I know everyone's pointing out that this little pizza shop or that hotel has the same logo; but that's inevitable, because the thing is so ridiculously uninspired. It's a circle with a letter in it. I mean, come on.

The best logos are ones that call out tangible associations with everyday life. You don't even realize you're being asked to recall some object from your memory. It happens subliminally.

And the Democrat logo does that.

Thanks to RobertS.

Posted by: Ace at 12:43 PM | Comments (119)
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10. Free mustache rides from Henry Waxman

9. Immediately get brand on millions of citizens by changing name of party from "Democrats" to "Tommy Hilfiger"

8. John F. Kerry will begin touring the country with his surly but lovable talking chimp sidekick, "Doctor Bananas"

7. "Sheriff" Joe Biden to receive new nickname: Joe "The Situation" Biden

6. Progressive Caucus in talks for special "crossover episode" with cast of The Mentalist

5. Did I say free mustache rides from Henry Waxman? I meant free hot dogs, plus a mustache ride from Henry Waxman. You like hot dogs, don't you? Isn't that what you people eat?

4. To top the wild success of Michael Steele's "What up?" blog, Tim Kaine introduces new blog, 'sup, Nephew?

3. Short title of new stimulus bill decided on: "But First You Will Blow Me"

2. To show solidarity with out-of-work Americans, Nancy Pelosi starts working for Mary Kay Cosmetics, offering her own line of lipstick, blush, and fish tranquilizers

...and the Number One Plan to "Excite Democrats All Across The Country"...

1. Obama + Water Skis + Shark Pen = "Unprecedented"

Posted by: Ace at 12:27 PM | Comments (88)
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Thanks to Maetenloch, who's finding day posts when he's not doing the ONT, this tidbit...

Gallup reported that 37.4% of the people of the First State describe themselves as conservative — or nearly double the 19% who describe themselves as liberals.

That gives conservatives an advantage of 18.4%.

That is a bigger advantage than conservatives enjoy in Maine, where both senators are Republicans.

The Blue Hen State is redder than California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, New Hampshire, Washington state and Wisconsin — states where Republicans are either favored or competitive in the Senate races.

My reaction to that is that "conservative" is a label people embrace, even when not terrifically conservative, and "liberal" is a label people run from, even when actually quite liberal. A lot of people call themselves "moderates." In practice this tends to mean "liberal but I don't want to think of myself as a liberal," just as Bill Maher used to call himself "libertarian."

However, that's a common phenomenon, and Surber puts this split into context by comparison with other states. In every state, liberals call themselves "moderate," but if Delaware is actually more conservative-friendly than purple Colorado and New Hampshire, okay, it's possible.

Most of the other states he mentions get a blank reaction from me: Okay, it's redder than Illinois. And? I sure the hell wouldn't run a deep-red candidate there.

Little by little I am retreating from my former position of This was a grotesque own-goal unforced error and into the position of Okay, not what I would have advised, but if you want to roll the dice, I guess one in six is a gambler's chance.

Chris Matthews Says "I Bet O'Donnell Wins:" Gambling metaphors all over the place. Matthews wants to know how many points David Corn will give him for picking O'Donnell.

Well, look: The great Adam Baldwin asked me if there would be apologies forthcoming should O'Donnell actually win. Of course. To actually sneak in a dark-red senator into a blue state for four years would be, well, humungous is the word that comes to mind.

Update: Really an update to the last post, but you morons are too moronic to look past the top post.

Thanks to BillCo.

Posted by: Ace at 11:23 AM | Comments (321)
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What can you say about the Democrats that they're not already saying about themselves?

DNC head Tim Kaine promised "exciting" news that would speak to the hearts of young voters and energize them, and he unveiled... a logo.

A good logo, a least? Well, you know what it looks like, so you know the answer is "no."

I don't even know where to begin. I feel absurd even discussing a friggin' logo as, quote, "something that will excite Democrats across the country." If this "excites" Democrats across the country, then they are well and truly easy lays. Oh right, they are, that's why I used to be a Democrat in college.

Other problems? Well, in sucks; how about that for starters? The rap on Democrats is always that they are ultrafeminized and weak, and, oh, here's a powder-blue logo to reinforce what you already knew. And it looks like a bullseye, which, you know: spot-on,, but not the way you want it spot-on.

And going back to the main issue? It's a logo. When a sucky sports team decides to change its uniforms to black so they can sell merchandise despite losing every damn season, hey, at least in that case -- black unis. It's something, at least. It doesn't make the team any less sucky but they do tend to look better in bold black.

But this? This party has driven the country into the ground so far we need a blow-out preventer to keep from spilling into Hell and they're trotting out a poorly conceived, terribly executed marketing ploy as something that will "excite" the base?

Excite them how? Push them from merely considering suicide into embracing the noose?

A logo that a local Arby's franchise would turn down as "too uninspiring" to use to mark their dessert bar?

