to be able to tuck away money for their nest eggs.

Where's Ohio? Dead last.

With rankings like these, is it any wonder no one buys what Ted Strickland is selling?

Utter and complete disarray

That's the state of Lee Fisher's campaign.

Total disarray.

After changing campaign managers twice this year, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Lee Fisher now is losing his press secretary, the Fisher campaign confirmed today.

John Collins has been Fisher's spokesman for the past eight months. The campaign said the parting was "mutual and amicable" and that a new spokesperson will be introduced this week.

It turns out Collins landed feet first with a job on a race in Kentucky.

So if we add it up, in July 2008, the United States Playing Card Company and its 400 workers moved from Cincinnati to Kentucky. Then in April 2009, DHL and its 8,000 workers moved from Wilmington to Convington, KY.

So I guess we can bump the number of new Kentucky jobs up to 8,401, all thanks to Ohio's Job Czar, Lee Fisher.

The fact is this, campaigns simply aren't supposed to lose their press secretary less than 100 days out from the election. That only happens when things are going extremely poorly.

And they are.

Does anyone think such a shake-up will inspire any confidence in donors? Didn't think so.

As I wrote earlier this month:

...the question is less whether Lee can beat Rob Portman, but more about how much of a drag Lee Fisher will be on the entire Democratic Party ticket in Ohio.

After all, high profile statewide races are primary drivers for get out the vote efforts that have a trickle down effect throughout other races.

If Fisher's campaign still continues to fail to inspire volunteers to make GOTV phone calls and doesn't have the money to help shape the message on Ohio's airwaves, then there is little doubt the Lieutenant Governor has become a severe liability.

I don't think it's a question anymore. Lee Fisher will be a liability to Democrats in November.

Poor Crystal and LeBron

Ted isn't very good at this.

67,944-0?

This past Saturday, 100 days out from election day, volunteers for Republican candidates around Ohio made a difference.

On July 24th the Kasich Taylor Campaign participated in the Victory 2010 Super Saturday grassroots activities. Working with the other statewide campaigns, the Kasich Taylor campaign kept the phone banks humming all day long. In Victory Centers around the state, and folks using the Phone from Home program, a total of 473 volunteers made 62,944 phone calls!

Also on Saturday, the Kasich Taylor campaign worked with six Ohio House Republican candidates to knock on doors in targeted House Districts. Braving the heat, 122 volunteers knocked on over 5,000 doors!

That's how you outwork your opponent.

Grassroots wins elections.

Keep up the great work, everyone.

Compassionate stupidity.

As you likely know, the man who was responsible for this...


...is now a free man in his home country of Libya.

The terrorist responsible for the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am 103 was given compassionate release by Scotland last year. We were told he would soon die of cancer, and for some reason, someone cared.

The Obama Administration told us the release was a surprise and they had no role. They lied.

Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison.

The intervention, which has angered US relatives of those who died in the attack, was made by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, a week before Megrahi was freed in August last year on grounds that he had terminal cancer.

The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama’s claim last week that all Americans were “surprised, disappointed and angry” to learn of Megrahi’s release.

As Ed Morrissey fairly states on Hotair.com:

The letter did not give a green light to Megrahi’s parole to Libya. Nevertheless, it shows the kind of ineptitude that has plagued the Obama administration’s diplomacy from the “reset button” with Russia to this day. LeBaron’s note was a clear signal to Scotland that the US had lost most of its interest in Megrahi; recall that the US had insisted originally that any parole must include extradition to the US. The Scottish government must have presumed that we would not strenuously object to their release of Megrahi to the Libyans after LeBaron failed to raise that point and demand Megrahi’s extradition.

Also, it shows that the Obama administration lied about being surprised by Megrahi’s release. They knew it was coming, and while they may have been surprised that he went to Libya, the White House knew Scotland was going to spring Megrahi one way or the other.

This never should have happened.

"I know it won't be Strickland."

For over a year, I've been pushing the mantra that the outcome of Ohio's gubernatorial election is dependent upon one thing - the jobs crisis.

