****
San Francisco International Airport
****
All times Eastern:
6:15 Departs San Francisco
7:20: Arrives Los Angeles
10:15: Delivers remarks at a campaign event at Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills (CNN live streaming)
11:55: Delivers remarks at a campaign event at a private Residence, Beverly Hills (Print Pool only)
****
People gather in a lobby of a building to catch a glimpse of President Obama where was attending a campaign event in San Francisco
****
****
Steve Kornacki: Maybe you remember the much-discussed map that the New York Times ran in November 2008, just after Barack Obama racked up a bigger share of the national popular vote than any Democrat had in 44 years. It really was the perfect election for Democrats, with just about everything breaking their way, and yet the Times showed that in a few pockets of America, Obama had somehow fared worse than his party’s previous (losing) nominee.
This phenomenon was mostly centered in Appalachia, but there were exceptions - like the Brooklyn/Queens-based 9th District of New York, where Obama performed one point worse than John Kerry had in 2004 and 12 points worse than Al Gore had in 2000.
This may be the most important piece of information to keep in mind now that the voters of that same 9th District have just handed national Republicans a dream talking point… there really isn’t much that’s remarkable about the victory that Republican Bob Turner achieved on Tuesday night.
Mainly, it tells us what a simple look at President Obama’s job approval numbers (or the economic indicators that are largely responsible for them) would tell us: Voters are frustrated and eager to register their displeasure with him and his party. This is true everywhere, but particularly in areas like the 9th District, where voters already had clear reservations about Obama even before he did anything as president - back when his approval ratings were still stratospheric.
…. None of this is to say that Turner’s win is a non-story … President Obama is in serious political trouble and is faced with an electorate that could easily deny him a second term next year. But then, that would have been true even if the Democrats had pulled an upset or two on Tuesday night.
Full article here
****
****
Nate Silver: …. New York’s Ninth Congressional District has highly unusual demographics, with a set of local issues that are unlikely to extrapolate well to the rest of the country.
… First, there are the local issues - Barack Obama’s positioning toward Israel, Mr. Weprin’s endorsement of a plan to build a mosque and Muslim cultural center in Lower Manhattan, and possibly gay marriage - that will resonate more in Queens than they will in the rest of the country.
Roughly 40 percent of voters in the Ninth District are Jewish, 20 times the rate in the country as a whole. Moreover, and perhaps more important, many of those voters are Orthodox Jews, who often have starkly different political viewpoints than Reform or secular Jews, and who are extremely rare in the United States outside a few spots in the New York region.
There’s also the fact that the district was already behaving unusually in 2008. Despite having a 37-point edge in party registration, Mr. Obama won the election by only 11 points there - barely better than the seven-point edge he had nationwide.
I doubt that there was any district in the country (in 2008), perhaps outside a few remnants of the “Solid South,” where so many enrolled Democrats voted against Mr. Obama.
Full post here
****
Read Steve Benen’s take on the result here
****
****
And don’t forget how Weiner won that seat in the first place - here
****
Wow, look at that Brooklyn result. :roll:
Greg Sargent
RawStory
I know a lot of you aren’t too fond of Bill Maher, but this is seriously good (although, warning: that Coulter witch makes an appearance)
Thanks Ann_T ;-)
“If he’d cheated on his wife like everybody else he’d have been forgiven.”
:lol:
****
I don’t think Steve Kornacki (Salon) likes Weiner very much:
1991: … One of the new districts is in an overwhelmingly white, heavily Jewish swath of southern Brooklyn … Weiner jumps in the race … He also launches an ugly, anonymous attack at the last minute - a race-baiting mailer that links Cohen to the “Dinkins/Jackson agenda,” just days after the Crown Heights riot. Weiner ekes out a narrow victory and only then admits that he was behind the flier. He’s excoriated in a New York Times editorial….
2009: …. Weiner begins showing a sudden interest in congressional and national politics - and, more specifically, in talking about congressional and national politics on cable news programs. For producers, he’s a perfect guest - smart, glib, cocky and provocative. With the healthcare reform debate heating up, Weiner begins championing a single-payer system. It’s an issue he’s previously shown no interest in and that has zero chance of winning enactment …. In the summer of 2009, he becomes a genuine cable news all-star, attracting a new national fan base of liberal viewers. But there’s a clear New York angle: By championing their causes in the national media, Weiner makes a new, much more favorable impression on liberal voters in Manhattan and Brownstone Brooklyn - voters who, combined with his outer-borough base, could make Weiner unstoppable in a 2013 mayoral primary.
2010: Weiner’s hero status to liberal activists is affirmed by a House floor rant against Republican obstructionism on a healthcare bill for 9/11 workers …. several New York members had labored to craft the 9/11 bill and to win over Republican support, but Weiner had played no meaningful role before the floor debate. “He almost blew up the [expletive] bill,” one disgruntled New York member later tells the Washington Post … to his own colleagues, he’s a camera-seeking nuisance who’s interested in gaining publicity for himself - not in doing any substantive work.
Full post here
New York Times
White House.gov WH Tumblr The People’s View Smartypants A Writing Corner (LL) Greg Sargent Steve Benen