You've been in control of Congress for four miserable years and the White House (and all government) for two years and what you have to show for it is a washed-out "O" with a "D" inside it you can put on t-shirts for the kind of fucking loser who wears party-branded merchandise to his hot date with the television and loneliness?

This is what you've got?

I have to channel Col. Nathan R. Jessep here: Please tell me that you haven't staked the lives of these fine men on nothing but a goddamned marketing gimmick, Lieutenant Kaffee.

At Hot Air, Allah writes:

I figured the “major announcement” would have something to do with their online organization, but how could anyone not have guessed that it would involve a logo? Better “branding” and salesmanship are always, always their solutions to their political problems; the policies themselves are brilliant, so how could anything except poor “messaging” explain a decline in the polls? Consider this an absurd yet perfectly foreseeable extension of that logic. GOP tsunami coming in November? Time to go nuclear, then: New logo.

Exactly. The Democrats' knock is that they're the party of big talk and no results, a party of noxious, preening gasbags perpetually engaged in a circle-jerk con of the American people, a party that speaks in platitudes and bromides and fails abysmally whenever entrusted with actual responsibility, and their "exciting" new way to combat this?

The drew a squiggle.

Here. Here's your squiggle. That'll be $14.3 trillion dollars and your children's future, please. Thank you, drive through.

Today's Democrat Party

Come for the arrogance and entitlement.

Stay for the incompetence and weakness.

Posted by: Ace at 10:55 AM | Comments (377)
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At Hot Air...

Angle is capturing 42% of likely voters polled to ReidÂ’s 41%, a statistical dead heat.

There is a sliver lining in O'Donnell's victory, for those of us who would rather have the seat than an uncompromised caucus.

Despite the good poll numbers on the generic, people still do not like the GOP. In fact the party's favorables are often lower than the Democrats.

So the GOP's message is not working, even if an Establishment-leaning guy like myself wishes it would.

The public doesn't like the GOP. It is in a pox-on-both-houses mood. But the Tea Party's big fat middle finger to the GOP demonstrates, pretty tangibly, the Tea Party is not the GOP's pet, as Coons is Reid's pet. It is truly independent and truly angry and truly in favor of genuine change -- without regard to any party's political fortunes.

I am not sure exactly how this can be used to the GOP's actual advantage. How can they both promote themselves while shouting, with the public, "You are right, we hate us too!"

But there's something here, I guess for a cleverer person to figure out. Somehow, if the GOP can grab the mantle of being against both parties -- even if it's been compelled kicking and screaming into that position by an angry Tea Party -- then I guess there is some electoral good that can come from this.

It's a weird kind of play -- "Vote for the GOP so we can demolish the GOP!" -- but who knows. I don't know how that can be played, exactly, but all these candidates, clearly disfavored by the Establishment, need to take that message to the public. They're not for the party, they're not for politics as usual, they're for the people.

Everyone says that, of course. But not everyone has been so bitterly opposed by the party establishment, either. They've got the scars to prove they fought the Establishment.

Posted by: Ace at 09:37 AM | Comments (429)
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Actually, 1930 is just the first year for which we have good data; so this could be the first time ever.

Michael Barone mentioned this fact twice when he was discussing this at a DC Dinner Party (TM).

There are a lot of tea leaves here. Sexy, dirty, juicy tea leaves.

Brief commentary mixed in the quote, in brackets, by ArthurK.

In another sign that the Democratic Party is in deep trouble in the 2010 mid-term elections, the average Republican vote for statewide offices (U.S. Senator and Governor) in the primaries held through August 28 exceeded the Democratic vote, the first time this has happened in mid-term primaries since 1930, according to Curtis Gans, director of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate.

[ Wow.]

The average percentage of eligible citizens who voted in Democratic primaries was the lowest ever.

[Boom.]

The average percentage of citizens who voted in the GOP statewide primaries was the highest since 1970.

[Ka-Pow.]

GOP statewide primary turnout reached new records in nine states.

[Zing!]

Democratic statewide primary turnout fell to record lows in 10 states.

[BaKaBoom!]

Also:

So far, 30,283,128 citizens have voted in the primaries. Of that number 17,182,893 voted in Republican primaries; 12,963,925 voted in Democratic primaries and 136,310 voted in Green and Libertarian primaries or for candidates other than those running for major party nominations. (The GOP had three more statewide contests than the Democrats—Indiana, South Dakota and Utah— but the total votes cast in those GOP primaries was 826,603, hardly accounting for the more than 4 million vote difference between the parties.)

One caution here: This is good, but...

A great many extremely-animated voters are re-engaging in the political process and making sure to vote in the primaries. But these primary voters are still a fraction of the total general election vote; something like a quarter. If, say, 5% of the public has become very-committed SuperVoters, and they're largely on the GOP's side, that's great -- we'll take that all day and twice on Tuesdays -- but it's still just a small slice of the ultimate voter cohort which will cast votes on November 2. We can't be sure -- or even confident -- that we can project anything about the November 2 vote based on the atypical 5% of SuperVoters.