There is a caveat, of course. If some unexpected major event or development at the national or state level took place it could change the political dynamic. But seeing as such an event is both unexpected and impossible to predict, it's of no value to include it in any type of political analysis.

Last November, I had a chance to speak with Peter Brown of Quinnipiac Polling. In our discussion about the Ohio races, he said the following:

Ted Strickland's chances of turning around the Ohio economy when the rest of the nation's economy goes like this [points down] is zero. And intellectually, everybody understands that, but that won't stop them from voting him out.

Voters are much less complex than many of us think. They like things. They don't like things. Most of them don't focus on specifics. [In 2008,] Barack Obama was the antidote to George W. Bush. In Ohio, John Kasich is the antidote to Ted Strickland.

Pretty simple, eh?

This weekend, a new article from William Hershey reinforced Brown's point. It highlighted a frustrated Ohio voter that pushed the button for both Strickland in '06 and Obama in '08:

Voters like Golden are upset and looking for someone to lash out at. No incumbent is safe from their wrath.

Strickland in 2006 promised to turn around Ohio. He didn’t qualify the pledge by adding — “except if the economy tanks.” He gets no sympathy from Golden.

“They get up there. They promise this and that. We’re going to get jobs in Dayton, Ohio,” she said. “Where are they?”

NCR went to Georgia, she added.

“We lost all of our people here for GM in Moraine,” Golden said.

[...]

Golden said she doesn’t know much about Kasich and wants to look over the whole roster of candidates for governor before deciding whom to back this time.

“I know it won’t be Strickland,” she said.

Ouch.

And this is the problem I've seen for the Governor in poll after poll for months. While the toplines have remained close, the inherent frustration in the electorate was undeniable.

They haven't been happy with the direction in which Ohio is going. They are very unhappy with the handling of the economy. And they disapprove of Strickland. They realllllyyy disapprove of Strickland.

And it's not just Republicans and Independents that feel that way. In poll after poll we've seen an unusually high number of Democrats that don't approve of their own Governor. In their latest polls, Rasmussen had Dem approval of Strickland at 72% (among likely voters), PPP had it at 61% (among registered voters), and Quinnipiac had it at 66% (among registered voters).

After four years, having 1/3 of your own base failing to approve of you means there are serious problems. Not only do you have to turn their opinions around, but you also have to inspire them enough to actually get out and vote. With less than 100 days until election day, that's a tall order.

Strickland's campaign seems to think demonizing John Kasich will save this election for the Governor.

Surely, repeated attacks will damage the Republican candidate. Spending millions on attacks and making speech after speech about him will do that.

But for Strickland to have a chance, the Governor's campaign needs far more than just 50%+1 having an unfavorable opinion of Kasich - they need massive and sweeping disapproval. After all, this is still a referendum on Ted Strickland. Voters may not like John Kasich, but unless they have a vastly improved perception of the Governor, they will be willing to give just about anyone a chance. That's the challenge of incumbency.

And as of right now, Strickland's approval number is going in the wrong direction.


What about Kasich?

His latest favorables in Rasmussen stand at 49-31. 28-19 in Quinnipiac. And 28-30 in PPP. Not exactly "massive and sweeping disapproval", eh?

Those numbers improved from the last Rasmussen poll. And got slightly worse in Quinnipiac and PPP.

That said, it's important to note the duration between the two sets of poll data included two months of Strickland/DGA/Union ads attacking Kasich and vastly outspending the RGA and Kasich. In other words, Kasich's negatives darn well should have spiked.

But they didn't.

I've said it time and time again, when Strickland started the ad war, he needed to find a way to improve his numbers while damaging Kasich. That isn't happening. Instead, Strickland is digging himself ever deeper into a hole.

But with this jobs crisis, how can Strickland possibly climb out of that hole?

He can't.

Dick Morris tells poorly dressed man that Portman and Kasich will win

Click below to play:

Jimmy Stewart drives around the Earth 20 times.

Well, he could have.

But I digress.

Voters like to know their elected officials are working hard for them. And in Ohio's 20th Senate District, all those voters need to do is look at State Senator Jimmy Stewart's odometer.

In the Statehouse and back home, Stewart has come to be known as a tough and savvy State Senator representing a portion of Southeast Ohio.

