Open Thread

Sorry about no Open Thread yesterday, gang. It is 18 days until the Mayan-predicted End of the World, so I think we all in prep mode.

The New Republic has obtained Romney pollster Neil Newhouse's final poll numbers for the campaign, and so we get a glimpse into the unreal skewed world of the Republican bubble.

President Obama's national lead over Mitt Romney is now 50.9% to 47.4%. Or, given rounding, 51% to 47%. LOL. God enjoys irony. First Read: "That's a bigger (and more decisive) margin that Bush's victory over John Kerry in 2004 (which was Bush 50.7% and Kerry 48.2%). What's more, the president's lead has grown to close to 3 points in Ohio, 4 points in Virginia and 6 points in Colorado. One doesn't win Colorado by six points without winning swing voters; there isn't a big-enough Democratic base to make that argument." Speaking of the Mittster, he is joining President Obama for lunch today at the White House. Now this is probably all for show, but it will be interpreted as "a gracious move that makes the president appear bipartisan." But I would love to hear their private conversation. It is well known that the President, as with all of Mitt Romney's opponents, grew to despise Romney.

A new Quinnipiac poll in New Jersey finds voters overwhelmingly favor Gov. Chris Christie (R) for re-election, 67% to 25%. 95% of voters think Gov. Chris Christie (R) did an "excellent" or "good" job responding to Hurricane Sandy, and Christie now holds a sky high 72% to 21% approval rating. The strongest possible Democratic challenger, Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D), trails Christie by 18 points, 53% to 35%. I bet you that Booker abstains from the 2013 Gubernatorial race and runs to replace Frank Lautenberg in 2014 in the Senate. Christie is frankly unbeatable in New Jersey right now. Hell, even I think he deserves a second term. There is no reason for Booker to be the sacrificial lamb. Happy 10 year Anniversary to the Delaware indoor smoking ban!! The best thing RAM ever did. Meanwhile, this painting was painted in the 1990's, so it doesn't include Obama, but I always thought it was pretty awesome:

Tthe Tea Party and the Republican Civil War that keeps allowing us Dems to win Senate seats is still with us. The Mike Castle of West Virginia (i.e. the most popular and long sought after Republican in the state) is Rep. Shelly Moore Capito. After years of pleading with her to run for one of the Senate seats (obviously because they view her as an unstoppable candidate), the GOP establishment has gotten their wish. But not so fast. The Club for Growth is going to primary her.

On day one of her candidacy, Capito received criticism from two conservative groups known for mounting primary challenges against establishment-backed Republicans: the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Chris Chocola, president of the Club, slammed her as an "establishment candidate," and Senate Conservatives Fund executive director Matt Hoskins said the group wouldn't endorse her.

LOL. So who is West Virginia's Christine O'Donnell?

A new CNN/ORC poll finds 53% of the country has an unfavorable view of the Republican Party, and 58% want the Republican to have less say and influence over the direction of the country over the last two years. And 70% say the GOP has not done enough to cooperate with Obama. Yeah, if we go over the Fiscal Slope, the GOP will be blamed pretty severely.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Hope that all of you are safety ensconced with your family and/or your friends -- watching the parades, watching football, cooking, eating and drinking. And giving thanks. We here at Delaware Liberal are thankful to be among so many committed political junkies and activists who share so very much of their commitment, passion and knowledge with the rest of us. We are, of course, grateful for our families and friends who sometimes don't quite get this passion for politics, but today we ask you what you are thankful for this season. Let us know in the comments if you drop by today.

This is from David Simon, but go read the whole thing:

"Change is a motherfucker when you run from it. And right now, the conservative movement in America is fleeing from dramatic change that is certain and immutable. A man of color is president for the second time, and this happened despite a struggling economic climate and a national spirit of general discontent. He has been returned to office over the specific objections of the mass of white men. He has instead been re-elected by women, by people of color, by homosexuals, by people of varying religions or no religion whatsoever. Behold the New Jerusalem. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a white man, of course. There’s nothing wrong with being anything. That’s the point. This election marks a moment in which the racial and social hierarchy of America is upended forever. No longer will it mean more politically to be a white male than to be anything else. Evolve, or don’t. Swallow your resentments, or don’t. But the votes are going to be counted, more of them with each election. Arizona will soon be in play. And in a few cycles, even Texas. And those wishing to hold national office in these United States will find it increasingly useless to argue for normal, to attempt to play one minority against the next, to turn pluralities against the feared “other” of gays, or blacks, or immigrants, or, incredibly in this election cycle, our very wives and lovers and daughters, fellow citizens who demand to control their own bodies."

Another late Open Thread! There is too much Thanksgiving preparation going on here. Buzzfeed reports that Obama campaign manager Jim Messina is expecting the Obama political organization will stay alive this round, rather than be put into mothballs as he did the first term. And that organization's first job might be to organize around the fiscal cliff discussions:

Messina said the campaign will not immediately turn over the operation to the Democratic National Committee, but he also suggested Obama will not repeat what is widely seen as a mistake of his first term: switching off his grassroots operation at the behest of Congressional Democrats, who bridled at its organizing in their districts. This time, Messina suggested that the campaign's vaunted "Dashboard" social media system would be helpful during the fiscal cliff, allowing Obama supporters to call members of Congress. "People just spent five years winning two presidential elections together, now they’re not just walking away," he said.

This is good news.

YIKES! No Open Thread! Sorry about that, gang. Apparently we are all on holiday or trying to get on holiday already.

The Republicans don't want to retool their message, which is excellent news for us:

"Two weeks after their presidential election defeat, Republican Party leaders are falling into roughly two camps as they struggle to explain what happened and devise ways to broaden the party's base. Some top GOP officials worry their message is wrong for a rapidly diversifying population, and that fundamental shifts in policy may be required. But the more dominant voice, and the one gaining currency within the center of the party, says such drama isn't necessary. It asserts that Mitt Romney's loss to President Barack Obama was primarily a tactical failure, a combination of poor articulation of GOP positions and a weak effort to register voters and move them to the polls. Better execution on both, they say, would have swung the few hundred thousand votes in a few states that would have tipped the presidential election the other way."

Maybe they will learn in 2024, after two terms each of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, while facing Texas Governor Julian Castro.

On Facebook, I got into a little fight with a friend of a friend who of course is a little upset that his chosen candidate did not win. And of course, like most conservative idiots, he is now contemplating treason by talking of secession of his state from the United States. Now, of course, most conservative idiots are uneducated, and thus it is not surprising that they don't know that the issue, or question, of secession has long been settled. Indeed, we as a country fought a Civil War over that question and hundreds of thousands died after the Confederate states seceded from the Union and the Northern States said "Oh no didn't." And as a result of the Northern victory, or the victory of the United States over the traitorous Confederacy, the notion that a state can leave the US on its own volition died a bloody death. This friend of a friend also mentioned that the election results were somehow not valid since only the cities and suburbs voted for Obama while vast swaths of sparsely inhabited land voted red. This guy obviously thought we vote by square acreage. To illustrate the point that more Americans live in cities and suburbs, we have a great map from Princeton.