While the Democrats attempt to ram the increasingly unpopular healthcare bill through Congress is sucking up most of the attention in the political world, there is new data from a recent democracy corps survey that deserves attention: the Republican advantage on national security has returned. According to the survey, voters prefer Republicans on national security by a margin of 50%to 33%. Although President Obama handling of national security (57% approve), the mishandling of the Christmas Day bomber and the decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York has taken its toll. As a result, Obama approval on his handling of the interrogation and prosecution of terrorism suspects is upside down with 51% disapproving and only 41% approving of his performance.

The bottom line here is that Republicans are advancing on all fronts and need to keep up the pressure, not only on healthcare, but on all the failures of the Obama administration.

 

As Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are throwing legislative “Hail Marys” for the liberal agenda and trying to push through their healthcare bill via reconciliation, it is important to keep in mind the following numbers:

• A majority of Americans oppose the bill they are trying to ram through congress. According to pollster.com 50.2% oppose the healthcare bill while only 42.5% support it.
• Democrats have lost 4 yes votes in the house. (Republicans have lost one no vote with the retirement of Nathan Deal) Back in November the bill passed 220-215. With those four lost yes votes, the vote would stand at 216-215.
• Stupak and the pro-life democrats, account from anywhere 10-20 votes, depending on who is doing the counting. All indications from this group is that they cannot support the Senate’s language on abortion.
• There are 21 Democrats in toss up districts and 28 that are in districts that are rated as lean democratic by the Cook Report. These members are going to have to think long and hard about the healthcare vote and their political futures.

The bottom line here is that getting the healthcare bill through the House still has a long way to go and public opinion is not on their side.

A Republican candidate for an open seat congressional race in South Carolina is currently seeking a Campaign Manager. The position is ready for immediate hire and requires an operative with experience equivalent to that of senior level management within the campaign.

Campaign manager will act as point of contact to consultants, manage staff and implement ground strategy, manage candidate schedule, represent the campaign, and facilitate field operations and communications operations where appropriate.

Salary will be equivalent to experience and ability. Please send resumes to rsteusloff@w-r-s.com.

Ryan Erwin Associates is seeking an individual who can serve as Deputy to the principal in the Nevada office.

The ideal candidate will have 3-5 years experience in politics, possess strong communication, organization, relationship management and writing skills, and will be a self starter.  The position includes administrative, client account and business development responsibilities.

Administrative Responsibilities: managing day to day office responsibilities and travel coordination.

Client Account Responsibilities: assisting the principal with account coordination, client management and fulfilling client requests, constructing planning reports and creating and managing drafts of projects for campaigns and organizations.

Business Development Responsibilities: detailed research, assist with proposal writing, preparation of marketing materials, coordinating prospective client meetings.

This is a great opportunity to work for a top political consulting and media firm under an executive who has diverse interests and clients in campaign and issue advocacy politics.

 

Must have excellent, verifiable references.

 

Salary range: $30,000-$40,000 annually plus benefits.

 

Please send resume, references and writing samples to rerwin@ryanerwinassociates.com

 

With today’s healthcare summit sure to dominate the minds of political junkies, Mark Blumenthal at pollster.com makes a great point—not many people are going to actually watch.

Let’s think for a moment about what it means to have an audience of “millions.” We are a nation of 304 millionpeople (of all ages), 286 million in television households, and nearly 213 million who were eligible to vote and just over 131 million who cast a ballot int the 2008 presidential election… The average audiences for the cable news networks for this “season to date” is 1,235,000 million for Fox News, 495,00 for CNN and 362,000 for MSNBC … So if we assume that the overlap between these audiences is trivial, it means that those three networks typically draw a combined average of a little over 2 million.   

In other words for those of you who were hoping for a thoughtful discussion of ideas giving Americans the opportunity to learn about the issues surrounding health care reform, you are going to be sorely disappointed.  With such low viewership, what is going to matter is the soundbites that get repeated on the evening news. 

 

A Republican candidate for a Western United States Senate Race, is currently seeking a Political Director with grassroots skill and experience creating earned media events.  The position is ready for immediate hire and requires an outstanding individual with experience building a grassroots organization, developing and implementing creative earned media events and a willingness to put in the time and effort to be an integral part of the campaign team.  The candidate will be required to work with a campaign team, in-state media and volunteers to accomplish the duties necessary to achieve success.  Compensation commensurate with experience. 

