Big race here in WV between Earl Ray Tomblin (D) and Bill Maloney (R), both of whom are running for Governor. I haven’t talked about it much because the choices are so damned depressing, but I can tell you that a ton of money is being dumped. You can not turn on the tv without attack ads from various Republican fronts. They’ve been attacking him on Obamacare almost nonstop, including attacking him for the alleged $500 billion in medicare cuts (conveniently not mentioning the GOP voted to cut 4 trillion and give it to tax breaks for the rich). Earl Ray has been hitting back, and has had Manchin appearing in ads for him. At any rate, there have been all sorts of shenanigans, and now the Republicans are doing what they do almost as well as lying- dirty tricks. Apparently they were texting people in the middle of the night pretending to be from Tomblin’s team:
Some of you may have received text messages encouraging you to call our campaign office Friday or Saturday. Unfortunately, our opponent and his allies are playing more dirty tricks and encouraging phone calls with false messages. We apologize to anyone he disturbed in the middle of the night and assure you the message did not come from us.
No matter what happens on Tuesday, I am sure this is horrible news for Obama.
Yutsano
That’s the news all day every day 24/7/365.
Mike G
This is good news for John McCain.
lacp
But it’s great news for Chris Christie!
Steeplejack
I’ve been seeing the anti-Tomblin “Obamacare” ads from the Republican Governors Conference even down here in D.C. I guess maybe the southeast corner of West Virginia gets the D.C. channels.
General Stuck
It’s going to be ugly in sort of blue states locally that are nationally seeing red from so much black.
I been painting on my artrage, everything is in colors.
Jesus_H_Tapdancing_Christ
The Press Corpse knows the drill. If Tomblin wins, it’s meaningless. If Maloney wins, it’s ironclad proof we’re a center-right nation. Now if only the Repukes were actually a center-right party…
Citizen_X
Well yeah, because whatever happens, I am sure it is all Obama’s fault.
Mr Stagger Lee
I’m surprised President Obama wasn’t blamed for the collapse of Red Sox
SiubhanDuinne
Why don’t we OWN “Obamacare”?
piratedan
I wonder if the R’s have spent more in trying to block any Dem gains either by policy or in elections via the advertising and front groups than they would have saved just by letting the Dems stumble their way along?
MikeJ
@Mr Stagger Lee: He should have used the bully bullpen.
Hunter Gathers
Had no idea that the President of the West Virginian Senate was able to cast votes in US Congress. Must be the same power that granted Mike Dukakis the ability to cast votes against the military in the US Congress back in ’88.
General Stuck
@SiubhanDuinne:
Soshulist welfare for funny looking furriners
lamh34
At Human Rts Campaign dinner Obama calls out GOP candidates says a commander in chief isn’t silent when soldier is booed. Here is the video of the speech. I know just word, but the dude does know how to give them whatever you think of him.
President Obama’s Speech At The Human Rights Campaign Dinner
Obama: “You wanna be commander-in-chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform.”
Of the Defense of Marriage Act, he said its time for that to join DADT in the history books.
Obama: Every single American, gay, bisexual and transgender, deserves to be treated equally before the law.
Obama on bullying: I want all those kids to know that the pres and the first lady are standing by them every inch of the way. #lgbt
General Stuck
@lamh34:
Yea yea, but he gave away single payer
FlipYrWhig
All West Virginia Democrats should be aggressive, uncompromising liberals. And the fact that, you know, they’re not, shouldn’t stop them from trying!
Villago Delenda Est
@lamh34:
Well, David Koch is right. That bastard Obama IS an egalitarian!
PeakVT
@Steeplejack: Eastern panhandle. The DC MSA includes one county in WV.
khead
@efgoldman:
What did I tell you about blasphemin’ Uncle Brent? :)
Damn, Clemson gave my team a beatdown. Just beat that Hokie ass. The only two offenses I’ve seen worse than ours belong to South Carolina and Ohio State.
khead
@efgoldman:
All three games I mentioned were painful to watch. Mich State only had a 7-0 lead with 10 minutes left and the announcers were talking about “icing the game” with a FG. Yikes.
