October 20, 2014

KY-SEN: Clintons to make another appearance for Grimes.

FRANKFORT, KY. — Candidates in Kentucky's combative U.S. Senate race are bringing in outside help with two weeks to go as Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes will campaign with Bill Clinton on Tuesday and a trio of Republican congressmen will stump for Sen. Mitch McConnell beginning Monday.

It will be the third visit for Clinton, who won the state twice as a presidential candidate and remains popular with Kentuckians. The former president is a top surrogate for Democrats this fall. But Clinton's latest visit to Kentucky comes after a new Gallup survey shows that, for the first time since 2008, more Kentuckians identify or lean toward Republicans than Democrats.

Kentucky Democrats still lead Republicans by more than 460,000 registered voters. But the Gallup survey, conducted from January to June, shows 45 percent of Kentuckians identify as Republicans while 39 percent identify as Democrats. In 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected president, Gallup said 52 percent of Kentuckians identified or leaned toward Democrats. That number has fallen every year. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

"The six-percentage-point edge favoring Republicans ... underscores the uphill battle Grimes faces in trying to unseat McConnell," Justin McCarthy wrote for Gallup. "Given typical Republican advantages in voter turnout, the Democratic deficit on partisanship among those Kentucky residents who actually turn out to vote may be even greater than six points."

Republican Party of Kentucky chairman Steve Robertson says the poll reflects the party's recent gains in voter registration. Since 2008, Republicans have added 165,131 voters while Democrats have added 20,424.


http://www.kentucky.com/2014/10/17/3486814/clinton-to-stump-for-grimes-as.html?sp=/99/164/329/#storylink=cpy

October 20, 2014

PA-GOV: For Corbett, an uphill battle for a second term

Now, as the weeks until the Nov. 4 election turn into days, those close to Mr. Corbett — and even the governor himself — point to the prosecutorial experiences and tendencies that propelled his political rise as factors that also have contributed to the challenges facing his re-election.

He has been polling behind his Democratic challenger, Tom Wolf, by so much for so long that Republicans point with excitement to two polls this month showing the governor losing by less than 10 points in a state whose chief executives have been re-elected ever since the constitutional change of 1968 permitted consecutive terms.

“He has the natural tendencies of an attorney general to keep everything close to his vest,” said Jim Roddey, the GOP chairman in Allegheny County. “He’s not the typical Ed Rendell type of politician who has a press conference every day and everything he does, he beats his chest and makes announcements. He went about his work quietly and efficiently, maybe too much so.”

Allies suggest, too, that both his years practicing law and his personal character have made Mr. Corbett a loyal soldier for what he believes is right, perhaps too much so to allow for nimble politics.

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2014/10/19/For-Corbett-an-uphill-battle-for-a-second-term/stories/201410190157

October 20, 2014

MD-GOV: Obama touts Brown's message in Md.

Pesident Barack Obama sought to rally support for Anthony G. Brown's gubernatorial campaign at an event in Prince George's County on Sunday, telling an enthusiastic crowd that the lieutenant governor is offering a better vision for the middle class than his Republican opponent.

In his first appearance on stage with a candidate running in this year's midterm elections, the president sounded themes from his own campaigns, arguing that Brown's positions on education and the economy represented a message of hope and that Republicans were peddling fear and cynicism in races across the country.

Howard County executive Ken Ulman, Brown's running mate, spoke to the crowd before Brown. President Barack Obama joined Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown at a campaign rally for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate at the Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High School gym.
Brown campaign rally.

"You deserve leaders that don't root for failure, don't try to re-fight the old battles, don't try to peddle fear," the president told about 8,000 people — mainly African-Americans — packed into a high school gymnasium in Upper Marlboro. "If you want good policies to continue in Maryland, you've got to vote for it."


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-brown-hogan-obama-20141019-story.html

October 20, 2014

ME-GOV: Hillary Clinton to campaign for Michaud in Maine on Friday

SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud on Friday at Scarborough High School, 11 Municipal Drive, according to information posted on Michaud’s campaign website....

http://bangordailynews.com/2014/10/19/politics/elections/hillary-clinton-to-campaign-for-michaud-in-maine-on-friday/

October 20, 2014

The Seven Senate Races Democrats Should Be Optimistic About in 2016

6/7. Missouri/New Hampshire. Both of these states were seen as Democratic pick-up opportunities early in 2009; both fell easily to Republicans. But in both states, Democrats have elected broadly popular governors who've run ahead of Obama. Missouri's Jay Nixon (who lost a 1998 Senate race by 9 points) will be finishing a second term, as (probably) will New Hampshire's Maggie Hassan. (She's up again this year but not struggling.) If either are coaxed to run, they make competitive races.

4/5. Kentucky/Florida. Both states are represented by senators with barely-disguised national ambitions. Neither can run for re-election if he runs for the presidency. After Arkansas and Missouri, Kentucky is the state where the Clinton-led ticket is expected to run most strongly ahead of the two doomed Obama-Biden tickets. (This has at least a little to do with race.) It's also one of the last red state redoubts of electable Democrats. If Attorney General Jack Conway or Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes lose races this year and next year (he's running for governor, she's running for Senate), both would be beseeched by Democrats to look at the open Senate seat. Florida's Democratic bench is weaker, funny enough, but the state is trending blue.

