NYC Council Election Results Josh got 20% of the vote in district 6, the Upper West Side. The best showing for a Republican Council Candidate on the UWS in more than two decades!! That is an even better showing considering that he got started in late June and ran on a single ballot line. In the previous races, the Republican got 18% in 2005 and 14% in 2001. Also, here is an Lcom thread on the local coverage of the race.
NEW YORK - Democrats who saw how close their candidate came to unseating New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg agonized Wednesday about what might have happened if the national party had not abandoned the party's little-known challenger. (Snip) The president's tepid endorsement of Thompson didn't even come from his mouth. It was delivered by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. In response to a question, Gibbs said Obama is the leader of the party
Could the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights actually subpoena U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.? That scenario is unlikely, but it suddenly has entered the realm of possibility. The Civil Rights Commission is making a full inquiry into a controversy about a voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and several of its members and has escalated its investigation. At its meeting last Friday, the commission voted 5-2 on a motion
Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive officer, announced Wednesday she will run for a U.S. Senate seat from California. (Snip)"Get ready," Mrs. Fiorina said during a town-hall-style event in Orange County. "I can take a punch, and I can throw a punch. I'm not a brawler, and I'm not a boxer, [but] I can take on Barbara Boxer."
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) confirmed Wednesday that he reached out to influential Republican insider Fred Malek and sought his counsel on how to court former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s endorsement for his Senate bid. As first reported by the Washington Post, Kirk sent a memo to Malek seeking advice on how to acquire a “quick and decisive” endorsement from Palin urging Republicans to embrace Kirk as the “lead candidate” in Illinois.
The family of a Connecticut woman mauled and blinded by a chimpanzee is seeking to sue the state for $US150 million ($A166.06 million). Lawyers for Charla Nash's family filed a notice on Wednesday with a state agency asking for permission to sue. (Snip) A Connecticut state biologist had warned state officials beforehand that Travis could seriously hurt someone.
Fox News was the clear winner in the cable ratings last night, averaging 4.04 million total viewers during prime-time, with 1.13 million in the 25-54 demo alone. Fox beat the other three networks combined. MSNBC came in second (974K, 308K), according to Nielsen, with HLN taking third (842K, 341K). CNN, which won the 2008 election night, continues to struggle in prime-time. The network placed fourth for the month of October,
The House could hold a rare Saturday vote this weekend to pass its healthcare reform legislation. An aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that a vote could happen at 6 p.m. on Saturday, a schedule House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) suggested in reports Wednesday afternoon. (Snip) Slaughter and the Rules Committee will meet at 2 p.m. on Friday to determine the rules for the final health debate.
Across Washington, political pros are quietly putting together their report cards on the first year of the Obama presidency. On some issues – like Obama’s diplomatic overtures to Iran – it’s too early to tell whether they’re political wins or losses. (Snip) Where you stand, as in so much of life, depends on where you sit. But on much of Obama’s presidency, there is a surprising bipartisan consensus
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) is blaming Republican lawmakers for the District of Columbia’s high HIV/AIDS rate. In a letter posted on her website, Norton lashed out at Republican efforts in recent years to attach riders to annual congressional spending bills that limited the District from using locally raised revenues to support needle exchange programs. She said this explains ''in large part'' why the District has a higher HIV/AIDS rate than do similar cities.
Even as a Senate global-warming bill remained in limbo with Democrats refusing to delay a committee vote until an economic analysis was completed, hopes rose for a potential bipartisan compromise. The Senate, meanwhile, appears to be moving away from the bill, authored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (Snip) Kerry, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., held a news conference to announce they are working on a compromise that might attract GOP votes and
If it’s the day after an election, losing political operatives, donors and elected officials are waking up across America, dusting off the cobwebs from a long night of drowning their sorrows and gazing into the bathroom mirror with a question that always begins: “What if…?” Second-guessing a losing campaign is an inevitable political ritual, but it’s not merely an exercise in Wednesday-morning-quarterbacking. Rationalizations aside—“If they had only listened to me!”—
New York, NY - Radio and TV commentator Glenn Beck is recovering after being stricken by appendicitis while he was on the air. Beck was in the middle of his national radio show Wednesday when he suddenly told listeners he would be leaving early because he wasn't feeling well. Regular show contributor Pat Gray filled in for the final hours of the show, and it was soon learned that Beck had suffered an appendicitis attack.
