Obama's Post-Election Press Conference — UPDATED!!

More than anything, the election was referendum on U.S. economic performance, and thus Barack Obama's leadership as steward of American prosperity. Election 2012 starts right now. See, "For Obama, Daunting Challenges of 2012 Start at Once."

I'm listening to the press conference at the White House page. I tuned in just a few minutes ago, so the discussion is mostly policy at this point, but he's nevertheless whining about how "dedicated public servants" who supported his ObamaCare train wreck have been sent packing: "We were doing the right thing." I'll update this post later with responses. Also, I have a lot of thoughts on last night's national tidal wave, and I especially have some harsh words for the voters of California. So check back later:

RELATED: Ed Morrissey, "Open Thread: Obama’s Post-Election Presser."

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UPDATE: There's a Memeorandum thread now. And see Steve Benen, "HEALTH CARE AND 'THE NEXT TWO YEARS'..." Plus, at ABC News, "President Obama Takes Responsibility for Democrats' Loss, Saying, 'I've Got to Do a Better Job': House Shifts to Republican Control, Dems Cling to Senate Majority."

Allen West Wins Florida's 22nd District

Former New York Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was often called "black America's Congressman." One of the first two blacks in Congress in the Post-Reconstruction Era, Powell was "a leader in the black community not just in New York, but all across the country."

It's an imperfect analogy (Powell was a Democrat), but my sense is that Lt. Colonel Allen West's election to Congress last night will have implications far beyond Florida's 22nd Congressional District.

Last night's results were bittersweet for Californians, and later I'll have some commentary and analysis on the results from the Left Coast, but Allen West's victory lifts my spirits. He will be a voice for moral clarity and patriotic values in Congress, and he is the most recent affirmation that we live in a color-blind society. More at The Other McCain, "VIDEO: Allen West Victory Speech":

Additional video at The Blaze, "Lt. Colonel Allen West’s Victory Speech: ‘Made My Toes Tingle’." See also the Palm Beach Post, "Congress: Allen West claims victory over incumbent Ron Klein."

RELATED: "Black Republicans Win First Congress Seats Since 2003."

ADDED: From Gateway Pundit, "Rep. Allen West Bashes Obama In First Interview “This Should Not Be About Punishing Enemies or Hand-to-Hand Combat”:

Election Night Bloodbath

Althouse is live-blogging, and what better clip to introduce the evening?

I came home around 4:30pm to meet my wife. We voted and picked up some dinner, and then my little boy at his after school program. The TV is on and I'm on Twitter and William Jacobson's live-event. Something of information overload here and I'm still filtering. I love NYT's headline, "Tea Party Victories Propel Republican Gains in Senate." And Stephen Green tweets, "The midwest, the south -- it's a bloodbath for the #Democrats."

2. Rand Paul's victory speech:

3. I just tweeted: "#Feingold Twitter stream reveals left's agony http://is.gd/gDXGG And see, "Tea Partier Beats Feingold‎."

And still on information overload, but here's a sweetie at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, "Florida Congress: Democrat incumbents lose." And at WSJ, "Obama Is Dealt a Tough Hand: Depleted Democratic Ranks Forces Him to Choose Between Steering Left or Right."

4. California is toast http://is.gd/gE4wV http://is.gd/gE3ZD

That said, "President Doesn't Watch Midterm Election Train Wreck."

5. I'm not pleased with the People's Republic of California, and there's some deep corruption in Nevada, "Harrah’s Bosses Put Squeeze on Employees to Vote in Pro-Reid Effort."But it's a historic night overall. Signing off here with NYT, "G.O.P. Takes House in Setback to Obama: Democrats Are Positioned to Hold Senate Despite G.O.P. Gains."

Turnout Reports Alarm Democrats: Obama Plans Election Post-Mortem

We're seeing scattered reports around the country of weak Democrat turnout in battleground states. At the Scranton Times Tribune, "Turnout steady, voters cite negative campaigning as Election 2010 theme." And at Ballot Box, "Endangered Democrat: 'Turnout isn't where we need it to be'." And especially, at Washington Wire, "Coons Camp Expresses Turnout Worries" (via Memeorandum).

Turnout is stronger elsewhere around the country. Either way, President Obama, bracing for the worst, is planning a major national address tomorrow. At NYT, "The President Plans a Post-Mortem":

President Obama plans to talk about the results of Tuesday’s elections at a news conference Wednesday afternoon in the East Room of the White House, his staff announced.

Aides said they expected Mr. Obama to call for an end to the division that characterized the campaign and for a renewed focus on bipartisanship to solve the nation’s economic and other problems.

The White House is bracing for a bad night, anticipating an outcome that has virtually every political specialist predicting that the Democrats will lose the House but possibly hang on to the Senate. The White House wants to use the news conference the next day to help Mr. Obama reframe his presidency and signal that he heard what the voters were trying to tell him.

More at the link.

