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Home Front: Politix
Republicans Have Edge 5 Weeks From U.S. Mid-Terms
2014-09-30
But only if each of us holds his or her nose and votes in November for the least bad option on the ballot.
[AnNahar] President Barack Obama
If you like your coverage you can keep it...
's Democrats rejoiced when early September polls gave them a fighting chance to hold the U.S. Senate in November's mid-term elections, but new data Monday suggests they are slipping.

With just five weeks before Americans decide who will represent them in Congress, election modelers at The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
, FiveThirtyEight.com, The Washington Post and Huffington Post show Republicans making important gains in their bid to retake the upper chamber of Congress.

Republicans need a net gain of six seats to win back the Senate. The Times forecast boosted those chances from 55 percent last week to 67 percent Monday, while the Washington Post Election Lab's prediction went from 65 percent to 76 percent Republican.

And the model operated by FiveThirtyEight.com statistician guru Nate Silver, the most respected election prognosticator in the business, bumped its Republican takeover odds from 55 percent to 60 percent.

"This election is ours to win," the Republican National Committee's chief operating officer Sara Armstrong wrote in a weekend fundraising email, one in a mounting pile of pitches by both parties to their supporters.

With Democrat-held seats in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia essentially being conceded to Republicans this cycle, the GOP needs to grab just three more seats -- and hold their own -- to win control of the 100-member Senate.

That puts the focus on a handful of tossup states like Alaska, Arkansas and Colorado, all of which feature embattled Democrats who polls show have recently lost ground to their Republican challengers.

And in the breadbasket state of Iowa, Democrats risk losing a seat that retiring Senator Tom Harkin has held for 30 years. The race was seen as a dead heat recently, but a weekend poll by the Des Moines Register showed conservative Joni Ernst leading Democratic congressman Bruce Braley by six percentage points.

Democrats are finding themselves in a tough political spot; Obama is unpopular, especially in swing states, meaning candidates there are not expected to hit the campaign trail with him.

Complicating a Republican path to majority, Democrats are eyeing a possible flip in Republican stronghold Kansas, where veteran Senator Pat Roberts faces an unexpectedly strong independent candidate.

Republicans already control the House of Representatives and are expected to keep it. Lawmakers elected in November take their seats in January and serve through the final two years of Obama's term.
Posted by:trailing wife

#29  I'd vote for Cruz also. I like a lot of what he says and he's not afraid to take a stand.

But the establishment R's are so terrified of him that they would pull out all the stop to destroy him we would see advertising from the establishment which would make the shit they did in Mississippi look like an endorsement.

Just look at what they did to Sarah Palin back then. They were so afraid that they even undermined their own presidential candidate - not that he needed much help.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2014-09-30 21:12  

#28  were so dim

One of them tenses, anyway. Never been good with time.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220   2014-09-30 20:43  

#27  Lotta Burgers sound distinctly unlike themselves today. Gee, I wonder what fiendishly clever geekery could make that happen...

JFK played his mind control ray
On the pages of Rantburg one day,
But the stuff were so dim --
It all sounded like him --
They awoke to his game straight away.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220   2014-09-30 20:41  

#26  "The RINOS, like the Donks think that anyone who has anything to do with the Tea Party is a bigger threat to the status quo than ISIS, Russia, radical Islam, North Korea and Iran."

Yes, they would be correct. Tea Party = American Taliban
Posted by: AlanC   2014-09-30 20:22  

#25  "I'd vote for Cruz."

You his bum-buddy?
Posted by: AlanC   2014-09-30 20:20  

#24  The RINOS, like the Donks think that anyone who has anything to do with the Tea Party is a bigger threat to the status quo than ISIS, Russia, radical Islam, North Korea and Iran.
Posted by: JohnQC   2014-09-30 18:35  

#23  I agree with you bman. Everything I have ever heard Cruz say makes sense. Unfortunately, the establishment rinos are so threatened by him that they take every opportunity to shoot him down. I also like everything I hear from Ben Carson. I sense that the "Grand Ole Party players" aren't too keen on him either. Too bad. I think they are what "We the People" could really use.
Posted by: warthogswife   2014-09-30 16:51  

#22  I'd vote for Cruz.
Posted by: bman   2014-09-30 16:39  

#21  rjschwarz Do you see a Reagan between the Democrats? Nuff said.
Posted by: JFM   2014-09-30 16:26  

#20  Republicans are better at the economy, on crime, and foreign policy. Not perfect but a lot better and the world needs a lot better right now.

We need a Reagan and I just don't see it among the Republicans. too corrupted, inexperienced, or generally small thinking.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2014-09-30 14:29  

#19  JFM, I did not mention Romney. I still have some respect for him and if he runs again in 2016 I will vote for him again.

But the Republican power brokers who made sure Romney prevailed over Perry are the same outfit who gave McCain the nod in 2008 and it puts a chill in me.

Let me put this to you very plainly, McCain and his buddy Lindsey Graham are a couple of stark, raving lunatics. Furthermore, John Boehner is a wussy man. Which ever party wins the upcoming election, I fear for the future of this country.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2014-09-30 13:59  

#18  Which potential 'father' are we speaking of ?
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-09-30 13:03  

#17  "don't you find a bit funny Obama's veneration for such a father?"

