Connecticut.

Before anyone says "omgaadfksfjxjhzjkjxghasueehdshn" Rasmussen, PPP found the same number just weeks ago in the state: President Obama 51% Mitt Romney 43%.

Considering the state went to Obama by 22 points in 2008, this is bad.
Considering McMahon will mostly self fund and is currently leading the Democrat there, it is nightmarish.

Will the state go to Romney? Not likely, and if it did we already swept all the purple states anyway. But it is indicative of the sizable shift against the President, and matches my warning months ago to watch the blue and light blue states. Romney has begun to target, hard, the Blue Wall. He has made at least one potential gain (Wisconsin), and is actively aiming for two more (Michigan and Pennsylvania). Keep hammering. Keep out-spending. Go Big.

Posted by: CAC at 05:38 AM | Comments (37)
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Happy Thursday.

Correction: Nelson up by nine. NYTimes reported the numbers wrong. Whoa. The latest Q poll out of Florida shows Connie Mack just jumped way, WAY into the lead, beating Bill Nelson by nine points. A Rasmussen poll released last week had it Nelson over Mack 47/40.

Phil Klein says the Akin affair could be a watershed moment for the conservative movement. His suggestion is that it could break the "typical pattern" where intraparty fights are framed as "grassroots" against "the establishment."

Of course, there are holdouts who would very much like to make this a grassroots v. Establishment fight. I was particularly struck by the defiant tone: "AkinÂ’s words, for which he apologized even though he had no need to, were right. He was entirely correct to say that pregnancies in cases of forcible rape are rare," wrote AFA's Bryan Fischer in a post aimed at "GOP hyenas."

So Democrats want to make the race about abortion? Alright, let's go there. We should definitely keep hammering the economy, but a few ads highlighting Obama's support for third trimester abortions should do nicely in say, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:54 AM | Comments (417)
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A WSJ Book Review: "Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession"

Travel writer and former Maxim editor, Chuck Thompson, really, really does not like the South (or even states that are just a little too adjacent to it). A better title for his book would be 'Rednecks in the Mist: Those Horrible Horrible People'.

Here is part of Barton Swaim's rather scathing review in the WSJ:

On the first page, the author wonders why the American electoral system must be "held hostage by a coalition of bought-and-paid-for political swamp scum from the most uneducated, morbidly obese, racist, morally indigent, xenophobic, socially stunted, and generally ass-backwards part of the country." You expect him to let up, to turn the argument around, to look at the other side of question. But he never does. For more than 300 pages, Mr. Thompson travels through the South observing customs, outlooks and people and subjecting them to an unremitting stream of denunciations.

And unshockingly he find the South to be a hellhole of racism where among other outrages black and white neighborhoods are <shudder> intermingled:

More disturbing is his refusal to take seriously any evidence that Southern racism has diminished, even when that evidence comes from African-Americans themselves.

He is aware of reports in the New York Times and elsewhere that black Americans are moving to the South in record numbers. A black New York native living in Oxford, Miss., tells him, "I love it here." But Mr. Thompson dismisses what he calls "breathless predictions of a post-racial South." They just make him look harder for racism-and of course he finds it.

...He is outraged, for example, to discover the close proximity of poor black and middle-class white neighborhoods in Southern cities.

Oh and apparently Ohio and Illinois are now part of the South since some of Thompson's examples of Dixie backwardness are located there.

But hey how can you count on mere rivers to hold back such an overwhelming tide of Southern ignorance and iniquity - or a steadily growing stream of Yankee immigrants crossing the border into deepest darkest Dixie looking for a better life.

But the best summary is from this review blurb on the Amazon page:

"Thank you for the copy of Better Off Without 'Em, but I'm afraid it's New York and San Francisco that I think should secede."

- P.J. O'Rourke

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:15 PM | Comments (835)
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Is this something? I don't know.