President George W. Bush fired Donald Rumsfeld after the 2006 midterms, and it's not clear that Obama will go that far, although he should and then some.

Crush 'em

Readers may remember Markos Moultisas' infamous exhortation from late in the 2008 presidential campaign, "Break Their Back, Crush Their Spirits":

See, here's the deal -- we're going to win the White House, we're going to win big in the Senate, and we're going to rack up big gains in the House. Republicans know this and are preparing for the worst. Now think of 2004 -- we really thought Kerry was going to pull it off. Remember that? And remember how utterly devastated we were when Bush pulled it off? The pain was so much worse because we expected to win.

So with conservatives bracing for the worse, they won't experience the kind of pain we did. Not unless we deliver a defeat even worse than their worst nightmares. And I'll be honest with you -- I want them to hurt as much as we did. I want their spirits crushed, their backs broken.

Well, payback's a bitch mofo. So let's reflect on Moe Lane's remembrance of all things Democrats past:

• These people told their clients to say that you hate African-Americans.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate Latinos.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate gays.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate women.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate Jews.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate Muslims.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate the poor.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate America.

Shall I continue?

• These people told their clients to say that you were fascists.
• These people told their clients to say that you were theocrats.
• These people told their clients to say that you were stupid.
• These people told their clients to say that you were uneducated.
• These people told their clients to say that you were hatemongers.
• These people told their clients to say that you were insane.
• These people told their clients to say that you were violent extremists.

I can keep this going for quite a while, you know.

• These people told their clients to call you unpatriotic.
• These people told their clients to call you cowards.
• These people told their clients to mock you at every opportunity.
• These people told their clients to deliberately use a sexual slur when referring to you.
• These people told their clients to trivialize and dismiss your concerns at every opportunity.

And now these professional Democrats are sad because they’re going to lose. Well, they deserve to lose. Because they’re bad people. And because the entire point of the United States of America is to make sure that bad people lose. So go vote on Tuesday, and make as many bad people as possible lose.

Righteously.

Yes, crush 'em, righteously and remorselessly. They deserve it:

Communist Party USA Does GOTV for Obama Democrats!

PREVIOUSLY: "Cartoonist Ted Rall Calls for Communist Revolution: 'I Would Like to See a Completely Leftist Proletariat Dictatorship'."

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The Marxist-Leninist revolutionary party is getting out the vote for the Obama-Dem-Socialists.

But for a second I thought my eyes were fooling me, 'cuz, you know, there's no "real commies" around any more. Just "imaginary" ones. Just ask Tintin, the blogging asshat at Sadly No!

"Because we do in fact hate commies, at least real commies, not the imaginary commies that community college Assistant Associate Professor Douglas sees lurking behind every potted plant."

If the grand alliance that elected Barack Obama comes out in full force to vote we can stop the Tea Party/Republican takeover, continue moving forward and push further for green jobs, union rights, health care and the safety net for the common good.

If voters fail to turnout, the Tea Party/Republican “Promise to America” alternative is clear: continued tax breaks for the top richest two percent which will increase the deficit, privatization of social security, repeal of health care and financial reform, no extension of unemployment compensation, outsourced jobs, increased racism and severe limits to democratic rights.

Momentum has been on the side of the Democrats in the last few days, but most races are too close to call. Hundreds of millions more dollars are being pumped into smear ads on TV, radio and internet in an attempt to defeat progressives and suppress voter turnout. The money is coming from shadow groups funded by unlimited corporate contributions.

When the choice before our country is made clear, voters can be convinced to go to the polls.

Everyone can make a difference. If you are not already connected, plug into one of the opportunities listed below, or find something in your own neighborhood to make your voice heard with door knocking, phone banking and helping line up others to volunteer as well.

Resources to help get out the vote:

AFL-CIO Labor 2010

One Nation Working Together Events

MoveOn — Stop the Takeover

Organizing for America Call for Change

Hip Hop Caucus — Respect My Vote

Rock the Vote / Register to Vote

Election Protection... Right to Vote

NCLR — Vote for Respect

Political Action Commission

Communist Party USA

Rebel Movement Takes Center Stage

Late polling shows Sharron Angle leading Harry Reid 48 to 45 percent in the Nevada Senate race. While few analysts expect the GOP to take the upper chamber, a loss for the Democrats' current Majority Leader will be one of the most prized GOP trophies of the election. And of course Sharron Angle is at the forefront of the tea party wave that's shaking the political system to its foundation (and proving the naysayers not only wrong, but plain old mean, with their relentless and unprincipled attacks on citizen patriots as bigoted backwoods hicks). We'll see how some of the other grassroots tea-party style candidates do, but Americans haven't seen this kind of change in decades, if not centuries.

The Wall Street Journal discusses the "rebel movement" in its Tuesday morning lead story:

For America's political establishment, Scott Brown's victory in the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts became a warning flare: The tea party was a force to be reckoned with.

For Larry Lynch, it was a personal awakening.

