Archives for October 2008

What Ezra Klein says:

The liberal understanding of the economy and its problems has been, in recent months and years, superior to the conservative understanding of the country and its problems. And this has only sharpened in recent weeks, as the Republican Party has spun off into the Gamma Quadrant with laughable theories about ACORN and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. Their argument isn’t wrong in the sense that it’s a serious engagement with the situation that happens to be less empirically sound than competing theories. It’s just nonsense. And this isn’t a time when we can afford governance powered by nonsense. We need governance by people who understood the magnitude and nature of the problem, and have some idea how to go forward fixing it.

And as Robert Reich put things last week:

For years, regardless of the business cycle, American consumers were the Energizer Bunnies of the world economy. Their spending kept it going. But now the Energizer Bunnies have turned into scared rabbits, and they’re going back into their holes.

Yes, we need better regulation of Wall Street in order to avoid the sort of bubbles and distrust that have generated a credit crisis. But even more than that, we need to get money back into the pockets of average American consumers — including major investments in infrastructure, affordable health care, and a more progressive tax code.

Easier said than done, of course, but when you hear Republicans blither on about balanced budgets and lowering capital gains taxes it’s kind of hard not to simply burst out laughing. Yeah, let’s suck a few trillion more out of the economy and see what happens.

As it turns out, the “Old Europe” types the Bushies were so happy to excoriate a few years ago seem to be the only ones with half a clue about how to start fixing the economic mess. Talk about irony.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released new polls in several districts this morning, including WA-08, where their survey of 400 voters shows Darcy Burner leading Dave Reichert by a 49% to 44% margin.

“Darcy Burner’s campaign for change is resonating with families who have had enough of Congressman Dave Reichert’s support for George Bush’s failed economic policies,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Yoni Cohen. “Reichert was a good sheriff but is ineffective in Congress, rubber stamping Bush’s war in Iraq and Bush’s effort to privatize Social Security and risk seniors’ retirement benefits in the stock market. Burner is running to change Washington and provide tax relief to Washington State’s middle class families.”

Well, I don’t know how good a sheriff Reichert really was (he did not, as legend tells it, catch the Green River Killer), but he certainly has been an ineffective congressman, and his continued support for privatizing Social Security, even in the wake of the current financil crisis, should disqualify him from office on its own.  (Of course Reichert claims that he doesn’t support “privatization,” he merely supports individual accounts that can be invested in the market.  But then, perhaps he really is dumb enough to believe the party line that those two schemes aren’t essentially the same thing?)

Yes, this is a DCCC poll, and they tend to only release the good ones, but they’re not in the business of deceiving themselves, so partisans on either side should not make the mistake of dismissing it out of hand.  And while it is the first poll I’ve seen to show Darcy with an “initial head-to-head lead,” I’ve seen the internals on previous polls that showed Darcy leading after issues were pushed to respondents… something Darcy has been doing in recent weeks with her advertising.

Either way, confirmation (or not) is coming.  I know of at least two more polls currently in the field, and both Survey USA and Research 2000 should have new polls dropping within the next week and a half.  I’m crossing my fingers.

Paul Krugman wins the Nobel Prize, the U.S. and Europe partially nationalize their banking systems… and the markets soar.  Can anybody seriously argue that the era of free market radicalism isn’t over?

Le Roi est mort. Vive le Roi!

Obama	McCain
100.0% probability of winning	0.0% probability of winning
Mean of 369 electoral votes	Mean of 169 electoral votes

Yesterday’s analysis showed Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain by 364 to 174. With thirteen new polls in eleven states being released today, Obama gains enough electoral votes for a 100 vote victory margin. After 100,000 simulated elections, Obama wins all 100,000 times, and he receives (on average) 369 to McCain’s 169 electoral votes. If an election had been held today, Obama would have won with nearly 100% certainty.

Today’s big surprise poll was in North Dakota: a +2% lead for Obama in a Forum Poll from Minnesota State University Moorhead. You would be excused for viewing the poll with skepticism—the previous two polls are from mid-September and give McCain +13% and +9% leads. Even so, the result must be inducing ulcers and gnashing of teeth in the McCain Camp. I can almost hear Sarah Palin crying, “Say it ain’t so, Fargo!”

Detailed results for this analysis are available at Hominid Views.

Methods are described in the FAQ.The most recent version of this analysis can be found on this page.

One of the excuses the Dino Rossi campaign has used to explain why he can’t show up when he’s subpoenaed claims it’s because “it’s on the day of the last debate.” In fact, there is now late word that the plaintiff’s attorney in “Buildergate” will ask for a different date for Rossi to appear in order to avoid such a conflict.

Rossi loves him some debates, you betcha, unless it’s in Clark County and it would cost him a half hour’s worth of high-donor contact.

Rossi ducked a debate today in Vancouver, preferring instead to pose for photos with contributors at $500 per person. At least that was the plan when I first posted about it on Sept. 27.

And get this. Rossi wouldn’t even let the local newspaper report from his event today.

Gov. Chris Gregoire used an hour-long town hall meeting in Vancouver Monday to tout her record, answer questions from a friendly audience of about 250 and campaign for re-election.

