NEWS & ANALYSIS: "Poll finds rebound in Bush approval" when he should be sunk!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on September 20, 2006 - 1:01pm.
Rapid Response
Hello Everyone:
Right below is the USA Today article titled “Poll finds rebound in Bush approval” that talks about how that “President Bush's approval rating has risen to 44% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. That's his highest rating in a year.”
That is absolutely crazy! Just look at this small sample of credibly documented stories that have come out recently which should have Bush sunk in the polls now:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600193_pf.html
Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 17, 2006; A01
Adapted from "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, copyright Knopf 2006
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091201418.html
General Affirms Anbar Analysis
But Zilmer Also Cites 'Progress'
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; Page A12
The U.S. commander in western Iraq said he agrees with the findings of a pessimistic classified report recently filed by his top intelligence officer but also insisted that "tremendous progress" is being made in that part of the country...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-01-pentagon-iraq_x.htm
Pentagon: Sectarian violence is now spreading beyond Baghdad
Updated 9/2/2006 12:10 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sectarian violence is spreading in Iraq and the security problems have become more complex than at any time since the U.S. invasion in 2003, a Pentagon report said Friday.
In a notably gloomy report to Congress, the Pentagon reported that illegal militias have become more entrenched, especially in Baghdad neighborhoods where they are seen as providers of both security and basic social services...
Aug 31, 10:29 PM EDT
Pentagon Moves Toward Monitoring Media
MATTHEW PERRONE
AP Business Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. command in Baghdad is seeking bidders for a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for monitoring the tone of Iraq news stories filed by U.S. and foreign media...
While it is just after 9/11, here are the main reasons in my opinion why Bush is doing as well as he is in the polls now: He is effectively using his bully pulpit to connect his message with the voters, he is being supported by a very articulate and powerful RNC and extreme right wing media, I have not seen where any well known Democrats are connecting an actual specific message with the voters outside of “we are not them,” and the RNC is very active in their get out the vote efforts with their base. The RNC is not taking anything for granted in this election and they are very organized in their efforts!
Democratic leaders have asked for equal time with Bush and they did not get it. I do not even hear them asking for it now when they need it very badly. That reminds me of 2004 when Kerry asked Bush for early debates and just took “No” for answer without saying anything else when Bush said “No” to Kerry’s request! Why even ask for something if you are just going to take “No” for an answer and don’t put up a serious fight for what you are asking for?
This is why no race be taken for granted under any circumstances now matter how badly that Bush is messing up and no matter what the polls may look like. Each and every race right has got to be fought as hard, smart, and as tough as possible right up to Election Day!
Please forward this on because Democrats winning back at least one branch of Congress in November is the ONLY way to hold Bush accountable for anything that he is doing now!
Mitch Dworkin
http://www.securingamerica.com/
http://www.securingamerica.com/ccn/node/7191
Listen to Gen. Wes Clark fight for Dems on Sean Hannity's radio program:
An excellent example for all of us to follow and what we all need to be doing to help fight against extreme right wing Neocon smear propaganda which will help our local candidates to win their races!
http://securingamerica.com/webb
Gen. Wes Clark's endorsement of Jim Webb against George Allen
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-18-bush-poll_x.htm
Poll finds rebound in Bush approval
Updated 9/19/2006 10:23 AM ET
By Jill Lawrence and Susan Page, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Amid falling gas prices and a two-week drive to highlight his administration's efforts to fight terrorism, President Bush's approval rating has risen to 44% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. That's his highest rating in a year.
The poll also showed likely voters evenly divided between Democratic and Republican candidates for Congress, 48%-48%. Among registered voters, Democrats had a 51%-42% advantage.
ON DEADLINE: Your thoughts |
Poll results
http://www.usatoday.com/news/polls/tables/live/2006-09-18-poll.htm
The results come seven weeks before closely contested elections for control of Congress. Republicans have struggled to overcome problems, including Bush's low ratings, continuing violence in Iraq and the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.
They also come as terrorism is making headlines: an alleged plot to blow up planes headed from Britain to the USA, the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and weeks of focus by Bush and other top Republicans on terrorism and whether Democrats can protect the country.
The new findings reflect "a consistent, persistent, tenacious effort to make ... the Republican Party's ability to deal with terrorism the No. 1 issue in the campaign," said political scientist Richard Eichenberg of Tufts University, who has studied presidential job ratings during wartime. He called it "a carbon copy" of the successful 2004 playbook.
Bush's approval rating has edged up largely on the strength of Republicans coming back to the fold — 86% with him now compared with 70% in May.
Scott Reed, a Republican strategist who ran Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign, said GOP fortunes have turned since Labor Day: "This has been the best two weeks Republicans have had since Bush was re-elected."
Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin said Bush's approval goes up and down with each poll, and the even division of likely voters has been constant for a month. "There's no momentum here," he said. "The story is Republicans at a standstill."
The new poll found likely voters more prone to vote for candidates who support Bush on terrorism, 45%-28%, and evenly divided on those who support and oppose Bush on Iraq. More than a quarter said Iraq is their top concern this fall. For the first time since December 2005, a majority of people did not say the war there was a mistake; the split was 49%-49%.
Bush's terror-fighting techniques drew mixed reviews. A 55%-42% majority supported his policy of wiretapping phone conversations between U.S. citizens here and suspected terrorists in other countries without getting a court order.
But by 48%-41%, people said it would be worse to convict defendants on evidence they are never shown, as Bush wants, than to let some suspected terrorists go free. And 57% said the United States should abide by the Geneva Conventions that bar humiliating and degrading treatment of prisoners; Bush wants to write U.S. standards that critics such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., say would weaken protections.
The Iraq war continues to be problematic for Bush. Six in 10 people said he does not have a clear plan for handling Iraq (two-thirds said the same for Democrats), and 56% said Congress is not doing enough to oversee U.S. policy there.
Three-quarters said Iraq is in a civil war, though the administration says that is not the case. And 58% said the U.S. goal in Iraq and the Middle East should be stable governments; 33% agreed with Bush's aim of democratic governments.
Posted 9/18/2006 11:07 PM ET
Updated 9/19/2006 10:23 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/polls/tables/live/2006-09-18-poll.htm
USA TODAY Gallup poll
Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,003 National Adults, aged 18+, conducted September 15-17, 2006.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/9/19/161118.shtml
Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2006 4:03 p.m. EDT
House GOP Has $36 Million for Elections
The Republican committee working to retain GOP control of the House has $36 million in the bank going into the final stretch of the congressional campaign.
Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said his organization raised $8.5 million last month in a concerted effort to gain a financial edge over its Democratic counterpart.
The money in hand puts the committee $10 million ahead compared to the same period prior to the 2004 election. At a news conference with reporters, Reynolds said the fundraising places his committee ahead of a pace he had set at the start of the campaign.
Democrats need to gain 15 seats in the House on Nov. 7 to take control after a dozen years of Republican rule.
