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| Courtesy of the Associated Press |
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| Courtesy of the AP |
Political Potpourri
NY Governor David Paterson, a Democrat whom succeeded Eliot Spitzer in the wake of the call girl scandal, announced his decision not to seek reelection as a scandal emerged involving state troopers, allegedly involving pressure to dismiss a domestic violence allegation against one of Paterson's aides. The fact of the matter is that the current attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, son of a former multi-term governor Mario Cuomo, has been eying the governor's mansion, and the Obama Administration has been pressuring the increasingly unpopular Paterson to step aside for some time, with polls showing Cuomo trouncing Paterson by double-digits before this latest controversy cropped up, it was only a matter of time anyway. In an election year with an anti-incumbent smell hanging over it and a lousy economy, Paterson never had a chance. So far it looks like the only name Republican who is interested in running for the governor's mansion is Rick Lazio, whom ran an embarrassingly bad Senate campaign against Hillary Clinton a decade ago, and he doesn't seem to match up well against Cuomo in the polls I've seen to date.
Probably the weirdest thing is that Kirsten Gillibrand, Hillary Clinton's replacement whom must stand for election this fall for the remaining 2 years of the Clinton seat, a Blue Dog Democrat in the House (representing a Republican-leaning district) but a reliably progressive Democrat in the Senate, seems to be getting a free ride, with two high-profile Republicans whom could beat her, former Governor Pataki and America's Mayor Giuliani, seeming to pass. Harold Ford, who unsuccessfully ran for the Senate against Bob Corker for Majority Leader Bill Frist's seat, has floated the idea of challenging Gillibrand, but polls have shown him trailing Gillibrand badly. (What might have been interesting is seeing Caroline Kennedy challenge her, even though I disagree with Caroline's conventional progressive politics.) However, Mort Zuckerman, real estate and publishing mogul, is looking as though he might emulate Bloomberg's example of switching parties to run in the less crowded GOP primary; whereas liberals point to the fact that the New York Daily News is not conservative and in fact endorsed Obama in 2008, Mort Zuckerman is a centrist whom has an active interest in foreign policy and has been a critic of the Democrats' exploding federal deficit.
Rick Perry, the incumbent Texas GOP Governor, looks on his way to winning renomination, although he may be forced into a runoff with Senator Hutchison. His likely Democratic challenger is former Houston Mayor Bill White, so far trailing in polls by high single-digits. In other state contests, Maryland former GOP Governor Ehrlich is slightly behind his successor, unpopular Maryland Governor and former Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley; similarly, unpopular Massachusetts Democrat Governor Deval Patrick leads a split opposition between GOP and independent candidates.
Pollingnumbers.com has a number of interesting observations; Obama's ratings are highly polarized based on party, nearly mirror images of the other, with 4 out of 5 Democrats approving but only 1 of 5 Republicans (and roughly 40% approval among independents). However, Rasmussen reports that the intensity ratings against Obama are nearly twice as high; one recent poll shows that over half of the respondents believe that Obama doesn't deserve reelection. In addition, Obama's approval numbers are falling below 50% in traditional battleground states he carried. The 2012 race is still a good 30 months away, which is a lifetime in politics. There is little doubt that Obama's fortunes will improve if and when we emerge from the current employment slump, but I suspect that he won't be able to explain away his huge deficits and priorities, not to mention treating terrorists like criminals and the near tragedy last Christmas thanks to the underwear bomber. Several weeks back, he cockily predicted that the Democrats would not suffer the same fate as in 1994, because he, not Clinton, is in charge. Obama is extremely stubborn. After giving dozens of speeches on health care, and watching the support sink, he thinks it's due to "distortions" by conservative talk shows. He hasn't quite grasped the fact that while he bashes health insurance companies, most Americans like their health care options and suspect that the Obama changes may impact their own health care insurance. Many Americans have the position, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (The Democrats will argue the system is broken. But the Republicans can make a strong case that dysfunctional government policies have contributed to the problem and are not its salvation.)
Quote of the Day
Be more concerned about making others feel good about themselves than you are making them feel good about you. -
Dan Reiland
Musical Interlude: Sun Songs
Beatles, "Here Comes the Sun"
Animals, "House of the Rising Sun"
John Stewart, "Lost Her in the Sun" (I prefer the arrangement of the original studio track on "Bombs Away Dream Babies", but I haven't found an A/V link to that)
