BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from weeklystandard.com
Last week, Congressional Republican wrote a new chapter in government reform, convening a meeting in Washington with 16 newly elected GOP governors. To some, the confab looked like just another photo-op celebrating the party’s historic gains in last month’s midterm elections.
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BY GARY ANDRES
Intra-party fights for political spoils are one of the dark sides of legislative politics.
These battles are divisive and unproductive. They destroy party morale, political efficacy and even lifelong friendships. Fortunately, the incoming Republican House majority kept most of these internal squabbles to a minimum when it came to selecting their new leadership team.
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from Weekly Standard.com
Tuesday’s election produced another opportunity for hope and change in Washington .
Or at least that’s one way of looking at it.
Instead of wallowing in his party’s defeat, President Obama could interpret the outcome as a voter-imposed, political do-over – another swing at rising above the polarized politics of the past.
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from weeklystandard.com
President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress seriously misdiagnosed the politics of health care reform. Yet their malpractice is even more extensive than generally known.Polling consistently shows that opposition to the new law outstrips support. Rasmussen’s tracking surveys regularly demonstrate significant majorities want it repealed. And not a week goes by without more dire projections of health insurance premium increasing and employers dropping or changing coverage.
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from weeklystandard.com
Around the 1964 presidential election–back when “Mad Man” Don Draper was still smoking Camels–men and women began to gradually diverge in their political views and behavior. We call this the “gender gap.”
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from weeklystandard.com
If the Republicans win enough seats in Congress this November, GOP leader John Boehner will become the next speaker of the House. The Ohio Republican would assume the gavel amid a maelstrom of polarization not seen since the late nineteenth century.
By GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from Realclearpolitics.com
With all the focus on the Tea Party this election cycle, another strong predictor of political behavior – religion – has not received as much attention.
Historically, religious groups have played central roles in electoral contests, but their impact and alliances have shifted over time.
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from Weeklystandard.com
The 2010 federal fiscal year ended unceremoniously this week – a political and substantive fiasco for the Democrats. It included a cascade of miscalculations that could haunt the party in the November elections. But that pales in comparison to the serious harm they’ve inflicted on the American economy.
Never before has a party so bungled fiscal policy in the United States , leaving citizens, businesses, and investors with head-spinning uncertainty.
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BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from weeklystandard.com
Voter interest in the November elections continues its staggered crescendo. For candidates and consultants the long opus nears its denouement. But non-politicos – who react to different rhythms – are just now beginning to stir.
As they listen more intently they will hear a familiar score – echoes of campaigns past with a hint of desperation in the Democratic Party’s musicianship.
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from the weeklystandard.com
Many factors are contributing to President Obama’s decline in popularity since his historic election less than two years ago. A stagnant economy with stubbornly high unemployment certainly caused part of the downward trend. But there is more.
A White House out of step with many Americans on both public policy substance and style in office also explains a huge part of the dip.
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BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from weeklystandard.com
Earlier this week, President Obama proposed another round of stimulus spending, aiming to boost the sagging economy and—he vainly hopes—his party’s slumping political fortunes.
The $50 billion ‘little brother’ of the $787 billion enacted two years ago is more of a campaign talking point for hemorrhaging Democratic candidates than a serious economic stimulus plan—and with good reason.
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BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from weeklystandard.com
Partisan polarization seems like it purchased a lifetime pass in this city.
This won’t sit well with Kumbaya aficionados — those looking for congressional Republicans and Democrats to walk arm-in-arm toward a bipartisan Promised Land.
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BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from weeklystandard.com
The View’s hostesses probably won’t invite Senator John Thune on the show to discuss his new budget proposal. Ideas this thoughtful rarely attract pop culture media attention.
Despite the glitterati’s lack of interest, the South Dakota senator’s new plan to restore fiscal discipline should become a cause for decision-makers and regular Americans alike.
President Obama, on the other hand, has no problems finding his way to a daytime TV set. But when it comes to curbing red ink, he disappears when others yell “Action!”
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from Weeklystandard.com
It sounded very easy in theory. With the biggest tax increase in history set to go into effect on January 1, 2011, Democrats were poised to win the middle class rock heroes award.
The song had all the subtlety of a Pete Townshend guitar riff. Pass a bill before the end of the year extending current tax law for everyone except those nasty “rich” folks (individuals earning more than $200,000 per year and families with incomes above $250,000) and bang!
Then, just hitch a ride on the shoulders of grateful fans in the mosh pit to electoral victory.
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from weeklystandard.com
Last November, as members of the House of Representatives considered the health care reform bill, President Obama made a dramatic trip to Capitol Hill. After closing down sixteen blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue, a half-mile long White House motorcade whisked the presidential entourage past cheering tourists to meet with the House Democratic Caucus.
Despite the drama, these trips rarely occur if the outcome is unknown. No sense aggravating a bunch of taxi drivers if you’re not going to win.