© 2006 Associated Press.
Gas prices, price at the local gas pump has fallen 70 cents since July, and to the voter who doesn't follow the cronyism of this administraition that may be enough to make them consider voting for a Repub.
a "smoking gun" which could clearly prove that claim!
Here is an article that I found about this very interesting topic:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14891597/
Is pump price drop tied to Nov. elections?
Also: where did all the money go in the 2000 stock bubble collapse?
CNBC VIDEO
• Where are oil prices headed?
Oil trader Eric Bolling talks to CNBC about the prospects for oil prices moving back up again — back toward $100 a barrel.
CNBC
INTERACTIVE VIDEO
• Price puzzle
MSNBC.com's John Schoen discusses the rising cost of everyday goods in this week's video Answer Desk.
The sharp drop in prices at the pump has a number of readers wondering: Is this just a ploy to defuse the issue of gasoline prices from the upcoming November elections? Ted in Connecticut wants to know: When the stock market collapsed after the 2000 bubble — just where, exactly, did all that money go?
Does anybody but myself wonder why oil prices have begun a rather precipitous drop just as the November elections approach? Just a coincidence?
L.C. – Williamsburg, Va.
No, a lot of readers have the same question. And there may be an answer out there in the blogosphere somewhere that will confirm these suspicions. But there’s no evidence we can find to suggest that anyone in the White House or Congress is manipulating oil or gasoline prices to make for an easier trip on this fall's campaign trail.
There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that they couldn’t if they wanted to. In April, for example, after President Bush announced a four-point plan to rein in the pain at the pump, gasoline prices soared.
Simply put, there is no one person, company, group or country that can control the price of a commodity like oil that's traded on a global market. Even OPEC, which some readers believe “sets” the price of oil, has little or no control over oil pricing. Once upon a time, when those countries had lots of surplus production capacity, OPEC could decide to add or withhold supplies on the world market, which had some impact on prices. But that spare production capacity is gone. Even in its heyday, OPEC’s efforts at price controls were subject to widespread cheating on production quotas by its members; the cartel’s control over market prices was crude (pun intended) at best.
So who, exactly, does set oil prices? If you have to put a face on it — “the market” is the collection of oil traders who buy and sell barrels around the world, all day long. Oil is worth what they — and their customers — are willing to pay at the moment they agree on a trade. Some of those customers are investors, and over the past few years they’ve been making boatloads of money trading futures contracts. Those contracts are pieces of paper representing real oil, but most buyers and sellers have no intention of ever taking delivery of the oil.
This summer, those investors made even bigger bets — based on fears of an oil supply cutoff, or continued strong demand for oil, or worries about hurricanes knocking out production in the Gulf of Mexico — you name it. As the summer wore on and those scenarios didn’t play out, the same investors that had been bidding up oil prices beat a hasty retreat. As a result, spot oil prices have fallen from a peak of $78 in mid-July to about $63 at this writing. It turns out that, for now, there’s plenty of oil to go around. But there's no guarantee prices won't go back up again if traders get another case of the jitters.
As for the drop in gasoline prices, which a number of readers also attribute to an election-related conspiracy, the case is even clearer. For starters, that $15 drop in the price of a barrel of crude works out to about 36 cents a gallon. Since oil accounts for about half the price of making a gallon of gasoline, there’s 18 cents off the price at the pump right there. The seasonal drop in demand, a milder-than-expected hurricane season and the flight of money out of the gasoline futures market has also helped drive pump prices down by 40 cents since the start of August.
Though the drop at the pump is bigger and faster than usual, it’s about as predictable as the coming of winter — whether or not it’s an election year. With demand from the summer driving season falling, and the heating oil season not yet here, the price of refined products generally falls this time of year.
What happened to all the money lost when the stock exchange crashed in 2000?
Ted J. -- East Granby, CT
As stock investors learned the hard way, much of that money was never really there.
Estimates of the total stock market losses — some $6 trillion from the peak in 2000 to the trough two years later — are based on the drop of market capitalization, a figure that amounted to trillions of dollars. The “market cap” for a company is the total value of all shares outstanding multiplied by the latest closing stock quote that company. Add up all those individual market caps and you get the total value of stocks in public hands. The drop in that total market cap is what most people refer to when they talk about the money "lost" in the market's millennium collapse.
But the "value" of all the stock outstanding at the height of the market bubble was really just an estimate of what owners of those shares would get if they sold them — based on the price paid for the relatively few shares that actually traded hands. The quotes you see flying across the bottom of the TV screen are just the price of individual trades; if you sold in the next few minutes, chances are you’d get the same price for your shares.
But the “value” of a stock is not the same as, say, the value of a “hard asset” — like a barrel of oil or a chunk of real estate. A share of stock is just a piece of paper representing the earnings power of a business. And if that business stops make money — or worse, starts losing bucketloads of it — those piece of paper can become worthless. (OK, maybe not truly worthless. You could always use them to wallpaper a bathroom.)
Take, for example, Qwest Communications (one of the few survivors from the telecom frenzy), which was trading at $58 a share in July 2000. Based on the actions of a relatively small numbers of investors willing to pay that much for the stock, all of Qwest’s other shareholders naturally assumed their shares were worth the same amount.
For people who bought at a lower price, those stock gains did represent wealth — on paper. Some people began spending real dollars (much of it borrowed), which helped boost economic growth. If you went to buy a house, your “bubble” net worth may have helped you qualify for a bigger mortgage. If you were a retiree, you may have finally taken that trip to Italy — because you thought you could afford it.
But the money supporting that spending wasn’t really there; paper profits don’t become real money until you sell the stock. Today, those same Qwest shares trade for less than $10 (about where it was trading in mid-1997 before investors took leave of their senses.) As investors quickly discovered when the bubble burst, paper profits are pretty meaningless when everyone heads for the exits at the same time. Who are you going to sell your stock to?
Some losses, though, were very real. If you were one of the unlucky folks who bought shares at the peak, you almost certainly lost money — as does every other investor who buys into a collapsing market hoping the worst is over. But to the extent most holders didn't sell, the paper loss simply wiped out the paper profit that was created by the inflating bubble.
can talk about this? I've written him so many emails about issues, and he has conveyed before the orange alerts just before elections, and such, maybe he would tackle this rising poll declaration by Gallup and BushCo and the Media?
Sorry, I don't want to hand him another email from me right now, but this BS needs to be turned upside down by Keith. He seems to be our only hope. Someone that is not afraid to ask the question, "After all we have learned about this administration, why are Bush's ratings going up? Could it be gas prices going down?"
Your idea about KO talking about this is an excellent one in my opinion!
KO is one of the only media voices I am aware of who would seriously tackle something like this head on!
This quote that you mention is excellent and it sounds like it is right up his alley:
"After all we have learned about this administration, why are Bush's ratings going up? Could it be gas prices going down?"
