Blogs For Victory

From CNN World:

Eight NATO troops were killed in Afghanistan Thursday, bringing the number of foreign troop deaths in the past two days to 14, the International Security Assistance Force said.

An improvised explosive device attack killed three service members in the west, and two died in an insurgent attack in the south.

One died after an insurgent attack in the east, one died in an insurgent attack in the south and another was killed in an IED attack in the south.

It’s the first time since August 30 that so many international troops have been killed in hostile incidents in Afghanistan in a single day, according to CNN records. On that day, seven Americans, a Canadian and an Estonian were killed…

While we go at it hammer and tongs in this election battle, we should remember that a far more important battle is happening half a world away in Afghanistan. What we do here pales in significance compared to what they do there.

Remember them, always; pray for their safety and their victory. Upon the progress of our arms hangs the safety of the world.

The “double dip” becomes ever more inescapable:

Lower- and middle-income Americans’ self-reported average daily spending in stores, restaurants, gas stations, and online averaged $48 per day during September — down $6 from August and $16 from July. Consumer discretionary spending by these Americans making less than $90,000 a year is now at its lowest level since Gallup began daily tracking in January 2008, as the recession was just getting underway.

I’ve noticed it in my line of work – we’re just not getting as much traffic as we used to get, even considering that October is usually pretty slow. No one wants to spend – thought it might be that no one can spend. Credit cards maxed out; income down, no more piggy bank in home equity…a tapped out nation needs to build more wealth before it can spend again, and we simply don’t have the policies in place which will allow that.

I’ve moved the live blog here.

Watching the debate, Reid was rambling and kept trying to bring up things which didn’t relate to the questions asked. Angle was focused and kept hitting the strong arguments against Reid, and the best points for herself.

I was worried about this one as Angle hasn’t been the most polished candidate…but Angle clearly won this debate. She is the better hope for the future, Reid is the tired, broken past.

On to November 2nd.

UPDATE: K-Lo’s take –

The grandmother from Reno just won the only Nevada Senate debate, against the United States Senate Majority Leader. She held her own against someone who has been in the Senate since 1987. Congratulations, Mrs. Angle. I suspect you made more than a few Americans frustrated with this Washington proud. I love how the tea party has ignited a whole new spirit of urgent civic activism. And you’re a good, hardworking spokeswoman for it.

Exactly.

UPDATE II: From the comments over at Hot Air –

Been looking at blogs and Twitter and it’s almost unanimous that Angle won. Libs are bashing Reid, calling him terrible, saying that Angle looked better prepared and was better spoken. This is at DailyKos. If they are saying that then Reid is done.

Ouch!

All Angle had to do tonight was to show she wasn’t the raving nutjob Reid has been making her out to be. What she ended up doing was showing that she will be a new and positive voice in the Senate. It’ll be interesting to see what the polls say a week from now.

So, after all those hundreds of billions of dollars, now Obama tells us there are no “shovel ready” projects…

Bachman: the $5.4 million woman. Amazing fund raising total.

Obama’s favorite fat cats, GE, got $24.9 million in stimulus funds.

Whitman makes the un-answerable argument against Brown in CA:

Whitman, 54, admitted she would benefit as an investor, then fired back at the 72-year-old former governor, who has been a fixture in state politics for decades.

“My track record is creating jobs,” she said. “My business is creating jobs. Your business is politics. You have been doing this for 40 years, and you have been part of a war on jobs in this state for 40 years.”

If the voters in California elect Brown, then they’ll get precisely what they deserve…absolute economic melt down. Its really just as stark as that…though I think that the people of CA will prove wiser than Brown hopes.

Obama attacks help Rove group raise bags of money. Thank you, Preisdent Obama; we couldn’t have done it without you!

Very interesting news:

… I was speaking with a prominent Tea Party member in the eastern part of the state she has been doing the heavy work of going door to door on days off to talk to voters, passing out literature and pushing her candidates. The report I got was astounding.

Over and over doors were about to be closed until the voter heard the Magic word “Republican”. When the voter heard that word, doors were opened, literature accepted and thumbs up given. Only one in four at best thought otherwise…

We’ll have to see how this pans out – though maybe our Matt, as a former Boston resident, can give us a better idea of what is going on in the Land O’ Liberals. But it does ring true – over and over again we’re seeing actions which indicate a Republican wave is building…not just in polling, but in stories of long-entrenched Democrats suddenly getting panicky and running attack ads against their unknown GOP opponents.

The Democrat story was that the GOP peaked too soon – my thinking is that we haven’t peaked, yet.

From the Wall Street Journal:

…so far the only thing that seems to be coming back is nostalgia for George W. Bush. A new CNN poll finds voters still believe Mr. Obama is a better president than Mr. Bush was, but by only 47% to 45%. That’s down from a whopping 23-point margin last year. “Democrats would be wise to think twice before bringing up the name of President Bush on the campaign trail this fall,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

And what are they doing? Running against President Bush. The American people wish they had President Bush and 5% unemployment back – you know, the sort of unemployment Democrats were saying was the worst disaster since Hoover?

Obama is doing the impossible – making Republicans popular.

Help him out here.

Details over at Noonan for Nevada – the nutshell: Defense contractor gets an earmark from Harry, donates $100,000.00 to Reid and Democrats.

From Bloomberg:

Hope has turned to doubt and disenchantment for almost half of President Barack Obama’s supporters.

More than 4 of 10 likely voters who say they once considered themselves Obama backers now are either less supportive or say they no longer support him at all, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted Oct. 7-10…

Obama and his Democrats are counting on fire up his supporters to stem the tide of defeat on November 2nd – this poll indicates their efforts might not bear much fruit.

As I’ve said before, Obama won because he was the “Un-Named Democrat” in the flesh. You might recall that for years an “Un-Named Democrat” always polled better than this or that specific Republican in Presidential polling. The reason for this, in my view, is that people could place their finest ideals on an unknown person and prefer that to the all too fallible reality of a particular Republican. Once, however, people had to choose between an actual Democrat and an actual Republican, things changed. Obama swept in to American politics with hardly anyone taking a really long, hard look at him…and as he was a blank canvass, and wasn’t what we had at the moment, people could think what they would of him.

And they loved it. He was Hope and Change; he was the man who would, at long last, bring an end to politics as usual and heal our divides. The only trouble was that Obama wasn’t a blank canvass – he was, and is, a very real man…and his reality is as a hard left ideologue.

As a hard left ideologue, Obama is a mish-mash of ignorance, bigotry and crack-brained schemes. Once in office, all of this came to the fore because Obama was unequipped to do anything else. Being what he is, he could not do other than increase the divisions between us; could not do other than advance the cause of liberal special interests; could not do other than advance liberal economic and social policies rejected by the broad majority of the electorate. As this all came out, people became disillusioned – and now its showing in polls.

I don’t think he’ll be able to get that back – not now, and not in 2012. Even if the economy improves, I think that Obama has built up a reservoir of distrust which he will not be able to overcome. He said – or, more accurately, had said about him – things which were not true of himself or his plans. People feel betrayed – feel that they were conned in to backing someone they would not otherwise have supported.

We’ll see how all this works out, but this decision on the part of Democrats to force Obama through the primaries and bamboozle the American majority in to backing him will, I think, prove the most self-destructive act in liberalism’s history.