Politics Blog

The Note on President Bush’s upcoming Saturday visits to Mississippi and Kentucky:

With strong Republican candidates poised to snatch Democrat gubernatorial seats away, tomorrow, GOP strategists kick off their final push by wheeling out their biggest artillery piece.

President Bush’s visits to Kentucky and Mississippi are sure to dominate all local media in the final days, making sure that Republican partisans know that (a) there is an election; and (b) that it is important to their commander in chief (he of the gauzy growth) that they vote for these “good men” with “R’s” after their names.

And the visits will have some appeal to independents, too, don’t you know. Maybe even some Democrats

A new SurveyUSA poll in Kentucky shows Republican gubernatorial candidate Ernie Fletcher hanging on to a 51-44 lead over Democrat Ben Chandler. So much for Chandler’s much-touted stategy of running against the “Bush-Fletcher economy.”

-- PoliPundit

There are dozens of GDP-helps-Bush stories today. But I take particular delight from the one in the Old York Times:

Businesses were broadly unprepared for the recovery. The government guesses that inventories fell during the quarter, but there is a good chance that it is underestimating the decline. If so, the third-quarter growth rate will be revised down, but the needed inventory restocking will lift fourth-quarter growth.

Then what? Economic bears point to new layoff announcements at Sony and Electronic Data Systems and predict consumer spending will slow without new tax rebates, leaving retailers with a disappointing Christmas.

The alternative forecast is for a self-sustaining recovery that is already under way. “You’ve got supercharged monetary stimulus and a tax cut,” said Robert J. Barbera, the chief economist of ITG/Hoenig. “Look at history. When you get a lot of stimulus and a 7 percent quarter, it does not go away quickly.”

If he’s right, there will be reason for celebration in the White House. It could even turn out that the difference between the two Presidents Bush was a matter of timing as much as anything else.

The 1990-91 recession ended in February 1991. Almost two years later, in January 1993, came the report of the first quarter to show growth above 5 percent. The 2001 recession ended in November 2001, and once again a report of a good quarter arrived nearly two years later.

Unfortunately for George H. W. Bush, he had lost his race for re-election before the economic news turned positive. Now, strong growth has appeared a year before the 2004 election. George W. Bush had good reason to call yesterday’s growth report “encouraging.”

There’s another crucial difference between Bush 1 and Bush 2: Bush 1 raised taxes; Bush 2 cut them. The resulting GDP growth was no coincidence.

-- PoliPundit

It’s been a while since I’ve noted a John Kerry hypocrisy (Weasel Clark keeps me pretty busy with his jaw-droppingly naked flip-flopping.) But I can’t resist pointing out the latest Kerryopus.

From Kerry’s closing statement at Sunday’s nine dwarfs debate:

There’s a front-page story in today’s Washington Post that says that Democrats are going to try to run away from the issue of gun safety.

I don’t think that we can get elected nationally if we are not prepared to stand up against powerful special interests and make it clear that, whether it’s the NRA or any other special interest, we’re prepared to stand for our principles.

All across this country, we have too many people who die each year from guns. So let me make it plain: I am for the assault weapons ban. I’m for the Brady Bill. I’m for making sure we stand up for gun safety in this country. We cannot be a party that retreats in an effort to try to court votes and not save lives.

From the New York Post today:

DEMOCRATIC presidential wannabe John Kerry will come armed with a shotgun when he goes hunting for votes tomorrow in the little Iowa farm town of Colo.

Kerry plans a bird hunt, but the pheasants probably don’t have to worry much - it’s a made-for-media special and reporters are bound to give plenty of advance warning with the sound of tromping feet.

-- PoliPundit

A new poll shows Republican candidate Haley Barbour leading Mississippi’s incumbent Democrat Governor Ronnie Musgrove by 4 points. That’s about the same as the last poll, which showed this race as close, with a slight GOP partisan edge.

President Bush will campaign with Barbour in Mississippi on Saturday.

He’ll also campaign with Ernie Fletcher, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, in Kentucky. Fletcher has been making hay with the 7.2 percent GDP number, while his Democrat opponent, Ben Chandler, continues to run against the “Bush-Fletcher economy.” This could end up being very embarassing for Democrats, since they could lose a governorship they’ve held for 32 years.

-- PoliPundit

“Roughly 40,000 poor people have been dropped from the Oregon Health Plan this year because of their failure to make monthly premium payments, some as low as $6 a month,” the Associated Press reports from Eugene.

“Advocates for the poor” are outraged. “It’s an enormous barrier,” said Ellen Pinney, director of the Oregon Health Action Committee. “Let alone the $6, there is the whole issue of writing a check or getting a money order, putting it in an envelope with a stamp and putting it in the mail to this place in Portland that must receive it by the due date.”

(Link via James Taranto’s priceless Best of the Web)

-- PoliPundit

The latest independent poll from Louisiana shows 32-year-old Indian-American conservative Republican Bobby Jindalleading his “moderate” Democrat opponent, Lt. Governor Kathleen Blanco, by 11 points. This is a tremendous leap for Jindal and shows that the GOP has a good chance of sweeping all three remaining governorships up this year - Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi - giving the GOP control of 29 governorships, the highest level since 1996.

I’ve said more about these races at this post.

-- PoliPundit

Max Boot wonders how the lying liberal media would have covered D-Day:

“More than 8,000 Allied servicemen were wounded, 3,000 ofthem fatally, during an assault on Normandy beaches yesterday. Despite those heavy casualties, almost all of France remains under Nazi occupation. The supreme Allied commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, claimed that everything had gone according to plan, but a number of retired military officers suggested that the invasion is in grave danger of failing.”

-- PoliPundit

I predicted the strong economic growth in the third quarter when the quarter had just begun:

Like most conservatives, I’m an optimist. I wouldn’t bet against America. The economy will likely come roaring back and the situation in Iraq will improve remarkably as the weeks and months go by. Have faith.

As regular readers know, I’m not one of those people who’s shy about saying I told you so.

-- PoliPundit

The Note on the impact of the GDP numbers:

It’s not just the economic numbers, it’s boy oh boy look at the economic numbers.

ABC News’ Ramona Schindleheim reports that this morning’s economic growth number