And this afternoon Sen. Stewart crossed a most ridiculous threshold; surpassing 500,000 miles in his 1995 Geo Prizm.

That means he could have driven his car around the world over 20 times.

Congrats, Jimmy. And keep up the hard work.



UPDATE: I was made aware of a liberal Ohio blog pointing out a goof I made in this post. Originally, I said Stewart could have driven 63 times around the earth. In a rush to congratulate Jimmy I used diameter instead of circumference for my calculation. Oops. Still, 20 times around the earth is still damn impressive. Especially in a Geo.

On a sidenote, I'm sorta flabbergasted that this blog has gotten big enough that lefty blogs write entire posts about a mathematical goof I made. I'm flattered, fellas.

More DGA #fail

Wow.

This is embarrassing.

"I can see a few people saying, 'I want my money back.'"

Indeed.

Same as it Ever Was

Usually I'm not one for satirical political songs. I tend to find them overly cheesy and desperate.

But this one takes a great song, has some genuine fun with it, and actually does it really well.

Check it out:

Strickland makes his debut on Politifact....and falls flat on his face.

PolitiFact is a left-leaning fact-checking website that takes statements by elected officials and candidates and breaks them down to determine their accuracy.

It's my understanding that they've recently teamed up with the Plain Dealer to expand their reach into Ohio.

Well, today saw Governor Ted Strickland's debut and, um....it didn't go so well.


Yeesh. If the lefty Politifact is calling Ted out on this b.s., he must have some serious issues.

While it’s true that the total pot of money going to funding primary and secondary schools in Ohio will grow by 5.5 percent during the current two-year state budget that ends in July 2011, it’s not state aid that is responsible for the hike. State aid to schools will actually be lower by about $32 million--from $6.542 billion in 2009 to $6.510 billion in 2011. On a district-by-district level, that means about 60 percent of the more than 600 school districts in Ohio will get less money for operations in the current two-year budget cycle than they did before.

[...]

The natural impression left by the governor’s words "we invested in our children, increasing school funding" is that Ohio’s state government took steps to increase the amount it puts toward education. In fact, it was the federal government that has invested more in Ohio’s children. And six out of 10 Ohio schools districts have less money to spend on operations than they did in the previous budget under Strickland.

We find the governor’s claim to be False.

Not a good start, Ted.

Are you ready for a tax hike?

On December 31st, the 2003 Bush tax cuts expire.

When that happens, these are among the changes you'll see in the tax structure of the United State:

As you can imagine, this could absolutely wreck whatever economic recovery may be in place by then.

From the WSJ:

The reality is that the increase in the top marginal income tax rate to higher than 41% will hit the most profitable small businesses especially hard. That's because millions of business owners pay individual rates under Subchapter S of the tax code. Today, this means they pay the same top rate as the Fortune 500: 35%. But if the 2003 tax rates expire, they'll suddenly pay more than Goldman Sachs.

New data from, of all places, the Democratic-run Joint Committee on Taxation show that in 2011 roughly 750,000 taxpayers with net business income will pay the highest marginal rate of 39.6% or the next highest bracket of 36% (up from 33%). About half of the roughly $1 trillion of total net business income will also be reported on those returns. In a stroke, that will make tens of billions of dollars unavailable to invest or to hire new workers.

So far, the Obama, Pelosi, Reid triumverate have shown no indication that the tax hike is a bad idea.

But a few key Democrats may force their hand.

The revelation that tax increases could hurt the economy has recently been heard from Senators Evan Bayh of Indiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and, most surprising, even from Kent Conrad of North Dakota. On a scale of unlikely events, this is like the Pope coming out against celibacy. As Senate Budget Chairman, Mr. Conrad has rarely seen a tax increase he didn't like, but this week he averred that "As a general rule, you don't want to be cutting spending or raising taxes in the midst of a downturn."

As the WSJ mentions, this isn't exactly a conversion to the supply-side economics, but we'll take what we can get.

Ultimately, with enough attention, this tax hike has the potential to be a critical campaign issue.

It's a massive tax hike that is scheduled to happen unless this Congress and President put a stop to it.