Mr. Lynch didn't even live in Massachusetts. He was 1,100 miles away in Brunswick, Ga. A retired immigration enforcement agent, he had joined the Golden Isles Tea Party, he says, because "the government has gone too far" in spending and bailouts to big companies.

"All of us plain ol' Joes who worked all of our life—we got what we got because we worked for it, not because it was a handout," he says.

Mr. Lynch had never donated to a campaign or so much as put a bumper sticker on his car. But he sent $100 to Mr. Brown, hoping a victory in Massachusetts would make a statement to the nation. When Mr. Brown won, Mr. Lynch believed something in the country had shifted. Soon he had written checks to tea-party candidates in three other states.

"There was just this feeling of solidarity, that people are finally waking up," he says. "It was this feeling that, 'Yeah, we can make some changes. We can make a difference.'"

Whatever the result of Tuesday's races, 2010 will be remembered as the year of the tea party. In part, that's because of Mr. Lynch and the thousands like him who, in a time of national crisis, decided to throw themselves into politics. The movement, barely 12 months old at the start of the year, became the most dynamic political force of 2010.

Tea party-backed candidates didn't win every race they entered during 2010—and undoubtedly won't prevail in every race Tuesday. But in a spring and summer of surprises, they did displace at least a half-dozen long-time incumbents.

More broadly, the movement re-energized—and in some cases, scared—conservatives demoralized and dispirited in the aftermath of the Bush presidency and Obama victory. It brought dozens of new politicians to the fore, and redefined the debate on issues including health care and spending in a way that put Democrats on the defensive.

More here.

There's a lengthy discussion of the role of Tea Party Express in boosting Sharron Angle's prospects in Nevada.

It's all simply amazing, especially since I've been involved at the grassroots in many of the major political developments of the last 18-months. Today's going to be a huge day in American political history. I'm unbelievably excited.

George W. Bush Throws Out First Pitch at World Series

See: "Wow: Texas Still Really Likes George W. Bush (Video)."

And "Bush Throws Out Ceremonial First Pitch While Dad Looks On."

Video c/o Left Coast Rebel:

Candidates Pull Out All the Stops

From this morning's LAT.

Pulling out all the stops, as far as I can tell, means going as extremely negative as possible. As I was headed out the door this morning, I saw both of these spots back to back on KABC 7 Los Angeles. Negative ads work, which is why candidates don't pull 'em, even after repeated calls to lighten up:

Election Eve Rule 5

Via Theo Spark:

Mom Pleads Guilty in 'FarmVille' Baby Murder

No, I'm not making that up.

At Florida Times-Union, "Jacksonville mom shakes baby for interrupting FarmVille, pleads guilty to murder."

A Jacksonville mother charged with shaking her baby to death has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Alexandra V. Tobias, 22, was arrested after the January death of 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson. She told investigators she became angry because the baby was crying while she was playing a computer game called FarmVille on the Facebook social-networking website.

Updates at the link.

Hat Tip: Glenn Reynolds.

A Long, Nasty Campaign Comes to An End

At CNN:

No more robocalls interrupting dinner or angry campaign ads at every TV break -- the most expensive mid-term elections in history finally take place Tuesday, when voters decide who goes to Congress and governors' offices.

Polls indicate a dissatisfied electorate may clean house -- literally -- by tossing out the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives and possibly doing the same in the Senate.

With all predictions, including those of Democrats, signaling Republican gains, the election is considered a referendum on both the Democratic-controlled Congress and President Barack Obama's first two years in office.

Losses by the governing party are common in the first mid-term election it faces, but the shift Tuesday could rival or match historic levels dating back decades.

Unemployment of 9.6 percent amid a slow recovery from economic recession has been the dominant issue, with Republicans accusing Obama and Democrats of pushing through expensive policies that have expanded government without solving the problem.

Obama has led Democrats in defending his record, saying steps such as the economic stimulus bill and auto industry bailout were necessary to prevent a depression, while health care reform and Wall Street reform will lay the foundation for sustainable future growth.

As voting day approached, voter anger appeared to tune out the Democratic arguments. Conservative groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce funded attack ads that skewered increased spending under Obama and the health care reform bill he championed, while labor unions and traditional Democratic donors backed messaging that warned a GOP victory would bring back Republican deregulation and policies that caused the recession.

The long and bitter campaign season will cost more than $3.5 billion to be the most expensive non-presidential vote ever, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group.

Republicans need to win an additional 39 seats to claim the House majority, and 10 more Senate seats to overtake Democrats there.

With around 100 of the 435 House seats at stake considered "in play," or competitive, the anti-Democratic mood is predicted to result in big Republican gains.

More at the link.

A bland piece, but it almost always comes out that Republicans are "nastier."

'I will walk on f***ing broken glass to get to the polls tomorrow'

At Doug Ross, "Last Call for Liberty."

Warm Southern California Weather

I left my college at about 3:00pm, and it felt like a warm summer day!