A state-by-state analysis of the presidential race conducted by two University of Colorado professors predicts that Mitt Romney will be our next president. The analysis, released today, by political science professors Kenneth Bickers of CU-Boulder and Michael Berry of CU Denver, is based on economic and other factors within each of the 50 states. This same study has correctly predicted the winners of the last eight presidential elections, starting with the 1980 election won by Ronald Reagan.

The model says Obama will win 218 EVs, and Romney will win 320. @conartcritic could not be reached for comment.

The authors of the study said an incumbent Democratic president loses advantages of incumbency when unemployment hits the level of 5.6 percent.

If the unemployment figure changes in Obama's favor, it could help him with some of the marginal 50/50 type states that Romney wins (by the model).

How much could it actually help him, though? It sure isn't going down to 5.6%.

And speaking of the economy: Paul Ryan knocks Obama's "imaginary recovery."

Video below. Here's some text:

"He said last summer was going to be the summer of recovery," Ryan said. "It's a summer later and it's still worse. He said that the private sector is doing just fine, we need more government. This is President Obama's imaginary recovery. It's not here."

He makes a big gaffe, though. He thinks he's going to be speaking to Biden in October, at the debates.

We'll see about that.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 04:52 PM | Comments (335)
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"Created" more jobs than Bush-- indeed, "created" more jobs than Reagan.

First of all.

Second of all.

Total Private Employment From the Current Employment Statistics Survey (National)

What Obama likes to do is count jobs "created" from the deepest depth of the recession. But that's not how we count recovery from a recession -- we say we've recovered when we've recovered up to the previous high point.

As the collapse was still occurring when Obama took office, there was still further to fall, so Obama likes to pretend that any jobs above the lowest-of-the-low are jobs he "created."

At this point in time, Obama still hasn't "created" a single net new job. His job figures remain negative, except when you play games as far as your start period for counting them.

Both Bush and Reagan added new jobs on top of the previous high-water mark for employment. Reagan's expansion was fueled by millions and millions of such jobs.

Obama has yet to even get back to zero.

By the way, the video of Romney's "bl*ss h*s h**rt" is now up.

He's speaking vigorously, so he doesn't employ the amused smile/head cock/drawn out annunciation that makes the Racial Dog-Whistle so especially vicious.

Bless his heart.

Posted by: Ace at 02:40 PM | Comments (432)
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The media is confused, and is demanding that Paul Ryan explain what a perfectly obvious legal term means. Just so they can have him talking about rape on tape, so that Obama can mash up Ryan's "rape" comments with Akin's.

So I helped them.

Posted by: Ace at 02:00 PM | Comments (190)
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And why shouldn't he. And why shouldn't he.

The special guest is Carmelo Anthony, or something like that. I don't really care.

Is this man really a "hero"?

Guy on the left, I think, but I only think that because he's tall. Giggles like crazy about threats to "lynch" those who "snitch" on drug-dealers.

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:20 PM | Comments (203)
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This apparently is uncontroversial and beneath even noticing.

Posted by: Ace at 01:08 PM | Comments (131)
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This is a real "bless her heart" moment.

The painting, thank goodness, is not particularly valuable or famous. But it is -- or was -- a source of local pride.

The original painting had lost of a lot paint over the years, with the white of the canvas showing through. So an old woman, with more zeal than skill, tried to patch it over.

The results are poor.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Like I always say: People Are A Problem.

Confused Old Man Embarrasses Himself Again In Public: Bless his heart. Joe Biden said:

"I can tell you, and I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately..."

Would love to hear the backstory on that one. Was LBJ a skillful lover? Was Nixon the "take-charge" type? Did the first Bush say things like "nah gonnah do' it"?

Posted by: Ace at 12:44 PM | Comments (196)
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Before you say "Oh good, he might drop out then, as he has only $5000 donation since Legitimate-Rape-Gate," remember, Democrats got him nominated, and Democrats will start donating to keep his ass in.

We are screwed.

Posted by: Ace at 12:36 PM | Comments (147)
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