Support for Republicans Falls to Record Low

May 1, 2008
Support for Republicans Falls to Record Low

Only 27% of voters have positive views of the Republican Party, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, the lowest level for either party in the survey's nearly two-decade history.

Yet the party's probable presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, continues to run nearly even with Democratic rivals Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton. His standing so far makes for a more competitive race for the White House than would be expected for Republicans, who face an electorate that overwhelmingly believes the country is headed in the wrong direction under President Bush.

April 29, 2008
Lull in Iraq over as U.S. deaths reach 7-month high

MEXICO CITY — U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Tuesday acknowledged that a seven-month lull in U.S. troops deaths in Iraq has come to an end and blamed the bloodshed on Shiite Muslim militiamen who have bombarded the Green Zone and key parts of Baghdad with rockets and mortar rounds.

April has been the bloodiest month for Americans in Iraq since September, with 44 troops killed, compared to 39 in March and 29 in February.

Democrats favored in electoral map

April 26, 2008
Democrats favored in electoral map

WASHINGTON - The electoral road to the White House favors Democrats this fall — either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton — and has Republican John McCain playing defense to thwart a presidential power shift.

A downtrodden economy, the war in Iraq and a public call for change have created an Electoral College outlook and a political environment filled with extraordinary opportunity for the Democrats and enormous challenge for the GOP nominee-in-waiting.

Falling Wages and Health Care Are Top Issues

April 22, 2008
Falling Wages and Health Care Are Top Issues

The top workplace-related issues for the 2008 presidential election are improving wages, keeping jobs in the country and providing universal health care, according to a recent poll of U.S. workers conducted by the Employment Law Alliance (ELA).

According to the poll results, the top issue among workers is improving wages and the earning potential for all workers. A large majority (87 percent) of the respondents would like to see the next president work on increasing the proportion of U.S. workers who earn at least a living wage, and 86 percent thought the president needed to focus on reducing the number of U.S. jobs that are outsourced overseas. A surprising 83 percent of the respondents said that providing health care coverage for all U.S. citizens should be one of the next president's top priorities.

GOP's House odds fade further

March 21 2008
GOP's House odds fade further

WASHINGTON — Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., said Thursday he will not seek another term in office, becoming the latest member of the former GOP leadership team to step down in the past two years.

Reynolds is the fifth departing member of the Republican leadership team that ran the House with an iron fist for 12 years until Democrats took control in the 2006 election. His decision was another blow to Republican chances against Democrats, who appear likely to widen their majority with more than two dozen GOP seats coming open this year.

Democrats Making Big Gains In Party Identification

March 23, 2008
Democrats Making Big Gains In Party Identification

The Democratic Party has increased its margin in voters who identify with it rather than Republicans, and going into this year's election has increased its advantage among independent voters and in swing states, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted during the first two months of this year.

Pew says voters now favor the Democrats by a "decidedly larger margin" than the previous two election cycles.

Democratic Nominee Will Have Edge in Fall Even If Economy Turns

March 24, 2008
Democratic Nominee Will Have Edge in Fall Even If Economy Turns

Even if a recovery begins this summer, Americans won't feel the difference until much later. That's why when the polls open Nov. 4, the Republicans, who have controlled the White House since 2001 and Congress for much of that time, will have ceded a key advantage to the Democrats.

Recessions shaped four presidential elections in the past half-century -- in 1960, 1976, 1980 and 1992. Each time, the candidate from the party trying to retake the White House won. A model that uses economic data to predict presidential race outcomes has the Democrats getting 52 percent of the votes cast for the two major party candidates, says Ray Fair, the Yale University professor who developed it.

House GOP funk worsens

March 9, 2008
House GOP funk worsens

For National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.), every week seems to bring a new set of problems. On Saturday night, things got even worse.

With Democrat Bill Foster's victory in the Illinois 14th District special election, Democrats now hold the seats occupied only 21 months ago by former Speaker Dennis Hastert (Ill.) and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Texas) — the two GOP lawmakers who ran the House from 1998 to 2006.

Dems Win Hastert Seat

March 9, 2008
Dems Win Hastert Seat

CHICAGO (AP) — A longtime Republican district fell to the Democrats Saturday when a wealthy businessman and scientist snatched former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's congressional seat in a closely watched special election.

Democrat Bill Foster won 52 percent of the vote compared to 48 percent for Republican Jim Oberweis. With 565 of 568 precincts reporting, Foster had 51,140 votes to Oberweis' 46,270.

Democrats Promise Budget Surplus

March 5, 2008
Democrats Promise Budget Surplus

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats rolled out a cautious election-year budget blueprint Wednesday that promises to put the federal budget back in the black while awarding greater-than-inflation increases to domestic programs.

But the Democratic budget plan, like a companion plan being unveiled later Wednesday in the Senate Budget Committee, produces sizable surpluses only by assuming that many of President Bush's tax cuts will expire at the end of 2010, as scheduled.

Eagleburger: Limbaugh, Hannity Don't Speak for the GOP

February 22, 2008
Eagleburger: Limbaugh, Hannity Don't Speak for the GOP

"I don't know who elected Rush Limbaugh or Hannity as the heads of this conservative movement," Eagleburger says at the beginning of a clip from MSNBC on Tuesday night that and aired on Wednesday's radio show. "They throw that word around as if it was theirs and theirs alone."

"I thought I was a conservative, but that doesn't mean that I have to buy off on everything these poobahs thinks is what's necessary to be a conservative," continued the former Sec. of State, before defending what he sees as McCain's conservative national security credentials.

GOP funk slows turnout, money

January 16, 2008
GOP funk slows turnout, money

Republicans are facing a threat that spells serious trouble for GOP candidates from the top of the ticket down to the most obscure races. The problem is the funk of the foot soldiers.