Check the image from the live doppler's at KABC-TV Los Angeles. And here's the view out in front of the LBCC athletics facility. What a beautiful day.

RELATED: My college was featured at Los Angeles Times last week, "In Long Beach, a Promise to Help Struggling Students."

Dear PBS: Please Buzz Off

The solicitation from PBS came this morning. I didn't even open it, but it turns out the People's Broadcasting flacks contacted Michelle as well, to which she delivers the epic smackdown, "PBS to conservative blogger: Help us. Conservative blogger to PBS: Buzz off":

The following e-mail arrived in my mailbox this morning from taxpayer-supported PBS — home of Obama sycophant and drool bucket-carrier David Brooks and Palin-basher/Obama cheerleader Gwen Ifill.

Yep, the government media that has spent the last two years promoting the progressive agenda and sought a $550 million taxpayer bailout to push social justice activism now wants conservative bloggers to help publicize their election night coverage.

Michelle,

I wanted to send out a note to invite you to participate – even embed – the PBS NewsHour’s online-only live show tomorrow night (starting at 10 p.m. EST) ....

Dear PBS: Please buzz off.

We don’t need no stinkin’ state-sponsored media — and we certainly don’t need any Left and Left-er “legendary political columnists” telling us about the grass-roots electoral revolution they’ve ignored, derided, and demonized for the past two years.

Recent: Free the Taxpayers: Defund State-Sponsored Media.

Hat Tip: William Jacobson.

Revival of Volatility Signals Historic Era in U.S. Politics

At WSJ:

KOKOMO, Ind. — Voters this week look set to do something not seen since the early 1950s: Oust a substantial number of sitting House lawmakers for the third election in a row.

The apparent Republican resurgence suggests the country is caught in a cycle of political volatility witnessed only four times in the past century, almost all during war or economic unease.

This fall's election has generated dozens of House races, from the suburbs of Denver and Chicago, across the South, and up the Ohio River Valley into New England, where voters who rejected Republicans in the past two elections are threatening to throw their support back to the GOP. In many cases, they're returning to the same candidates they rejected earlier.

The phenomenon is on full view in Indiana, where Democrats are fighting to keep three House seats they won in 2006. Voters in all three districts have a history, going back more than a century in some cases, of rejecting incumbents in moments of strain.

"We know what we don't want better than we know what we want," said Steve Ellison, a commercial real-estate broker who hosted a campaign event in his Mishawaka home for Republican challenger Jackie Walorski, who is trying to unseat two-term Democrat Joe Donnelly in the state's Second District. "I suppose that helps explain the schizophrenia."

If Republicans win big on Tuesday, as polls suggest, it is far from clear how firm a foothold they will have. Voters hold unfavorable views of both parties. Republican leaders acknowledge they could easily be tossed in 2012, just as they were in 2006.

The country has seen similar gyrations before ...

More at the link.

I'll have more on this later, but there's been lots of polling data indicating voter preferences for smaller government --- and depending how robust are those findings, tomorrow's election results might herald a tendency toward limiting the growth of government, if not demands for smaller government per se. Democrats will resist that meme, since they're out to expand the state and monopolize power over the individual. Yet, while electoral volatility has long been a key aspect of the post-1960s dealignment era, the tea parties have revealed some of the deeper wellpsrings of limited government in American politics.

In any case, check the related thoughts at Q & O, "Win isn’t GOP mandate, just another chance."

Cartoon via Theo Spark.

Democrats for Dope

I've been keeping my eyes peeled, and this morning I finally found a chance to join William Jacobson's bumper sticker brigade.

This one's not too fancy, but I love it. Democrats for Dope:

And "Yes We Can!" And how's that working out for ya? Might need to smoke a couple o' fat ones tomorrow. Republicans are going to crush these brain-addled druggie-socialists, and none too soon either.

RELATED: At the Field Poll, "VOTER OPPOSITION TO PROP. 19 (MARIJUANA) HAS GROWN. STRONG OPPOSITION TO PROP. 23 (SUSPENDING AB32). CONTINUING SUPPORT FOR PROP. 25 (MAJORITY VOTE FOR STATE BUDGETS)."

Plus, "Southern Californians Are Sinking California's Marijuana Legalization Effort."

Sarah Palin Would 'Make the Sacrifices' and Run for President

At Los Angeles Times:

The former governor of Alaska predicts Tuesday's vote will serve as a rebuke to President Obama as well as the GOP establishment ...

Check the link.

She's going to run. She's done almost everything right since she stepped down as Alaska governor. And this has the establishment freaked out, as the lead story tonight at Politico indicates, "Next for GOP Leaders: Stopping Palin." Also at Memeorandum.