SC does deserve better. Esp the Lattimore kid.
Edit: I burned off all my Brent hate wayyyy back in the 80’s when he hosted every sporting event on CBS. Couldn’t stand him. After he was fired from CBS on Final Four weekend and took some time off, he grew on me after coming back to ESPN/ABC.
slightly_peeved
Obama does.
“Obama Cares”
Apologies for the herpy derp in the comments on this story.
Geoduck
In the Governor’s race here in Washington state, we might actually be stupid enough to elect GOPer Rob McKenna, even after as Attorney General he jumped into that stupid anti-Obamacare lawsuit, in defiance of all the rest of the state government..
fleeting expletive
So, anybody watching this Dr. Who season finale?
Nicole
@fleeting expletive: I did. Timey-wimey.
gbear
@lamh34:
Thanks for posting that. Made my evening.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@fleeting expletive: Yes, and then bbca here in Dallas on U-verse decided to freak out right after they got married. i think i missed the little bit right before the commercial.
Yutsano
@Geoduck: I doubt it. Inslee is a decent campaigner and Gregoire will editorialize in every newspaper across the state about how McKenna took a position that was deeply unpopular with both the voters and his boss and hooked onto that lawsuit. It will get hung on him like an albatross, especially since except for AG he’s go no record.
Steeplejack
@PeakVT:
It’s got to be expensive for them to buy D.C. ad minutes just to snag one county in West Virginia. Not to mention fanatical.
PeakVT
@Steeplejack: Yeah, you’re right, though via cable the coverage may pick up a couple of more counties. Are you sure it was a DC broadcast channel (4/5/7/9)?
Spaghetti Lee
@Steeplejack:
And that part of WV votes Republican already, doesn’t it?
trollhattan
Might Occupy Wall Street be our Arab Spring?
bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15140671
It’s got legs.
Kris
@Peak VT
Basic cable in 9 West Virginia counties will have the DC stations — 268,000 population, or about 15% of the state total. And it’s a “swing” area. At the state level the coal fields and the northern panhandle are usually pretty democratic, and the heart of the state and lower Ohio is pretty (ugly?) republican. The eastern panhandle and the potomac highlands are up for grabs usually. So if you’ve got the cash, like the republican governors pac does, it could pay off investing it on DC tv.
PeakVT
@Kris: Ok, I didn’t realize the DC channels reached so far these days. Thanks.
William Hurley
Just wait until Obama’s vacuumed up all free funds, starving local “down-ticket” Democrats.
Obama’s go-to money-men from 2008 have already turned down the spigot. Without Wall St behind him, Obama and the Democrats will get swamped next fall.
The tragic truth is that the electorate may not need too hard a push from the GOP. Gallup’s latest suggests that Obama’s “stellar” economic policies have reversed the “trust” curve giving the GOP an advantage it most assuredly does not deserver. Thanks Barry!
Yutsano
@William Hurley: You sound positively giddy at the prospect of Obama losing. I think I smell the copulation of rodentia.
Basilisc
If Tomblin wins, it shows that voters want Obama to reach out to moderates.
If Tomblin loses, it’s because Obama didn’t reach out to moderates.
May I have my WaPo op-ed column now please?
Basilisc
Also, I love how the editing software automatically changes “(R)” to the registered trademark symbol. It’s like, instead of being politicians, they’re all just brands, for sale to the higher bidder. As if!
TenguPhule
Objection!
Honest Brands say bought the first time.
Republicans will whore themself out repeatedly in every direction with a dollar attached to it.
wvng
The saturation of the Tomblin Obamacare ads on my teevee here in the Eastern Panhandle is pretty stunning. And the saturation of hit pieces against Tomblin in my mailbox is astonishing.
That picture of Tomblin superimposed next to Obama with evil Obamacare in huge font will likely sink him in this area (really in all of Appalachia). The black president thing really hasn’t caught on in these parts at all. Saddens me greatly, but I have no idea how to fight it. This is lizard brain stuff.
