Mark Halperin’s article in Time is a scathing rebuke of President Obama: 

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2024718,00.html

The following is his assessment of President Obama:

With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.

What a shock.  The most naïve, inexperienced, unqualified person ever nominated to be President of the United States by a major political party turns out to be the most naïve, inexperienced, unqualified President.  My question for the politically engaged elites is:  ‘WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?”   It’s not like there weren’t enough clues.  An objective review of Obama’s educational and professional history shows that he is a man of no accomplishments who has never demonstrated leadership in any field.  The lack of experience alone was enough to disqualify him, even if one ignores his radical associations and his highly questionable financial dealings with convicted felons.  Electing Obama President of the United States was the ultimate affirmative action pick.  Obama was elected because he is black.  Democrats were too overjoyed at having a black candidate that could win to care whether or not he was actually qualified.  Republicans were too afraid of being labeled racist to attack his pathetic record and questionable background.  Jackie Robinson broke racial barriers because he proved that he belonged.  He asked for no special favors and he earned respect.  Obama is setting racial relations back decades because he is proving the opposite. 

When the Republicans took over congress in 1994, Bill Clinton realized he was beat, so he just let them pass good legislation and he took the credit.  But, Obama will not do that.  Mark Halperin assumes that Obama blames everyone and everything else for his failures because he is a poor politician, but I believe he does this because he actually believes it.  Just last week he told college students that they shouldn’t stay home from voting just because “Barack” is not on the ballot.  He believes the only mistake he made was in his failure to explain to people why he is right.  I do not believe that Obama even recognizes reality.

Republicans are going to run the table in November, but that will only be the first step in a long and difficult process.  I don’t expect Obama to change at all.  I think he will hunker down with the few people who actually still believe in him and he will try to continue on the same path as before.  He will make recess appointments and will try to legislate by executive order.  I fear we are on a course to major constitutional crisis.  If any of the rumors about the personal corruption of Obama are true, the Republicans will have plenty of ammunition.  Republicans will hesitate to do this, because of the negative impact from the failed impeachment of Bill Clinton, but ultimately Obama is unlikely to leave them a viable option.

I can see November from my window, but December looks dark and stormy.

TDM

The Democratic Party has become the “Party of Pluerism.”  In other words, they are acting like children.

The Gallup report issued earlier this week says that unemployment is now at 10.1% and that underemployment is at 18.8%.  It also predicted that the administration would understate the true unemployment numbers.  There will be no more economic reports before the election:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/143426/Gallup-Finds-Unemployment-September.aspx

What, you say, could make this worse?   Easy.  Obama was on the radio today and obviously off TelePrompTer.   The following is from an article in the LA Times:

“Everybody in the barbershops, the beauty shops, and at work — everybody’s got to understand: This is a huge election,” he said. “If we turn out in strong numbers, then we will do fine. If we do not, if we are depressed and decide, well, you know, Barack’s not running right now, so I’m just going to stay home, then I’m going to have my hands full up here on Capitol Hill.”Republicans have demonstrated.

Days before the release of a key jobs report, Obama said most of the job losses his administration gets blamed for occurred before “any of my economic plans were put into place,” and that the country is still “experiencing the hangover from the misguided policies” of the last decade.

Obama said a big voter turnout was vital, both to counter millions of dollars being spent by outside groups and the enthusiasm

“They are fired up. They are mobilized. They see an opportunity to take back the House, maybe take back the Senate,” he said. “If they’re successful in doing that, they’ve already said they’re going to go back to the same policies that were in place during the Bush administration. That means that we are going to have just hand-to-hand combat up here on Capitol Hill.”

With Obama is it always just about him.  He has already decided that if Democrats lose, it is only because he is not on the ballot.  What is really pathetic is that he probably believes that.  We are dealing with someone who is incapable of even recognizing reality.  When Bill Clinton got walloped during the 1994 mid-term election, he just adopted some of the Republican ideas and took credit for them.