If there was one KO for every Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, Brit Hume, and company; then we would be in pretty good shape!
How Democratic leaders can take constant abuse and defining from all of these big name media Neocons and never fight back against them in a serious and organized way when they are influencing many millions of people (Rush Limbaugh alone has an audience of over 20 million people) is beyond me!
KO is doing a great job but he is very heavily outnumbered in my opinion!
Democratic leaders need to follow KO's excellent example of how to seriously and credibly fight back!
I don't know exactly why that happened, many reasons I assume, but one question the Dems need to ask right now is HOW LONG ARE WE GOING TO LOSE BEING THE NICE GUYS?
I must say, that I agree with many that Dems say a lot about what's wrong, but still have not defined clearly what the solutions are. Generalities are not going to convince people. i.e., solution about Iraq. No matter how we try to define a difference between GOP and Dems, our solutions seem generally inadequate to many. This worries me. Because the MSM is playing on that daily... "We have gripes, but no solutions"... to every issue.
Tucker Carlson was asking about this the other night and I hate to say it, but his argument that we don't have solutions, only general advice about "diplomacy, etc." is beginning to sound weak.
I have no answers. I am trying to see both sides and wondering how Dems can suppress the BS with facts, and give voters solid reasons for changing leadership.
Especially this is important with the media championing Bush. And, bottom line, if the polls look like they are going up for Bush, wherever there is election fraud, it's going to be a hard case proving that people voted more for Dems running. That scares the hell out of me.
...Tucker Carlson is an idiot.....I don't know how you can watch him.
Secondly, Rove is directing them to say this.....it's in his daily fax. It doesn't matter what we say or how we say it, the meme will be adhered to. And the MSM just follows along like wittle baby duckies....but not nearly as cute.
Except for Keith Olbermann. He is the champion of the truth.
That said, I wish the Dem leadership would get more belligerent on teevee.
This is not a time for a candidate who will offend no one; it is time for a candidate who takes clear stands and kicks ass.....Molly Ivins
Tucker is such a jerk. But his harping does get heard, and he was only one example of those in MSM using this "Dems don't have answers" meme. But he has been beating that drum for weeks.
I agree, Maddy. Every single time our Dems have a camera and mic on them, they should forget whatever it is exactly the "issue" is presented to them by the MSM, they should give another message about how Bush has failed us. Get into short comments that can be said quickly, but forcefully! Time to fight, not back down.
At least for that short moment on camera, they've said something that sticks in the minds of voters. Not childish rants, FACTS.
As I write this I am LOL, because nothing we say is going to change a thing... the Dems/Reps need to do it. :/
Thanks, you made some excellent observations on my opinion!
Bill Clinton was right when he said that people prefer "strong and wrong" compared to "weak and right" as far as what they perceive. We cannot be perceived as being weak or we will keep on losing elections!
Democratic leaders need to do at least one of three things to fight back in the media:
1) If they say they want equal time with Bush, then they have to be serious about going after it. They can even pay for a spot on all of the news networks in prime time if that is what it comes down to just like how Ross Perot financed and did for himself back in 1992 to connect his message with the voters!
If Ross Perot could finance himself on the major news networks, then the entire Democratic Party can do that as well if that is what it takes to connect their message to the voters!
Democratic leaders have got to connect a message with the voters to define themselves and specifically say what they will do differently than Bush and the GOP leadership!
They could even appoint an official Democratic spokesperson who is credible such as Gen. Clark to broadcast their message to the entire country!
2) Set up a seriously organized, CREDIBLE, and centrally controlled OFFICIAL rapid response to Bush, Rush Limbaugh, FOX News, and company and pay to advertise it on the cable networks if that is what you have to do to get the message out!
The extreme right wing "Media Research Center" does this with almost every piece of news that comes out on NewsBusters.org:
Crooks and Liars and other Democratic groups are not this big and are not that well known.
3) Officially appoint a very well known and credible Democrat to challenge Rush Limbaugh to a public debate and go all over the country on college campuses and civic centers credibly trashing him if he refuses!
That will get hoards of media attention from a media that hates his guts and will cheer on whoever is challenging him every step of the way!
These ideas can at least plant the seeds to help Democrats understand the importance of connecting their specific message with the voters instead of mainly relying on Bush's blunders and "we are not them" to get votes!
The answer is NOT to sit back and do nothing because then you are just letting your opponents define you!
But, speaking of BC.......WTH's with him asking Laura Bush to keynote his conference today??????
I know it's supposed to be by-partisan and all BUT may I say.......giving a platform to the wife of the opposition right before a crucial election makes no damn sense. He has always been known for his political savvy. Well all I can say is....savvy this!
:x :x :x :x
This is not a time for a candidate who will offend no one; it is time for a candidate who takes clear stands and kicks ass.....Molly Ivins
Agreed! Any person who is a Democratic spokesperson MUST be credible and should be accepted by mainstream liberals and moderates alike!
Stuff like this is what will drive disillusioned Republicans and impressionable moderate voters to the polls to vote for Bush rubber stamp candidates regardless of how badly that Bush and the GOP are messing up:
http://newsbusters.org/node/7577
Rosie O’Donnell: ‘Radical Christianity is Just as Threatening as Radical Islam’<!-- start main content --><!-- begin content -->Posted by Scott Whitlock on September 12, 2006 - 17:06.
Rosie O’Donnell, the new host of "The View," restrained herself for exactly one week before letting fly with her extreme liberalism. On the September 12 edition, in response to fellow co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s comment that militant Islam is a grave threat, O’Donnell stated that "radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America." The comedienne also attacked America’s response to 9/11:
O’Donnell: "We were attacked not by a nation. And as a result of the attack and the killing of nearly 3,000 innocent people we invaded two countries and killed innocent people in their countries."
Video clip (44seconds): Real (1.19 MB at 225 kbps) or Windows Media (1.37 MB at 256 kbps), plus MP3 audio (198 KB)
The segment, which aired at 11:16AM EDT, saw Ms. O’Donnell open up and, for the first time as a ‘View’ host, express her true outlook. The piece began with Rosie inquiring as to whether anyone watched President Bush’s address to the nation. She then read from the speech:
O’Donnell: "He had one sentence that I thought struck me. I thought, what did everyone think? ‘The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.’ And I would say the outcome, really, of America really depends on the battle in the streets of New Orleans, that that city is still decimated and $303 billion have been spent fighting this war. If, literally, a third of that money was put into Katrina and facilitated with honest people who knew how to do it, we wouldn't be in the situation we're in."
O’Donnell may be unaware of this, but $110 billion has been designated for the Gulf Coast clean-up. My math could be wrong, but I believe that’s at least a third. Co-host Joy Behar, a fellow liberal, chimed in with this question:
Behar: "Don’t you think it’s clear at this point that they don’t care about New Orleans? If they cared about it, they would have fixed it already."
