Visual Source: Newseum
Wisconsin State Journal:
Analysis: Democrats finish ‘recall summer’ with 2 big wins, a better position in the Senate
Wisconsin Democrats have won the last two of nine state Senate recall elections held over the course of the summer, meaning that the opponents of Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on collective-bargaining rights have prevailed in the majority of recall elections and claimed the majority of votes cast in what many saw as a statewide referendum on Walker’s policies.
WaPo before the election:
Tight race expected in final Wisconsin recalls
The Wisconsin recall fight ends Tuesday, and while the state Senate is no longer in play, Republicans could cut into the gains Democrats made last week. One Democratic seat in tomorrow’s election is probably safe; the race for the other one is very close. ..
Polls are not much help in predicting the contests’ outcome. Republicans are touting an automated survey that showed the race for Holperin’s seat as too-close-to-call. Democrats counter by pointing to an automated poll that shows both Holperin and Wirch with double-digit leads. (The Washington Post does not publish automated poll results.)
WaPo blew this one, big time, because of their
polling blind spot. PPP, an automated poll, called it on the nose:
Jim Holperin (D-inc): 55
Kim Simac (R): 41
Undecided: 4
(MoE: ±2.6%)
Robert Wirch (D-inc): 55
Jonathan Steitz (R): 42
Undecided: 3
(MoE: ±2.9%)
The actual results were: Holperin 55-45 and Wirch 58-42. If you read that WaPo story, you'd be shocked and amazed by the results.
Dan Balz:
It has become clear, only a few days into Rick Perry’s presidential campaign, that the Texas governor’s biggest challenge could come in trying to win the Republican nomination without defining himself out of the general election.
Perry was dealing with a controversy of his own making on Tuesday after saying the previous night that he would regard another round of “quantitative easing” of the money supply as a politically motivated, “treasonous” act by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke.
Jennifer Rubin:
In the past, Perry has had to apologize for his nasty language. But not this time.
A Republican insider on Capitol Hill (no Bush affiliation and no preference for any campaign) disgustedly told me, “The guy who threatened secession is now calling someone else treasonous? Hello, pot, it’s me, kettle.” (The reference was to Perry’s remark, which some took to be humorous, about Texas’s willingness to secede if the federal government kept up with the power grabs.) Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, the new chairman of the Republican Governors Association, sugar-coated Perry’s put-down of the Fed chairman: “I might have put it a little differently, but listen, Gov. Perry is just new to the race.” In other words, he hasn’t learned to behave on the national stage...
In other words, it’s hard to win the nomination (especially if there are multiple candidates fighting for the same voters) with only the red-meat voters. That’s before we even get to the general election, when, of course, Republicans will wind up in John McCain territory or worse if they alienate centrists.
Perry isn't exactly wowing them nationally (Rubin is hardly a hard left blogger), and those who fear the Perry juggernaut might be overestimating the bull in the china shop in terms of how the owner feels about putting him up for four years.
NY Times editorial:
The gist: Continue the payroll tax cut for employees into next year. Reform the patent system. Pass trade legislation. At a stop in Decorah, Iowa, on Monday, he called for employing jobless construction workers to rebuild roads, bridges and schools across America.
Those are all sensible ideas, but most are not up to the urgency or scale of the problem: 25 million Americans — 16.1 percent of the work force — are out of work or working part time, and the economy is weakening anew.
Patent reform and trade deals won’t have much near-term impact. The payroll tax cut and federal unemployment benefits are crucial for supporting demand in a weak economy, but extending them for another year will only help to prop up the distressing status quo.
MSNBC:
Study: 1 in 5 American children lives in poverty
Researchers find 14.7 million children were poor in 2009, 2.5 million more than in 2000