 |
|
December 2, 2014
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Nov. 6, 2006
/ 15 Mar-Cheshvan, 5767
Keeping score on Tuesday
By
George Will
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
As ballpark vendors say, you can't enjoy the game without a scorecard. Here is one for Tuesday night.
-
The election actually began four weeks ago with early voting. Passion drives turnout; anger is a passion; contentment is not. Is there anger at incumbents generally, or only at Republican incumbents? Two years ago 162 incumbents in each party (78 percent of Republicans reelected and 87 percent of Democrats) won with at least 60 percent of the vote. Only 21 incumbents won with 55 percent or less. Will these numbers — and the 98.6 percent reelection rate for incumbents since 1996 — change dramatically? Stuart Rothenberg, an independent analyst, says that in the past 26 elections, dating to 1954, only three times (1956, 1990, 1992) have a total of at least six incumbents in each party lost.
-
Republicans Rob Simmons, Nancy Johnson and Chris Shays — House members from Connecticut — are vulnerable. If they lose, American politics will have become yet more "European," propelled by ideologically homogenous parties.
-
In the 14 presidential elections starting with 1952, only once (1964) did Democrats win more than 50 percent of the suburban vote. Last May a Gallup Poll measured President Bush's approval among suburban voters at 29 percent . If Republicans are being rejected in suburbia, that will be apparent in two Pennsylvania districts, the 6th, held by a second-term Republican, Jim Gerlach, and the 7th, held by Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who is seeking an 11th term. Also, watch the open-seat contest — the Republican incumbent is running for governor — in Colorado's 7th, just north of Denver.
| FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO INFLUENTIAL NEWSLETTER |
| Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of CONSERVATIVE columnists and cartoonists regularly appear. Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. |
|
-
Florida's 22nd has one of the nation's best House members, Clay Shaw, who, if Republicans retain control of the House, will become chairman of the most consequential committee, Ways and Means. The 22nd has one of the nation's highest percentages of voters over the age of 65 — 37 percent. In 2004 Shaw won with 63 percent, but he is in a close race, partly because many of his constituents are irritable about their first encounter with the "doughnut hole" in Medicare's new prescription drug entitlement: The government pays 75 percent of the first $2,250 in annual drug expenditures and 95 percent of expenditures over $5,100, but the individual must pay the cost between $2,250 and $5,100. Republicans hoped that the new entitlement would purchase support from the elderly. If Shaw loses, that will be evidence for this axiom of politics in a welfare state: Any new entitlement generates less gratitude for what is given than it does resentment for what is withheld.
-
It is frequently said but infrequently true that Americans "vote their pocketbooks" — that economic conditions determine their votes. In Michigan, however, economic determinism may prevail in the gubernatorial race, where Republican Dick DeVos is challenging Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The state has two Democratic senators and has voted Democratic in four consecutive presidential elections. But Michigan's unemployment rate of more than 7 percent is far above the nation's 4.4 percent. Just three states are net losers of jobs in the past four years, and Michigan has lost the most. In August a jobs fair in Sterling Heights, featuring factory jobs at $10 an hour and no benefits, drew 4,000 applicants. If DeVos, energetic and well funded (partly by himself), cannot win, economic explanations of voting behavior should be interred.
-
Four years ago all eight Mountain West states — Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — had Republican governors. If Democrat Bill Ritter wins Colorado's governorship, Democrats will hold five of eight governorships in the Mountain West, which in the 1990s was even more reliably Republican than the South. In 2004 a change of a total of 63,508 votes in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico would have given those states' 19 electoral votes and the presidency to John Kerry. No wonder the Democrats' 2008 convention will probably be in Denver.
-
Republicans will convene in Minneapolis, the largest city in "Minnewisowa." That neologism refers to the contiguous states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, which have 27 electoral votes. Pollster Peter Hart notes that every president elected since 1912 has won a plurality of the states along the Mississippi River. Illinois is the only one of those 10 states that is reliably Democratic. In 2004 Iowa, one of just three states to switch sides from 2000 (with New Hampshire and New Mexico), went for Bush. John Kerry narrowly won Wisconsin and Minnesota with 49.7 percent and 51.1 percent, respectively. If Minnesota's Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty is reelected, he goes on every Republican presidential candidate's shortlist of possible running mates.
There. A scorecard. Now, as ticket-takers say at ballpark turnstiles, enjoy the game.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
George Will's latest book is "With a Happy Eye but: America and the World, 1997-2002" to purchase a copy, click here. Comment on this column by clicking here.
Archives
© 2006 WPWG
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|
