Free Republic

(Reuters) - With Russia's incursion into Ukraine reviving Cold War-style tensions, President Barack Obama is at risk of suffering a blow to his credibility at a time when he can least afford it: as he tries to convince voters to stick with his fellow Democrats in congressional elections that will help shape his legacy. For five years, Obama has practiced a cautious approach to foreign policy crises, prizing sober diplomacy and the search for consensus over brinkmanship, in prolonged conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the deliberative style that Obama's team sees as a statesmanlike attitude in tune with Americans'...

At the end of 2013, the Washington Post’s electoral number-crunchers calculated that the Democrats had a 1 percent chance to win back the House of Representatives. Barely into 2014, that already seems pretty optimistic. In the last week, several Democratic representatives saw the writing on the wall and voted with their feet — or with their seat — and announced they will be retiring. One reason for that: The Obama administration is poised to give an incredible gift to the Republican party. Before the end of the year, up to 80 million people could see their health plans canceled. Economist...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) thinks the healthcare law will ultimately help Senate Democrats in 2014 even though some incumbents fear a backlash at the polls. “I think for sure it will be a net positive,” said Reid, who expects the law to become more of a political benefit as problems are smoothed out by Election Day. “I think so by then for sure.” Reid said feedback to the Obama administration from Democratic senators has helped improve the federal enrollment site HealthCare.gov since its disastrous launch in October. “It’s gotten significantly better, but it was significantly bad so it...

The GOP divide over the role of outside groups is heating up in the Senate, just days, after Speaker John Boehner railed that conservative organizations had “lost all credibility.” Several prominent GOP senators on Tuesday echoed Boehner’s (R-Ohio) frustration with those organizations, agreeing that outfits like Heritage Action and the Senate Conservatives Fund were out only for themselves and are hurting Republican efforts to take over both chambers of Congress. “I’ve said for a long time that there are some outside groups who do what they do solely to raise money,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). “I’m glad that people...

Late last night, the Obama administration announced that it was delaying a key component of Obamacare until 2015. It appears that the requirement that employers who employ 50 or more people are required to offer health insurance has been pushed back a full year. The administration is lying through their teeth when they had Mark Mazur, assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, say, ""We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively. We have listened to your feedback. And we are taking action." Everyone with an...

Beware the Ides of March With the shellacking that President Obama and the Democrats suffered in the mid-terms combined with the evolving storm brewing for the President on the extensions of the Bush tax cuts, many in his own party are beginning to question the Presidents’ vision and leadership. Granted, history shows midterms tend to shift back to the party out of power although not to seismic level recently witnessed. I won’t bore the reader with further speculation to the causes as the reasons have been thoroughly debated in the media by now. More interesting is the percolating dissatisfaction with...

...it was the creation of the TARP fund by the outgoing Bush administration, combined with the Stimulus Act of the newly-sworn-in Obama administration, that in early 2009 fanned the embers of fiscal conservatism into the flames of the Tea Party...

During his run for the Presidency, Barack Obama pledged that, if elected, he would bring about "real change" both in America and in Washington DC. And, lo and behold, less than two years into his Presidency, and Obama has already fulfilled his campaign pledge. One only needs to read the following headline/article from the AP to realize that Obama has already ushered in the dramatic change that he promised to bring to the US and to Washington DC: From the AP: Obama lands back in CHANGED WashingtonPresident Barack Obama landed in a politically-changed Washington after 10 days abroad... Obama returned...

Liberals:President Obama, in August: Republicans “...have not come up with a single solitary, new idea to address the challenges of the American people. They don't have a single idea that's different from George Bush's ideas ... not one.” Obama in August: “They haven't come out with a single solitary idea that is different from policies that held sway for eight years before Democrats took over. Not a single policy difference that's discernable from [George W.] Bush. Not one.” President Obama: “And so my job is to make sure that I'm looking at all ideas that are on the table....

Did turnout push the Massachusetts elections back towards the Democrats? In the wake of statewide defeat last Tuesday, Republicans in the Bay State are trying to figure out what went wrong. The blizzard of emails amongst the Republican volunteers following an election in which Massachusetts voters rejected a slate of admirable Republican candidates is a sign that the volunteers will not need to conduct a postmortem — that is, a review following death. The Massachusetts GOP, the Massachusetts Tea Party movement, and the independent, conservative portion of the citizenry are not dead. Manifestly, their governing principle is the recognition that...

Although the meaning and ultimate result of the 2010 elections are still being debated, it is quite clear that the possibility of a conservative sweep during the midterms was not only anticipated by the Obama administration, it was planned-for, and but for a few key mistakes in execution of that plan, might have been averted — or at least significantly curbed.

If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as improbable fiction Twelfth Night III:4 The midterm elections are basically over and has left the Democrat Party shaken and demoralized, everyone except the leadership. Reid and Pelosi see their individual wins as an endorsement of their leadership, an attitude that is shared by President Obama. They the Undaunted Triumvirate of Marxism feel that the only failing on their behalf was to push forward without adequately explaining to the people of America the benefits and advantages of increased governmental control of their lives and how we will...

Early this year while the health care reform debate was raging, President Barack Obama declared that he'd "rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president." In the wake of last week's midterm election results and the president’s reaction to them, a third option is now a very real possibility. Will a man who promised to fundamentally transform the country be remembered by history as a mere footnote; a one-term president whose only memorable achievement was being the first African American to hold the office?

\ Each of the 435 congressional districts is rescaled to have the same area. The white districts are too close to call (4 Nov 2010) or do not send voting delegates to the House (Washington DC). A comparison with the 2008 cartogram reveals not only that the Republicans made gains, but also where these occured. The next cartogram shows those districts that have changed parties.

Check it out.

"Looking at state leg races, it may take years to comprehend full devastation. Entire generations of Dems vanished overnight"

Here is audio of Rush Limbaugh’s reaction this morning to the results of last night’s 2010 Midterm Election – “Wipe Out!” “It was a wipe out, and don’t let anyone tell you anything otherwise.”Rush played, “Ding-Dong, the Witch is Dead,” in honor of the end of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House! “This was a total rejection of the Obama Agenda. This was a total rejection of the Democrat Party.”

So the aftermath...we are now at 60 seats but 11 races are still in question so the ceiling could be as high as 71: Raul Grijalva vs. Ruth McClung in Arizona’s 7th district. Gabrielle Giffords vs. Jesse Kelly in Arizona’s 8th district. Jerry McNerney vs. David Harmer in California’s 11th district.* Jim Costa vs. Andy Vidak in California’s 20th district.* Melissa Bean vs. Joe Walsh in Illinois’s 8th district.* Ben Chandler vs. Andy Barr in Kentucky’s 6th district. Dan Maffei vs. Ann Marie Buerkle in New York’s 25th district. Solomon Ortiz vs. Blake Farenthold in Texas’s 27th district.* Gerry...

In what universe are these people living? From Salon: Nancy Pelosi probably deserved better than thisLuckily, we have several conservatives weighing in at the comments section. Useful Info Nation

HISTORIC SHIFT All congressional districts voted more Republican than in 2008 (+ 40 points) see MAP