The fact that she believes New Orleans should be completely "fixed" in a year is besides the point. ‘The View,’ a program that is supposed to represent the perspectives of women, is now almost completely in the control of Move-On-type liberals. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the show’s token Republican, meekly submitted to the liberal onslaught. She replied simply, "They should give more."
O’Donnell saved her harshest comments for the war on terror. After Hasselbeck had the temerity to mention the threat of extreme Islam, Rosie responded with her slap at Christianity:
O’Donnell: "And just one second, radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America."
This proved too much for even Behar. She replied, in a somewhat bewildered manner:
Behar: "But, but Christians are not threatening to kill us. There’s that difference. This group is threatening to kill us."
Hasselbeck also appeared surprised by O’Donnell’s comment. She maintained, "We are not bombing ourselves here in the country." The comedienne had a clever retort for this:
O’Donnell: "No, but we are bombing innocent people in other countries. True or false?"
There are two points to be made here. First, apparently Rosie believes that the federal government is a branch of "radical Christianity." Secondly, has she never heard of World War II and the innocent civilians that unfortunately died in the struggle against Nazism? Was that war wrong? Showing a loose grasp on international politics, O’Donnell stated that "Iraq and Afghanistan never threatened to kill us. Ever." Again, perhaps Ms. O’Donnell is unaware of exactly where the Taliban trained and plotted. Finally, on the subject of terrorism, no Rosie segment would be complete with out left-wing, bumper sticker rants. She informed her audience of these grand pronouncements:
O’Donnell: "We will never bring peace at the hands of war....As a species we have to rise above it."
O’Donnell: "But in life, you have two choices always, faith or fear. A government should lead by faith, never by fear."
O’Donnell quickly added that, when she said faith, she didn’t mean Christianity, but faith in "humanity" and "equality." It appears as though the honeymoon is over. Viewers should expect more hard-left, blame- America comments from Rosie O’Donnell, "The Queen of Nice."
Update 18:07 by Matthew Sheffield. "I love how she acts like Elisabeth Hasselbeck is the dumb one, when
she's spouting this crap: 'Afghanistan never threatened to kill us...We
will never bring peace at the hands of war.'" Mary Katherine Ham adds.
http://www.gop.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=6576
Friday, September 15, 2006
Dems' "ROSIE" View On War On Terror
DEMS' "ROSIE" VIEW ON WAR ON TERROR
Cut-And-Run Defeatocrats Across The Country Take Their Cues From Hollywood Friends And Advisors
________________________________________________
"The View's" Rosie O'Donnell Claims Radical Christianity "Just As Threatening" As Radical Islam And Says U.S. "Bombing" Innocent People:
Rosie O'Donnell: "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have separation of church and state." (ABC's "The View," 9/13/06)
Rosie O'Donnell: "And as a result of the [9-11] attack and the killing of 3,000 innocent people, we invaded two countries and killed innocent people ..." (ABC's "The View," 9/13/06)
O'Donnell: "We are bombing innocent people in other countries." (ABC's "The View," 9/13/06)
Click Here To Watch Rosie O'Donnell's "View" On The War On Terror
Rosie O'Donnell Has Contributed To Defeatocrat Candidates Across The Country:
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Has Contributed $500 To Senate Candidate Ned Lamont (D-CT). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Has Contributed $2,100 To Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Has Contributed $2,100 To Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Has Contributed $2,100 To Senate Candidate Bob Casey (D-PA). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Has Contributed $2,100 To House Candidate Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Has Contributed $2,100 To House Candidate Joe Sestak (D-PA). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Has Contributed $2,100 To House Candidate Patricia Madrid (D-NM). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Has Contributed $1,000 To House Candidate Patrick Murphy (D-PA). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Contributed $2,100 To Senate Candidate Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/15/06)
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Contributed $2,100 To House Candidate Angie Paccione (D-CO). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/15/06)
During 2006 Cycle, Rosie O'Donnell Contributed $2,100 To Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL). (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/15/06)
"Rosie" Candidates Playing By Defeatocrat Playbook:
Democrat Senate Candidate Ned Lamont (D-CT) Says It Is Time To Bring Troops Home "Now": "I think it's time for us to take our front-line military operations and start bringing those troops home now." (Susan Haigh, "Iraq War Key Topic Of Senate Race," The Associated Press, 6/17/06)
Lamont: "Our front-line presence feeds the notion it is an American occupation." (Susan Haigh, "Iraq War Key Topic Of Senate Race," The Associated Press, 6/17/06)
Senate Candidate Sherrod Brown (D-OH): "We must have a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces ..." (Rep. Sherrod Brown, Congressional Record, 11/1/05, p. H9449)
House Candidate Patricia Madrid (D-NM) Wants "Definite Timeline" In Iraq. Patricia Madrid: "We must establish a definite timeline for troop withdrawal ..." (Patricia For Congress Website, www.madridforcongress.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
House Candidate Patrick Murphy (D-PA) Wants To Bring Troops Home "Now." Patrick Murphy: "It is time to change the direction in Iraq, and we need to start bringing our men and women home now." (Patrick Murphy For Congress Website, www.murphy06.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
Murphy: "When Rep. John Murtha, the first Vietnam combat veteran elected to Congress, started the debate on America's role in Iraq by saying 'Our troops have done all they can do,' he was right." (Patrick Murphy For Congress Website, www.murphy06.com, Accessed 9/14/06)
House Candidate Joe Sestak (D-PA) Believes U.S. Troops Should Be Out Of Iraq By End Of 2007. "[Joe] Sestak has said troops should be withdrawn by the end of next year ..." (Kimberly Hefling, "Republicans Even Bush's Close Allies Increasingly Question The President On Iraq," The Associated Press, 9/12/06)
Democrats until the Democratic leadership get up off their butts, stop taking this crap, and DO SOMETHING organized and credible to respond to it nationally!
I hope that this gets us upset because Democrats being defined like this by their opponents is what is helping Bush's poll numbers, is what is helping Bush rubber stamp candidates to get more votes, and is costing Democratic candidates votes from many impressionable people and disillusioned Republicans whose votes are up for grabs in this election (because this is how many of them will PERCEIVE ALL Democrats after listening to this):
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_092006/content/america_s_anchorman.guest.html
Chavez, Ahmadinejad Merely Echo the
Bush Hatred of Drive-By Media, American Left
September 20, 2006
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT 
RUSH: Was that Hugo Chavez charming the United Nations, or was it Howard Dean? You know who's going to be jealous of this speech that Hugo Chavez gave, ladies and gentlemen? Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. There's going to be a lot of jealousy among the libs wishing they had said exactly what Chavis said, as powerfully. They've gotten close, but no cigar here. Greetings, welcome, Rush Limbaugh, Excellence in Broadcasting Network, and we're here at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. The telephone number is 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address, Rush@eibnet.com. Hugo Chavez just concluded about 20 minutes ago his raving lunatic address at the United Nations, and they were charmed. They gave him a rousing round of applause when he finished, and they laughed throughout.
