"The basic battle in this country is between those who believe in personal responsibility & those who do not. The latter seem on the cusp of winning the battle, if they have not already done so." – Bart McPherson writing in the WSJ earlier this month
"I lost very few cases as a lawyer & I've won very few in politics." – SC Congressman Trey Gowdy after the House vote last week to reopen the government, raise the debt ceiling, & fund ObamaCare
click on graph to enlargeThe above graph is part of a very controversial WSJ/NBC News Poll conducted October 7 to 9 that was headed jointly by Democrat & Republican pollsters to learn the mood of the country regarding the government shut down & debt ceiling problem – both of which were unresolved when the poll was conducted.
The controversy centered around both Texas Senator Ted Cruz & radio talk show host Mark Levin not believing the results of the poll that showed not only deteriorating results for the Republican Party concerning the handling of the shut down & debt ceiling matter but an increase in positive feelings toward BO & a decrease in his negatives. Their challenge is that the poll over weighted the responses of government workers & their families. I know many of you in this readership saw &/or heard their challenges.
After reading the entire poll online I found there was such an apparent overweighting so I contacted the reporter who participated in the poll.
The reporter not only answered the apparent statistical overweighting contention to my satisfaction but he gave me valuable insight into the findings of the rest of the poll It was explained that the category defining "government workers" includes military personnel & their families which brings the weighting of respondents into statistical line.
It is not just the predictable result that the Republicans would get the blame for the shut down & debt ceiling scare but that these pollsters saw a dramatic doubling since September in the number of people who see the economy worsening – these same people had an increasingly positive feeling toward BO (see top of above graph) as they realize they may need government help if they are not already getting it. There was a large jump in support of the government doing more to solve peoples' problems & in a boomerang effect there was a slight uptick in support for ObamaCare – that is the ultimate insult to Cruz & his followers who vow to fight on (see list that follows of 18 senators & 144 congressmen who voted against reopening the government, raising the debt ceiling, & funding ObamaCare – please note that Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn was against Cruz's tactics but still voted "Nay" on the Senate floor). The reporter told me "That gap (between the number of Democrats & Republicans) appears to be widening. It may widen still further if the findings of this poll reflect a reality that hardens."
In the June 16 post NJ & VA Candidates In The Electoral Spotlight Need Tea Party Support I wrote "Now Virginia is in a much better position than NJ in that Ken Cuccinelli (Lonegan's friend) is running for governor with a good chance to win in that he has won elections in VA before although his last election for state senate in 2007 was a squeaker. Ken was elected AG in 2009 & is running with E.W. Jackson for lieutenant governor."
The Tea Party being blamed for the federal government shut down is not the type of support I meant.
Some 30% of the electorate in Virginia lives in northern Virginia in the Washington suburbs & these people were adversely affected by the shutdown.
Now Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe is no more a Virginian that Hillary was a New Yorker during her Senate run but McAuliffe is now favored to win. Hillary has endorsed McAuliffe, raised money for him, & knows Virginia is a must win battleground state in the 2016 presidential race – just think how many times BO & Mitt were seen in Virginia this time last year. Bill is also going to campaign with McAuliffe. Hillary is counting on McAuliffe winning the governorship & retuning the favor to her by controlling every political apparatus a sitting governor can in her favor in 2016.
I have heard lately that the Dems are playing chess & the Republicans are playing checkers – well make that Chinese checkers. At least in checkers you use the same board as chess.
We are losing ground. We are not gaining ground.
QUESTION: On Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendments
BILL TITLE: To condition the provision of premium and cost-sharing subsidies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act upon a certification that a program to verify household income and other qualifications for such subsidies is operational, and for other purposes
| Yeas | Nays | PRES | NV | |
| Republican | 87 | 144 | 1 | |
| Democratic | 198 | 2 | ||
| Independent | ||||
| TOTALS | 285 | 144 | 3 |
| Aderholt Amash Amodei Bachmann Barr Barton Bentivolio Bishop (UT) Black Blackburn Brady (TX) Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Broun (GA) Bucshon Burgess Campbell Carter Cassidy Chabot Chaffetz Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Conaway Culberson Denham DeSantis DesJarlais Duffy Duncan (SC) Duncan (TN) Ellmers Farenthold Fincher Fleischmann Fleming Flores Forbes Foxx Franks (AZ) Garrett Gibbs Gingrey (GA) Gohmert Goodlatte Gosar Gowdy Granger | Graves (GA) Graves (MO) Griffith (VA) Hall Harris Hartzler Hensarling Holding Hudson Huelskamp Huizenga (MI) Hultgren Hunter Hurt Johnson (OH) Johnson, Sam Jones Jordan King (IA) Kingston Labrador LaMalfa Lamborn Lankford Latta Long Lucas Luetkemeyer Lummis Marchant Marino Massie McCaul McClintock Meadows Messer Mica Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Mullin Mulvaney Neugebauer Noem Nugent Nunnelee Olson Palazzo Pearce | Perry Petri Pitts Poe (TX) Pompeo Posey Price (GA) Radel Reed Renacci Rice (SC) Roby Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rohrabacher Rokita Rooney Ross Rothfus Royce Ryan (WI) Salmon Sanford Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Sessions Smith (MO) Smith (TX) Southerland Stewart Stockman Stutzman Thornberry Turner Wagner Walberg Walden Walorski Weber (TX) Wenstrup Westmoreland Williams Wilson (SC) Woodall Yoder Yoho |
| McCarthy (NY) | Rush | Young (FL) |
| NAYs ---18 | ||
| Coburn (R-OK) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Enzi (R-WY) Grassley (R-IA) | Heller (R-NV) Johnson (R-WI) Lee (R-UT) Paul (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) | Rubio (R-FL) Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA) |
| Not Voting - 1 | ||
| Inhofe (R-OK) | ||
You have a full time job re: pulse of the country. You have to realize some of these congressmen/women vote the way they do, because people they represent , believe in their cause, not what is good or not good for the country.
ReplyDeleteTed Cruz and his followers believe in their cause.
What is disturbing - they are putting the entire country in a bad situation as viewed by outsiders (foreign governments.)
We are in a mess, and will continue so until early next year when same problems appear again - hopefully this time around a solution can be found.
Europe also not in great shape.
I have to give you and Carol credit for doing the job you are doing.
Apply Saul Alinsky tactics by not allowing a huge crisis (ObamaCare) go to waste. Keep on hammering away about the damn web site built with 10 year old software with inadequate QA. Explain this does not occur in successful private companies that excel and create jobs that self sustain them. Tie ObamaCare to socialism and keep on repeating Socialism never works. Tea party and conservatives - now the real fight begins. Repeat every day all the lies BO stated about ObamaCare. Time for a full court press 4 quarters and overtime. Soon we will have ObamaCare on the ropes. Keep on throwing multiple punch combinations and KO BO!!
ReplyDelete