I tweeted my thoughts earlier, but Conservatives4Palin have a great response:

Rather than being fearful for the effects of the Obama agenda, the GOP Establishment appears to have a greater fear of Palin nomination and the "wrath" of "enthralled" Palin supporters. The GOP Establishment deems that nominating Governor Palin in 2012 would spell disaster. However, for whom would a Palin nomination be a disaster? The GOP Establishment? One of the GOP boys: Romney, Huckabee, Pawlenty, Gingrich, Thune, Barbour, Daniels? President Obama? The 2010 primaries have already given the Establishment reason to be "fearful" of "conservative grass-roots activists". Such grassroots, conservative campaigns and candidates gave people like Rand Paul, Joe Miller, and Christine O'Donnell their respective nominations.

With Victory, Republicans Would Face Uncertainty

From John Harwood, at New York Times:

If voters engineer the Congressional makeover that strategists in both parties now expect, the implications for governance over the next two years, and for America’s political future, remain a mystery. Ascendant Republicans will have to juggle the Tea Party’s determination to block President Obama’s agenda with centrist voters’ desire for the two parties to work together on jump-starting the economy.

“The looming victories for Republican candidates next Tuesday is not a validation of the Republican Party at all,” former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida said in an interview. Instead, he argued, they would reflect “a repudiation of the massive overreach” by Mr. Obama and Democrats and “disgust with the political class” for its failure to cooperate and deliver results.

“It could create a middle ground,” Mr. Bush concluded. “Or it could create a dismemberment of our political parties.”

In this fractious environment, the Senate race in Florida may represent the best-case situation for Republicans. After insurgent conservative Marco Rubio overtook Gov. Charlie Crist for the Republican nomination and built a general election lead, top Democrats were reduced to trying vainly to persuade their own nominee, Representative Kendrick B. Meek, to abandon the race to help Mr. Crist’s independent candidacy stop Mr. Rubio.

The equally chaotic Alaska Senate race could become the worst case. After Joe Miller, a Tea Party favorite backed by former Gov. Sarah Palin, defeated the incumbent, Lisa Murkowski, for the Republican Senate nomination, party leaders swung behind Mr. Miller and threatened to strip Ms. Murkowski of her position as the ranking member of the Senate energy committee after she announced that she was still running.

Now that missteps by Mr. Miller have left him plummeting in the polls, some Republican strategists are openly rooting for Ms. Murkowski’s unorthodox write-in campaign as their best hope for preventing an upset by the Democrat Scott McAdams.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, reflecting the fervor of his party’s base, recently declared that “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

But former Governor Bush said Republicans must make clear that their top priority is increasing employment and economic growth. In particular, he advised Republicans to seek common ground with Mr. Obama and Democrats on trade and energy policy.

See more at the link.

Jeb Bush is mostly right, although governing instability next year is not going to destroy the parties. Folks should read Scott Rasmussen's essay, "A Vote Against Dems, Not for the GOP," especially the bottom line: "Elected politicians ... should leave their ideological baggage behind because voters don't want to be governed from the left, the right, or even the center. They want someone in Washington who understands that the American people want to govern themselves.

Ezra Levant Tribute Dinner, Canadian Centre for Policy Studies

Featuring Mark Steyn, pictured at left, with the lovely Kathy Shaidle and Ezra Levant.

More pictures at Blazing Cat Fur, and see Five Feet of Fury, "Last night's gala tribute to Ezra Levant in Ottawa, with keynote speaker Mark Steyn":

Canadian Centre for Policy Studies website is here.

127 Hours

It's an intense story. I remember first reading about it 2003. Mountain climber Aaron Ralston was pinned by the arm in a freak hiking accident in Utah. He ended up severing his arm and survived. The movie version is pretty intense, apparently. Folks have been passing out during screenings:

Two at the Telluride Film Festival, three at the Toronto International Film Festival and one at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

If that were a list of trophies for the new movie "127 Hours," which opens Friday, the filmmakers would be overjoyed. In fact, it's a partial tally of people who have collapsed during early screenings of the movie about a real-life hiker who amputated his forearm after a falling boulder pinned his hand in a remote canyon.

"I started to feel like I was going to throw up," said Courtney Phelps, who was watching "127 Hours" at a recent Producers Guild of America screening in Hollywood and grew ill just as the amputation scene ended. "So I went to the bathroom, and then I started feeling dizzy and my heart started racing."

Phelps fainted on the restroom floor, and was treated by paramedics who had been called when another moviegoer suffered an apparent seizure. "I have never had, even remotely, an experience like this," she said. "I'm a television producer. I know this stuff is not real."

Evidently, that doesn't matter.

Filmmakers always hope their work will affect audiences in powerful ways. But the strong physical and emotional responses generated by "127 Hours" have not only surprised director Danny Boyle and his creative team — they've also presented a delicate marketing challenge for Fox Searchlight, which co-financed and is distributing the $20-million movie.

"I would prefer that people not pass out — it's not a plus," said Stephen Gilula, the studio's co-president. "We don't see a particular publicity value in it."

Still, Gilula said the swoons — besides the incidents in Telluride, Toronto and Mill Valley, there have been at least eight more at other preview screenings — prove the film's artistic power. "It's the most empathetic experience I've ever seen," he said. The movie, rated R for "language and some disturbing violent content/bloody images," opens Friday in New York and Los Angeles, with more cities set to be added in the coming weeks.