That provides an opportunity for Republican challengers to step up and ask of their opponents, "do you stand with Nancy Pelosi in the belief that pulling billions of dollars from small businesses will help the economic recovery?"

Paint the incumbents into a corner. "Are you for a tax hike or not?"

Make your choice.

UPDATE: Use this tool to determine how the upcoming tax hike will affect you: http://www.mytaxburden.org/

The DGA is freaked out.

The Democratic Governors Association released this video yesterday to their supporters.



In light of their desperate situation, the video is clearly meant to inspire.

And it would be cute if it was produced by some College Democrat.

But this is the DGA. They aren't supposed to be dropping s***'s and implied eff bombs.

I guess this is what you do when you're scared.

6 days.

6 days.

That's how long it took John Kasich's new ad to gain more hits than Ted Strickland's ad has earned in two and a half months.

Desperation, thy name is Strickland - Part 2

Yesterday, the Ohio Democratic Party took yet another desperate leap on behalf of Ted Strickland.

With the Lehman attacks failing to make a serious dent in John Kasich, they decided to highlight Kasich's endorsement of George W. Bush in 2000.

Ah, the Bush card.

You'd think Lis Smith, Strickland's communications director would have learned her lesson by now.

When she ran communications for Jon Corzine, they put a lot of money into this ad hitting Chris Christie.



I don't think I need to remind you that it failed miserably.

But it doesn't end there.

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post ran a story awhile ago providing some historical context into how worthless a strategy it is to attempt to use a former President in campaigns:

A look back at history suggests that even the most disliked of presidents tend to linger over their party's candidates only while they remain in office.

In 1974, the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon -- coming as it did just three months before a midterm election -- badly damaged his party, which lost 48 House seats and five Senate seats. Two years later Jimmy Carter was elected president largely on his pledge to be the anti-Nixon -- but congressional Republicans lost only a single seat in the House and no seats in the Senate.

Carter's ineffectual presidency cost him the White House and his party 34 House seats and a whopping 12 Senate seats in 1980 but two years later any lingering distaste for Carter had clearly worn off as Democrats picked up 26 House districts.

So why such desperate attacks against Kasich?

Because the Governor doesn't have the record to make voters want to vote for him. Instead, he's hoping to make this election into a referendum on John Kasich.

That won't work.

Why not? I'll give you 15 reasons why not.

That's the current streak of months with double digit unemployment in Ohio.

This election isn't about Lehman, or Bush, or even Ted's keggers.

It's about who can bring jobs to Ohio.

Kasich's optimistic message is working.

And Ted's record can't be erased.

Desperation, thy name is Strickland - Part 1

Today the Strickland campaign is once again calling a news conference to attack John Kasich over his work for Lehman Brothers.

This time they are trying to push the meme that Kasich isn't credible because he apparently forgot to mention he had a 10 minute phone call 8 years ago.

"One of our associates in our real estate area received a phone call from Mr. Kasich about eight years ago in mid-2002," Laura Eckler, spokeswoman for the pension system, told The Dispatch.

"Mr. Kasich was pitching Lehman’s brokerage service to sell our mall portfolio. It was less than a 10-minute conversation. STRS Ohio did not use Lehman for the project."

OMGZZZ!!!!

This could very well turn the race, folks.

Ha.

The thing is, the whole idea that the Kasich campaign isn't forthcoming is a load of bull. In fact, back when the Dispatch first started reporting on the story, the campaign actually provided the Big D with information they didn't have about Kasich's discussions with Ohio officials.

In fact the campaign told The Dispatch at the time that Kasich never approached any other Ohio governmental entity about doing business with Lehman. However, it was the campaign that initially brought to light the PERS meeting, because officials at that fund initially couldn't find any record of a Kasich contact.

So if Kasich's campaign wanted to hide involvement, why would they reveal something of which there was no way of proving? See my point?

The fact is, Strickland believes voters should punish Kasich because he couldn't remember a 10-minute phone call from eight years ago.

Anyone think it will work?

Didn't think so.

I think the real question is this - when will the Strickland campaign stop wasting the media's time with underwhelming press conferences?