 

Please send resumes to RepublicanMPS@gmail.com

 

They saved some of the best for last at CPAC this year, as the final panel discussed the political trends we’re seeing in 2010, and consisted of Michael Barone, Ed Goeas, Grover Norquist, and John Gizzi of Human Events.

Michael Barone said that in fifty years of following politics, he has never seen the Democratic Party in as bad of shape as it is right now.  The numbers are just that bad for them as they continue to push a set of policies that are deeply unpopular with the American people.

Ed Goeas from the Tarrance Group noted that  Independents have been backing Republicans in elections in Massachusetts, Virginia, and New Jersey by a 2-1 margin.  He said he thinks we’re also seeing a significant shift in voter focus from jobs and the economy to concerns about government spending.

I’ve definitely seen numbers that fit with this at the state level in places like Illinois and California that have enormous budget deficits.  At the national level most surveys I’ve seen show that people are still chiefly concerned about jobs and the economy, but when it comes to their concerns about what the government is doing there has absolutely been a major shift toward government spending.

Grover Norquist talked a lot about the conservative coalition and noted that people vote against big government for many different reasons, but what they have in common is that they want to be left alone.

During questions from the audience, one person asked the panelists what major upsets they saw coming this year that people didn’t anticipate.  Goeas said he believed John Kasich would unseat Strickland in Ohio by 10 points.    John Gizzi said that he believes Richard Blumenthal, who has never faced a competitive race in Connecticut, will lose in November to the Republican nominee in the Senate race.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Allen West addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference today in Washington.  He received a rousing reception from the audience.

Col. West spoke about his parents humble origins, and how they instilled in him his beliefs in indiviudal responsibility and accountability and the importance of free market principles and being fiscally responsible.  He spoke of his family’s legacy of military service, and how he was proud to have served 22 years on active duty in the US Army.  He spoke of his belief in the importance of America’s founding principles and his belief in American exceptionalism.  The crowd went wild and he had to stop a number of times for applause.

In addition to speaking to the main ballroom just now, Allen West also spoke at a smaller earlier event for him and other Iraq veterans running for congress in 2010.  He’s had a major presence here at the conference and there’s been a tremendous amount of positive buzz about his campaign among the attendees.

You can follow Allen West on Twitter at www.allenwestforcongress.com and on Twitter @AllenWest2010.

A year ago yesterday, after pushing a partisan bill through Congress, President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus bill. After promises to “create or save three and a half million jobs over the next two years” and keep the unemployment rate under 8%.

Now, faced with the harsh light of reality, and an unemployment rate hovering around 10%, the administration has taken a different approach: Say as many times as possible that the stimulus has worked, blame the previous administration, and claim that the stimulus bill prevented what would have been certain death. What is especially galling is they sent Vice President Joe Biden to my home state of Michigan, which happens to be the state with the highest unemployment in the nation, to tout the merits of the so called stimulus bill.

This is not a communication failure on the part of the White House and is not a problem that can be “messaged away.” Americans heard the promises made by the administration about the stimulus and one year later, after seeing the results, are deciding that Barak Obama is taking our economy in the wrong direction.

• 56% percent of adults oppose the stimulus according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll from January..
• President Obama’s handling of the economy is viewed unfavorably by a 53%-41% margin according to pollster.com.
• According to Gallup the percentage of Americans mentioning unemployment as the biggest problem has doubled since December.
• A Quinnipiac University survey found that voter think President Obama is being irresponsible in his spending of federal money by a margin of 53%-43%.
• And to top it all off the Stimulus bill is going to cost American taxpayers $75 billion more than anticipated

I could say a lot more but I think retiring Sen. Evan Bayh sums things up pretty well.

With record snow in Washington DC shutting down the political world, it is worthwhile to take a look at the numbers surrounding this year’s record setting weather.

• Washington, DC, has broken the previous record for total season snowfall with 54.9 inches having fallen on Reagan National Airport. The previous record was set in 1898-1899 at 54.4 inches.
• Philadelphia has more than 70.3 inches of snow this season surpassing their snowiest season on record of 65.6 inches.
• Baltimore, which has received at least 72.3 inches of snow this winter surpassing the record of 62.5 inches in 2002-2003.

While politicians will race to say this either proves global warming is the absolute truth or an elaborate hoax, I say enjoy the fact that Congress has to take some time off from their record spending spree.