More at the link.

I think I may catch this one in theaters.

They Hate Our Guts

And they're drunk on power, argues P.J O'Rourke, at Weekly Standard:

Perhaps you’re having a tiny last minute qualm about voting Republican. Take heart. And take the House and the Senate. Yes, there are a few flakes of dander in the fair tresses of the GOP’s crowning glory—an isolated isolationist or two, a hint of gold buggery, and Christine O’Donnell announcing that she’s not a witch. (I ask you, has Hillary Clinton ever cleared this up?) Fret not over Republican peccadilloes such as the Tea Party finding the single, solitary person in Nevada who couldn’t poll ten to one against Harry Reid. Better to have a few cockeyed mutts running the dog pound than Michael Vick.

I take it back. Using the metaphor of Michael Vick for the Democratic party leadership implies they are people with a capacity for moral redemption who want to call good plays on the legislative gridiron. They aren’t. They don’t. The reason is simple. They hate our guts.

They don’t just hate our Republican, conservative, libertarian, strict constructionist, family values guts. They hate everybody’s guts. And they hate everybody who has any. Democrats hate men, women, blacks, whites, Hispanics, gays, straights, the rich, the poor, and the middle class.

Democrats hate Democrats most of all. Witness the policies that Democrats have inflicted on their core constituencies, resulting in vile schools, lawless slums, economic stagnation, and social immobility. Democrats will do anything to make sure that Democratic voters stay helpless and hopeless enough to vote for Democrats.

Whence all this hate? Is it the usual story of love gone wrong? Do Democrats have a mad infatuation with the political system, an unhealthy obsession with an idealized body politic? Do they dream of capturing and ravishing representational democracy? Are they crazed stalkers of our constitutional republic?

No. It’s worse than that. Democrats aren’t just dateless dweebs clambering upon the Statue of Liberty carrying a wilted bouquet and trying to cop a feel. Theirs is a different kind of love story. Power, not politics, is what the Democrats love. Politics is merely a way to power’s heart. When politics is the technique of seduction, good looks are unnecessary, good morals are unneeded, and good sense is a positive liability. Thus Democrats are the perfect Lotharios. And politics comes with that reliable boost for pathetic egos, a weapon: legal monopoly on force. If persuasion fails to win the day, coercion is always an option.

Armed with the panoply of lawmaking, these moonstruck fools for power go about in a jealous rage. They fear power’s charms may be lavished elsewhere, even for a moment.

More at the link.

RELATED: Moe Lane, "Your feel-good election post of the weekend."

Image Credit: No Sheeples Here!

GOP Likely to Capture Control of House

From the last pre-election survey from Pew Research, "Record Republican Engagement Drives High Turnout Forecast." The GOP leads among likely voters 48 to 42 percent on the generic ballot, but I love the discussion of Republican enthusiasm:

Many of the patterns apparent throughout the 2010 campaign remain clearly evident in its final days. First, the Republicans enjoy a substantial engagement advantage. The GOP's overall lead is only evident when the sample is narrowed to likely voters. Among all registered voters, preferences are about evenly divided -- 44% Democrat, 43% Republican.

This represents one of the largest gaps in preferences between all voters and likely voters ever recorded in Pew Research Center surveys. As was the case earlier in the campaign, this is more a consequence of unusually high engagement among Republicans than disengagement among Democrats. Since September, a growing number of Democrats say they have given a lot of thought to the election, but they still lag Republicans by a wide margin. The current levels of Democratic engagement are fairly typical for a midterm election, though they are somewhat below what they were in 2006, when the party regained control of Congress.

Second, the engagement gap notwithstanding, the Republicans owe much of their lead to strong backing from independents and other non-partisan voters. As in previous polls, likely independent voters favor GOP candidates by a wide margin -- currently, 45% to 32%. Shortly before the 2006 election, independents backed Democratic candidates by a 42%-to-35% margin.

Third, compared with 2006, the GOP has made gains among many segments of the electorate, but especially men, voters ages 65 and older, and whites. The Democrats hold substantial leads only among African Americans, younger voters, those with low family incomes, union households and the religiously unaffiliated....

In the final weeks of the campaign, there are no signs that the large engagement gap favoring the Republican Party has narrowed. Republican voters continue to be far more likely than Democrats to say they have given a lot of thought to this year's election (70% vs. 55%); more Republicans than Democrats say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting in this year's congressional election (61% vs. 41%); and Republicans are eight points more likely to say they are following campaign news "very closely" (39% vs. 31%).

These measures suggest that overall turnout is likely to be as high this year as in the 2006 midterm elections....

On many measures, the Republican engagement in 2010 is surpassing long-term records. Fully 70% of Republicans have given a lot of thought to this election, the highest figure recorded among either Republicans or Democrats over the past five midterm election cycles. And the differential between Republicans and Democrats is larger than ever previously recorded.