But Obama is unlikely to do that.  Instead he will blame the loss on everything and everyone but himself.  He will first blame everything on Bush, just like he did above.  He will blame Republicans for obstructing his agenda.  He will blame a biased media that didn’t give his administration enough credit.  He will blame Democrats for running scared from Republican lies and distortions.  Finally, he will blame the American people because not enough of his supporters showed up to vote.  The only person he will not blame is himself, other than his failure to explain more effectively why he is right.

This means that while Republicans are now very likely to run the table on November 2, 2010, that will not solve the problem.  Obama is likely to veto any attempt to overturn his program and to implement as much of his program as he can through executive order, ignoring both congress and the courts.  In addition, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are likely to try and jam through as much as possible during a lame duck session.  (They will fail).

I do not think Obama will succeed, but unfortunately we may be facing the most significant constitutional crisis in our nation’s history.  The following article, from Real Clear Politics, shows that a lot of people are very concerned with regard to this topic. 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/10/08/which_obama_will_emerge_after_the_storm_2010_midterm_after_republican_landslide_clinton_107489.html

We already have an important clue.  Jim Jones is resigning as National Security Director.  His replacement will be Tom Donilon.  His resume is as follows:

http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Thomas_Donilon

In other words Obama is turning over the top position on National Security to a politic hack that helped run Fannie Mae into the ground.  He has zero military experience and Woodward reported that both Jones and Gates loath him.  In other words he is just like Obama, a naïve, inexperienced, incompetent radical.  I feel warm all over.

 TDM

No amount of spin or pleas for patience can cover up the undeniable incompetence of this administration.   Democrats were already in serious trouble before the week began.  Unfortunately for them, when things start going bad they tend to get worse.  Following is a list of things that happened just this week:

IT’S OFFICIAL – OBAMA ADMINISTRATION BOTCHES BP SPILL

The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling issued a scathing report regarding the Obama administrations’ handling of the BP oil spill: 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/10/06/101697/white-house-squelched-release.html#ixzz11clGiTNn

The following quote from the report is very strong:

The staff paper said that underestimating the flow rates “undermined public confidence in the federal government’s response” by creating the impression that the government was either incompetent or untrustworthy. The paper said that the loss of trust “fuels public fears.”

Perhaps the best analysis of this situation is on the following link to the yidwithlid:

 http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2010/10/bp-spill-investigators-administration.html

MORE JOBS ARE LOST IN SEPTEMBER

Then the September Jobs Report was released and it is terrible:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Private-sector-sheds-39000-rb-1277482169.html?x=0&.v=1

The administration was preparing to explain why only 20,000 jobs were created when it turns out 39,000 jobs were lost.   This is really bad economic news and it cannot be ignored.

LATIN AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS JOIN SUIT AGAINST ARIZONA

Then the 9^th Circuit Court decided to allow foreign Latin American governments to file briefs supporting the Obama administrations’ opposition to the Arizona immigration law:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43199.html

People are already angry about the opposition to this law, they will be furious that we are allowing foreign governments to interfere in our domestic affairs.

JUDGE THROWS OUT KEY EVIDENCE AGAINST TERRORIST SUSPECT

This is enough bad news for any administration, but it gets worse.  Today a judge threw out the most important  evidence against the terrorist who participated in bombing two U.S. Embassies:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-06/witness-in-ghailani-embassy-bombing-trial-barred-by-u-s-judge-in-new-york.html

The decision was because of alleged “torture.”  This is exactly why it was a really stupid idea to move these trials to federal court in New York.  What makes this worse is that the judge who made the ruling added the following comment:

“His status as an ‘enemy combatant’ probably would permit his detention as something akin to a prisoner of war until hostilities between the United States and al-Qaeda and the Taliban end even if he were found not guilty in this case,” Kaplan wrote.

This is just plain nonsense.  We bring this yahoo to New York, so we can prove he will get a fair trial, and then the judge throws out most of the evidence, but writes that we’re going to keep him locked up anyway, even if he is found not guilty.  Who, exactly, is that supposed to impress?

OBAMA PLANS TRIP TO INDIA

How bad is it?  Easy.  The President has already planned a trip to India starting the day after the election.  Regardless of the reason for this trip, it sure looks like he is deliberately scheduling himself out of town so he doesn’t have to answer any questions about the election results. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6694694.cms’

This has been a really bad week, and it’s only Wednesday.  Wow!

