Redstate

Posted at 9:28am on Jun. 12, 2008 The Great Democratic Middle Class Rorschach Test continues.

Anybody have a scorecard? Or even a program?

By Moe Lane

As per Pejman, this is getting kind of silly. Somebody should be helping out poor legislators like Allyson Schwartz (D-PA), who has to be on the front lines of keeping the definition of "middle class" flexible, if not boneless:

Alternatively, you can go look up Marina Kats, who has volunteered to do an intervention on Rep. Schwartz in PA's 13th District, and see what you can do to get that particular project going. The Pennsylvania GOP would love to hear from you, too.

Posted in 2008 | Allyson Schwartz | Marina Kats | Pennsylvania | The Middle Class — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:05am on Apr. 23, 2008 A map for victory in the fall and beyond

What urban realignment could look like

By Soren Dayton

I am going to be a little deliberately provocative and speculative. Barack Obama puts urban white ethnic voters in play in a way that we may not have seen in our lifetime, indeed in our parents' lifetimes in many places.

Look at two maps of Philadelphia. The first one is the results of yesterday's primary. The second one is a map of the city that marks the density of African-American vote. I urge you to click on the results map and look at the ward-by-ward results. The key observation is that Obama is winning 80-20 or more in black wards. And Clinton is winning 80-20 in white wards.

What strikes me is that Barack Obama has been unable to break out of his African-American and university support into the broader white-working class. (note that Temple and the University of Pennsylvania are on the South side of Philly)

The areas that Clinton won have either Republican or organizations on the ground (primarily Northeast Philly) or have demonstrated willingness to support Republicans (the South Philly wards, overlapping with retiring State Sen. Vince Fumo's (D) district in which Rick Santorum had performed well prior to 2006)

We can convert these. Read on.

Posted in Archived | Barack Obama | Democrats | Hillary Clinton | Pennsylvania — Comments (16)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:36am on Apr. 23, 2008 PA Dem exit polls: Obama failed

People who cling to religion bite Obama

By Soren Dayton

Barack Obama had 6 weeks to demonstrate that he could improve his connection with the Democratic base over the Ohio results. He outspent Hillary Clinton 3-1.

And he didn't move the dial one inch. Not one inch. In fact, in a number of cases, he actually lost ground.

The data comes from CNN's OH and PA exit polls.

	OH		PA
	Hillary	Obama	Hillary	Obama
Catholics	63	36	70	30
Weekly Churchgoers	51	47	58	42

Obama lost ground among Catholics and weekly churchgoers.

The samples are small, but Clinton's support among union members went from 55-43 to 59-41.

And Clinton won Pennsylvania Jews 57-43.

Condescension loses votes, and Obama is losing votes. That's stuff that the Democratic super-delegates need to think about.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Democrats | Hillary Clinton | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Primary — Comments (13)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:58am on Apr. 22, 2008 Read about election irregularities play-by-play

And take notes when for when they turn their knives on us in the fall

By Soren Dayton

The great thing about Democratic primaries is that all the unethical and criminal things that Democrats do to Republicans in a general election are being used on other Democrats, like the union intimidation that has occurred in some of these caucuses. There's only two things for Republicans to do. Document it and grab the popcorn.

The Election Journal is on the ground documenting today's irregularity. Previously they explained that, yes indeed, Obama is doing the walking around money thing.

Examples from this morning are merely logistical mistakes like broken machines and the delivery of wrong machines, are unfortunate but probably somewhat inevitable in large systems.

Some are typical voter suppression strategies like misleading voter alerts. It is a staple of Democratic mythology that Republicans are always doing this. Hmmmm.

Then there are deliberate violations of the laws to protect election integrity, for example,election monitors being refused entrance to polling places by (parts of) the Democratic machine. This is what the Democrata are all about. Kick out independent observers so that they can cheat their little progressive hearts out.

For more examples of what the Dems do, I refer you to a recent study by Heritage.

Posted in Archived | Democrats | Electoral Fraud | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Primary — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:32am on Apr. 20, 2008 Obama, Philly street money, and the criminals that make it work

This must be that new politics he keeps talking about

By Soren Dayton

Last week, Barack Obama made some news. He wasn't going to play the walking around money game in Philadelphia. Here's what our own Moe Lane said:

Like Ed Morrissey, I'll grant this right off the bat: Senator Obama's taking the high ground on this one. While what he's refusing to do is actually legal, it's not particularly ethical*, either, and doing it would clash horribly with his perceived campaign style. Not doing it is a risk for him, so if it works out, he's going to reap considerable political benefits from it.

If it doesn't work out, he doesn't just lose PA. He loses PA filthy.

Our friend Barry was going to do the right thing.

Not any more. But, somehow, that wasn't an LA Times story or a big press release. Besides, "walking around money" and "canvassing money" are totally different. Read on.

Posted in Barack Obama | Blogosphere | Electoral Corruption | Electoral Fraud | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Primary — Comments (13)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:25pm on Apr. 15, 2008 The Best Ideas From Both Parties

One Terrific Video After Another

By California Yankee

Senator McCain's campaign has launched his "first general election ads in Ohio and Pennsylvania."