As Winston Wolf's paternal grandfather, Walter "Watchmaker" Wolf, said so eloquently in 1955: let's not start setting each other's clocks just yet, gentlemen.

Posted by: Ace at 08:31 AM | Comments (209)
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Elected officials solicit contributions everyday but actually hearing a legislator hit up a lobbyist for campaign cash is going to be a shock for a lot of people. Especially so because it's such a ham-handed and brazen pitch.

After introducing herself and listing her specific areas of work, especially her oversight of homeland security projects this lobbyist might be interested in, DC Delegate to Congress and chair of the Eleanor Holmes-Norton gets down to it.

I was, frankly, uh, uh, surprised to see that we donÂ’t have a record, so far as I can tell, of your having given to me despite my uh, long and deep uh, work. In fact, itÂ’s been my major work, uh, on the committee and sub-committee itÂ’s been essentially in your sector.

I am, IÂ’m simply candidly calling to ask for a contribution. As the senior member of the um, committee and a sub-committee chair, we have (chuckles) obligations to raise, uh funds. And, I think it must have been me who hasnÂ’t, frankly, uh, done my homework to ask for a contribution earlier. So IÂ’m trying to make up for it by asking for one now, when we particularly, uh, need, uh contributions, particularly those of us who have the seniority and chairmanships and are in a position to raise the funds.

Big Government has the audio (racist!) and a full transcript.

This is simply the daily sausage making that goes on in politics but in a year where corruption, spending and disgust for an entrenched ruling class are the big issues, I expect this to show up in a lot of Republican ads.

Of course, there are a lot of Republicans wondering if they were dumb enough to leave this kind of message recently. Here's hoping not.

What's really interesting is lobbyists must get calls like this all the time, though perhaps not so brash. The fact that this one was willing to release this shows he or she isn't afraid of Democratic retaliation. Never a good sign when the pros have you marked for dead.

Obviously the big question the media will ask is...why does Andrew Breitbart hate black women?

Posted by: DrewM at 08:05 AM | Comments (80)
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But he also feels help may be on the way in November in the form of a gridlocked congress.

...confidence may begin to return in November, Isaac says, if the Republicans regain some seats in the House and Senate. This isn't because Republican policies have been any better than Democrat ones--Isaac blames both parties for the horrible policies of recent years--but because gridlock will make it more difficult for the government to do something truly reckless and stupid...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:43 AM | Comments (54)
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And Then He Flounced Away In A Great Sweep Of Tear-Stained Satin Ruffles and Soggy Hankies

West last month called GOP primary foe David Brady a "knucklehead" and told the Boca Raton Republican Club: "We're going to take him out behind the woodshed and we're going to give him a Southern-fried butt-whoopin' come next Tuesday. Then after that, we're going to take Ron Klein out behind the same woodshed and we'll whoop him too."

Most guys respond to masculine bravado by either trying to top it, ignoring it, or using exaggerated self-deprecation to take the wind out of someone.

But Ron Klein? No. He complains about feeling threatened.

This isn't about back-slapping and using, you know, sexist remarks or threatening statements as a way of being cute or funny," Klein said.

"I think a lot of people find it pretty offensive for him to be out there threatening and finding it amusing to be threatening your opponent or threatening people who don't agree with him."

I can hear him sniffing dismissively about that brute all the way over here.

West, who got 76.7 percent against Brady in the Aug. 24 primary, says such talk has a place in political discourse.

"That's how people talk. ... And you can print that: That's how men talk.

Emphasis me.

One of our main problems with folks in Congress is that once they get to DC, their values are eroded quickly.

Their heads get turned by the lifestyle, and by being surrounded by suckups. They are constantly attacked by the press for doing or saying anything contrary to the liberal viewpoint. They hang out with and are wooed by our elite betters.

It's a caustic stew. Their constituents' values are dissolved, while liberalization and a belief that they are smarter than you gradually develops.

Basically, they become assholes.

Now, I don't think any human is entirely resistant to this effect. But perhaps someone like West could hold off a little longer than most.

Just spitballin' here, but if he doesn't have a lot of respect for metrosexual mamby-pambies in the first place, there is a good chance he is less likely to concede anything to them over time.

H/T: Thanks to Little Dickie Jones.

Posted by: LauraW at 07:23 AM | Comments (148)
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Hey, did you hear there's a Senate race in Delaware? Kind of snuck up on us, eh?

Democrat Chris Coons holds a double-digit lead over Republican hopeful Christine OÂ’Donnell in the first Rasmussen Reports post-primary survey of the U.S. Senate race in Delaware.

Coons earns 53% of the vote to OÂ’DonnellÂ’s 42%, with leaners included. One percent (1%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

The Delaware race is now viewed as Solid Democrat in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Senate Balance of Power rankings.

Despite all the shouting, I think we need to give this race a week or so to settle in before we know much. O'Donnell is clearly getting a fundrasing boost coming out of the primary and we'll have to see if she can take advantage of that against Harry Reid's 'pet'.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:05 AM | Comments (187)
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