Because of this large engagement gap, the likely electorate is skewed toward voting blocs that favor the GOP. While 16% of all registered voters are younger than age 30, this age group makes up only 8% of likely voters due to their lower levels of interest and commitment to voting. Similarly, lower income Americans, who tend to favor the Democrats, make up a smaller share of the likely electorate due to their lower engagement levels.

The full report is at the link. But reading this discussion, especially the data on likely turnout among young and lower-income voters, suggests that all this recent talk of a last minute Democrat surge has been heavily exaggerated. Again, I'm reminded of Democrat strategist James Carville's extreme resignation at the party's expected losses, and his hunch that sometimes the tide is so large that all the corrupt detritus of the majority gets swept out.

CNN released a new survey today as well, "CNN Poll: Large Advantage for GOP as Election Nears." Republicans enjoy a 10-point lead among likely voters in the generic ballot, 52 to 42 percent. The CNN survey did not gauge voter enthusiasm, yet reports out tonight indicate sparse crowds for some of the days big-ticket political rallies. See, "Thin Crowd for Cleveland Campaign Rally," and "Thousands of empty seats for last Dem voter rally by Obama, Biden" (via Memeorandum).

Leftists Deny KTVA Conspiracy to Smear Joe Miller

The most interesting thing about the denial is that, you know, "it's just another Breitbart operation ... nothing to take seriously." Of course, in each of the previous scandals Breitbart's evidence has been clear and incriminating. What's also been clear is that the Democrat-Media-Industrial-Complex pushes back so hard --- with willing accomplices elsewhere in the left's institutional state structures --- that the meme of fakery and fraud is successfully planted, allowing those pimps, bigots, and corruptocrats to get off the hook, ultimately, with minimal consequences. Yet in this case, once again, there's no doubt the evidence is overwhelming:

Gateway Pundit has the Anchorage station's denial, "Alaska KTVA: We Stand By Our “Corrupt Bastards” Who Conspired Against Joe Miller":

And more here, "Sarah Palin: We Have Tape of Those “Corrupt Bastards” In Media Conspiring Against Joe Miller."

RELATED: At Althouse, "Brian Beutler takes a cheap shot at Sarah Palin: 'Sarah Palin Calls Joe Miller A Lost Cause, Quotes Scopes Monkey Trial Attorney'."

And from Dan Riehl, "KTVA-CBS 11 Compounds Scandal After Caught Targeting Miller's Senate Campaign."

Halloween Hotties 2010

Last year's Halloween hotness post got a decent amount of attention, so here's a little roundup of related costume hotness:

Okay, in the festive spirit is Robert Stacy McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday Halloween Extra." A weekend preview is seen at Zion's Trumpet, "Rule 5 For Friday."

And Washington Rebel goes political with some orange Halloween hotness. As well, Bob Belvedere has a fabulous entry: "TCOTS Halloween Rule 5 2010!" Plus, see Stormbringer's "Wednesday Wench," and Classical Liberal, "Alessandra Ambrosio."

More from Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup – Happy Halloween!," Maggie's Farm, "Halloween Morning Links," and Proof Positive and The Real United States.

Here's this previously from Maxim, "Halloween Hotties, Vol. 1 Photos," and "Halloween Hotties, Vol. 2."

And more recently, at Radar Online, "PHOTOS: Bikini Wars! Sexy Stars Who Heat Up The Beach In Halloween Colors."

Plus, "PHOTOS: The Sexiest Celebrity Halloween Costumes Ever!"

NUCLEAR NSFW BONUS: "Playboy's Sexy Halloween Costumes." (You've been warned!)

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DROP A LINK IN THE COMMENTS TO HAVE YOUR HOT HALLOWEEN POST ADDED!!

Rally for Reefer

James B. Webb hasn't been commenting over here lately. I thought he'd fried his brain on coke so hard in Las Vegas that he just couldn't get it up mentally. But apparently the problem's not just the cocaine, but the messed-up Obama opium buzz itself. Old JBW's got the downer-shakes from the bad-shit Obama junk freak-out. That pinch musta been cut with some rat poison, or something. Cuz man, that buzz for "The One" is gone, really gone: "Brain Fatigue And Rage Deficiency."

JBW commented earlier, but he's still on a downer jive, and his mind ain't up to the quick commentary. The dude needs an intellectual fix, and fast. For example, at "Zach Galifianakis Gets Stoned On 'Real Time with Bill Maher'," notice the incoherence:

My favorite thing about you Don, is your totally legitimate tea party roots: your belief that adult Americans should be free to do whatever they wish, regardless of the harm to themselves, as long as it doesn't harm anyone else.

Keep practicing what you preach and shine on, you crazy diamond!

This is interesting, and kinda sad too. The THC's left JBW, that old frisky sparring partner, intellectually impotent --- and I hope that's all!!