He was holding up a book by Noam Chomsky, noted communist sympathizer -- hell, not "sympathizer," noted communist -- and he referred to President Bush as "El Diablo," the devil. He shows up on the podium, crossed himself, looked heavenward, put his hands together and said, "The devil was here yesterday. The place still smells of sulfur." And I'm thinking, you know, did he read this off of a liberal blog? Did he get this at the Democrat Underground? Did he get this at MoveOn.org? Did he get this at, what is it, the Daily Kos or whatever it's called? Because it was very close to what the libs and the Democrats have been saying about President Bush for three, four years, maybe even longer. And, of course, he comes to our country and threatens us on our soil...
What the Democrats have lost is thier capacity to have thier Voices be Heard and reported by the MEDIA!
A fair reading of the commentary above adds veracity to my proposition that a third-party candidate may emerge in time for the 2008 presidential election. And if the Democrats do not take control of the House of Representatives or the Senate come November of this year, watch for that to happen shortly thereafter.
In a roundtable discussion here in New York yesterday, it was the consensus that only a revolt would bring the leaders of the Democratic Party to their senses. And yes, if it means that the prospects of a Democrat winning the White House in 2008 will be severely damaged, people in attendance were willing to make that sacrifice.
That revolt may well start within the shadows of Ground Zero.
Stay tuned!
Hi Gordon:
I agree with you completely and I have told people that I see an Independent "Unity" McCain/Lieberman Presidential ticket in 2008!
Please see the article and listen the audio Parody below. Rush Limbaugh is attacking John McCain about as much as he is attacking Democrats now!
It will be over Limbaugh's dead body that McCain ever gets the GOP nomination for President in 2008 in my opinion. I have MANY more recent articles about McCain from Limbaugh which are similar to the one that you see below!
John McCain will get kicked out of the 2008 GOP Presidential primary by Rush Limbaugh and his hard core Neocon activist base who hate his guts as fast as Joe Lieberman lost the 2004 Presidential primary and his Senate primary in CT.
McCain will be 72 in 2008 and he wants to be President very badly. It is 2008 or bust for McCain as far as his Presidential ambitions are concerned. Lieberman is PERCEIVED as being a moderate and lets himself be used by Sean Hannity, Karl Rove, and other GOP Neocons for political purposes. He would gladly let McCain use him in 2008 if he was asked to run with him as his VP in my opinion!
This ticket would probably start out with more name recognition than any Democratic or Republican ticket (unless Hillary Clinton is the 2008 Democratic nominee) and would probably have serious chances of winning if the country is still as polarized as we are now in 2008 (which I think we will be) and if they run on unifying the country!
That is why I have always said than unifying the country is the number one issue for any candidate to run on because nobody can effectively run the country and fix any serious problems with only 51% of the country behind them while the other 49% of the country hates their guts!
This is my opinion and speculation only and I always welcome any comments and feedback!
--------------------
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/today.guest.html
• Parody: NSA Wiretap Catches McCain: 
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_091906/content/truth_detector.guest.html
Drive-By Media Defends Senator McCain
September 19, 2006
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I can't help but think of our old good friend Senator McCain. Have you noticed something in the media today, folks? There are countless stories -- in fact, let's see. LA Times, right here: McCain Stand Comes at a Price. This story laments, oh, how this is so horrible. McCain's principled stand, ladies and gentlemen, his principled stand is harming his presidential aspirations because of mean old conservatives like me. "Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk show host, charged Monday that McCain was part of a 'cabal' in Washington that was 'trying to thwart the policies of the Bush administration.'"
So the LA Times here, part of a big-time media boohoo for John McCain, could imperil the media's candidate in 2008. McCain camp says they see an upside, though, in this. Then the Washington Post: McCain's Stand On Detainees May Pose Risk For 2008 Bid. Second article of sympathy for McCain, "Senator McCain's bid to position himself as the natural heir to President Bush as a wartime commander... has threatened to run aground in recent days as the two men clash over how to detain and try terrorism suspects", and I think I was mentioned in this story as well. I think even the New York Times has one today about, oh, poor Senator McCain, oh, oh, poor Senator McCain, just so unfortunate. So the big-time media is circling the wagons for Senator McCain. Let me tell you what I think is going on about that, folks. I think the more political heat that McCain experiences -- and he's going to get some more today on this program, and he's gotten a lot of heat already -- the more he and his friends in the Drive-By Media will attempt to portray any compromise is one that's favorable to him.
Have you seen the stories, "Bush caving, White House caving to demands of McCain." I don't know that that's true. Have you seen the deal? Have you seen the results of any deal? I'm telling you, the Drive-By Media loves McCain so much, they wish he had given this speech today, but he's not capable of making the speech today because the speech. If he gave one today, it would be about him. But they are so frightened and they are so upset at the anger. Why do you think Bush's poll numbers are up to 44%? It's because he's rallying the base. He's opposing these Republican malcontents; he's hanging tough; gas prices are all a part of it, up to 44%. This is also contributing to more madness and insanity on the Democrat side because this is not the post-Labor Day scenario they had portrayed for themselves. They thought they were going to be rolling in it, hunky-dory, pigs in you know what, and it just ain't playing out the way they thought it was.
So the Drive-By Media circling the wagons now. The more heat that McCain experiences, the more the drive-bys will attempt to portray any compromise between McCain and the White House as one that is favorable to Senator McCain. After all, as far as the drive-bys are concerned, it is McCain who needs to be seen as getting something out of this mess.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
You're reading all over the press today that the White House is caving to negotiations with McCain. I don't know that that's true. I know that the Drive-By Media has a vested interest in McCain being perceived as the power broker here, and I also know this. The more political heat that McCain experiences --and he's experiencing a lot of political heat. I imagine e-mails and phone calls to his office and Vice President Graham's office are burning phone lines -- the more he and his friends in the Drive-By Media will attempt to portray any compromise as one that favors him. So if any compromise occurs, the Drive-By Media is going to portray it as they already are as the White House caving, because McCain needs to be seen as getting something out of this mess that he has created.
If the White House actually does cave on this it would be a disaster at many levels, national security for one. Second, you can't keep drawing lines in the sand with McCain and then brush it off and back off. Some people are going to stop sticking their neck out for President Bush if he keeps drawing the line and then pulling back from it. I think you people, we've had enough of this, literally have had enough of this. The president's ratings are going up because the base is coming home, because the president is standing firm, and because he's taking on the press's favorite Republicans. Precisely because he's taking on McCain in that Rose Garden ceremony of last Friday and other occasions, is exactly why his numbers are coming up. For McCain, everything's funneled through the prism of what's best for his career and his experience as a POW, which reminds me. Where are all the other POWs? Don't tell me they all support this nonsense. Where are all the other soldiers who oppose this?