Actually, JFM, no. I find it absolutely typical of the little b@st@rd. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara   2014-09-30 12:56  

#16  EU, had Romney being elected there would be no ISIS. He would have naplamed it a looooong time ago.

T=BTW: Hasn't Barcak Hussein Obama have repeatedly gone out of his way to praise Islam? Hasn't he written a book about his father, some kind of philanderiong drunkard who abandonned him and his mother, but still a devout Muslilm and don't you find a bit funny Obama's veneration for such a father?
Posted by: JFM   2014-09-30 12:37  

#15  The southern border is secure. Our very well armed amigos in the Mexican cartels will alert us to any mooslim uitlanders [foreigners]. Our 'top men' have seen to it.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-09-30 12:23  

#14  One more thing, JFM. If ISIS ever gets here, and that's a pretty big "if", they will either ride in on a commercial jet liner with visas that the US State Department has granted them or else they will simply walk across our southern border with Mexico. Nothing we do in Iraq or Syria will prevent that and Republicans wouldn't do anymore about it than Obama has.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2014-09-30 12:14  

#13  With Boehner and McConnell capitulating every time Obama wants something, from amnesty

Stopped at the grocery this morning. Chubby Latina in front of me with two kids. She pays with state food voucher.... I pay with a $20. bill. Always heartwarming to see my tax dollars at work.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-09-30 12:11  

#12  JFM, as bad as Obama is, and I voted for McCain, I held my nose for McCain, I look back on McCain's behavior over the past few years and think maybe it's a good thing Obama beat him. McCain is a reckless, crooked old fool. There is no telling what kind of trouble he would have gotten us into. He goes to Syria and stokes trouble there. He goes to Kiev and stokes trouble there. He'd open the border just like Obama has. He's a nut (that means he's out of his frickin' mind).

With Boehner and McConnell capitulating every time Obama wants something, from amnesty to raising the debt ceiling to another war in Iraq, I have to wonder what difference this election will make. If they pass amnesty the Republican Party will be kaput anyway. I'm so disgusted with the whole lot of them I will probably vote Libertarian if I vote at all.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2014-09-30 12:02  

#11  "Great, kid! Don't get cocky."
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2014-09-30 10:14  

#10  I'm voting for the evil of the two lessers. I trust the Pubs more than the Donks. Hopefully, the Pubs will take the Senate. Reid will be out of a position of leadership in the Senate although the Pubs will not have a super-majority. Obama will still be able to veto whatever get passed by the Pub-controlled House and Senate--the Pubs will not be able to over-ride a veto. Obama still has executive orders to cause problems.
Posted by: JohnQC   2014-09-30 09:29  

#9  As I recall much the same was said bout 5 weeks before the '12 election. Romney had a slight edge.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2014-09-30 08:02  

#8  Jane Austen is back.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2014-09-30 07:54  

#7  
Posted by: Big Thromoth3646   2014-09-30 07:52  

#6  Plenty of time yet to blow it.
Posted by: ed in texas   2014-09-30 07:32  

#5  Somehow, I'm skeptical: of both Republican party AND the possibility of free elections.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2014-09-30 06:09  

#4  You didn't want to ,hold your nose for McCain and Obama handeled victory to Al Quida in Lybia. You didn't want to hold your nose for Romeny and Obama is on the vetge of halndling Iraq and Afganitsan to Isis and the Taliban. Give a thoird victory to Dems if yopu lioke but then don't complain when gas prices multiply by five and when you will have to bring your daughter to the Female Genital Mutilation Center.

Enjoy!
Posted by: JFM   2014-09-30 05:58  

#3  Do you prefer to vote for Ron and Rand ie the guys who will be concerned about ISIS only when its troops will be within one block of the White House?
Posted by: JFM   2014-09-30 02:46  

#2  Always remember - they don't call it "the stupid party" for nothing.

The RNC is obsessed with reelecting doddering RINO incumbents who are already subservient to RNC favored elements - which is a good start toward seizing defeat from the jaws of victory.
Posted by: Lone Ranger   2014-09-30 01:23  

#1  I have a little story to tell you about Democrats Damocles. perhaps you have heard it before, maybe not...

According to the story, pandering to his king, Dionysius, Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority surrounded by magnificence, Dionysius was truly extremely fortunate. Dionysius then offered to switch places with Damocles, so that Damocles could taste that very fortune firsthand. Damocles quickly and eagerly accepted the king's proposal. Damocles sat down in the king's throne surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius arranged that a huge sword should hang above the throne, held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse's tail. Damocles finally begged the king that he be allowed to depart because he no longer wanted to be so fortunate, realizing that with great fortune and power come also great peril and anxiety.

The anxiety rests with the Democrats.

Please have a seat, six to be exact.

By the way that's Harry Reid standing at the back left muttering, "WTF am I going to do next to not loose this election and the majority autocratic position I hold over the rubes in this nation ?"
Posted by: Timaeus of Tauromenium    2014-09-30 01:21  

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