So far, the story of the 2008 campaign on the Republican side is what's not happening.

Ambitious Republican politicians at the state and local levels are not deciding that this is the year to make a bid for higher office.

Republican contributors are not opening their wallets and writing campaign checks.
Most striking of all, Republican voters are not heading to the polls to vote in the GOP primaries in anything like participation rates of early years.

Poll: economy tops war in election

January 15, 2008
Poll: economy tops war in election

Washington; and battle creek, mich. - Within the space of a few weeks, economic worries have displaced the Iraq war as the top political issue in the United States, upending the carefully laid plans of presidential candidates and causing Congress and the White House to consider emergency measures intended to prevent – or moderate – a looming recession.

In one sense the rise of pocketbook issues reflects a glimmer of good news. Reduced violence in Baghdad has made Iraq seem a less pressing concern to many US voters.

GOP-Identification-2007-Lowest-Last-Two-Decades

January 14, 2008
GOP-Identification-2007-Lowest-Last-Two-Decades

PRINCETON, NJ -- The percentage of Americans who identified as Republicans in 2007 is the
lowest of any of the 20 calendar years since 1988 that Gallup has conducted its interviewing
primarily by telephone. An average of 27.7% of Americans identified as Republicans, based on more than 26,000 Gallup interviews in 2007. The previous low in Republican identification was 28.1% in 1999.

Meanwhile, 32.5% of Americans identified as Democrats and 38.6% as political independents last

year. The latter percentage is on the high end of what Gallup has measured in the last two decades, surpassed by only the 39.1% independent identification average from 1995. The high point for Democratic identification came in 1988, when 35.6% said they were Democrats.

Congratulations to the record-breaking Senate GOP — Most Obstructionist Ever

December 19, 2007
Congratulations to the record-breaking Senate GOP — Most Obstructionist Ever

The 49-member Senate Republican minority has done something no Senate minority in American history has ever done: they've filibustered more bills than any Congress ever has — and they broke the record with a full year to spare.

"In just one session, a minority in Congress has prevented a mind-blowing 62 pieces of legislation from going to the floor for an up or down vote,’ said Campaign for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey. "Our report shows how over and over again, the uncompromising minority has thwarted the will of majorities in Congress and of the American people, holding the Senate floor hostage to a radical right-wing agenda." […]

Economic gloom makes new election issue

December 5, 2007
Economic gloom makes new election issue

WASHINGTON - Americans have turned markedly gloomier about the economy in recent months, a shift that is reshaping a presidential campaign long dominated by the war in Iraq and national security concerns.

Higher prices for gasoline and home heating oil, stock market volatility and rising mortgage foreclosures all account for some of the pessimism, in the view of political pollsters. Significantly, they also cite the recent drop in real estate prices as a major worry for millions who have long viewed their homes as a source of retirement income.

Business lobby increases pressure ahead of ’08

December 2, 2007
Business lobby increases pressure ahead of ’08

WASHINGTON - Business lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year';s elections, are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety, labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals from the Bush administration than from its successor.

Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration, poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government to relax pollution-control requirements.

The Evangelical Crackup

October 28, 2007
The Evangelical Crackup

The hundred-foot white cross atop the Immanuel Baptist Church in downtown Wichita, Kan., casts a shadow over a neighborhood of payday lenders, pawnbrokers and pornographic video stores. To its parishioners, this has long been the front line of the culture war. Immanuel has stood for Southern Baptist traditionalism for more than half a century. Until recently, its pastor, Terry Fox, was the Jerry Falwell of the Sunflower State — the public face of the conservative Christian political movement in a place where that made him a very big deal.

With flushed red cheeks and a pudgy, dimpled chin, Fox roared down from Immanuel's pulpit about the wickedness of abortion, evolution and homosexuality. He mobilized hundreds of Kansas pastors to push through a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, helping to unseat a handful of legislators in the process. His Sunday-morning services reached tens of thousands of listeners on regional cable television, and on Sunday nights he was a host of a talk-radio program, "Answering the Call." Major national conservative Christian groups like Focus on the Family lauded his work, and the Southern Baptist Convention named him chairman of its North American Mission Board.

So when Fox announced to his flock one Sunday in August last year that it was his final appearance in the pulpit, the news startled evangelical activists from Atlanta to Grand Rapids. Fox told the congregation that he was quitting so he could work full time on "cultural issues." Within days, The Wichita Eagle reported that Fox left under pressure. The board of deacons had told him that his activism was getting in the way of the Gospel. "It just wasn't pertinent," Associate Pastor Gayle Tenbrook later told me.

Democrats positioned to widen majority in Senate

October 7, 2007
Democrats positioned to widen majority in Senate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats are positioned to bolster their Senate majority in next year's elections, which would give them more clout regardless who succeeds President George W. Bush in the White House.

With Republicans dogged by retirements, scandals and the Iraq war, there's an outside chance Democrats will gain as many as nine seats in the 100-member Senate in the November 2008 elections, which would give them a pivotal 60.

G.O.P. Contenders Endorse Health Insurance Veto

October 5, 2007
G.O.P. Contenders Endorse Health Insurance Veto

The four leading Republican presidential candidates have aligned themselves with President Bush's veto on Wednesday of an expanded health insurance program for children, once again testing the political risk of appearing in lock step with a president who has low approval ratings and some critics of the veto within their party.

"You need to decide where you are on any given issue — not necessarily where the president is — and go from there," Mr. Galen said. "Democrats can say this is a Bush veto or a Bush position, but Republicans don't even mention that because it doesn't make sense to talk that way to Republican primary voters right now."