Is Colin Powell the only other man to ever fight for his country speaking out on this? How about General Hayden, and the others who oppose this. They served. Why don't their opinions count for anything? You know, it's obvious here, McCain decided long ago he's going to run the Senate and he could do it with a relative handful of moderates and liberal Republicans siding with left-wing Democrats as in the Gang of 14 on judicial nominations. 
He's done this for the last six years, and he's gotten away with it, which is why he's so arrogant about the fact that he thinks he controls the agenda. He's figured out he could stop the entire Congress from acting on something he disagrees with by controlling this handful of lapdog moderates and liberal Republicans that want to shine the light that the Drive-By Media shines on him. Everything from the campaign finance reform, security fence that Bill Frist, by the way, Frist says he's going to take back up, immigration reform, dozens of others thing. He runs the Senate, and he uses it to blunt the House and obstruct presidential initiatives and ideas. Pretends to be a conservative because he votes against the budgets, but he supports all the entitlements and other big-government initiatives, but he votes against the budget.
They claim he's a hawk because he wants to send more troops to Iraq, but then he at the same time leads the charge against Rumsfeld. And he opposes or weakens every domestic effort to secure our neighborhoods from detention to interrogation to borders, et cetera. Now he's running around the world looking for evidence of global warming. Now, what does that tell you his agenda is? And I, for one, am fed up with the kowtowing and the needless, ongoing, slavish idolatry that the Drive-By Media have. We've got a bunch of sympathy stories for McCain today. LA Times, Washington Post, "McCain's Stand Comes at a Price." Oh, how principled. McCain is not putting himself first. Why, he's really being criticized by his own people in the Republican Party and the base. This is terrible. It's a big-time media boohoo for McCain. Could imperil his candidacy in '08. But the McCain camp is said to see a political upside in this. The Washington Post, of course, "McCain's stand on detainees may pose risk for 2008 bid -- Opposition to Bush could alienate the Republican base." That happened long ago.
It happened in 2000; it happened with campaign finance reform; it happened with the Gang of 14; it's happening with this prisoner interrogation stuff. Second article of sympathy for McCain -- and I'm telling you, this is why you're seeing all these stories about the White House caving is because McCain must be the one to be seen getting something out of this, and as he gets more and more heat, he and his buddies in the Drive-By Media are going to attempt to portray any compromise as one that is favorable to him. Meanwhile, there are other analysts out there who think that the White House, President Bush cares so much about this interrogation program that he is willing to go into negotiations with McCain to save McCain from himself. I'm not kidding. There are people who think that the president wants to help McCain avoid making a fool of himself for the good of the party. I'm just sharing with you what other people think.
END TRANSCRIPT
Read the Background Material...
(LA Times: McCain Stand Comes at a Price)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mccain19sep19,0,1392716.story?coll=la-home-headlines
(WP: McCain's Stand On Detainees May Pose Risk For 2008 Bid)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801353.html
(RCP Blog: What is John McCain's 2008 Strategy?)
http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2006/09/what_is_john_mccains_2008_stra.html
(NRO: McCain’s Dubious High Ground)
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjRiNGIzYjE3ZjcxNzJiMGMyNTVhMGJhYjQ0MDNhNzk=
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_091506/content/rush_on_a_roll.guest.html
Three Questions for McCain, Warner and Graham
September 15, 2006
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here is Ed in Holmdel, New Jersey as we go to the phones. Welcome, sir, and nice to have you.
CALLER: Ditto to you, Rush, and I enjoy knowing the whole side of your personality, just not the seriousness.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: The question that I have is really addressed to McCain, and the question is: Given the restraints that he's trying to impose upon the US military, how would his being a prisoner have changed if the restraints that he's now requesting were imposed before he became a prisoner -- or for that matter anyone that's been a prisoner and held by our enemies over the ensuing pattern since the Vietnam War? How would their experience have changed?
RUSH: Yeah, you know, that is an excellent question, and of course the North Vietnamese didn't abide by the Geneva Conventions anyway!
CALLER: That's exactly right, and they've never been brought to justice.
RUSH: They were 20 years old by then! The Geneva Conventions were 20 years old by then! This is why this is so frustrating. Because the attempt to establish a moral equivalence between our enemies and us... You know, I've had it with the American left thinking we're no better than anybody else but it really offends me when people in our own party start joining that parade like Senator Graham and like Senator McCain and like Senator Warner.
There are three questions that I think they need to be asked, three questions that McCain and Warner and Graham need to be asked.
Number One: Do you want military commissions that will bring terror suspects to justice?
Number Two: The CIA Detainee Questioning Program saved lives, it foiled a number of plots, and provided a treasure trove of intelligence we would have not gotten elsewhere. Do you want this to go forward?
These are the kinds of questions that need to be asked.
Number Three: Can you specify what behavior is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions language forbidding "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;" if you can't, don't you think it would be a good idea to spell out what we can and can't do?
There's something fishy about this. None of this makes any sense, if viewed through a conventional prism.
You want to hear something else that doesn't make sense? I shared with you earlier today Richard Miniter's piece in the New York Post describing this. You've gotta read it. We'll link to it at RushLimbaugh.com but it's right there in the opinion section of the New York Post website. Some 1,000 lawyers represent 440 prisoners, all at a pro bono basis, and they're using letters ostensibly sent from their lawyers (attorney-client privilege, the detainees are, the prisoners are) in order to send messages to each other about plotting future attacks on guards and so forth at Club Gitmo. So I got a note from Andy McCarthy, who has participated in trials of terrorists, Ramzi Yousef and so forth, earlier. He's now a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He also writes at National Review Online, used to be at the US attorney's office, Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
He says, "Rush, as regards to lawyers at [Club Gitmo] I put this in the Federalist Society paper I did in defense of the NSA program: 'Prominent among the attorneys representing the jihadists at Gitmo is the Center for Constitutional Rights which I believe was started by William Kunstler and Arthur Kinoy in the 1970s." William Kunstler, Chicago Eight, wacko left-wing civil rights attorney. "Its current leader, Michael Ratner, has filed lawsuits on behalf of numerous enemy combatants held. As Senator Graham acknowledged in Senate proceedings in December, Ratner gave an interview to Mother Jones magazine and bragged about how he has made it harder for the military to do its job. He particularly emphasized that the litigation interferes with interrogation of enemy combatants. 'This litigation is brutal for the United States,' said Ratner. 'We have over 100 lawyers now from big and small firms working to represent these detainees. Every time an attorney goes down there, it makes it that much harder for the US military to do what they're doing. You can't run an interrogation with attorneys. What are they going to do now that we're getting court orders to get more lawyers down there?'" That's the group of lawyers with the mind-set representing the enemy at Club Gitmo!