Not so long ago, there was a furious fight among different tribes in the White House, CIA and State and Defense departments over the correct war-fighting strategy. The coin of the realm back then was intelligence. Intelligence that pointed in the right policy direction was cherry-picked and shown to the public; covert players connected to undesirable conclusions were outed or disparaged.
People say that the election of Barack Obama and his pursuit of radical measures--from state-run health care to unilateral nuclear disarmament--marks the end of American conservatism. One Jeremiah, Sam Tanenhaus, has produced a predictable book, The Death of Conservatism. I do not sympathize with such defeatism. To begin with, conservatism is protean. One kind was neatly summed up by that bluff old Victorian the Duke of Cambridge: "It is said I am against change.
Washington -- One year after he won a historical presidential election, a slight majority of Americans approve of the job Barack Obama's doing in the White House. Fifty-four percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday approve of how Obama is handling his duties as president, with 45 percent saying they disapprove.
Harry Reid had two problems. How would he get the health care bill out of the Senate Finance Committee without revealing the glaring potential fissures in his party over the public option on health care? And, how could he lend a veneer of bipartisanship to a one-party bill?
WASHINGTON — With who gets an H1N1 flu vaccine -- and who chooses not to, in light of the vaccine shortage -- becoming a political issue, the White House announced that President and Mrs. Obama would not get the vaccine until "needs of the priority groups identified by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) -- including young people under the age of 24, pregnant women, and people with underlying conditions – have been met."
On the eve of the first election of the Obama era, the Washington Post ran a long profile Monday of the White House's "low-profile" political director, Patrick Gaspard. It was an unremarkable story filled with unremarkable tidbits about how the unassuming Gaspard has thrived in a West Wing filled with political heavies--save for one quote from Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina that caught my eye. (Snip)"We are all campaign hacks.
In most polls, President Obama continues to score decent overall approval ratings. This has obscured the more important fact that, on issue after issue, Americans decisively reject the policies that are being pursued by the administration. This is highlighted by the most recent CNN/Opinion Dynamics poll. Republicans are emphasizing the dramatic drop in support for Obama's approach to health care; respondents now disapprove by a 57-42 percent margin.
So this is the postpartisan politics President Obama promised us. You have a Democratic president who -- although far from the messiah we were promised -- still remains likable. Yet his policies -- from his government-run health-insurance scheme to his No Big Company Left Behind platform -- are highly unpopular. And last night he showed that he is utterly powerless when it comes to getting other Democrats elected. Take New Jersey,
Will technology solve our energy problems? This seemingly fatuous question is actually stupider than first appears. For we already have the technology to power anything within reason, with minimal if any environmental fallout. Yet under the inspiration of the Green Zeitgeist, I cannot go into a magazine shop without finding some science-lite cover story on new prospects for harnessing solar, thermal, wind, tidal, or whatever
Unlike the New York City mayoral, or the Virginia governor's race, there is a really bad sign for Democrats out of the East Coast. (Snip) "In Westchester County, where Democrats have a solid advantage in voter registration, a Republican challenger, Rob Astorino, upset the incumbent Democratic County Executive, Andrew Spano, who was seeking his fourth term ... In Nassau County, Republicans recaptured the county legislature, and have come close to unseating
Last November, Americans flocked to the polls to vote for change. A year later, change again drove voters on an Election Day -- with much different results. The same dynamics that powered President Obama to victory -- frustration with the status quo, economic anxieties, hope that new leadership can bring answers -- now stand as the biggest threats to the Democrats' governing agenda.
Some would say that the best thing about Election Day is that we don't have to watch any more lying television campaign ads or receive more political junk mail that goes straight into the recycle basket. But it's this day that signifies the freedom that's made this country so great. It's also the day that only interests some Americans every 4 years when they come out in droves to elect a president. Unfortunately,....
ALTON BROWN, the host of “Iron Chef America,” fell into the turnip patch just before the show began taping several scenes outside the White House in late October. (Snip) On the episode, which will open the show’s new season Jan. 3 on the Food Network, two pairs of chefs will compete: Cristeta Comerford, the White House executive chef, and Bobby Flay go up against the combined forces of Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse.
This is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin one year ago right now during the concession speech of her Republican running mate, Sen. John McCain, outside the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. Turns out Palin would have liked to give a little speech too, thanking some folks, graciously wishing the best to the Barack Obama winning ticket of Democrats and introducing with effusive praise the man who plucked her from the political obscurity of Anchorage and thrust her,..