John and Mitch

Have some free time this afternoon? Put on some headphones, and watch this event.

Jindal Revisited

Over a month ago I wrote a post highlighting how LA Governor Bobby Jindal was in prime position return to the elite upper echelon of influence within U.S. politics.

Many within political circles still like to pan the Governor for his awful performance a couple years ago when he responded to President Obama's first State of the Union. Well, I hate to break it to ya, but if you asked the American public about that moment, 99% of them would have no idea what you're talking about. That stuff is inside baseball.

What matters is now, and right now the Governor is showing what real leadership is about. Check out this recent speech rallying Louisianans in response to the Gulf disaster.

He's off script, off prompter, and really knows how to connect with the crowd.

Oh, and he's brilliant.



This speech went so far as to make the widely influential conservative Hotair.com blog remark:

With the exception of Christie, no Republican governor’s done more over the last three months to impress the righty base, I think, than this guy has. Exit question: Second look at Jindal 2012?

It's a good question.

His resume far outweighs anything Obama had done prior to becoming President.

He's been a successful and wildly popular Governor in Louisiana.

He's well spoken, provided he's not over-handled the way he was in the previously mentioned presidential response.

His challenge? He's up for re-election in 2011.

As we all know, jockeying for position for the 2012 GOP nomination started quite a while ago. By October of 2011, the month before Jindal's campaign climaxes, we'll be revving full speed ahead with the GOP presidential primary battle.

Jindal has a few options if he wants to toss his name in the ring.

1. Don't run for re-election. This is a risk for obvious reasons.
2. Run for re-election and hope his Democratic opponent is so weak that he/she doesn't pose a serious threat, thereby allowing him to test the waters in New Hampshire.
3. Run for re-election, ignore the primary, and hope things are such a mess by mid-November that he's recruited by a sizable segment of activists. (Similar to Fred Thompson in '08, but without the lazy campaign style)

Even if he bides his time, he would be a top tier choice for Vice President.

Daniels-Jindal '12.

I like it.

Whatever you do, don't let Ted Strickland promote your business venture.

Early in his term, Ohio Governor Strickland announced a deal with Russian steel company MMF to much "fanfare".

They never ended up investing anything and recently pulled out of the deal completely.

Last year, Strickland jumped up and down with glee when taxpayer dollars were used to provide subsidies for 40 jobs with the folks that make Purell.

And now that same company is washing its hands clean of 150 people.

With Ohio's tax and regulation environment, starting a business in Ohio is scary enough. Don't take any chances and invite Ted to your ribbon cutting.

A poll that should scare the hell out of every Democratic incumbent

This poll came out yesterday here in Virginia. It should be noted that the Democrat incumbent is not guilty of any scandal or bad reputation, separate from voting for the liberal agenda.

In an election for US House of Representatives in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District today, 07/20/10, Republican State Senator Robert Hurt defeats incumbent Democrat Tom Perriello 58% to 35%, according to this latest exclusive WDBJ-TV poll conducted by SurveyUSA.

Perriello, who defeated 6-term Republican Virgil Goode by 727 votes in 2008, today trails among most demographic groups.

[...]

The composition of likely voters for this survey is 42% Republican, 27% Democratic. This composition reflects an energized Republican base and an enthusiasm gap for Democrats, evident in SurveyUSA polling from around the country. If the electorate is more Democratic than shown in SurveyUSA’s model here, the Republican still wins, though his margin of victory is less. For example, if hypothetically there were an even number of Democrats and Republicans in the likely voter model, Republican challenger Hurt wins today by 11 points, not 23.

SurveyUSA is a very well respected polling firm and well known for their accuracy.

I particularly appreciate not only how they take voter enthusiasm into consideration, unlike many polling firms, but also provide the results if a more Democratic model is used.

But more to the point, this 23-point turnaround against a Democratic incumbent has to scare the living heck out of every Democratic incumbent out there.

As Jim Geraghty states:

If swing districts that were 50-50 in 2008 now have Republicans winning by 11, it’s going to be a phenomenal year for the GOP. If it really is a 23-percentage-point margin, we may run out of adjectives for what November has in store for us.