In this same context, you've got McCain and Graham and Warner coming out standing in the way of a program, that's working, going forward, and as I say: Through the conventional prism it doesn't make sense. If you look at it through the prism of McCain's electoral chances in '08 and the possibility that he may want Republicans to lose big in '06 because that will help him overcome his problems with the Republican base in '08, then it starts to make a little sense -- and you can look at Graham as a lapdog of McCain and Warner, who knows? But it's frustrating. It's maddening. But the president is dealing with it. He came out and hammered these people, taking the message to the American people.
McCain thinks he's bigger than the president, and he's going to find out otherwise.
END TRANSCRIPT
Read the Background Material...
(NY Post: A Deadly Kindness - Richard Miniter)
(NRO: Enact the President’s Code for Military Commissions - Andrew McCarthy)
(WT: A skewed view of detainee rights)
(Mother Jones: The Torn Fabric of the Law: An Interview With Michael Ratner)
Club G'itmo, the Muslim resort!
(Your Tropical Retreat from the Stress of Jihad)
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.
Look at the spikes and the falls near and at the election times.
Notice the spike before the 2000 election (get gdub in), spike and quick fall before 2002 elections, big spike and fall before the 2004 election and the huge spike and huge fall (gdub needed some support) and the other huge spike and huge fall that is now upon us.
But each fall never comes that far down. Keep inching it up and no one notices (keep inching your pants down until your butt crack shows and it becomes fashion).
Any good American (repubs included) who can not see a direct corolation between the oil companies (who are gubs friends), gdub and the repugs popularity and the elctions is a blind idiot!
There is another graph out there that shows bushes popularity and gas prices, they pretty much mirror each other.
Thom Hartmann says $1.90/gal. by election, I have been saying between $2.00 and $2.50 (but most likely closer to $2.00)
this is what they're doing, Kevin. "blind idiot" is too nice for them.
The people who fall for this disgust me. You know why? Because they can put the price of gas....the amount of money in their pockets above lies and deceit about something as important as "war". They can put the price of gas above the loss of 2,700 of our young men and women. They can put the price of gas above the 20,000 maimed and wounded. They can put the price of gas above what we have done to the Iraqi people.
They can look at the price of gas and say "gee...he's not doing such a bad job after all".
They make me sick.
I did hear a CBS/NYT poll today which said "he" was only at 37%.
CNN/Gallup is regularly favorable to the repubs....and yes...they do it for a reason.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/20/ldt.01.html
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
U.S. Generals Admit No Troop Withdrawals Like In Face of Increased Violence in Iraq, Afghanistan; Hugo Chavez Addresses U.N.: Bush Is "The Devil"; Is the U.S. Really an Imperial Power?
Aired September 20, 2006 - 18:00 ET
MICHAEL GOODWIN, "NEW YORK DAILY NEWS": I mean Chavez and Ahmadinejad yesterday, I think both come off as foolish and kind of bit players on the big league stage. I think they clearly aren't ready for it. So I think it does help President Bush to have those kinds of enemies. I think it's one of the reasons that the president's poll numbers are going to continue to rise.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/20/acd.01.html
ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
Interview With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Venezuelan Leader Calls President Bush 'The Devil'
Aired September 20, 2006 - 22:00 ET
COOPER: John, President Bush making a lot more public appearances, giving interviews, giving speeches. Poll numbers seem to be rising. I think 44 percent approval in the last poll. That's up from a low, I think in the low 30s. How's he doing? Is this working?
ROBERTS: Well, it all depends on who you look at. The latest "USA Today"/Gallup poll showed him at 44 percent, but there's a new CBS News/"New York Times" poll out that shows him still at 37. I mean, a lot of it could depend on your weighting in the polls. But he's doing well or he's doing not so well.
But there seems to be an indication of at least a bit of a bump from this new focus on terror and trying to tie Iraq with terror. It's all really going to come out in the wash, though, in the polls in November. That latest "USA Today"/Gallup poll, by the way, showed that among likely voters, Republicans and Democrats have now evened up the Democrats had a substantial advantage until just a few weeks ago.
So it appears as though the race might be tightening a little bit. Republicans feeling a little bit better about it. They have a huge amount of cash on hand and much more than the Democrats do. And they plan to just flood the airwaves with advertisements. They've got a big "get out the vote" campaign as well, Anderson. So they could do some damage against the Democrats this coming November.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-20-bush-gas-prices_x.htm
For Bush, cheaper gas is premium
Updated 9/21/2006 12:35 AM ET
By Susan Page, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — When it comes to President Bush's approval rating — the number that measures his political health — one factor seems more powerful than any Oval Office address or legislative initiative.
It's the price of a gallon of gas.
Statisticians who have compared changes in gas prices and Bush's ratings through his presidency have found a steady relationship: As gas prices rise, his ratings fall. As gas prices fall, his ratings rise.
For some Americans, analysts speculate, gas prices provide a shorthand reading of the general state of the economy. Even though prices at the pump are largely outside the president's control, he gets credit when they fall — and blame when they rise.
"Gas prices are a price everybody knows because it hangs on the street in big letters," says Stuart Thiel, an economist at DePaul University in Chicago who has been tracking the trend for several years.
A statistical analysis by Doug Henwood, editor of the liberal newsletter Left Business Observer, found that an "uncanny" 78% of the movement in Bush's ratings could be correlated with changes in gas prices. Based on trends in crude oil prices, Henwood predicted last Thursday that it "wouldn't be surprising to see his approval numbers rise into the mid-40s."
In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, Bush's rating rose to 44%, his highest in a year. Average gas prices, which peaked at more than $3 a gallon in August, had dropped under $2.50, the lowest since March.
POLL RESULTS: Bush approval ratings up
http://www.usatoday.com/news/polls/tables/live/2006-09-18-poll.htm
A renewed focus on terrorism contributed to Bush's turnaround, analysts say. "When they put the terror issue out there, they tend to get political points," says sociologist Robb Willer of the University of California, Berkeley.
Gas prices may be "a proxy for larger developments in the political economy," Henwood says. For instance, the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, which drove up fuel costs, also eroded Bush's support.
The ratings of Bush's three immediate predecessors weren't closely tied to gas prices, Henwood found. Volatile prices and a supply crunch did contribute to President Jimmy Carter's political travails.
For Bush, too, prices have been volatile, and his background as an oilman may be a factor affecting public attitudes. In the USA TODAY poll, two in five said the administration has deliberately manipulated gas prices to decline before the fall elections.
Routine market forces are likely to deliver more good news to Bush, says Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service. Absent an international crisis, he predicts gas prices will drop an additional 10 to 20 cents a gallon by Election Day.
Posted 9/20/2006 11:57 PM ET
Updated 9/21/2006 12:35 AM ET
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/9/20/141615.shtml?s=lh
Karl Rove Promises October Surprise
Ronald Kessler
Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006
WASHINGTON -- In the past week, Karl Rove has been promising Republican insiders an "October surprise" to help win the November congressional elections.
