Pat Dollard

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama’s political clout was on the line Tuesday as Virginia and New Jersey chose governors in contests that served as warning signs for Democrats about the public’s mood heading into an important midterm election year. Interviews with voters leaving polling stations in Virginia showed that independents—the crown jewel of elections [...]

Wall Street Journal: By JOHN FUND The race for governor in New Jersey is so close in final polls that it may well end up in a recount — the 1981 election did and was decided by less than 1,800 votes. If there is a recount, you can bet disputes about absentee ballots will loom [...]

Fox News: A spokesman for Sen. Joe Lieberman refuted a report Tuesday that the Connecticut senator struck a secret deal with Majority Leader Harry Reid in which he promised not to block a final vote on health care reform. The Hill newspaper reported Tuesday that Reid’s staff told liberal interest groups that Lieberman had assured [...]

Election Journal: November 3, 2009 by EJ How would you like to be a New Jersey police officer and look out your window and see several known criminals, including a man you arrested several weeks ago and another who had just been released from prison for shooting a cop? And then find out that the [...]

Politico: The House ethics committee is currently investigating seven African-American lawmakers — more than 15 percent of the total in the House. And an eighth black member, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), would be under investigation if the Justice Department hadn’t asked the committee to stand down. Not a single white lawmaker is currently the [...]

Times Online: Hamid Karzai vowed to crack down on corruption and reach out to his political rivals, a day after he was declared the winner of Afghanistan’s fraud-ridden presidential elections. Flanked by his two vice-presidents, Mr Karzai made a subdued acceptance speech this morning in which he attempted to reassure the international community that he [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) – In a very early test of President Barack Obama’s political influence, two states are choosing whether to continue Democratic rule while voters elsewhere elect a handful of congressmen and big-city mayors. Elected just a year ago, the president has spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying to ensure that Democrats [...]

And what, if anything, has been considered of the ACORN Factor? Wall Street Journal: WASHINGTON — Republicans appear positioned for strong results in three hard-fought elections Tuesday. But isolated, off-year contests aren’t always reliable indicators of what will happen in the wider federal and state races held in even-numbered years. Democrats and Republicans are jostling [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) – The health care bill headed for a vote in the House this week costs $1.2 trillion or more over a decade, according to numerous Democratic officials and figures contained in an analysis by congressional budget experts, far higher than the $900 billion cited by President Barack Obama as a price tag for [...]

Enter ACTIVISTS

CNN: A 20-year-old woman from Iraq has died in an Arizona hospital, nearly two weeks after her father, police say, ran her over with a car because she had become “too Westernized.” Noor Faleh Almaleki died Monday of injuries suffered when she was run over October 20 in a parking lot in the Phoenix suburb [...]

Human Events: The United States has largest energy reserves on Earth, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. As shown in the charts below, the U.S. has 1,321 billion barrels of oil (or barrels of oil equivalent for other sources of energy) when combining its recoverable natural gas, oil and coal reserves. While [...]

The Heritage Foundation: The new House health care plan released by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) contains more tax increases than were in the original House plans known as the “tri-committee bill.” While Blue Dog Democrats can take some consolation in the fact that a few more small businesses will be exempt from the employer mandate, [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) – For Republicans, an election win of any size Tuesday would be a blessing. But victories in Virginia, New Jersey or elsewhere won’t erase enormous obstacles the party faces heading into a 2010 midterm election year when control of Congress and statehouses from coast to coast will be up for grabs. It’s been [...]