Her GOP opponent Dino Rossi, meanwhile, was at the Red Lion Inn at the Quay for a private fundraiser. His campaign declined a request from The Columbian to attend.

But then that’s the way Republicans such as Rossi like to operate, isn’t it? Sure, you have a Constitutional right to keep people out of a private event, but last time I checked political campaigns usually crave media attention.

But if the Rossi campaign lets him be exposed to the public down here in a debate or even by being quoted, they risk losing in Clark County as voters realize he’s nothing but a big bundle of anti-tax platitudes and accusatory BIAW-inspired rhetoric.

My crystal ball has lost thirty percent of its value recently, but I’m guessing a lot of voters here are pretty much like a lot of voters everywhere—they’re not buying what the Republicans are selling. Best for the GOP Party to keep things quiet and keep Rossi out of the public eye, in case anyone notices the platitudes have a familiar, Bush-ish quality about them.

It’s pretty remarkable that in a county Rossi needs to take to have any chance of winning, the only people he seems to have talked to today were those willing to pay him for the right.

I hope they had cake at least.

I was chatting with a long-time local politico over the weekend, bitching about the P-I endorsement of Reichert, and the old-timer sarcastically responded “Big deal.”  Both the Times and P-I endorsements were “soft,” and besides, newspapers “almost always endorse the incumbent.”

Huh.  It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that little gem of conventional wisdom, and anecdotally it appeared to be true, but I thought I’d start compiling a spreadsheet of newspaper endorsements this season to see how strongly that trend holds up.  So far I’ve compiled results from the Times, the P-I and the Olympian, for all non-open, statewide, congressional, and legislative endorsements… and so far the incumbents are leading by a margin of 41 to 1, the lone exception being the P-I’s endorsement of Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark in the race for Commissioner of Public Lands.

I plan on adding at least the Everett Herald, the Tacoma News Tribune, the Columbian, and the Spokane Spokesman-Review to my spreadsheet, and no doubt the percentages will narrow some when the Times and other conservative ed boards inevitably endorse Dino Rossi, but I’d say the results thus far are statistically significant.

And there are folks in our local media who accuse me of lacking sufficient independence.

It’s bullshit of course, but the Seattle Times has an online poll in WA-08, and from the current lopsided results it is clear that the other side is freeping it, so why not have a crack at that ourselves?  Surely there are enough readers here at HA to push the numbers the other way?

In a Palinesque maneuver, Dino Rossi is seeking to block subpoenas in the unfolding Buildergate scandal:

Lawyers for Republican candidate for governor Dino Rossi plan to file papers Monday for a court case in Seattle.

They are trying to prevent him from having to testify in a lawsuit challenging campaign spending by the Building Industry Association of Washington.

Rossi’s campaign says the lawsuit is politically motivated.

Politically motivated?  Well, yeah, maybe.  But what does that matter?  Either there is enough evidence to proceed or there isn’t?  The question is, if Rossi really is innocent of illegal campaign coordination he should have nothing to hide.  So why avoid the deposition?

Incumbent Lt. Governor Brad Owen and State Auditor Brian Sonntag.  I won’t necessarily be voting for their Republican opponents, but I will definitely not cast my ballot for these two “Democrats” this November.

I’ve never been much impressed by Owen, but Sonntag, well, I’ve grown pretty damn disillusioned with his confrontational, punitive, and thus counterproductive use of performance audits these past couple years. Rather than promoting efficiencies in government, Sonntag’s performance audits have only served to enable and embolden anti-transit, anti-tax, anti-government activists.  If he audited himself to see what kind of return taxpayers have gotten for their performance audit dollars, his office wouldn’t look so good.

Behold the most horrifying yet hilarious political advertisement ever produced.  (You think I exaggerate? Watch it. I dare you.) “Gushing record profits?” Bwhaaaaaaa.)

The ad is on behalf of ex-Congressman Jim Slattery of Kansas, who is challenging Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts.

I have to confess, I don’t recall Slattery being the sort who would make an ad about this sort of thing. I mean, gasoline doesn’t exactly make it any less horrifying. Hope no Kansans were smoking cigarettes or anything.

(Props to, where else, Wonkette.)

Yeah Sarah, as president, John McCain would indeed “end… the abuse of power.”  In Alaska.

Princeton professor and New York Times opinion columnist Paul Krugman—the economist conservatives love to hate—has won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

And it couldn’t happen at a better time.  With the economic dogma of the Republican Party in the toilet (along with the bubble economy it helped create), is there anybody on the right who has the intellectual cred to go up against Krugman?  I don’t think so.

It’s tomorrow in Europe!

The Chancellor will move to take control of the Royal Bank of Scotland today by injecting £20 billion of taxpayers’ money.

The Government is also expected to take over HBOS in the most dramatic extension of state ownership in the British economy since the war. The bank’s rescue takeover by Lloyds TSB appeared to be on the brink of collapse last night.

As governments around the world scramble to prevent the collapse of the global financial system, Alistair Darling will unveil plans for a £40 billion “recapitalisation” of the banking sector.

I’m going to need a chardonnay sugar scrub. You’re taking a bath but the AIG folks already took theirs– in white wine.

(Props to Eschaton for the first link.)