All Tom Perriello did was vote with Nancy Pelosi. That's it. And he's getting demolished.

Kasich edges closer to magic number

You win elections by getting 50%+1 of the vote.

And with the latest Rasmussen poll, Kasich has inched ever closer to the magic number.

While Kasich's lead has shrunk from 7 to five points, his support has increased from 47% to 48%.

This begs the question, if Democratic attacks are working, why is Kasich's support increasing?

And it's not just when it comes to support for Governor. His favorables are up as well, going from 44-32 to 49-31. Among Indies those favorables went from 42-26 to 53-33. An 11-7 bump is always welcome.

Hell, even among Democrats Kasich went from 20-51 to 27-42.

With this in mind, I beg Ohio Democrats to keep using Lehman as their primary point of attack.

Seriously.

Other interesting points in the poll:

• The number of Ohioans who rate the economy as good or excellent sits at 6%. No, that isn't a typo.
• Only 28% of Ohioans believe the stimulus helped create jobs. I hope Ted keeps hanging his hat on that one.
• Ted's disapproval sticks at 55%. Ouch.
• The President's approval rating is 46% in Ohio, the same as his national rating from Rasmussen. Which also happens to be higher the Quinnipiac's poll released earlier today. Darn that Rasmussen bias!

We've still got a long way to go, but the time for Ted to start turning around his approval numbers is quickly growing shorter.

He needs a turnaround. And fast.

The Stimulus Didn't Work

From lefty mag The Atlantic:

The median duration of unemployment is higher today than any time in the last 50 years. That's an understatement. It is more than twice as high today than any time in the last 50 years.

About Strickland's FOP endorsement.

It's not a surprise.

It all goes back to Cathy Collins-Taylor, and her husband's high level of influence within the FOP. Strickland took some political hits for her, and the FOP endorsement is his reward.

And I called it back in May.

But we all know Strickland won't budge in his defense of his Director of Public Safety. After all, her husband, a power player in the FOP, most assuredly would punish Strickland if he failed to support her. And Ted doesn't want to lose that endorsement.

Fortunately, the Governor's ineptitude has saved him this time. Because he forgot to send Collins-Taylor to the Senate for approval, she still needs to go through the confirmation process. Clearly, the GOP run Senate can't allow someone like this to continue serving the public. And now Governor Strickland doesn't have to be the bad guy.

The only story would have been if Strickland didn't win the endorsement of the union. It most assuredly would have caused quite an uproar within the silent circles of the left.

Ultimately, these endorsements will keep rolling out benefiting both sides.

The question is which can and will be best utilized, and how.

One of the very few ways endorsements can help a campaign is when they help reinforce a message of importance to the voters.

On TV, Strickland can say "And that's why I have the support of police across the state."
With his endorsement from the NFIB, Kasich can say "I have the support of small business because I know how to bring jobs to Ohio."

They both have their positives. The question is what rings more important to the voter.

UPDATE: I’ve learned from sources that in yesterday’s surprise floor fight over the FOP’s governor endorsement, a motion for a secret ballot was denied, which allowed FOP enforcers to keep track of and potentially retaliate against Kasich supporters. Even with that threat, the 174-151 vote to endorse Strickland was amazingly close. Sensing a revolt on their hands, FOP bosses relented on the next ballot—for US Senate—and allowed a secret ballot, which Rob Portman won.

The nation is waking up.

Even Quinnipiac says so.

In just one month, the President's job approval rating shifted by 9 points, going from +5 to -4. At 44-48 approval to disapproval, this is "his worst net score ever". From just one year ago, Obama's shift among Independents is a net negative change of -29.

Bad news also came from another big question - would you vote for President Obama or a generic GOP candidate for President. By 39-36, the Republican wins. While I'm happy to see a generic GOP candidate winning, that's not the important part of the equation. It's a lot easier for generic candidates to win vs real-life candidates that have real records and real problems. In fact, what I'm particularly happy about is that Obama is only winning barely more than 1/3 of the vote. That's a very clear referendum on where he stands right now.

Even worse for the President, that 36% shrinks to 27% when asked of the all-important Independent vote.