Finally, for those worried about another 4 years of Governor Moonbeam:

JERRY BROWN HANGS OUT WITH CASTRO, WITH THE HELP OF CONVICTED SPY PHILIP AGEE

The following article, from the Daily Beast, shows that this story is about to go viral.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-05/jerry-browns-castro-trouble-on-2000-cuba-trip/

Hmmm.. People in glass houses?????

TDM

We do not know how many seats Republicans win this November but we will do know for certain who will not be in control of congress after this election.  The recent Gallup Poll shows Republican with a 53 to 40 edge, if there is high turnout and 56 to 38 if there is low turnout:

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/122439-vulnerable-house-democrats-run-away-from-partys-legislative-record

Larry Sabato did an outstanding job of showing the statistical significant of this poll:

http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/aia2010091601/

Of course Gallup says Democrats may do better by increasing enthusiasm.  The primary reason they are saying that is because current Republican enthusiasm is so high and Democratic enthusiasm is so low that they assume Democrats have no place to go but up.

But that ignores the reality of momentum.  For example, imagine yourself at a Kings game when the home team is leading by 10 points with two minutes to go.  The crowd is going nuts.   No one considers leaving.  Then imagine yourself at a Kings game when the home team is losing by 30 points with two minutes to go.  The few remaining fans are silently sitting on their hands.  Republicans have the momentum, they think they are going to win and their enthusiasm is like to increase.  Democrats know they are in trouble, they think they are going to lose and their enthusiasm is likely to decrease.

But, the simple reality is that Nancy Pelosi has already lost control of the House.  There are currently 256 Democrats in the House and 179 Republicans.  But, in the last vote, 39 Democrats joined the Republicans in voting against adjournment.  If Mary Fallin from Oklahoma had not missed the vote, Boehner’s motion to vote on extending the Bush Tax cuts would have passed:

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/122439-vulnerable-house-democrats-run-away-from-partys-legislative-record

If the election was held today and every incumbent was re-elected, Nancy Pelosi would still lose control of the House.  No one is predicting that.  The lowest prediction I have seen shows the Republicans picking up 20 to 25 seats.  In any case Pelosi has lost too much support within the Democratic congress to control the legislative agenda.  She was voted out of power when those 39 Democrats joined with Republicans.  The only remaining question is the strength of the mandate that Republicans will get from this election.  We do not know whether or not Republicans will win control of the Senate, but we sure know who has lost control of the House.  The fat lady is warming up in the wings and she already knows the tune!

 TDM

Following, courtesy of Newbusters.org, are two pictures.  The first is of the “One Nation Working Together” rally held yesterday.  There was a massive effort by every liberal left-wing organization in the country, along with funding and organizational help from the unions to respond to the Glenn Beck “Restoring Honor” rally held on August 28, 2010.  If you have any doubts over what is really happening in this country, just look at these two pictures:

Things were so bad that CSPAN got caught running a picture of the “Restoring Honor” rally and pretending it was from the “One Nation Working Together” rally.  The following link from gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/10/figures-cspan-uses-tea-party-rally-shot-for-leftist-one-nation-rally/

Lately liberals have been getting it handed to them on the air. Conservative commentators are feeling the wind at their back and they are just destroying the desperate attempts by the liberal left to put a good spin on this. 

Brit Hume handed it to Juan Williams. 

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/10/03/brit-hume-battles-juan-williams-over-congress-adjourning-tax-cut-vote

Monica Crowley crushed Eleanor Cliff

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/10/03/monica-crowley-smacks-down-eleanor-clift-over-gop-being-extreme

Greta VanSustren destroyed Gloria Allred. 

 http://www.lucianne.com/Article/?pageid=van_susteren_destroys_allred

Pretty easy to see which way the wind is blowing.

