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In the Telegraph, UK, Toby Harnden discusses last week’s events that have landed Obama in hot water with even more voters.
…Lo and behold, it turns out that none other than former President Bill Clinton was asked by Obama’s chief of staff and Chicago enforcer Rahm Emanuel to offer Sestak a place on a presidential board.
Whether or not the law was broken, the cynicism of this is breathtaking. Obama offered a break from the Clinton-Bush past and an end to the shoddy backroom deals of Washington. So what does he do? He tries to deny Pennsylvania voters a chance to decide for themselves by using his former foe Clinton to offer a grubby inducement.
It was perhaps a fitting end to one of the worst weeks of Obama presidency, in which a Rasmussen one poll pegged his popularity at a new low of 42 percent. In an environment in which Americans are disillusioned and cynical about Washington and all it stands for, the Clinton-Sestak manoeuvre could be a political calamity for Obama. …
Michael Barone looks at primary results and what this may mean for the November elections.
The year 2010 is proving “a tough year for the overdog,” as I wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal column. Coincidentally, National Journal’s Charlie Cook wrote a column published the same day entitled “Incumbents Face Twin Furies.” Cook noted that 12 House incumbents had won their primaries with 70 percent or less of the vote. Given the enormous advantages that House incumbents usually enjoy, which usually net them 80 percent or more in primaries against little-known challengers, that is a low percentage. It’s also a sign of genuine weakness and potential vulnerability in later primaries or, in districts that are not one-sided in partisan terms, in the general election. After all, the incumbent has been elected at least once before, and in many cases many times, and every primary voter shares a partisan affiliation with the incumbent. While Democratic spin doctors have been arguing that this is an anti-incumbent rather than an anti-Democratic year, Cook argued that both anti-incumbent and anti-Democratic winds are blowing this year.
Since Cook and I wrote, primaries have been held in five more states, bringing the total of states holding primaries to 12 so far this year: Illinois, Texas, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Idaho. Those states elect 133 of 435 members of the House of Representatives, nearly one-third of the total; they also elect 9 of the 36 senators who will be chosen this year. …
In Real Clear Politics, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie outlines his plan to resolve the fiscal crisis faced by his state.
…Over the last ten years, municipal spending has grown by 69 percent, and property taxes have grown by 70 percent, until New Jersey property taxes are now the highest of any state in the nation.
This is an unsustainable course. …
…First and foremost, we have to impose discipline on every level of the political system. I propose that we start with Cap 2.5, a constitutional amendment to cap property tax increases at no more than 2.5 percent per year. …
…I believe in less government, lower taxes, and empowering local officials who act on behalf of the people who elected them. I came here to do what the people sent me to do. …
…Last week, I had a town hall meeting in Hoboken, and I talked to a family-a husband and wife and three boys-who had a property tax increase last year of $2000. That’s an incredible financial hit for any family to take, especially in one year. It’s not as if you can go to your employer and say, Hey, I need another $2000. …
…Instead of paying the mortgage, or a making a down payment on a car, or saving for college, or taking a vacation, or just keeping up with what it costs to live, another $2000 of their paycheck got sucked up in that ten-year, 70 percent increase in property taxes.
…We’re long past the point where politicians in Trenton can justify that kind of ever-increasing drain on a family’s income. …
The Newark Star-Ledger editors comment on Andrew Cuomo’s agenda to save New York.
Read Andrew Cuomo’s 250-page manifesto (relax, it’s big type on small pages), and you could come to the conclusion that Cuomo, New York’s attorney general, and Chris Christie did their homework together during study period.
Their ideas on how to rescue their states from financial ruin while reframing the rotting political and institutional structures are remarkably similar:
No tax increases. No more borrowing or budget gimmicks to camouflage historic deficits. A cap on property tax increases. A freeze on public workers’ salaries. A revision of pension benefits and a demand for workers to make larger contributions toward health care packages. More charter schools. Much smaller state government.
Their agreement underscores that today’s historic economic challenges must be met head-on, purged of partisan politics. …