The generic congressional vote shows Republicans up +5. The lead is a +11 improvement from the last poll for Republicans. Even better, Republicans are +15 among Independents. This should help cool off those on the left that were so excited by the upshift in the recent Gallup generic poll.

Another interesting result came from asking about approval of Republicans and Democrats in Congress. For a few months we've seen Democrats substantively ahead on this front. This led many to suggest that the GOP wasn't providing a viable alternative. Well, this new poll shows both Dems and the GOP statistically even. And that's bad news for the Party in power.

Other bad news for the President and the Party in power?

• 27% are satisfied with the way things are going in the nation today.
• Just 39% approve of the President's work with the economy.
• 41% approve of his handling of the Gulf Oil Spill.
• 30%(!) approve of his work with illegal immigration.

The Tea Party is still a winner, with 33-31 approval. That number jumps to 39-28 among Independents. Do Dems really think vilifying a movement where not even 1/3 of the people disapprove is a winner?

My LOL moment of the poll? The question asking whether the President campaigning for a candidate would make them more or less likely to vote for the candidate.

Only 12% said more likely. 30% said less likely. Among Indies that jumped to 12-35.

My "a lot of good this does us now" moment of the poll? By 37-35, voters think we'd be better off with John McCain in office right now. That jumps to 38-27 among Indies.

Ultimately, this is a no-good, awful, crappy poll if you're a Democrat.

And the best part? The sample was registered voters. Registered voters traditionally lean further left than likely voters.

The nation is waking up.

Do mainstream journalists have the courage to report on their own?

The Daily Caller came out this morning with a most intriguing expose'.

It's based around the infamous Journolist, the listserv comprised of several hundred journalists. The listserv was taken down last month after a leak came from within.

Well, with blood in the water, conservative journalist Andrew Breitbart jumped all over the news and has been working feverishly to obtain details about what exactly was discussed on the listserv.

His first expose' highlights a concerted effort by many in the media to downplay the Jeremiah Wright story of 2008 and attempt to turn the tables on Republicans.

I highly recommend you click here to read the entire article.

There's more to it, of course. As Ace of Spades discusses...

The defense will be made, and it's true to some extent, that the people engaging in these racist strategy sessions are mainly out-and-proud lefties, and so this doesn't say anything about the broader MFM.

But it does -- because the broader MFM may not have been commenting -- too careful to weigh in like that and leave tracks -- but their representatives were reading. And they seemed to be of like minds.

In the midst of this collaborative enterprise, Holly Yeager, now of the Columbia Journalism Review, dropped into the conversation to say “be sure to read” a column in that day’s Washington Post that attacked the debate.

And I don't see the Daily Caller noting any MFM types making a defense of ABC's coverage of the bona fide story.

Indeed.

This is a big story. Let's see what media types decide to cover it.

If they don't start showing some principles now, what happens when even further damning evidence is unveiled down the road, as is Breitbart's style.

Ohio Democratic Congressmen are addicted to special interest money

Opensecrets.org is a great website that provides some details into the money behind campaigns.

One of the best breakdowns they provide highlights the money raised by special interests, or PACs, versus money raised by individuals.

As you'll see below, some of the most hotly contested congressional races in Ohio show a few Democrats that have an overwhelming reliance on special interests. The three highlighted below show Charlie Wilson, Marcy Kaptur, and Betty Sutton with 2/3 or more of their fundraising haul coming from special interests.

Take special notice of the percentage of PAC money versus Individual dollars in each race.

OH-6

OH-9

OH-13

If these three Democrats win, they'll have special interests to thank. And when you owe your career to special interests, they expect you to pay up.

Compare that to the three Republicans. Two of the three are largely self-financing their races thanks to their success as businessmen. And the third is running as solid a race as can be expected against an incumbent liberal with 3 out of 4 dollars coming from special interests.

Maybe one of these days this meme that the GOP is the Party beholden to special interests will go out of style and reality will set in. At worst, both Parties have their issues. But as can be seen above, when the chips are down we know who these Democrats run to for help.

And with upwards of 3/4 of their cash coming from special interests, we know who they'll be beholden to if they win in November.