What Democrats Can Expect from Not Listening to We the People … Loss of Congress & Presidency to Republicans
  2010 early election polls you can believe in … Democrats … Do not say that you were not warned. The polling trend has begun, 2010 represents change we can all believe in as Obama and Democrats have completely misread and overstated their change mandate. The One, could be One and Done in 2012 … 58% say next President likely Republican Democrats in Congress and President Obama have not understood the common thread of the fire and anger expressed by “We the...

On the line: State law curbing 'robocalls'
It's a familiar experience: You've just sat down for dinner, and the phone rings with a long, recorded message urging you to vote for someone. There could be more such calls in the future if an Iowa group associated with Republicans gets its way. The American Future Fund's political action committee has asked the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to override portions of a 1987 Minnesota law that curb "robocalls," saying the restrictions infringe on federal laws overseeing campaign...

Voter Anger Opens A Door For GOP's Lazio
The wave of voter anger aimed at incumbents in last Tuesday's off-year Elections is just what an against-all-odds campaign in New York's Governor's race needed. Two weeks ago, Republican candidate Rick Lazio was quietly running an uphill campaign for the 2010 race. He faced a rising Democratic wave in New York, with every statewide office held by Democrats, rising party enrollment and a Democrat in The White House. Lazio even called his effort "the little engine that could." But the...

Editorial: Unemployment rate ... a number to worry about
The number that President Barack Obama needs to worry about is not two, the number of governorships the Democrats lost on Tuesday. It is 10.2 percent, the Unemployment rate for October announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. Unless the Obama Administration can wrestle that rate down, he and his party face serious political trouble next November. The last time Unemployment passed the highly symbolic double-digit mark was in 1982, and President Ronald Reagan and the Republicans lost 26...

GOP's Cao bucks his party on health reform: PHOTO
In the tumult of cheers that erupted when Democrats in the House of Representatives reached the required 218 votes to pass the Health Care reform bill Saturday night, a member who had been waiting for that moment then cast his vote, and dashed the prediction of House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-...

Independents turned to GOP in elections, poll says
But Tuesday's vote in congressional race in New York exposed ideological debate within Republican Party.

2010 numbers look bleak for Senate Democrats: PHOTO
NPR is wringing its hands . . . with good reason. Let’s look at their list of Senate races and see how much good news is there for the Dems. Democratic leader Harry Reid is woefully unpopular in Nevada. Six Republicans are competing for the chance to topple him the way GOP Sen. John Thune of South Dakota did to then-Democratic leader Tom Daschle in 2004. RCP has both Republicans Lowden and Tarkanian beating Reid. Let’s keep track. So far we are R-1, D-0. There are three open seats...

Lauren Burdette | The first 365 days
A year ago marked the first time in a decade that we knew the next President of the United States on election night. No unseemly court battles, no examination of 18th-century state election laws, just a straightforward election that allowed us to dance in the streets and then head to bed by midnight. It really is extraordinary that the election producing our first black president occurred without any real hoopla over the results. The hoopla was clearly just delayed. If you watch the news,...

The Dems Who Punted: PHOTO
The reasons seem pretty obvious : The party-buckers on the 220-215 vote on Saturday night included 39 Democrats who voted against the bill. Of them, 31 represent districts that voted for John McCain over Barack Obama. Republicans are targeting many of them for defeat in the 2010 election. Of the other eight, three are serving their first terms in districts in which they defeated or succeeded Republicans in the 2008 election.

Quotes of the day: PHOTO
“Mr. Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, recognized Mr. Owens election and then posed a question to the other lawmakers. According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who supports the Health Care bill, the president asked, ‘Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down Health Care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit’ Democratic voters ‘and it will encourage the extremists .’”...

Lone GOP Supporter of House Health Care Bill Defends Vote
Republican Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao says he was standing up for his constituents with his "yes" vote on Health Care reform, citing "exploding" Health Care costs in his district and the need for more accessible Care.  Rep. Anh 'Joseph' Cao, shown here, was the only Republican to vote for Democrats' Health Care bill. (AP Photo) The only House Republican to vote for Democrats' Health Care reform bill Saturday night swiftly defended his decision, no doubt mindful that he could become a pariah of...

Skit mocks Van Susteren, Smith
Michael Calderone's POLITICO.com blog examines the press, with a focus on 2008 election coverage. Provides a behind-the-scenes view into major print, television, and online media outlets. Includes breaking news items, spot analysis of trends and ideas, and a closer look at the personalities who shape today's political coverage

House Democrats Get One GOP Vote
Rep. Anh Joseph Cao, who hails from a heavily Democratic district in Louisiana, breaks ranks with his GOP colleagues -- the only Republican member to do so -- and votes yes on House legislation aimed at overhauling Health Care.