TDM

In November of 2008, the election was a picnic for Democrats.  It would have been hard for a Democrat to lose an election anywhere.  Now, just 23 months later, the picnic has morphed into panic.   Democrats have panicked and they are making major mistakes.  For example Alan Grayson ran a really disgusting ad in his House race that has backfired big time:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42818.html

While Grayson is a certified scumbag, well known for outrageous personal attacks on political opponents, this ad was really stupid.  This ad shows that he is absolutely desperate.  The same is true of Jerry Brown in California.  No one is surprised by the classic: “you hired an illegal alien” attack on Meg Whitman, but running it now was a huge mistake.  Jerry Brown is an experienced politician and he knows that ad should have been saved until the Friday before the election.  But, he panicked and ran it now.  Once again, the only plausible explanation is panic.  By running it now he just gave Meg Whitman more time to respond and this is likely to hurt him more than help him.

There are currently 259 seats up for election that are currently occupied by Democrats.  There are 176 seats currently held by Republicans.  Obviously, the Republicans need to take 42 seats away from Democrats in order to win the House.  Virtually all political pundits are now predicting that to happen.

It appears that Republicans are leading in something like 70 races.  In fact, the Republicans are leading in almost every race where the pollsters thought would be competitive.  But, there are a lot of other races out there where no one is even running polls.  Democrats are very concerned.  For example Barney Franks is so worried that he asked Bill Clinton to campaign for him.  Frank is the Chairman of House Financial Services Committee, one of the most powerful positions in congress.  He is running in a “safe” Democratic district in Massachusetts, the most Democratic state in the country.  Wow!   John Dingell has won re-election 28 straight times, but his seat is considered to be in jeopardy.  He is pleading for campaign contributions to help him get re-elected in one of the safest congressional districts for Democrats in the country:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42191.html

These are just some of the well-known prominent Democrats who are in trouble.  There are lesser known Democrats all over the country where no one is even polling.  If people like Frank and Dingell are in trouble, everyone is in trouble.

The solution, for Democrats, is to make this a lot of local elections.  Democrats are trying to do just that.   A lot of them don’t even admit they are Democrats and I haven’t found any Democrats who are running for re-election based on their record.  Instead they are running smear campaign trying to scare voters into voting against their opponent.

But, President Obama is the gift that keeps on giving.  He is oblivious to the political damage he is causing to the Democratic Party, so he is out there telling Democrats to buck up and take more credit for doing a great job.  Each day he tries to find a new person to blame, since his previous tactic of blaming everything on George Bush clearly isn’t working.   He is incredibly thin skinned and he constantly whines about how Republicans are picking on him.  That makes him look weak and defensive.

He is unlikely to help a single Democrat gain any votes, but he is managing to help Republicans make this a national election.  If the Republicans keep a national election, that is very bad for Democrats.

I used to think that if Republicans had a super good wonderful day they would win about 75 seats.  I now think they are likely to win 100 seats and could win more than that.  We may wake up on November 3 with a whole country full of Democratic incumbents standing there with a glazed look in their eyes wondering what happened while a whole bunch of newcomers are celebrating.   If Democrats don’t find a way to stop the panic, this is going to get worse, a lot worse. 

The only good news for Democrats is that congress has adjourned, so neither Pelosi nor Reid is capable of pushing through more dumb legislation before the election.  But, as Yogi Berra used to say, “it is getting late early.”  Obviously the economy is not going to turn around before the election.  In addition, Obama is unlikely to give a great speech that suddenly makes everyone love him again.  In fact, most of the things that could happen in the next four weeks, that could impact the election, would be bad for Democrats.  The economy won’t recover, but the stock market could easily crash.  We won’t win the war in Afghanistan, but things could quickly deteriorate.  If there are no terrorist attacks, it won’t help Democrats, but if there is a terrorist attack it will really hurt Obama.

There are sure to be some October surprises by Democrats who are famous for last minute smear campaigns.  Think of the DUI story that was released on George Bush the Friday before the 2000 election.  That probably cost Bush the lead in the popular vote.  But, while some Republicans candidates will fall victim to these kinds of tactics, it will not impact the nationwide trend. 

There are more and more signs of a huge political storm poised to sweep across this country.  Democrats know that, which is why they have panicked.  But panic, in the face of disaster, only makes things worse.   I now think the Republicans win more seats in the House than anyone can even imagine.  I also think they win the Senate and it won’t even be close.   Republicans are always capable of blowing any individual election, but even the traditional Republican arrogance and incompetence cannot slow down this political storm.