3. Wisconsin. First-time candidate Ron Johnson defeated Sen. Russ Feingold easier than anyone not paid by Johnson had thought possible. Feingold left politics, joining the Obama administration to work on African issues. Johnson has established himself as a b.s.-free conservative who refused to engage in shutdown politics and has picked smart fights with the Obama administration. He is, according to reporter Ken Vogel, seen by the Koch network as a model politician. But in 2016 he'll be running in a state likely to break for Hillary Clinton. Feingold could return from the Bush, or Rep. Ron Kind could finally make the statewide run he's been passing on for years.

2. Pennsylvania. Sen. Pat Toomey narrowly lost a 2004 primary to Arlen Specter, spent six years building a political base, then scared Specter out of Republican politics. In November 2010, Toomey narrowly (narrower than polling predicted) triumphed over Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak. This was the recent apogee of the Pennsylvania Republican party; four years later, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett looks certain to lose to challenger Tom Wolf. Democrats are giddy about their chances of winning Pennsylvania with Hillary atop the ticket, and either Sestak or another ambitious Democrat will happily oppose Toomey. In a recent PPP poll, he actually trailed Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who was elected in the surprisingly strong Democratic year of 2012.

1. Illinois. As soon as Barack Obama won the presidency, Illinois's Democratic majority started fumbling away everything they'd done. Gov. Rod Blagojevich immediately plunged in a scheme to basically sell Obama's vacant Senate seat. It ended Blagojevich's career and destroyed Rep. Jesse Jackson, who had big ambitions for statewide office. Like a member of The Who leaving a 1970s hotel room, Blagojevich went out by ruining things for his party, appointing the vainglorious and dim Roland Burris to the Senate seat. That made Rep. Mark Kirk's seemingly impossible job -- winning the president's old Senate seat -- doable. And even then, Kirk only beat scandal-plagued State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias by 1.9 points, falling short of an outright majority.


http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/07/03/the_seven_senate_races_democrats_should_be_optimistic_about_in_2016.html

October 20, 2014

Washington Post's Gubernatorial races most likely to switch parties.

I'll leave it to you to read their rationales for the sake of time and copyright.

1. Pennsylvania.
2. Arkansas
3. Maine.
4. Florida
5. Kansas
6. Connecticut
7. Illinois
8. Colorado
9. Michigan
10. Wisconsin
11. Alaska
12. Massachusetts
13. Georgia


http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gubernatorial-races-poised-to-make-history-in-two-weeks/2014/10/19/b03a7922-57a0-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html

October 20, 2014

The stages of grief they don't talk about in the media.

I just got back to California from my mother's funeral and associated business in Michigan and going through the stages of grief was a long journey, much longer than I expected because I found myself experiencing things they don't talk about in popular psychology. And if you have not yet experienced a major loss in your life (and may your loved ones live long, long, and healthy live) you may find yourselves experiencing them. For those who have suffered loss, you may find that you are not alone:

1. Jealousy: "Why does (fill in the blank) get to live to 93 while my mom is dead?". Yes, I thought that. As I talked to people during Visitation, all I could think was how much older some people are compared to my mom when she passed. Why couldn't it be MY mom. Why can't she have another twenty years?". Never mind that mom had a peaceful, painless. By golly, I wanted her around as long as anyone else.

2. Confusion/Disorientation: One morning after the funeral, I took dad and my son out to breakfast. We we were all worn out from the previous two days and were just going to take it easy. But I might as well have been looking at Egyptian hieroglyphics instead of a menu. I could not understand a single word I was looking at. FINALLY, I realized I was looking at a food menu and was able to fumble around and pick something out. I was this useless for about two days.

3. Hope: For the first time in decades, this agnostic began hoping that all the things about Heaven that I heard in church were true. I clung to it as I looked at mom in her coffin. "It can't be the end. It has to be true that I'm going to see her again." And even now, I am holding out for the possibility that I indeed will.

I still feel her near me. i know I did in her house. I can still hear her voice. One way or another, whether it's a spirit or just memories. She'll always be with me.

October 20, 2014

U.S. Marine accused of murdering transgender in the Philippines.

OLONGAPO, Philippines — Inside a funeral parlor, a Filipino mother sits and weeps next to a coffin containing the body of her daughter and demands answers. On a hulking American assault ship moored at a nearby port sits a man who might have them — a U.S. Marine authorities suspect in the brutal slaying at a cheap hotel more than a week ago.

"We don't eat without praying first. We don't sleep without saying a prayer. Where were you when this happened?" Julita Laude beseeched God. "She had so many dreams and that killer destroyed them all."

U.S. authorities are cooperating in the investigation, and have ordered the ship to stay at the Subic Bay Freeport, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Manila, until it is completed.

The killing of Jennifer Laude, a 26-year-old transgender whose former name was Jeffrey, has sparked public anger in the Philippines and revived a debate over the U.S. military presence in a country seen by Washington as a major ally in Southeast Asia. The nations signed a new accord in April that allows greater U.S. military access to Philippine military camps, part of Washington's pivot back to Asia where it wants to counter China's rising might.

Philippine police have identified the suspect as U.S. Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton. He was one of thousands of American and Philippines military personnel who took part in joint exercises earlier this month. He and other U.S. personnel were on leave in Olongapo city when Laude was found dead.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/marine-accused-in-philippine-killing-tests-us-ties/ar-BB9ZvQL

October 18, 2014

On the ground in MI and race for GOV is definitely a toss up.

Been here the last week for my mom's funeral and talked to my cousin who is a UAW official. She said the race is as close as has been described and she has no idea who will win. So MI DUers by all means make sure you vote.

October 15, 2014

How concerned was the MSM about Ebola before a white missionary got sick?

*crickets*