Health care reform passes House, debate continues
(NECN: John Moroney) - The focus on the Health Care debate shifts to the Senate, following the passage of reform legislation Saturday night in the House, 220-215. While Congressional Democrats were celebrating Sunday, Republicans remained united in their opposition. The legislation earned the support of only one Republican. It is expected to expand Health Care coverage to 36 million people at a cost of $1 trillion.

If Anything, the Senate's Task Is Trickier
Don't tell the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi , but that was supposed to be the easy part. The House on Saturday night approved the major Health Care legislation by a vote of 220 to 215, with a single Republican joining 219 Democrats in favor, while 39 Democrats sided with 176 Republicans in opposition. The action now shifts across the Capitol to the Senate , where the Republican minority has more power.

Both Obama, Republicans Get Lower Marks on Working Together
Now that we know the Senate's Health Care bill was approved in committee with just one Republican vote and with just one Republican joining Democrats in voting for House passage yesterday, it's worth looking again at what marks the public gives President Obama and congressional Republicans for working together ( not ).

2010 elections: Democratic fears, GOP hopes
WASHINGTON - Nervous Democrats are on defense and emboldened Republicans sense opportunity heading into 2010 and the midterm Elections. It was just three years ago that the GOP lost the House and Senate as well as governors' races in a cross-country Democratic wave. Now, with most states under their control and comfortable majorities in Congress, Democrats must protect far more seats than Republicans : 19 governors' mansions, 17 Senate seats and as many as 60 House districts in...

Time's Joe Klein: GOP Is An 'Extremist''Regional Southern Party': PHOTO
The Republicans may have won huge victories in New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday, but Time's Joe Klein still thinks the GOP is " an extremist shard of a party that is essentially a regional southern party in the country ." I guess the 66 and 60 percent of independents who voted for the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Virginia and New Jersey respectively on Tuesday are also part of this extremist regional southern party. Alas, such facts didn't enter into the discussion on...

CT Senator Joe Lieberman Says “If the Public Option is in There, I will Not Allow this Bill to come to a Final Vote”
  A Statesman emerges with convictions and principles … Former Democrat VP candidate says he will not vote for Health Care reform with a Public Option. Lieberman will vote to Filibuster that plan if it contains a Public Option. Independent Connecticut US Senator Joe Lieberman is for Health Care reform. However, he is not for Obama-Pelosi Care. Isn’t this the same guy who Democrats had run as their VP in 2000 ? My how the Democrat party has changed to the Far LEFT . This...

AP: Obama's Glow From Health Care Triumph Over -- Bill DOA In Senate: PHOTO
" The glow from a Health Care triumph faded quickly for President Barack Obama on Sunday as Democrats realized the bill they fought so hard to pass in the House has nowhere to go in the Senate ." That's not a quote from National Review, the Weekly Standard, NewsMax, or World Net Daily. Such was the opening paragraph of a truly surprising Associated Press article published moments ago: Speaking from the Rose Garden about 14 hours after the late Saturday vote, Obama urged senators to be...

Sam Donaldson: If GOP Follows Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck It's Doomed: PHOTO
" If the Republican Party follows the course of Palin and Beck and Company it's doomed ." So said Sam Donaldson on ABC's "This Week" Sunday. His evidence? Democrat Bill Owens victory Tuesday in the 23rd Congressional district of New York. Readers are strongly advised to stow all fluids, combustibles, and sharp objects for the ignorance on display here might produce uncontrollable fits of anger (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript): Story Continues Below Ad...

Lindsey Graham: I -hope and pray' House health reform bill fails: VIDEO
Appearing on CBS program Face the Nation on Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned the House Health reform legislation that passed Saturday night is a "disaster" for private choice, adding that he hopes and prays Democrats' reforms do not become law. "The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate," he said. "Just look at how it passed: it passed 220-215. ... You had 39 Democrats vote against the bill. They come from Red States. Moderate Democrats from swing districts, they bailed out on...

O pushes health; GOP calls it 'dead'
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said today it was time for the Senate to "take the baton" on Health Care reform after the House passed its plan for overhauling the nation's Health Care system.

House Democratic, House GOP and Senate Democratic health care bills compared
WASHINGTON — A comparison of the three Health Care bills before Congress, including one by House Democrats and an alternative by House Republicans. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is finalizing legislation merging the work of two committees and making other changes. The Senate Democrats' bill has not yet been made public, so some specifics are unknown. ___ The House Democratic bill (Affordable Health Care for America Act): WHO'S COVERED: About 96 percent of legal...

House Democratic, House GOP and Senate Democratic health care bills compared
WASHINGTON — A comparison of the three Health Care bills before Congress, including one by House Democrats and an alternative by House Republicans. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is finalizing legislation merging the work of two committees and making other changes. The Senate Democrats' bill has not yet been made public, so some specifics are unknown. ___ The House Democratic bill (Affordable Health Care for America Act): WHO'S COVERED: About 96 percent of legal...