SiubhanDuinne
@slightly_peeved:
Thanks. Perfect. That’s exactly what I was talking about.
Kris
@wvng
What burns me about those ads is that WV has poor health outcomes and a lot of uninsured people… and very few rich people. The Affordable Care Act will help this state’s people more than most. But those are facts and the right is allergic to that sort of thing.
On the upside, I do get plenty of pro-Tomblin mailiings. but have yet to see one TV ad.
Fingers are crossed!
Willam Hurley
@Yutsano:
You read into my post intentions that are not there.
I’m beginning to feel that the rank denialism regarding Obama’s standing with the electorate – the entire body of eligible registered voters – on the left is looking more and more like the reactionary nay-saying of housing and financial bubble denialists in 2004/5/6.
I can remember well, or simply revisit the archives of Calculated Risk for more concrete depictions, the hostility that CR himself and many contributors to that blog’s commentary pages invited by reading the at-hand data honestly.
It is my preference that, all things being equal, Obama is successful in his re-election bid. So too with Democratic candidates’ efforts – new or incumbent – in succeeding in House & Senate races.
Yet, I realize that my preferences are nothing more than that – little more than wishes. As such, I’m trying to look at the data – past & present – to assess the likelihood that my preferences become reality. I understand my preferences to be more than a trite “coke/pepsi” menu of no larger significance. In fact, to me its quite if not exactly the opposite. That’s where my concerns collide with my reading of the data.
I think its safe to say that the common interest of participants on this blog are rooted in “Democratic/liberal” political achievements – be they “wins” of the past or for the future. Losing the White House is the surest way to short circuit the realization of any aggregate or component objectives for the near and potentially long term.
So, to my read, choices must be made by lowly, unemployed individuals like me who have either volunteered or worked for a candidate or party operation for nearly every election – Presidential cycle & “off” – since 1986. The dynamics of the 2012 races taking shape, to my eye, telegraph certain outcomes that are more probable than not – in some cases far more probable. One of those outcomes that, again to my eye, is highly probable in fact is more likely than not is that President Obama will lose the White House next Nov.
I’m more than willing to lay-out a concise argument (as best I can) or more comprehensive argument for the outcomes I’ve suggested will occur. I’m also willing to provide the same regarding the panoply of actions, behaviors and policy decisions that, to my mind, raise very serious questions about Obama as a reliable representative of “Democratic/liberal” political objectives.
I do believe that each of these topics – electability and representation – can be discussed and analyzed distinctly. In the end, they do naturally and unavoidably blend as each is merely a singular point of perspective distilled from a larger whole. It’s important to remember, at least in my mind, that the “larger whole” is does not begin and end with the candidate in question but necessarily includes the context by which these discussions and/or analyses have meaning – that is within the arena of the electorate’s disposition as best we can know and also within the historical process.
Past is certainly not prologue nor are the temporal whims of an electorate’s mood fleetingly captured in individual polls – but nor are these things, in the aggregate, bodies of information and experiences that can be dismissed wantonly.
So, this lowly individual has chosen to apply myself to the election of a new House member for my district, since the sitting Dem abruptly quit. Any funds I can spare, and that’s already an assumptive statement, will go to candidates who may benefit from my $5 or $10 – a la Russ Feingold in the mid-term cycle.
But, to now deny the current and mounting bounty of information regarding the President’s immanent defeat is to do as bubble-deniers did not so long ago. The key difference between then and now is that a GOP victory that claims the White House and the Senate – House aside – will invite disaster that will make the housing and financial system meltdowns look small and inconsequential in comparison.
ReReZ
Sadly, There Were No Measures Introducing Baby Kicking- just thought I would post the blog title that brought me here in the first place, as a reminder that is is really really serious out there and we all have to get involved with each and every election, national, state, and local. Fight for each office – dog catcher and sheriff and jp. The benefit of incumbency/name recognition is huge as those candidates move up to higher offices!