Tim Fernholz writes that choice is emerging as a winning issue for Democrats across the country:
But this year, Democratic political operatives have been surprised by the success they've had in deploying pro-choice messages. Congressional campaigns from New Jersey to Nevada have picked up on the trend, and outside groups spreading the word are not just usual suspects like NARAL and Planned Parenthood, but also the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
"We didn't use it as much in 2006. Voters then were really focused on Iraq and the economy," says Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who is working on several House and Senate races this year. "I was surprised, honestly. You think the economy and nothing else will break through, but this is breaking through."
Reid Cramer explores what is needed in a second stimulus package:
When talk of recession emerged late last year, legislators in Washington quickly passed a bipartisan stimulus package that featured almost $120 billion in tax rebates. The plan was to combat an economic slowdown by pumping money into the economy and keeping demand high and consumption steady. And when second quarter GDP rebounded to 3.3 percent (since revised to 2.8) from the more anemic 0.9 percent, economists widely credited the influx of cash distributed in the spring courtesy of the Federal Treasury. Even before the initial Paulson and Bernanke plan was presented, legislators were already discussing what would go into their next "stimulus" package.
Sarah Posner has the latest on the religious right:
Michele Bachmann's call for witch hunts and Sarah Palin's accusations of socialism may be anachronistic, but if you are familiar with the ideological underpinnings of the religious right, you recognize them as carefully calibrated to appeal to loyalists who have been schooled in the evils of "statism" -- the elevation of government over God. When Bachmann talks about Obama or other Democrats being "anti-American," it's a dog whistle to the base: It must be Satan trying to bring down America. When Palin calls Obama a socialist, she's really calling him godless, and therefore a danger to God's plan for America.
And Stuart Whatley examines the group behing California's anti-gay-marriage initiative:
In her October column on ballot initiatives, Dana Goldstein points out conservatives' tendency to employ language in their initiatives that is antithetical to their intended goal. Ward Connerly's "civil-rights initiatives," for example, seek to quash affirmative-action programs. But perhaps no group has demonstrated greater dissonance between rhetoric and reality as the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). The ADF is a primary player in the push to pass the California Protection of Marriage Act (Proposition 8), which calls for the explicit revocation, not protection, of the gay community's new-found right to marry.
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