I've been to dozens of tea party events, and I've yet to see anyone campaigning for marijuana legalization. It's just not on the agenda. Sure, tea partiers have their libertarian contingents. But the stoners must be hanging out in the parking lot getting loaded. They haven't been protesting to "legalize it."

Can't say that for the "Rally for Sanity" fanatics, however. And these folks musta been tokin' large while drawing up these signs. "Legalize Pot." "2 Protect Children" and "Restore Sanity"?

I don't think so. See, "Why Prop 19 Would Make Bad Matters Worse."

And also, at Fox News, "Stewart's Rally for 'Sanity' Draws Insane Crowd":

“Good luck trying to get through that crowd to the stage.”

Those were the first words I heard within 15 minutes of joining the large crowd that flocked to the National Mall Saturday for the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear hosted by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

To say that you couldn’t see the stage, or even hear it, wouldn’t be an exaggeration— many had to climb a tree (literally) to even catch a glimpse of the one jumbo TV screen.

“We did the march-of-the-penguins walk in the crowd for about an hour,” Georgetown University student Anam Raheem told me. “But it was too crowded; we had to turn back.”

Thousands of rally goers brought signs and costumes in support of politically hot-button issues.

“I came to meet some people,” said Mark Feeney, a resident of Buffalo, New York who sported a green outfit with a sign that displayed the benefits of marijuana. “But we have to be smart, not stupid. If we legalize pot, we’ll create more revenue and jobs.”

Although Proposition 19, which would legalize recreational marijuana in California, was one of the more common issues seen on signs, other topics were equally supported, such as abortion, equality for gays, space travel, and most vehemently, backlash against the Tea Party movement.

“I came to have fun,” Pennsylvania resident Eric Hafner said, “But we need to also show people that extremism is really overblown.”

And hey, man, don't bogart that joint!

Halloween Cartoon Roundup

More cartoons at Theo Spark's.

Barack Obama's World Turned Upside Down as Democrats Face Electoral Disaster

I just love that title, from Toby Harden:

By abandoning his own rhetoric of bipartisanship, President Obama divided America and set the course for a heavy Democratic defeat in Tuesday's midterm elections.

'The Hand of Hope' — American Life League Pro-Life Pumpkin Contest Winner

Via Jill Stanek:

Zach Galifianakis Gets Stoned On 'Real Time with Bill Maher'

Hey, it's a stoner's gravy train when you're in the film business. Libertarian chic, and stupid as hell.

At the Toronto Sun, "Galifianakis Lights Up Joint on TV":

RELATED: "Why Prop 19 Would Make Bad Matters Worse."

Alana Blanchard Rule 5 Encore

Picking it up from last week's Alana Blanchard entry, be sure to check out Pirate's Cove for a Sunday roundup, as well as Linkmaster Smith.

Plus, check out Bob Belvedere and Irish Cicero, and American Perspective has some great blogging as well.

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And be sure to visit some of the other friends of American Power:

* Another Black Conservative.

* Astute Bloggers (Honorary).

* Blazing Cat Fur.

* The Blog Prof.

* Bob Belvedere.

* Classical Liberal.

* Daley Gator.

* Kathy Shaidle.

* Left Coast Rebel.

* Maggie's Notebook.

* Mind Numbed Robot.

* Not a Sheep.

* Pirate's Cove.

* POWIP.

* The Other McCain.

* Reaganite Republican (Honorary).

* Right Klik (Honorary).

* Saberpoint (Honorary).

* Serr8d (Honorary).

* Snooper's Report (Honorary).

* Stormbringer.

* Theo Spark.

* Washington Rebel.

* WyBlog.

BONUS: Don't forget Instapundit.

And drop your link in the comments to be added to the weekly bikini roundups!

Insane: New York Times Sells False Meme of 'Reasonable' Stewart-Colbert Rally

Folks at the fish wrap of record really do need to get out more. See, "At Rally, Thousands — Billions? — Respond" (at Memeorandum).

The unwavering message is that the Stewart "Rally for Sanity" was uniquely reasonable, " a political event like no other." I wasn't there. But I've live-blogged this event all day, and I've gotten lots of information from folks who were on the ground, and obviously NYT has airbrushed the rowdier elements out of their "Rally for Sanity" coverage.

Especially interesting is the Times' total disregard for the Cat Stevens controversy. And the Los Angeles Times is no better: "Thousands descend on National Mall for Stewart's and Colbert's 'Sanity' rally." I've noted this a couple of times already, but some big guns are picking up the story, and it's clear the Jon Stewart badly miscalculated by inviting Yusuf Islam to the event. See Ed Morrissey, for example, "Fatwa-endorsing singer featured at “Restoring Sanity” rally?"

It's all over the place. But it's a pre-election weekend, and we'll hear more chatter about the wonderful Stewart-Colbert "moderation" on the Sunday talk shows. Not discussed will be the super well-represented profanity, misogyny, vulgarity, and leftists wishing death to conservatives.

No, that wouldn't fit the narrative too well.