President Bush's political strategist is also saying that the final two weeks before the elections will see a blitz of advertising, and the Republican National Committee is deploying an army of volunteers to key locations to help the grass-roots effort and monitor the elections.
The RNC is offering to fly in volunteers and cover their expenses.
Rove is not saying what the October surprise will be. Asked if he would elaborate and give his thinking about the coming elections, Rove told NewsMax that his take largely parallels what RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman said in a Sept. 5 NewsMax story.
As for the October Surprise, Rove said, "I'd rather let the balance [of plans for the elections] unroll on its own."
The previous NewsMax story quoted Mehlman as saying that Republicans will hold their majority in the House and Senate. He bases that conclusion on a recent meeting with his regional political directors, on private polling, and on analyses of individual races.
Mehlman conceded that the House is in a "competitive situation." In the House, 35 to 40 seats are in play, he said. In the Senate, 12 or 13 seats could change hands. To tilt the balance, Democrats would have to pick up six seats in the Senate and 15 seats in the House.
But, Mehlman said, "I believe that the combination of the relatively narrow playing field, the relatively strong financial position our folks are in and the national party is in, the good turnout operation that we have, the motivation of our base, and the lack of motivation of their base as indicated by turnout in a number of recent Democrat primaries," will do the trick.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, told the American Spectator Newsmaker Breakfast that even in Indiana, "There is no question that there is public consternation about our progress in Iraq." However, he said, "Hoosiers want us to come home, but they want us to win and come home."
When he was with Bush recently, the president asked him, "What do you have to say, Pence?"
"Thanks for being more determined than our enemy," Pence said.
"I like the way you put that," Bush quickly replied.
Tony Williams and D.C.'s Strange Election
One of the strangest elections is being held on Capitol Hill, where a black Republican is running for city council in a city where no Republican in memory has ever defeated a Democrat. In this case, it helps to be the son of Juan Williams, the Fox News contributor and National Public Radio host.
With that kind of entree, Juan's son Tony Williams has been able to line up an impressive array of backers to help raise money for his campaign for Washington's Ward 6, which covers Capitol Hill. They range from Republican guru Grover Norquist and GOP operative Ed Rogers to Fox News contributor Fred Barnes.
Four Democrats are also vying for the City Council seat, which is open to Republicans and Democrats. Some other city council seats are reserved for Republicans.
Tony Williams, 26, is taller than his father but has inherited his chiseled good looks. When the younger Williams was attending Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., a talent scout for Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch asked if he would model.
"They wanted to do a shoot," Williams recalled. "My thought wasn't, ‘I want to be a model.' It was, ‘I want to get my work done.' I told them thanks, but no thanks. Maybe I missed my true calling."
Back when Tony, as a high school kid, attended New Year's Day brunches with his parents at my home, his mother Delise, a social worker, called him Antonio. After college, he became a speechwriter and legislative correspondent for Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., a communications and public relations assistant for the Republican National Committee, and a Senate page and intern for Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C.
"My connection with the city and its movers and shakers has allowed prominent D.C. residents, many of whom have never supported a non-Democrat candidate, to support me," Williams told me in his baritone voice.
While Williams was raised in a liberal home, he thought liberals at Macalester College took liberalism to an extreme, and it made him uncomfortable.
"I am just a middle-of-the-road person generally," he said. "They started labeling me as a Republican. At first, I just thought these guys were throwing names out."
But Williams realized that he really did identify more with Republicans. When Williams began interning for the RNC, his father questioned him.
"He was kind of like, ‘What are you doing over there?'" Williams said. "But he was also like, ‘Let my son do his thing.'"
Asked how he feels about his son's Republican pedigree, Juan Williams said, "Initially, it was a surprise to everybody in our family. But the whole idea was to raise a young man who was empowered to make his own choices in life. He is a conservative person and has always been. It wasn't a surprise in that sense."
Tony Williams told me he is most impressed by the difference in the way Democrats and Republicans try to solve problems.
"Democrats wait for problems to happen and put a Band-Aid over them," Williams said. "Republicans get out in front of problems and take a proactive approach to solve them. Over the years, Republicans have been on the correct side of civil rights issues, but they aren't afraid to say that personal responsibility is also important in solving problems."
Ronald Kessler is Chief Washington Correspondent for NewsMax.com. Get his dispatches FREE sent you via e-mail – Click Here Now.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/09/21/iraq.main.ap/index.html
Iraq says kidnappers use victims as unwitting bombers
POSTED: 12:54 p.m. EDT, September 21, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents are no longer using just volunteers to drive suicide car bombs but are instead kidnapping people with their cars, rigging the vehicles with explosives, and blowing them up remotely, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.
In what appears to be a new tactic for the insurgency, the ministry said the kidnap victims do not know their cars have been loaded with explosives when they are released.
The ministry issued a statement saying that first "a motorist is kidnapped with his car. They then booby trap the car without the driver knowing. Then the kidnapped driver is released and threatened to take a certain road."
The kidnappers follow the car and when the unwitting victim "reaches a checkpoint, a public place, or an army or police patrol, the criminal terrorists following the driver detonate the car from a distance," the Defense Ministry statement said.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military. In the past, U.S. officials have said insurgents often tape or handcuff a suicide driver's hands to a car, or bind his foot to the gas pedal, to ensure that he does not back out at the last minute.
Although roadside bombs are the main weapon used by insurgents, suicide car bombers are designed to maximize casualties and sow fear among the population.
According to the Washington-based Brookings Institution, there have been 343 suicide car bombings causing multiple deaths in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Iraq takes over security in one province
Italy formally handed over security responsibility for southern Dhi Qar province to Iraqi forces Thursday.
It's the second of the country's 18 provinces to be handed over to local control.
In a ceremony in Dhi Qar's capital of Nasiriya, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki thanked Italian Defense Minister Arturo Parisi for his country's help in the province.
"It is a great day, it holds the message of the future handover of security control in all of Iraq," al-Maliki said.
With the handover, Iraqis will now be responsible for security in the province, calling in coalition troops only when they are needed for support.
Al-Maliki has said that Iraqi army and police plan to take over security for all provinces in the next 18 months. British troops handed over control of southern Muthana province in July.
Italy's force of some 1,600 troops is expected to be mostly withdrawn by year's end.
In a joint statement, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. military official in Iraq, lauded the handover as "another sign of progress toward a stable and secure Iraq."
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq's Human Rights office warned Wednesday, however, that the number of Iraqi civilians killed in July and August hit 6,599, a record high number that is far greater than initial estimates had suggested and points to the grave sectarian crisis gripping the country. (Full story)
In scattered violence Thursday, at least 15 people were killed, including six policemen whose western Baghdad station was hit with mortar and gunfire.
More mutilated bodies were found, the apparent victims of death squads.
The United Nations' chief anti-torture expert said Thursday that torture in Iraq may be worse now than it was under the regime of Saddam Hussein. (Full story)
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
Dear Mitchell,
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