When he arrived before the roaring group of lawmakers, the president oozed transformational hyperbole. Even lowly House members could “make history” by passing the measure, the president apparently told his audience, according to news accounts.
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from weeklystandard.com
The news media hailed President Obama’s victory on the Wall Street reform bill signed into law earlier this week as another example of his legislative prowess.
When it comes to congressional arm-twisting, New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg, like others, extolled him as a modern day LBJ.
“If passage of the financial regulatory overhaul on Thursday proves anything about President Obama it is this,” Stolberg wrote. “He knows how to push big bills through a balky Congress.”
Writing in the Christian Science Monitor last week, Linda Feldman shared the sentiment: “Passage of financial regulatory reform signals another landmark legislative victory for President Obama, following the Recovery Act and health-care reform.”
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from the Weekly Standard
If legislation were dirt, Democrats would have piled up a mountain of it over the past 18 months, digging themselves in a deep political hole in the process.
The House that Nancy (Pelosi) built continues to ramrod new policies through the legislative process, hoping the bustle will salve America’s sour mood. Senate Democrats move a little more slowly due to different institutional rules, yet their hearts are in the same place: the more legislative production the better.
That’s what legislators do, after all. New laws are like seed corn, intended to grow public support.
But it’s not working. The congressional majority keeps passing initiatives they say respond to the public’s desire for “change.” Yet the combination of current liberal initiatives and uncertainty about future policies now seriously hampers economic growth and business risk-taking. It’s also taking a toll on congressional standing with voters.
Gallup reinforced this point last week, reporting Congress’s job approval rate hovering near an all time low of 20 percent.
Perceived liberalism in the lawmaking process may also impact Americans’ ideological self-identification. Gallup issued a separate study recently, demonstrating a significant rise in the number of Americans describing themselves as conservatives since the 2008 election.
Near record numbers now also say that the Democratic Party is “too liberal.”
BY GARY ANDRES
When tiny globs of gooey brown oil began washing up on Gulf shores, it foreshadowed a more ominous environmental calamity lurking just over the horizon. These first signs were troubling enough. But they also revealed a more daunting threat riding incoming tides that might prove impossible to fix.
The Gulf disaster is a metaphor for our federal spending and debt crisis. Globs of budgetary red ink have been washing up in Washington for some time now. Cleaning up the immediate problem is hard enough. But the difficulty policymakers face addressing the current fiscal mess only underscores a larger challenge.
The Senate’s efforts over the past month, trying to enact a state aid/unemployment/tax extender bill are illustrative. The Democrats’ original plan exemplified politics as usual. These initiatives all cost the federal government money. But instead of making the tough choices necessary to pay for these benefits, they proposed just adding more to the deficit.
But with an election looming and nervous voters increasingly cranky about unsustainable debt, the original Senate plan, which increased the federal debt because it offset less than a third of the $190 billion in spending, ran into a buzz saw of opposition. Democratic leaders continue to ameliorate concerns by scaling back the package or finding other offsets.
BY GARY ANDRES
Reprinted from Weekly Standard
Political enthusiasm is the secret sauce of American politics. When it comes to producing calories for winning elections, it’s the difference between a Big Mac and Lean Cuisine.
But what stimulates this vote-producing electoral flavoring? One party sometimes gets an energy jolt through a combination of forces.
This year Republicans received the extra dollop of zeal on the political menu. Predictable historical conditions explain part of the equation. The “out” party normally enjoys an enthusiasm gap because the “outs” want to become the “ins.”
But Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress also contribute to the GOP’s edge. Their policies and performance – since January 2009 — engender emotions that will create additional GOP electoral punch in November.
At one level, the Republicans enjoy an expected enthusiasm gap. History provides some insights here. In November 1994, with Bill Clinton in the White House and his party in control of Congress, a Gallup survey asked voters if they were “more enthusiastic” or “less enthusiastic” about voting compared to previous elections. Self-identified Republicans said they were more excited by an 11-percentage point margin.
BY GARY ANDRES
reprinted from Weekly Standard
Zoila, Liam, and Alena were strangers with a shared goal. They met in Evanston, Illinois, last Saturday for the first time, telling other strangers they encountered as they walked door-to-door, “We’re here for the president.”
Actually, they were encouraging Illinois residents to vote for Democrats in November. But as Liam told Elizabeth Chan, a writer for the Vote 2010 blog, his group decided saying they were there for Barack Obama was a “great ice-breaking” line as they engaged in this partisan canvassing campaign.
These three volunteers joined thousands of others across the country last weekend, kicking off the Democratic Party’s Vote 2010 campaign. The initiative hopes to contact many of the 15 million Americans who registered to vote after 2006, and then cast ballots for the first time in the 2008 election.
Why are these voters so pivotal? First, about 70 percent of them supported Barack Obama. Second, research shows turnout falls off on average of about 20 percent in midterm elections compared to presidential contests; and first time voters are among those most likely not to show up in off-years.