Titled "Ignite," the fast moving 30 second spot appeals to swing voters promising the best from both parties:

Announcer: As President, John McCain will take the best ideas from both parties to spur innovation, invest in people and create jobs.
Taxes — simpler, fairer. Energy — cleaner, cheaper. Health care — portable and affordable. Workers retrained, mortgage debt restructured, education transformed. Initiatives that will unite us and ignite our economy.

Big ideas for serious problems. John McCain.

Another well-done effort from McCain's video folks. The quick images of tax forms, wind turbines, medical professionals and office workers illustrate the script. Homes and children roll across the screen to make McCain's point.

Since McCain won the Republican nomination, his campaign has cranked out one terrific video after another. My favorites are Tolerance And Respect and Courageous Service, but there has been a whole series of great McCain videos.

Posted in 2008 | John McCain | Ohio | Pennsylvania — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:47am on Apr. 15, 2008 Obama tries to redefine bitter. McCaskill talks beer.

By Erick

Holy cow these people really are out of touch. Obama today thinks he can redefine bitter.

"I know that there's been a lot of fuss over the last couple of days because I said that people were bitter," he said in addressing the Buildings and Trade Unions Conference this morning. "People seemed to misunderstand what that means."

Yes, you rubes. Don't you know what bitter means?! Geez, must Obama do everything for you and explain everything to you? You simple Pennsylvanian hicks.

Of course today, it's not bitter, but anger. Apparently it is anger, not bitterness, that has caused people to pick up their guns and Bibles and kill all the illegal aliens. That's it! That's the ticket! Maybe if Obama had just used the Luke - Emperor Palatine dialogue about anger and the dark side instead of talking about bitter Pennsylvania hicks turning into terrorists because they're angry, it would have gone over a lot better.

Oh, and don't miss Claire "I'm not bright" McCaskill on Bush and beer:

MO Sen. Claire McCaskill, who introduced Obama, put her own spin on the charge by rivals that Obama is "elitist" -- pointing to the perception that many voters had of President Bush as a man who someone could have a beer with and relate to as a regular guy.

"I remember the dog days right after Al Gore won that election, and I remember one of your members coming up for me, and he said well you know I guess it could be worse, that guys seems like he'd be a good guy to have a beer with," McCaskill said. "You know I know something about drinking beer, because I'm from St. Louis – we drink a lot of beer in St. Louis and not just for the TV cameras – we drink a lot of beer in St. Louis. But I'll tell you, his beer that we've had with George Bush has been the most expensive beer in the world's history.

Shorter Claire McCaskill: Obama isn't a likeable fellow and you wouldn't want to have a beer with him, but sometimes you need arrogant jerks instead of nice guys.

Posted in 2008 | Claire McCaskill | Not the Coldest Beer in the Fridge | Obama | Pennsylvania — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:27am on Apr. 2, 2008 Chris Hackett for Congress

By lesliecarbone

Pennsylvania's 10th District sat safe in Republican hands since the 1960s--that is, until after the 2006 election, when Rep. Don Sherwood was deservedly bounced from the seat after his involvement in a bizarre episode of adultery, abuse, and cover-up came to light.

The Sherwood saga began in 2004, when one Cynthia Ore locked herself inside the bathroom of his Washington, D.C., apartment, and called 911 to report an assault. When police arrived, she accused the married Congressman of choking her; he countered that he had merely been giving the young woman a massage. No charges were filed, as "Both parties have left out significant information or are not willing to discuss in detail what actually happened," according to the police report.

The report went unnoticed until 2005, when Veronica Hannevig, who had run against Mr. Sherwood on the Constitution Party ticket in 2004, distributed a copy to several newspapers and television stations. Mr. Sherwood initially claimed that Ms. Ore was merely a "casual acquaintance". He later admitted to a five-year adulterous affair with her, but denied abusing her.

Ms. Ore later filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against Mr. Sherwood, accusing him of repeatedly assaulting her during their relationship. On November 8, 2005, the two announced that they had reached a settlement, but did not reveal its details.

Read on . . .

Posted in 2008 | PA-10 | Pennsylvania — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:18am on Apr. 18, 2007 Them Targetted Dems

By Erick

How are the Freshman Democrat Blue Dogs doing? These are the men and women who beat Republicans in Republican leaning seats and promised to be Republicans without the corruption. Well, Robert Novak has a report card.

Thus far, Gabrielle Giffords, Harry Mitchell, Joe Donnelly, Brad Ellsworth, Nancy Boyda, Heath Shuler, Charlie Wilson, Chris Carney, Jason Altmire, and Nick Lampson have disappointed. In fact, Lampson failed to vote on either the GOP proposed budget or the Democrat budget. And sadly, Gabrielle Giffords, Nancy Boyda, Chris Carney, and Jason Altmire voted in lock step with the Democrats from embryo killing research to eliminating the secret ballot in the workplace.

Chris Carney, whose district gave Bush 60% of its vote and Nick Lampson whose district gave Bush 64% of its vote have both voted in lock step with Nancy Pelosi on every issue, other than Lampson bailing on budget votes.

As Robert Novak notes

By winning a term in 2006 to represent a Republican district, each of the Democratic moderate freshmen earned two years to convince GOP voters that Democrats can look after their interests just as well as Republicans. But to the extent that each votes and thinks Democratic, each also risks a short career that could be over as soon as 2008.

You can read the whole article here.

Posted in Arizona | Indiana | Kansas | North Carolina | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Targets | Targetted Seats | Texas — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »