Dems urge McDonnell to come back to reality on economic recovery
The Democratic Party of Virginia today urged Bob McDonnell to focus on his job as governor and less on making tortured and patently absurd efforts to explain the nationwide economic recovery as anything other than a reflection on President Barack Obama’s strong leadership.
On Sunday Bob McDonnell went on CNN’s State of the Union and said: “Look, I’m glad the economy is starting to recover, but I think it’s because of what Republican governors are doing in their states, not because of the president.”
In making that argument, McDonnell failed to acknowledge the reality of a nationwide recovery in which states with governors of both parties are emerging from the national recession, including states like Maryland, which created eight times more private-sector jobs than Virginia did last year under the leadership of Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley. Read more
Federal agency moving forward with offshore wind energy plan
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced on Thursday that it is moving forward with the next step in offshore wind energy development off the Virginia coast.
The BOEM is publishing the call for information and nominations aimed at industry interest in locations off the Virginia coast for commercial wind energy leases. The call is the first step in the leasing process. It describes the areas that will be made available and solicits expression of interest from developers.
Developers will have 45 days to respond to the call. Once responses are received, BOEM will determine whether their leasing process will be competitive or non-competitive. Read more
Poll: Obama holding steady in Virginia
The conventional wisdom is that how Barack Obama fares in Virginia in 2012 will determine the fate of his re-election campaign. If that is the case, Obama is looking good for a second term.
A Public Policy Polling survey of Virginia voters released on Wednesday has Obama running ahead of top Republican challengers Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. Obama leads Gingrich by seven points (50 percent to 43 percent) and leads Romney by six (48 percent to 42 percent) in the PPP polling.
The poll was the fourth of the year of Virginia voters done by PPP, and Obama has consistently held leads over his top GOP challengers all year long.
Obama won Virginia in 2008 with a six-point margin of victory over Republican nominee John McCain. His leads over Gingrich, the current Republican presidential nomination frontrunner, and Romney are both in that same ballpark. Read more
Jon O’Brien: President Obama, don’t turn your back on women
When healthcare reform was first proposed, you promised the American people that under your administration we wouldn’t lose the healthcare coverage we already had if we were happy with it. You said that we would get the healthcare coverage we wanted and needed. You promised that you would make decisions based on science and medically accurate information.
When the Institute of Medicine recommended that family planning be added to the list of essential preventive services, women and men around the country were delighted. So were doctors and public health advocates who recognize the importance of allowing women and men to plan their families. Family planning can be expensive, and providing it at no cost to people makes sense.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been lobbying hard, calling for you to include an expansive refusal clause that will ensure that millions of women and men are denied no-cost family planning coverage.
Mr. President,
• Providing no-cost family planning is good public health policy and an important advance under the Affordable Care Act. But if you grant the refusal clause the Catholic bishops want, you will be supporting discrimination against millions of Americans, both Catholic and non-Catholic, simply because of where they work or go to school.
• The majority of American Catholics support affordable access to contraception for all women and men, especially during these tough economic times. Catholics themselves use contraception: 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women have used the family planning the bishops want you to exclude from healthcare coverage.
• Two-thirds of Catholics, 65 percent believe that clinics and hospitals that take taxpayer money should not be allowed to refuse to provide procedures or medications based on religious beliefs. A similar number, 63 percent, also believe that health insurance, whether private or government-run, should cover contraception.
• A strong majority (78 percent) of Catholic women prefer that their hospital offers emergency contraception for rape victims, while more than half (55 percent) want their hospital to provide it in broader circumstances.
• Expanding refusal clauses to allow some institutions and universities to refuse to provide coverage for contraception is not what you promised in healthcare reform. Giving in to the bishops’ demands will mean preventive healthcare will cost more—not less—for millions of healthcare and social service employees, teachers and university students and their families.
• American taxpayers’ dollars should be used for the common good and to enable people to exercise their conscience-based healthcare decisions.
If you side with the Catholic bishops, it will be harder and more expensive for millions of American women to get family planning. You will also be rejecting the advice from medical experts that recommended its inclusion on the list of recommended preventive healthcare services for women. The US bishops have completely failed to convince Catholics in the pews not to use effective family planning methods, so now they want you to impose their agenda on Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
Mr. President, you have a choice — listen to the people who elected you or the Catholic bishops. If you want to do what’s right by American Catholics, don’t make this deal with the bishops. Listen to the majority of the 68 million Catholics who want contraceptive coverage for everyone, not the 271 active bishops in the United States who don’t.
Jon O’Brien is the president of Catholics for Choice.
Poll: Obama still leads GOP field
President Obama is far from a safe bet for re-election in 2012, but despite his political troubles, the Democrat still leads the Republican field.
A new poll by Public Policy Polling has Obama ahead of the top six GOP contenders by margins ranging from three to 11 points. The toughest matchup continues to be Obama-Mitt Romney, who trails the president by three points (46 percent to 43 percent) in the PPP poll.
The lead for Obama over Romney is only his second in that head-to-head matchup in the past five months. The change has more to do with Romney than Obama – the former Massachusetts governor saw his net favorability drop in the November poll overall and particularly among independent voters (from a 48 percent/34 percent favorable/unfavorable split in October to a 41 percent/40 percent split in November).
The new frontrunner for the Republican nomination, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, has narrowed his general-election gap with Obama significantly in the past month. In October, Gingrich trailed Obama in their head-to-head by 11 points, but the November PPP poll has Gingrich down six points (49 percent to 43 percent).
More on the poll at www.publicpolicypolling.com.
Supreme Court to hear challenge to health-care reform
The United States Supreme Court said today that it will hear arguments on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – the health-care reform law passed by Congress in 2010.
Virginia filed one of the suits that made their way up the federal system with Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and Gov. Bob McDonnell, both Republicans, leading the charge.
“Whether a federal mandate on every citizen to purchase health insurance violates the U.S. Constitution is a question that ultimately must be decided by the United States Supreme Court. That is why, nine months ago, Virginia requested that these suits be expedited for resolution by our nation’s highest court. We are pleased that the Supreme Court has announced they will hear arguments from six of these cases during the current term,” McDonnell said in a statement today.
Dan Pfeiffer, the communications director for President Barack Obama, a Democrat, also welcomes the review by the Supreme Court.
“Earlier this year, the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to consider legal challenges to the health reform law, and we are pleased the Court has agreed to hear this case,” Pfeiffer said.
“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 1 million more young Americans have health insurance, women are getting mammograms and preventive services without paying an extra penny out of their own pocket and insurance companies have to spend more of your premiums on health care instead of advertising and bonuses. We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and are confident the Supreme Court will agree,” Pfeiffer said.
McDonnell has as much confidence that the high court will find otherwise.
“I have long argued that this is an issue that will have an enormous impact on states, and one that demands finality as soon as possible. Each day that these cases remain unresolved means that states must spend more time and money to prepare for the expensive and burdensome requirements of the health care law, while uncertainty looms over its constitutionality,” McDonnell said.
“I am confident that the court will find that the act does overreach and is unconstitutional. I thank the U.S. Supreme Court for agreeing to hear arguments on the federal health care law during this current term,” McDonnell said.
Chris Graham: Purple
Republicans regained control of the State Senate in yesterday’s elections, and in the process now have the power in both houses of the General Assembly and all three statewide offices.
Looking at the results from Tuesday’s state elections that way, then, you’d think, Well, going to be tough for a guy named Barack Obama and a guy named Tim Kaine to win in Virginia in 2012. You know, because they’re Democrats, and Democrats are the minority party in Virginia these days.
Funny thing there – this new normal is based on Republicans gaining exactly two seats in the State Senate. And since all 40 seats were up for re-election in the 2011 cycle, that means a gain from 18 seats to 20, with Democrats dropping two to go from 22 to 20.
So we have a 20-20 tie in the State Senate. And looking at vote totals from yesterday’s elections, well, more on that in a minute.
There were 25 contested races involving a Democratic candidate facing off with a Republican candidate among the 40 up for grabs in the 2011 cycle. In those 25 races, Democratic candidates received 471,450 votes, according to numbers I pulled from the State Board of Elections website and then plugged into a spreadsheet. And the Republican candidates in those races received … 470,093 votes.
Republicans have all the power right now. Democrats are obviously still very competitive.
2012 should be very interesting in Virginia.
Poll: Obama/Romney a tossup
The latest Public Policy Polling survey of American voters has a hypothetical race between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney a dead heat – though Obama still maintains leads over the other top GOP contenders.
The Obama-Romney race stands at a 45 percent-to-45 percent tie in the PPP poll. Obama has lost four points from what had been a 49 percent-to-45 percent lead over Romney in the September PPP poll.
Romney’s strengths, according to the poll, lie in his narrow lead over Obama among independent voters and his strong showing among Republicans – 85 percent of whom say that they would support him in the general election. Herman Cain gets the support of 83 percent of Republicans in a hypothetical head-to-head with Obama, but none of the other top GOP candidates gets out of the 70s among Republican voters.
Cain actually leads among Republicans for the GOP presidential nomination, but trails Obama in a head-to-head by a 48 percent-to-42 percent margin. Rick Perry trails Obama 49 percent to 40 percent, and registered an alarming net-negative favorability rating, with 23 percent of voters saying they have a favorable opinion of him and 57 percent saying they have a negative opinion.
David Reynolds: The Virginia Plan
How have you been enjoying the 2012 presidential campaign so far? Just as I thought. Here’s more bad news: there are 13 months months left in the campaign. One suggestion: cancel 2012. Tell the Republicans to go ahead and hand four more years to the president. This should be easy. The GOP is very good at blowing presidential elections. (And for the losers the winters are not that bad in Canada.) In exchange, Americans will be so grateful that any 2016 GOP presidential nominee will sweep into office.
Now for what I wanted to say. Let’s start at the beginning. From Alex and Tom to Barack and John, from Hamilton and Jefferson to Obama and Boehner, there have been two grand philosophical highways. Now there are four byways requiring serious repair.
This should please the so-called independent political souls out there who are always wishing for a third major political party. I’ve just raised you one. Yes, my Republican and Democratic friends, splitsville has finally occurred. We have proof: last summer’s debt ceiling soap opera in gridlock DC. There are not only two different visions of America — there are two different ways of doing business.
Here are today’s four major political parties. You should be able to recognize each.
A. The Tax & Spend Party. The Great Depression made this party great. It spoke directly for those unable to speak for themselves. The party ran on a successful fiscal formula of redistribution of income to the lower classes. Then came Vietnam, the 1972 election and social issues. The party spoke from both coasts, but was seldom heard in America’s heartland.
B. The Spend & Tax Party. This new party came into power in 2008. Its timing could not have been worse. The housing bubble burst and the economy collapsed. The party’s strategy was that once the vast middle class enjoyed their new candy store, they would be willing to allow others to pay the tab later. After all, this strategy worked for decades in Europe. Why not in America? Meanwhile the financial crisis depressed growth and tax revenues. The people were not able to pay for their big new candy store, including the health care all day sucker sold to them. Its leader’s honeymoon ended.
C. The Don’t Tax/Don’t Spend Party. This is the party of “No.” Its roots go back to the Libertarian Party and are now spreading with the tea party movement. Its base does not care for today’s big government because it enjoys reading old musty documents, such as the Constitution. Therefore, it will always be out-of-date. They believe that two birds in the bush would have been better than two Bush’s. However, in order to grow and have influence, this party needs to buy a dictionary. In it they will find that “congress” means, “the act or fact of coming together.”
D. The Tax A Little/Spend A Little Party. This is currently the watered-down version of Party “A.” It tends to lose elections because voters are like Coke drinkers, they like “the real thing.” It is the party of “It all depends.” It sees most government programs as evil, but necessary. It has lasted since Lincoln by rationing out its sweets to those only in congressional districts. Then it discovered that everyone lives in a congressional district.
That’s it. Four parties, four speeds: fast; express; stop; and slow . We now know that it doesn’t work in government, politics or in railroading. There’s going to be a train wreck. There almost was.
Here’s my solution, call it “The Virginia Plan.” Go back to doing everything the way we’ve always done it. Tell Mr. Obama that his party is over. It was an exciting four-year run. But too exciting. Tell the tea drinkers to keep the faith, but join up with the GOP. Now dem Dems can return to what they do best: spreading social justice and raising money. The elephant will finally throw its full weight around. It will get smart and run on its ticket the governor of a key swing state and win the election. Governor McDonnell will be happy in his new DC home.
By the way, Bob, it is on Massachusetts Avenue, not Pennsylvania Avenue.
Column by David Reynolds
PPP: Perry has narrow lead over Obama in home state
Rick Perry can claim one early lead over Barack Obama in the polls – in his home state of Texas, though Perry’s lead there is much narrower than he’d like to admit.
Perry leads Obama among Texas voters by a 51 percent-to-44 percent margin, according to a poll released today by Public Policy Polling.
That’s actually an improvement over a June PPP poll that had Obama with a slim 47 percent-to-45 percent lead over Perry.
The updated poll still has Perry with a negative approval rating in Texas, with 45 percent of Texas voters approving of the job that he’s doing and 48 percent not approving.
Perry’s seven-point lead is about half the margin that Republican candidate John McCain won the state by in the 2008 presidential election.
Poll: Obama doubles lead over Perry … is voter concern over Social Security the reason why?
A new Public Policy Polling survey of voters has Barack Obama nearly doubling his lead over Texas Gov. Rick Perry as swing voters begin to express concerns about Perry’s comments on Social Security being a “Ponzi scheme.”
Obama led Perry in the polling by a 52 percent-to-41 percent margin in the recent PPP poll. Three weeks ago, PPP had Obama ahead of Perry by six points, 49 percent to 43 percent.
Inside the numbers, Perry is getting hammered by voters on his controversial views on Social Security. Just 20 percent of voters agree with his view of Social Security being a Ponzi scheme, with 70 percent disagreeing with the statement.
Voters split even more significantly on a related question in the polling on whether the federal government should end Social Security – 82 percent opposed and only 10 percent in favor.
Another interesting tidbit in the numbers: Democrats have moved more solidly in favor of Obama since Perry attained frontrunner status in the GOP field. Three weeks ago, Obama led among Democrats by an 81 percent-to-13 percent margin. This week’s poll has Obama ahead among the base by an 89 percent-to-9 percent tally.
Obama’s lead over Mitt Romney is much narrower in this week’s PPP poll – 49 percent to 45 percent.
Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion-State of the Union Edition
Posted by afp on January 27, 2012 · 1 Comment
Rather than punctuate a channel change maneuver with a Like I’m Not Even Kidding, she jumped right to the Triple Dog Dare and simply turned off the radio with a very stern “NO. I am NOT listening to this”. I was unwilling to draw back a bloody stump of an arm by turning MY radio back on, so I instead opted to delve into Dervish Whirling’s head on just what she didn’t like about our president of these very United States. Read more
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