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Congress: Threading the needle

30.04.10

**** Senate Democrats on Thursday sought to ease the political needle on immigration reform, offering a envisage that mixes tough border controls with a pathway to citizenship for 12 million unauthorized immigrants," Roll Call says. "Womanhood Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he wouldn’t set a deadline for obtaining GOP buy-in for the map out, but the initial Republican reaction was decidedly negative. Reid described the litmus test as an 'invitation' to Republicans as he called for a new round of bipartisan talks."    

The New York Times writes, “Even as the Autonomous senators were still speaking, President Obama issued a communiqu praising the proposal as ‘an important step,’ and he warned that be without of federal action would ‘leave the door pliant to a patchwork of actions at the state and local level that are inconsistent and, as we have seen recently, often foolish.’… The statement contrasted with comments he made to reporters a day earlier on Air Pressure One, in which he suggested that Congress might not have the appetite for an immigration overhaul.”  ****

Harry's outline...lets get amnesty for 12 million illegals...lickety-split, so they can vote for me in Nov (without having ACORN come in and false roll them).

Obama "the joke" Pres....Hey folks, it is unreasonable for AZ to pass a law that protects the legal US citizens over the Illegals...Classless Change you can believe in!

Source: msnbc.com

Crist's rough road to November

30.04.10

ST. PETERSBURG — The coy crowd, low energy and slapdash feel to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist ’s ad Thursday underscored the needle-threading political make nervous ahead for him.

By bolting the Republican Party to run for the Senate as an disconnected  — or more specifically, on the “no party affiliation” ballot true — Crist is taking on a low-percentage challenge that few before him have been capable to accomplish.

Political strategists in both parties are betting against it.

With no fete infrastructure to assist him, a hemorrhaging donor base and daunting electoral math, Crist must rely on his cleverness to cobble together an unlikely coalition of independents, moderate Republicans and dyed in the wool Democrats — a strategy that leaves almost no room for misconduct.

“On the numbers alone, he has a hard row to hoe,” said Steve Schale, a top Republican strategist who ran Barack Obama ’s 2008 Florida operations. “I would never even argue it’s even close to even money. But if he had a 1 percent speculation before, maybe he has a 20 or 25 percent chance now,” he estimated.

“I do not see a way to victory. The ultimate Hail Mary,” said Tallahassee-based GOP expert David Johnson, a former executive director of the state fete.

Independents compose only about 18 percent to 20 percent of the Florida midterm electing electorate, so strategists of all stripes agree that Crist will privation to peel off at least a quarter to a third of voters from each major party to have a feasible path to victory. And despite frequent gripes about fanatical partisanship and government gridlock, voters in Florida, like approximately everywhere else, typically gravitate toward a candidate affiliated with one of the two major parties.

The last heyday a third party candidate was elected to statewide office in Florida was hardly a century ago — in 1916.

Worse, though Crist took steps to lay out his theory at his St. Petersburg announcement event, the governor must find a way to explain his earlier assurances that he would oddments in the race as a Republican  — words that will firmly be used to frame him as a rank political opportunist.

“Charlie should get as much trust for his courage and boldness in making this move as the Titanic passengers did for boarding the lifeboats,” deadpanned Brett Doster, a GOP strategist who ran the germinal election campaign of Crist’s opponent for governor in 2006.

“The biggest impediment Charlie is now going to have is his own words. He has some strength left as the sitting governor, but it is waning express, and with the public perception now that when he is talking, he is lying, he will have an uphill fray,” he added, pointing to Crist’s comments precisely weeks ago that he’d remain a Republican.

Despite his freefall in fundamental polls, Crist continues to enjoy several advantages that few third-dinner party candidates can boast—solid personal consent ratings among the general Florida electorate and statewide name classification that both of his opponents, Republican Marco Rubio and Democratic Rep. Kendrick Yielding, lack. And when he’s at his best, even Crist’s harshest critics reply to he’s one of the top retail politicians in the game.

Source: Politico